Forex Trading, What Hours Should I Be Ready For Trading?

Once you have decided to enter the Forex trading world you will find that FX trading has many advantages over other capital markets.

Including among others; very low margins, free are trading platforms, high leverage and around-the-clock trading. It is my main concern in this article to let you know what hours you should be ready and focus for start trading, so you can expect the highest profits in your trades, and not just consider that around-the-clock trading means you should randomly trade through out the day. In short, it is important to know what the best hours to trade are because if you want to find an appreciable number of profitable trades you need to enter the forex market at the best period of time, i.e., when the activity, the volume of transactions, is the highest. At any given time; somebody, somewhere in the world is buying and selling currencies. As one market closes, another market opens. Business hours overlap, and the exchange continues as day becomes night and night becomes day. Giving you 5.5 entire potential trading days.

Forex Trading begins in New Zealand at Sunday 5pm EST, and then is followed by Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America in this order and through out the day and through out the week until Friday 4pm EST when the American market closes. Other important facts every Forex trader should know are: the US & UK markets account for more than 50% of the forex market transactions; Forex major markets are: London, New York and Tokyo. Nearly two-thirds of NY activity occurs in the morning hours while European markets are open. And maybe one of the most important characteristics; Forex Trading activity is heaviest when major markets overlap. So, the answer to the question; "What hours should I be trading?" is dictated by this last characteristic, you should trade when the major markets overlap.

Now, when do they overlap?. Considering the different time zones of the world and open and close times for Australian, New Zealand, Japan, America and Europe markets. We can arrive to the conclusion that there are two major time gaps when two of the major markets overlap during trading hours. These hours are between 2 am and 4 am EST (Asian/European) and between 8 am to 12 pm EST (European/N. American). So if you want to catch the best trading opportunities of the day and you are in the American continent you must be ready to wake up early or go to sleep late some times. Of course things change around the world. What's the best region where to trade from if you can't wake up early...? Maybe the Ukraine.


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What Is Your Rate As A Trader?

The purpose here is to simply raise your awareness,

so that you can take action to improve matters if you find that it would turn things in a more desirable direction. Do NOT be offended - that is not the intent!
So the question today is very simple: As a trader, what is your hourly rate of pay? Have you even taken the time to at least get a rough estimate? It's very simple to calculate:
Take the average number of hours per week that you devote to your trading X 4.33. Now take the average net profit for your last 3 months trading. Divide the profit by the hours worked. This is your hourly pay as a trader. So...

What do you think? Is your rate of pay is substantially below where you want it to be?

If so, then perhaps a change of strategy - in how you approach your trading business - might help that tremendously.
Too many people in business pursuits of all sorts, let alone trading, never bother to take a look to see if they are being properly paid for all their efforts.
Often the trouble is the point of focus - spending time, energy and attention on the wrong things - but not that the current matter isn't worthwhile. It is simply the mental approach to the activity as a whole.

Here are a few examples:

One trader I know in Kansas spends an inordinate amount of time trying to tweak his system because he just KNOWS that he can find a way to beat the markets. He spends almost no time focusing on his organization, emotional control (or the sources of his emotions), so when he goes to trade, his execution is dreadful and he doesn't capitalize on his system efforts.
Another trader in Quebec reads probably 3 books a week, but doesn't apply what he learns from the books. He is making the mistake of thinking that knowledge is the answer in and of itself. Knowledge put into action is power.

In New Zealand, we've got one guy that has run his trading into the ground and is about to ruin his life. He has lost his life savings and has been trading on his credit cards trying to make it all back, sure that he's "this close". And he hasn't even told his wife about it. Nor is he even considering stopping. He just keeps trading away, thinking that staying active is the answer.

Okay that last one is a doosie, but the point is that these people are very busy investing their time but at less than minimum-wage. When these people looked at their hourly pay as a trader, it was a major wake-up call for them.
Most people get into trading to find FREEDOM and a better living, not working for less than their day jobs.
This is but one of the many aspects of trading that is worthwhile to explore and act upon. If your pay as a trader is lower than you'd like, that doesn't mean that it is necessarily bad.
A brand new trader isn't likely to have a high hourly rate. They are still learning the ropes.
For someone that has been trading for more than a year, however, the rate of pay should be at an acceptable level. If it isn't, then perhaps the approach to the business of trading is what needs to be attended to.

As with any true profession, education is critical to success. Make sure that you educate yourself and apply what you learn.

[ForexGen Money Manager]

An individual who is responsible for the entire financial portfolio of another individual or another entity. A money manager receives payment in exchange for choosing and monitoring appropriate investments for the client.

