My Trading View: GBP/USD

The GBP/USD has be heavily bearish since Mid July 2014. There was a reject test of the 1.50 level in January and now it may look like there is a change of sentiment. I am predicting this the pair will break the 1.55 level and retest, if this happens we will be look at a bullish GBP/USD! eventually. I believe this is even more likely to happen as Sterling is looking stronger across the board. A have a screenshot of the pair below, I am looking for a retest at 1.55 and going to go long with a low test/double bottom/doji.

Forex Basics: How to Read a Chart cont.

Trend Lines

A trend line is drawn, on a bullish market, along the bottom of the trend to indicate when the price is going to bounce so you know when to enter a trade. Trend lines are probably one of the most influential indicators out there, and probably the most underutilized. All you have to do to draw a trend line is to locate either a major top or bottom and connect them going through as many bars as possible. A general rule of thumb is that it has to be touching at least three candles for it the be valid. The example below is from the massive bearish move from the GBP/USD throughout 2014. Ignore the horizontal lines.

Key Support and Resistance

 Key Support and resistance is by far my favorite 'indicator'. They can either be drawn against historic prices or recent swing highs/lows. 

 

In the diagram above you can see resistance is drawn on the swing highs and support is drawn on the swing lows. These levels can be vital in knowing when the price is going to set up for another run.

In a bullish market, resistance becomes support, in a bearish market support becomes resistance.

Exponential Moving Averages

50 and 200 EMAs are the most popular of the lot. A line traces along with the price to give an average price over either 50 bars or 200 bars. This gives us a good idea where price is heading. You should rarely trade into a EMA. 

If you have any questions regarding this lesson or anything about Forex I'll be happy to help. Please comment below.

Forex Basics - How to Read a Chart

To many of you looking a any kind of chart, whether it be Forex or Stocks, is like trying to read Mandarin. Hopefully after reading this you should be somewhat relieved that it's actually not complicated at all!

Firstly we are going to take a look a close look at a candlestick on a up day:

On most charting software, green is up, and red is down.

1. Open - this is the price at which this particular currency pair closed the day before, therefore what price it opened for that day.

2. Close - this is the price which this particular currency pair closed at for the day, and which will be the price trading will start at for the next day.

3. High -  this is the highest price which this particular currency pair reached for that day

4. Low - this is the lowest price which this particular currency pair reached for that day

The currency market is open 24/5, you may think that a new bar is made at midnight but you'd be wrong. A new bar is made for the next day at 10:00pm. So the market opens for the week on Sunday 10:00pm and runs right the way through to Friday 10:00pm make a new bar every night at of course, at 10:00pm. Easy. (I am always referring to the daily chart, there are many other time frames)

The most basic thing a new trader will learn is to: BUY LOW, SELL HIGH
This sounds extremely simple, although the trick is to work out where the low and the highs are.

The above is an example of this theory. Now this would be the perfect year of trading if you caught all of these trades. Nobody can predict the market like this, so catching these moves are extremely unlikely especially if you are a conservative trader. Although, even if you caught 3-5 of these trades on one currency pair, you're going to be extremely well off!

A trend is when a currency pair is predominantly going in one direction. A trend consists of Runs and Pullbacks:

  Green is the run, and red is the pullback. To make money in a down trending market you have to sell at the top of a run and and buy at the bottom, and vice versa for a up trending market.

 Always trade with the market, never against it. This means never buy in a down trending market as you will get smashed when the run starts again.

I will continue this lesson in my next post. Make sure to add me to your circles so you don't miss any information.

If you have any questions, post them in the comments and I will happily answer!

The Law Of Attraction - How It Really Works & How To Use It

 




This is pretty interesting stuff! I have implemented The Secret into my life for the past year and a half. A lot of people believe its a load of rubbish, but if you think about it, it kinda makes a lot of sense. If you want something badly it will manifest into your life. It's as simple as that. If you haven't already I suggest you give 'The Secret' and 'The Power' a read. Really worth it.

Foreign Exchange - The Basics

Why trade Forex?

- Market is open 25/5

 From Monday morning in Sydney until afternoon close in New York, the Forex market never closes. This is great, your trades can move over night and you are actually making money whilst you sleep.

