Posts Tagged ‘h’
How to Choose the Right Forex Broker? (Part I)
Almost 90% of the investors enter currency markets as short term speculators. Most of the investors look for quick capital gains in forex. Many start forex day trading as a speculative venture. If you have made the positive decision to start forex trading, your first step should be choosing the right forex broker. This is very important. The right choice of a forex broker will greatly influence your success as a forex trader.
Forex trading is hot right now. It is being called the Recession Proof Business of 21st Century. The market is overcrowded with companies and banks offering online forex brokerage services. Internet has opened the forex markets to individual retail traders and small investors. It will not be easy for you to make the right choice of a forex broker. You need a certain set of criteria. These criteria will mostly depend on your preferences, interests and means as an individual trader and will depend on your trading tactics and strategies.
You may ask, what is the best way to choose the right broker? You should compose a list of questions to ask the forex broker before making a final decision. The following are some of the suggested questions that you should ask. You should ask these questions before making a final decision.
Following Gold
Gold is the ultimate global currency. At one time US Dollar used to be pegged to gold. But with the collapse of the Bretton Woods System, US Dollar was unpegged from gold.
Now US Dollar is only backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government. Like the present financial crisis when the global economy is in recession, many investors are trying to take refuge in gold as the ultimate safe haven of their wealth from financial turmoil. Many countries are also purchasing gold in the open markets.
The Australian Dollar (AUD) is known for its strong correlation with gold prices among the different currencies in the world. This correlation is due to fact that Australia has gold deposits and exports gold. On the other hand, USD has an inverse relationship with gold prices. Gold prices rise, USD falls in value. This causes the currency pair AUD/USD to appreciate in value when gold prices rise.
The opposite of this is also true. When USD gains value, gold usually loses value. The pair AUD/USD depreciates as a result. So when gold prices are rising, we can trade AUD/USD currency pair long. Likewise, when gold falls in value, we can trade AUD/USD short. This relationship may be due to the fact that gold is considered to be the ultimate safe haven of their wealth by investors in times of financial crisis. This relationship provides us with a method that we can use to take advantage of the fundamental factors that influence the currency markets.
Develop Trading Discipline
Develop trading discipline in yourself if you want to become a successful trader in the long run. In a trading session, lets you come to a point in your market analysis when you have no confidence on the accurate direction of the market forecast. Always remember, a lost opportunity is better than lost capital. Choose not to trade.
You should wait for the market conditions to become clearer before you enter a trade. You should increase the probability of success by trading when the trade setups are strong and risk to reward ratio is not more than 1:2. This is far more important in forex than in stock markets. The forex markets move a lot as compared to the stock markets.
High leverage gives you the opportunity to make a lot more money much faster. If you don not clearly see an opportunity, try to sit on the sidelines and wait for the market conditions to become clearer. Let the market come to you. Learn to be a patient trader.
You should understand that leverage is a wonderful money making tool. It is the key to making money in the currency markets as no other markets allow high leverage that this market allows. A leverage of 100:1 means that for a $1000 deposit, you can trade $100,000. This huge amount of leverage gives you the opportunity to make the kind of returns that you want.
Stock Indexes (Part II)
The Nasdaq-100 is a modified capitalization weighted index. Modified cap weighting involves adjustments to the capitalizations of the various components of the Nasdaq-100 index. The NDX contract at the CBOE is based on Nasdaq-100 as is the MNX.
Russell 2000 is the well known benchmark for small capitalization sector. Several Russell Indexes have become benchmarks for specific areas of investment management. Frank Russell Company is one of the leading global investment consultants. It is also involved in performance measurement, analysis and investment management.
Russell 3000 Index as the name implies includes 3000 issues and these 3000 companies represent 98% of the investable US equities. The index is adjusted for certain factors such as cross holdings and the number of pairs in hands.
Russell 3000 is further split into subsets like Russell 1000 Index. It covers the top 1000 about 92% of the value of the entire 3,000 stock index. The Russell 2000 Index is the smallest 2000 companies in the Russell 3000 Index.
From the business point of view, the Wall Street Journal is probably one of the most perfect business franchises. A franchise that is very hard to duplicate. The net worth of most of its readers is in seven figures. Dow Jones is the publisher of this journal.
DJIA became an important business barometer over the years. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) comprising 12 smokestack companies made its debut in the year 1896 and it grew to encompass 30 large industrial companies.