Benefits of being a Money Manager with [ForexGen]:

* Providing three different commission sources.
* Weekly commission plan.
* Easy & fast commission withdrawals.
* Fixed percentage of the profits.
* P = k * D “P=Profit, k=Variable Parameter, D=Deposits”

The money manager gets a fixed percentage of the profit previously agreed upon with the client for managing the client funds as a bonus feature.

The most competitive trading conditions:

* 2 pips spread on six currency pairs.
* Providing online trading services without maintenance margin, margin call and no automatic closing of positions below the initial margin on weekdays for accounts with initial equity of up to $1 million US. The margin level have to be recognized Fridays at 23:00 CET and before public holidays.
* Leverages up to 1:200 for accounts up to $1 million US.
* Liquidity and 24/5 availability are the characteristic factors of the Forex market compared with other financial markets.

What makes a good Trading Strategy?

Any trader who is more experienced will say a strategy should also include money management, risk control,

perhaps stop losses and of course, an exit point. They might also say that you must let your profits run and cut your losses short. A well-read trader will also tell you that your strategy should fit with your trading personality.

BUT there is one other vital ingredient that many traders forget - and that is to fully understand the "personality" of what you trade. Some traders specialise in say, gold or Brent crude or currencies or they might specialise in a particular index such as the FTSE 100 or the Dow but many traders choose to trade shares. Indeed some traders dabble in a bit of everything. I think this is the area that causes many traders to fail or at least not reach their full potential
Superficially, many charts look the same. I bet if you had not seen the charts for some time and someone where to show you a chart of Brent Crude over 6 months and then a chart of Barclays PLC over the same 6 months you would be hard pushed to say which was which purely on the look of the chart.

However, I bet that if you found a trader who trades ONLY Barclays day in and day out and also found someone who trades ONLY Brent Crude day in and day out, both of them would easily identify which was which. WHY?
Because every share, index or commodity has it’s own "personality".
Some will be volatile intra-day, some will follow their sector or the main index (market followers), some will do their own thing, some will spike up and down regularly, some will stop at key moving averages and some will just plough through. Some will move by 5% on average before they retrace and some by 2%. Some will gap up or down regularly, some will not. You get the idea!

Therefore, no matter how good you are at analysing indicators, moving averages, trends and patterns, the same strategy WILL NOT work for everything. I would go so far as to say that a strategy that works well for Bovis Homes, for example, is likely NOT to work for BT Group - they have very different "personalities".

[ForexGen White Labels]

Forex White Label partnership allows the trader a quick access to the online foreign currency exchange market.

[ForexGen] provides two types of trading White Label partnerships, a limited and a full solution. ForexGen different types of forex White Label partners are able to access ForexGen's trading platform entirely branded under each partner's unique company image and name. We provide a customizable online trading platform for the different types of the two White Label solutions.

Survey says: U.S. and U.K. FX volume dropped in the fall

Currency trading volumes in the two biggest foreign exchange centers appear to have dropped from the record levels recorded earlier in the year, according to two reports.
The triennial survey of the market conducted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) showed record average daily volumes of $1.9 trillion through April. But surveys of the U.K. and U.S.

markets by the Bank of England and the New York Federal Reserve show volumes in those two centers dropped to a combined $917 billion a day for traditional foreign exchange products
from $1,196 billion in April. The two centers account for almost half of all daily trading activity in the foreign exchange markets.
The two aforementioned reports were the first of what will become regular six-monthly surveys of FX market activity. The Bank of England and the New York Fed participate in the BIS’s
survey, but the FX committees of both said they felt the market would benefit from reporting of activity levels more than once every three years. “Our goal in launching this survey is to help market participants identify emerging trends in foreign exchange,” says Mark Snyder, chair of the New York Fed’s committee and head of foreign exchange at State Street bank.
He says more frequent reporting should help market participants manage risk in the fast-moving market. Both committees cautioned that their reports were not directly comparable with the BIS survey because of slight differences in methodology. The Bank of England said the BIS habit of
reporting trade locations based on the sales desk, rather than where the trade was conducted, could have underreported trading in London, the biggest center of activity. Many banks have sales teams across the continent but maintain one main trading floor, often in London. However,
market participants believe trading volumes might have surged since the surveys were taken.
EBS, the biggest inter-bank spot dealing platform, reported its busiest day in 11 years, worth $203 billion, in November. The platform also reported its busiest-ever week in January with an average $162 billion traded daily.

[About FOREXGEN]

ForexGen.com is an online trading service provider supplying a unique and individualized service to Forex traders worldwide. We are dedicated to absolutely provide the best online trading services in the Forex market.

ForexGen provides a unique online trading experience based on our intelligent online Forex trading package, the ForexGen Trading Station, including the best online trading system.

ForexGen serves both private and institutional clients. We have a strong commitment to maintain a long term relationship with our clients.