 - No Commission

 Unlike the stock market the FX market has no or little fees. You don't have to pay a fee every time you enter a trade

- Nobody can 'pump and dump' the market

$5,000,000,000,000 (5 trillion) is traded in the Forex market every single day! This means no single entity can influence how to market reacts.

- Low start up costs

You don't need a tonne of money to start trading. I would recommend a minimum of $1,000 so you have enough margin for your trades

 - Free brokerage charting software

Most Brokers have a downloadable charting software which you can download for free. When you first open an account I would recommend FXCM, I've never had a problem with them. Their Marketscope software is perfect for a novice. When you get  a little more comfortable with trade, I would then go onto eSignal for a more professional look. eSignal does cost quite a bit of money so I wouldn't buy it unless your results reflect the cost.

How Do You Actually Make Money In The Forex Market?

In the Forex market you buy and sell currencies.

 The object of Forex trading is to exchange one currency for another in the expectation that the price will change, so that the currency you bought will increase in value compared to the one you sold.

For example:

- You buy (long) 10,000 GBP at the GBP/USD (the cable) exchange rate of 1.50000 ($15,000)

- A week later, you exchange your £10,000 back into USD at the exchange rate of 1.55000  ($15500)

- You earn a profit of $500

How to Read a Forex Quote

 

 Currencies are always quoted in pairs, such as GBP/USD or AUD/USD. The reason they are quoted in pairs is because in every foreign exchange transaction, you are simultaneously buying one currency and selling another. Here is an example of a foreign exchange rate for the British pound versus the U.S. dollar:

When buying, the exchange rate tells you how much you have to pay in units of the quote currency to buy one unit of the base currency. In the example above, you have to pay 1.51258 U.S. dollars to buy 1 British pound.

When selling, the exchange rate tells you how many units of the quote currency you get for selling one unit of the base currency. In the example above, you will receive 1.51258 U.S. dollars when you sell 1 British pound.

Long/Short

If you want to buy (which actually means buy the base currency and sell the quote currency), you want the base currency to rise in value and then you would sell it back at a higher price. In trader’s talk, this is called “going long” or taking a “long position.” Just remember: long = buy.

If you want to sell (which actually means sell the base currency and buy the quote currency), you want the base currency to fall in value and then you would buy it back at a lower price. This is called “going short” or taking a “short position”. Just remember: short = sell.

What Is a Pip?

 

“PIP” stands for Point In Percentage. More simply though, a pip is what we in the FX would consider a “point” for calculating profits and losses. 

 

When trading a mini lot (10k units of currency), each pip is worth roughly one unit of the currency in which your account is denominated. If your account is denominated in USD, for example, each pip (depending on the currency pair) is worth about $1. In a micro lot, or 1k trade, each pip is worth roughly 1/10th the amount it would be worth in a mini lot, so about $0.10.

Foreign Exchange 'Lingo'

  

Major and Minor Currencies

The eight most frequently traded currencies (USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, CAD, NZD, and AUD) are called the major currencies or the “majors.” These are the most liquid and the most sexy. All other currencies are referred to as minor currencies.

Base Currency

The base currency is the first currency in any currency pair. The currency quote shows how much the base currency is worth as measured against the second currency. For example, if the USD/CHF rate equals 1.6350, then one USD is worth CHF 1.6350.
In the forex market, the U.S. dollar is normally considered the “base” currency for quotes, meaning that quotes are expressed as a unit of 1 USD per the other currency quoted in the pair. The primary exceptions to this rule are the British pound, the euro, and the Australian and New Zealand dollar.

Quote Currency

The quote currency is the second currency in any currency pair. This is frequently called the pip currency and any unrealized profit or loss is expressed in this currency.

Pip

A pip is the smallest unit of price for any currency. Nearly all currency pairs consist of five significant digits and most pairs have the decimal point immediately after the first digit, that is, EUR/USD equals 1.2538. In this instance, a single pip equals the smallest change in the fourth decimal place – that is, 0.0001. Therefore, if the quote currency in any pair is USD, then one pip always equal 1/100 of a cent.
Notable exceptions are pairs that include the Japanese yen where a pip equals 0.01.

Bid Price 

The bid is the price at which the market is prepared to buy a specific currency pair in the forex market. At this price, the trader can sell the base currency. It is shown on the left side of the quotation.
For example, in the quote GBP/USD 1.8812/15, the bid price is 1.8812. This means you sell one British pound for 1.8812 U.S. dollars.

Ask/Offer Price

The ask/offer is the price at which the market is prepared to sell a specific currency pair in the forex market. At this price, you can buy the base currency. It is shown on the right side of the quotation.
For example, in the quote EUR/USD 1.2812/15, the ask price is 1.2815. This means you can buy one euro for 1.2815 U.S. dollars. The ask price is also called the offer price.

Bid/Ask Spread

The spread is the difference between the bid and ask price. The “big figure quote” is the dealer expression referring to the first few digits of an exchange rate. These digits are often omitted in dealer quotes. For example, the USD/JPY rate might be 118.30/118.34, but would be quoted verbally without the first three digits as “30/34.” In this example, USD/JPY has a 4-pip spread.

Transaction Cost 

The critical characteristic of the bid/ask spread is that it is also the transaction cost for a round-turn trade. Round-turn means a buy (or sell) trade and an offsetting sell (or buy) trade of the same size in the same currency pair. For example, in the case of the EUR/USD rate of 1.2812/15, the transaction cost is three pips.
The formula for calculating the transaction cost is:
Transaction cost (spread) = Ask Price – Bid Price

Margin

When you open a new margin account with a forex broker, you must deposit a minimum amount with that broker. This minimum varies from broker to broker and can be as low as $100 to as high as $100,000.
Each time you execute a new trade, a certain percentage of the account balance in the margin account will be set aside as the initial margin requirement for the new trade based upon the underlying currency pair, its current price, and the number of units (or lots) traded. The lot size always refers to the base currency.
For example, let’s say you open a mini account which provides a 200:1 leverage or 0.5% margin. Mini accounts trade mini lots. Let’s say one mini lot equals $10,000. If you were to open one mini-lot, instead of having to provide the full $10,000, you would only need $50 ($10,000 x 0.5% = $50).

Leverage

Leverage is the ratio of the amount capital used in a transaction to the required security deposit (margin). It is the ability to control large dollar amounts of a security with a relatively small amount of capital. Leveraging varies dramatically with different brokers, ranging from 2:1 to 500:1.
Now that you’ve impressed your dates with your forex lingo, how about showing her the different types of trade orders?

Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/preschool/how-to-trade-forex/impress-your-date-with-forex-lingo.html#ixzz3RMD44RJL

Forex IS NOT a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme 

A lot of people have the misconception that trading is some sort of scheme. Whether it be Forex, Stocks, Futures whatever, you can't expect to get rich overnight. It takes a lot of work and perfecting your strategies with military discipline. Trading is not for those who are unemployed, have no income or mass money hidden away somewhere. I suggested earlier that you should have at least $1000 to start trading, this is an extremely low account and is absolutely rock bottom. Aim to have at least $10,000 that you can afford to lose.

Start Demo Trading 

You can open up a demo account with $50,000 of fake money for free. I suggest FXCM. Demo trading is a great way to test your strategies and getting use to trading. Now you may be sitting there thinking that you have no strategies to trade! I have two websites I wish to share which has made me what I am today. 


http://www.infinite-prosperity.com/ is by far the best Forex trading education out there. Although you have to pay for it's services you will make that back within 6 months if your are a determined learner. Infinite Prosperity offer brilliant lessons including: Psychology, mindset, 3 swing trading strategies and 2 day trading strategies. If your serious about having a career trading, this is the website for you.

 http://www.babypips.com/ is completely free, and a awesome place to start you journey. I suggest you start here and move onto IP after you have the basic knowledge of trading.

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Top 10 Motivational Quotes

10. "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible"



9. " When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn"

8. "If you can dream it, you can do it" 


 


7.  Infuse you life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen...yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.

6. Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

5. By failing to prepare, you a preparing to fail.

  

4.  You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.

3. Be kind wherever possible. It is always possible.

   

2. If you're going through hell, keep going.

 

 

1. There is only one success: To be able to spend your life in your own way!

 

 

 

Never Quit - How To Become Successful

What exactly is success? 

Success, I believe, cannot be measured. Success is a personal preference in which
you are the only one to judge whether you are a success or not. When I
mention the word 'success' most people automatically think about money.
Although Money is a large contributor towards success, it's not the only
thing. Below I have listed my main four areas in which I measure my
success.


Relationships
Having people to share you life with is an absolute
joy! What I have noticed about successful people is they surround
themselves with like minded people. What I have learned from this is
that if you have any 'friends' which aren't particularly success driven
people, then unfortunately it's time to dump them. If you are the
smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room.