ForexGen | No Stop hedged Forex Grid trading system:

The no stop hedged forex grid trading system is an investment technique which creates favorable dollar cost averaging on all transactions entered into. For this reason the technique is too much of a paradigm shift for most conventional traders who like charts, support and resistance and indicators.
It is forex hedging , it is not a trading technique. It has however become very popular as a trading technique because of the short term gains that can be made. The No Stop system trades without stops. No stop loss orders are used at all except for when a group of transactions have a positive result and we want to liquidate the entire group of transactions at a net gain. Because the No Stop system cashes in its transactions regularly it becomes a trend following No Stop system too. There is no need for charts when using this No Stop system as we use predetermined price levels to cash in transactions positively (The No Stop system loves price spikes).

Transactions can or should be slow at a rate of about 3 to 4 a week. As price levels are determined well in advance orders can be placed well in advance so the No Stop system takes very little supervision. The technique is highly systematic and can easy be converted into an automatic trading system or expert adviser very easily.
The No Stop system is always in a sell and a buy at the same time and therefore can cash in on any move the market makes. Being in a sell and a buy at the same time also created a hedge. Predetermined cash in levels create a grid of price levels there positive transactions will be cashed in continuously until the group of transactions are profitable.

In simple terms you will enter the market at a particular level with an active bay and a sell. You would have predetermined levels at which you would cash in positive transactions. For instance one could decide to cash in on every 100pip (grid gap) move made in the market. When the price moves 100 pips you would cash in your positive transaction and then enter into another buy and sell transaction at that point. This process will continue until the total for the group of transaction is positive and then you would liquidate. You would then start again – as simple as that. No need for charts. Patience is the biggest virtue required.

Money is made when the price revisits some of the cash in levels over and over and over again (which it does).
In the above example should the price return to the starting level (after moving 100 pips) the group of 4 transactions in total will be positive and you would then cash in the unwanted transactions, bank your profits and start again.
The big danger of this No Stop system is strong trends with no or very few retracements. You will lose money in trends. There are however specific techniques to manage and contain these losses.
The biggest one is to start with a big grid gap. What is a trend on a 5 minute chart could be a small spike on a daily or weekly chart. Grid gaps of between 150 pips and 300 pips have been found to work well.
One could also vary the grid sizes relative to the trend to reduce the number of unhedged transaction. For example have grid gaps of 100, 200, 300 etc.
The other way is to vary the number of lots used when entering into the buy and sell transactions at a particular cash in point to ensure balanced hedging.

Trends tend to scare people away from this technique but if one views this as an investment technique and not a trading technique the trends could have a reduced impact on the annual return on investment. The market only trends 20% of the time any way. Talking about return on investment some current trading groups are showing returns of between 200% p.a. and 1000% p.a. on current investment levels. There are many trading records are available to back this up. The longer you trade this No Stop system the lower your risk and the better your return. That said, you can lose more than just your boots (your whole trading account) if you treat this No Stop system with disrespect.
Success factors for this No Stop system are: - Selecting appropriate grid sizes, currency pairs, lot sizes, cash in times and an investment mentality. All very easy, if you have done it for a few years.
This No Stop system is not for everybody however, and is not the best Forex hedging system since sliced bread, but is does very nicely for some traders, thank you very much. It is important to know about this system as using its principles could help your conventional trading. For freely available information on this No Stop system search the net for no stop forex trading

ForexGen Live Accounts Contest
Trade, Compete, and Win - Begins the 1st of Every Month!
ForexGen has the pleasure to announce the launching of its first monthly Live Accounts contest,
This is NOT a demo contest
this is a live trading competition open for all live mini account holders. At the beginning of each month, the slate is wiped clean and traders have a new opportunity to win the monthly prizes.

Rebates Trading Activities In ForexGen

Send your mind to posture and see how you can get money from your normal trading activity!
This is what ForexGen offers its clients, commissions on trading activities. And what is amazing here is that this offer is for both existing and new clients.

For all ForexGen traders, open live accounts and make your new deposits and earn in turn 10 cents on each mini lot you open on your live account, and $1 on each standard lot you open on your standard account. In making such, how much money do you think you can make? Definitely there is much to be counted.
Think practically, start quietly, trade professionally, and win ultimately.

ForexGen Hedging | What is It, and It’s Uses in Risk Management

Before I discuss the use of hedging to off-set risk, we need to understand the role and the purpose of hedging. The history of modern futures trading begins in Chicago in the early 1800’s. Chicago is located at the base of the Great Lakes, close to the farmlands and cattle country of the U.S. Midwest making it a natural center for transportation, distribution and trading of agricultural produce. Gluts and shortages of these products caused chaotic fluctuations in price. This led to the development of a market enabling grain merchants, processors, and agriculture companies to trade in contracts to insulate them from the risk of adverse price change and enable them to hedge.