Financial

Having money to do the things you love is a obviously
area in which you want to excel in. Have a large time/money ratio is
probably the most important things to me in life. To buy super cars,
houses, travel, luxury watches, clothes is the best feeling ever.

Mind And Spirit 

Most people neglect their minds. Most people
do not know how to unlock the true potential within your own. Believing
that you can be successful is half of the battle already won.

Seeing
is believing! If you imagine something within your mind you have a much
better chance of it actually happening...True story. For this I would
like to give you a little exercise: Grab a pen and paper and write down
exactly what you want, whether it be a car or a watch,
whatever. Make sure you start to list by saying what you are currently
grateful for. It's important to be extremely specific. I have made a
example list below.



I am so grateful for all the wonderful things in my life that I would like:

• A black convertible Ferrari 458 with black alloys, red brake calipers and red seats
• A tailored blue Hugo Boss suit
• A Omega Seamaster 300 with blue dial and metal strap
• A Penthouse looking out over Sydney Harbor with a 60" TV, Grand Piano, wooden flooring, white kitchen and floor to wall windows

Don't
just write your list and forget about it, put it somewhere that you
will see literally everyday. Maybe on your desk or on the wall. You need
to visualize what you want so it can manifest in you life.

Health And Fitness

Health
and fitness is extremely important to me. Healthy body healthy mind.
You'll feel better about yourself if you get up in the morning 30
minutes before breakfast and go for a light jog or even a walk. Getting
up early is a great habit to get into, you should only be sleeping
between 6-7 hours. The average 'rich person' gets up at 05:30 to start
work. I always write out on a notepad that I keep next to my bed the
tasks which I need need to complete the following day. Here is a typical
day of mine:

• 0530 - Morning jog on the beach
• 0600 - Breakfast 
• 0630 - Start Day Trading
• 0830 - Catch up on emails and world affairs 
• 0900 - Go Flying 
• 1200 - Lunch
• 1300 - Gym 
• 1430 - Brainstorm new ideas
• 1600 - Catch up with friends via skype/text/call
• 1700 - Read for 30 minutes
• 1730 - Dinner
• 1830 - Go for a drive
• 1930 - Downtime, watch some motivational, trading, interesting videos on youtube
• 2000 - Invite friends and family over for drinks and snacks
• 2200 - Start Swing Trading
• 2300 - Read for 30 minutes 
• 2330 - Bed

Now
this is just a vague outline of a day, but you get the idea. The
purpose of this is to make sure you never procrastinate. Whilst you're
watching TV other people are working their asses off to try and beat you
to it. Which they will.



There are things you need to ask yourself if you're really serious about become successful.
Are you willing to sacrifice hobbies? Rich people are. Are you willing
to sacrifice time with friends and family? Rich people are. Are you
willing to work 18 hour days to try and get you business started? Rich
people certainly are. The questions go on and on. You need to give it
everything, and only then will you become successful.

10 Books You Must Read For Success!

Knowledge = Success

Reading is one of the best activities you can do to learn about something. Personally I find it an absolute joy to open a book and to be able to learn something new everyday. Here I have listed my personal favorites. I have included a link to go to my aStore in which you can buy any of the books which I have mentioned in this post.

Success Books!

10.  The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

This is the only fictional book within this list. The Alchemist, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. It's all about taking risks which is something that you need to embed in your mind.















9. The eBay Business Handbook - Robert Pugh

This is a fantastic way of accumulating start up capital. Robert Pugh gives great advice and a step by step blueprint on how to make good money on eBay.














8. The Snowball - Alice Schroeder

In this book Alice Schroeder writes about the legend that is Warren Buffett. She goes into great depth on how he got to where he is today. His mindset, discipline, and strategies. Whether you wish to go into Stock trading or not it's worth a read.

  












7. The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

Benjamin Graham’s last line in The Intelligent Investor sums up the entire book in his trade-mark common-sense way: “ To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.” This was the book in which Warren Buffett learned how to trade stocks. If that doesn't give you an incentive to read it, I don't know what will.




  

6. The 4-Hour Work Week - Timothy Ferriss

This book opened a whole new world for me, a new way of thinking; allowing me to find a balance between work and play. Tim is a great teacher with a very useful set of tools on his belt, and the ability to share his knowledge in a very easy, readable manner. This book is great for setting up a business which you eventually want to turn into passive income.