The first commodity exchange was the creation of the Chicago Board of Trade, CBOT in 1848. Since then, modern derivative
products have grown to include more than the agricultural industry. Products include Stock Indices, Interest Rates, Currency, Precious Metals, Oil and Gas, Steel and a host of others. The origins of the commodity and futures exchange was created to support hedging. The role of speculators is beneficial as they add trading volume and important volatility to what would otherwise be a small and illiquid market place.

A bona-fide hedger is someone with an actual product to buy or sell. The hedger establishes an off-setting position on the futures or commodity exchange, thereby instituting a set price for his product. Someone buying a hedge is known as being “Long” or “Taking Delivery”. Someone selling a hedge is known as being “Short” or “Making Delivery”. These positions known as “Contracts” are legally binding and enforced by the exchange.

Entering your trades either for speculation or hedging is done through your broker. Commodity Trading Advisor, Genuine Trading Solutions President Dwayne Strocen, states that “Commodity and Futures exchanges are distinct from Stock Exchanges, although they operate using the same principals. They are regulated by different agencies such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who are responsible for regulation of retail brokers in the USA as well as Commodity Trading Advisors such as us.”

Now let’s view some real life examples of hedging or mitigation of risk by using exchange traded derivatives.

Example 1: A mutual fund manager has a portfolio valued at $10 million closely resembling the S&P 500 index. The Portfolio Manager believes the economy is worsening with deteriorating corporate returns. The next two to three weeks are reports of quarterly corporate earnings. Until the report exposes which companies have poor earnings, he is concerned of the results from a short term general market correction. Without the privilege of foresight, he is unsure of the magnitude the earnings figures will produce. He now has an exposure to Market Risk.

The manager thinks of his options. The greatest risk is to do nothing, if the market falls as expected, he risks giving up all recent gains. If he sells his portfolio early, he also risks being wrong and missing further rally’s. Selling also incurs substantial brokerage fees with additional fees to buy back again later.

Then he realizes a hedge is the best option to mitigate his short term risk. He begins by calling his CTA (Commodity Trading Advisor) and after consultation places an order to sell short the equivalent of $10 million of the S&P 500 index on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange “CME”. Now his result is when the market falls as expected, he will off-set any losses in the portfolio with gains from the Index hedge. Should the earnings report be better than expected, and his portfolio continues upward, he will continue making profits.

Two weeks later the fund manager calls his CTA and closes the hedge by buying back the equivalent number of contracts on the CME. Regardless of the resulting market events, the mutual fund manager was protected during the period of short term volatility. There was no risk to the portfolio.

Example 2: An electronics firm ABC has recently signed an order to deliver $5 million in electronic components of next years model to an overseas retailer located in Europe. These components will be built in 6 months for delivery two months after that. ABC instantly realizes they are exposed to two risks. 1. the rising and volatile price of copper in 6 months may result in losses to the firm. 2. the fluctuation in the currency could easily add to those losses. ABC being a young firm cannot absorb these losses in view of the highly competitive market from others in the field. Losses from this order would result in lay-offs and possibly plant closures.

ABC telephones their CTA and after consultation places an order for two hedges, both for an expiry in 8 months, the date of delivery. Hedge #1 is to buy long $5 million of copper effectively locking in today’s price against further price increases. ABC has now eliminated all price risk. The risk of plant closures is greater than the lure of increased profit should copper price fall. After all, ABC is not in the business of speculating on copper prices.

Hedge #2 is to sell short the equivalent of Euro Currency vs US Dollars. Since ABC is effectively accepting EC in payment, a rising US dollar and a weak EC would be detrimental and erode profits further. The result of the hedge is no risk and no surprises to ABC in either copper or currency levels. A risk free transaction and full transparency is the result. In 8 months with the order completed and the customer accepting delivery, ABC notifies the CTA to close the hedge by selling the copper and buying back the Euro Currency contacts.

Many examples exist to demonstrate the mitigation of risk to an institution or financial portfolio. Dwayne Strocen states that new products are constantly created and available on both over-the counter and exchange traded markets. If would be wise to consult with a qualified Commodity Trading Advisor or broker to discuss the analysis for an on-going risk management solution or a one time only hedge.

Forexgen White Label partnership allows the trader a quick access to the online foreign currency exchange market.

ForexGen provides two types of trading White Label partnerships, a limited and a full solution. ForexGen different types of forex White Label partners are able to access ForexGen's trading platform entirely branded under each partner's unique company image and name. We provide a customizable online trading platform for the different types of the two White Label solutions.