 

5. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T Kiyosaki

 This book is not just about money. It's about how we are taught to think; how we are programmed by schools, family, and friends to look at the rich as greedy no good bloodsuckers and opportunities as risks. It is an attempt to reprogram minds to look at why we do what we do.. why do we buy all these shoes, clothes, cars, jewelry.. have we earned it or are we just trying to maintain an image? 

 

4. Think And Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

 Napoleon Hill was tasked by Andrew Carnegie to write a book on what made a successful person succeed, and he spent 20 years researching and interviewing every great name of the day (Ford, Woolworth, Edison, etc), plus lots of people who failed (because you have to know what doesn't work too). This book is the result. 



 



3. Trading In The Zone - Mark Douglas

This instantly became one of my favorite trading books, focusing on the psychology needed for trading as opposed to one's actual trading methodology and systems. If you currently trade or wanting to start trading, this is the book for you. 



  

2. Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind - T. Harv Eker

A extract from the book, one which opened up my mind, and heart.

"Your life is not just about you. It's also about contributing to others. It's about living true to your mission and reason for being here on this earth at this time. It's about adding your piece of the puzzle to the world. Most people are so stuck to their egos that everything revolves around me, me, and more me. But if you want to be rich in the truest sense of the word, it can't only be about you. It has to include adding value to other people's lives."

Make of it what you will.

 

  

1. The Secret - Rhonda Byrne

By far the best mindset and psychological book I have ever read in my entire life. I now realize how much control I have over my life, my relationships, my happiness, my circumstances...everything. I'm totally in charge of my life and I learned and am learning how to create what I want. 

   

This is my list, if you have a book you would like to recommend please leave a comment below as I would like to read as many books as I can!

Introduction To Pips And Tricks

Welcome to 'Pips And Tricks'

Within this blog we will be writing post and giving you information that you will ever need to succeed. Whether you are currently trading Forex, you want to begin trading Forex, or neither. What ever you current situation, if you take the time to read our posts, we can change your life in one way or another for the better. You may have read that and may have thought that I am quite arrogant, so I am going to tell you a bit more about myself to tell you I have a reason to make that claim.

I am James Fraser, currently 20 years of age. I work from home at my computer for, on average, 5 hours a week...Imagine. I started University studying Travel and Tourism Management on 12th September 2012 and dropped out 3 days later due to lack of interest. On the third day the lecturer told everybody that this wasn't the business to be in if you want lots of money, I closed my books, stood up and walked out because making 'lots of money' is all I wanted to do. From then on I was searching for something and found out that I could make money sitting at home with and cup of tea reading some charts. I studied for months and months until I was ready to open up a live trading account, and I have never looked back since. Foreign Exchange is my 'holy grail', it allows me to make insane returns with little to no work.  I work 2 hours a day, this means I can literally do whatever the hell I want, within the law, with the rest of the day. Surfing, flying, driving, photography, health and fitness to name a few hobbies I wish to take part in in my spare time...which is most of the time. Within the next few months I intend to purchase my dream car.

Jaguar F-Type V8

It's not all about the money. It's the money/time ratio which one has to focus on. On average I make 5% a month on my trading account, you'd struggle to get that in a bank for a whole year! For example, if you had a trading account of £50,000, you'd be able to return £2,500 a month. Now, working 1 hours a day, 5 days a week, 20 hours a month you'd be on £125 an hour. (Remember that this is average, some months you can be up 15% +£7,500 or down 5% -£2,500 due to market runs and down draws). To support this statement I am going to give you a example.

Mr. Banker is paid a salary of £75,000 a year and works 40 hours a week. This works out to be about £156 an hour. He is so exhausted from his 8 hour days at work that he can't do any of the things he enjoys doing.

Mr. Forex pays himself £30,000 a year and works 5 hours a week. This works out to be £125 an hour. He doesn't have anybody to answer to at work, he works small hours and he can do whatever he wants with his day.

Now you tell me who is the most wealthy!

What have we learned from this?  Money doesn't equal wealth, time equals wealth.

Although the banker is on more money, the currency trader has more time do the things he loves.

In the lessons to follow I will be elaborating hugely on all aspects of trading, from strategies to mindset and psychology.