Pips 4 Idiots

Posts Tagged ‘Trades’

Keeping a Forex Trading Log to Analyze Your Actions

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

One of the most powerful pieces of information you can use to evaluate your actions as a forex trader is a trading log. With each trade, you should keep track of your thoughts and actions so you can improve your approach to trading. Here are some of the popular entries in a trading log:

1. Date
2. Time
3. Entry price
4. Number of lots opened
5. Initial Protective Stop level
6. Reason for entering into the trade
7. Target price (if any)
8. Exit price
9. Reason for exiting out of the trade
10. Result

After you have logged at least 10 trades, you can go back to compare your thoughts to how the market reacted after your entry.

Some questions to ask yourself include:

1. How did the market trade after I entered into the trade?
2. If the trade was profitable, how far did the market move against me before reversing?
3. If the trade was a loss, how profitable did the trade become before reversing?
4. Where was my protective stop at the beginning of the trade and at the end of the trade?
5. What was the direction of the trend on the daily chart when I opened the trade?
6. If the trade was profitable, how much of the move did I catch?
7. How close was I to the ideal entry point of the move and how could I improve that?
8. Was there a news release or other factor in the move of the market after entry?
9. Could I have managed the trade better?
10. Was my position size good or does it need to be adjusted?

These are of course just some examples. With time, you may need to log more information or ask yourself tougher questions. But analyzing your actions is the best way to see if what you are doing needs to be improved or changed. Certainly, your account balance from month to month lets you know if what you are doing makes sense, but getting better is the key to successful trading and keeping a log of your actions and thoughts is the best way to be able to accurately analyze your actions as a trader. 

All About The Forex Market - Learning How To Trade

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

If you are interested in trading in currencies then you will want to learn all about the Forex market. This market deals with trading in foreign currencies and with trading now done on the internet anyone can trade in this market, though you will need to have plenty of information and knowledge about how to be successful. Originally only banks and other large businesses dealing in finance would participate in Forex trading because it was all done over the phone.

The Forex market worldwide is one of the largest, with billions of dollars being traded every single day. You do not necessarily need a lot of money to begin trading as the number of investors is so large that this keeps the price low. There is also a plus in knowing that brokers do not charge commissions for trades which is common if you’re trading in the stock market.

A basic trade is when you are purchasing one currency with another and then playing the exchange rates. So you will purchase Euros using American dollars and when the exchange rate changes so you will make a profit when you sell the Euros for American dollars and get more back than what you paid.
There are many things that affect the Forex market, so the risk is much higher than trading in stocks and other investments.

Unlike many other markets you can trade on the Forex market at any time as it is always open. As with any industry there is terminology and language that is specific to that industry and you should understand all terms before beginning to trade. This is very important so you minimize your mistakes and misunderstanding and you’ll have less risk of losing your money.

The best way to start is to develop your own trading strategy and this will require quite a bit of research and looking at what is affecting the changes and causing trends.

Getting into trading the Forex? Get the right Forex Training online now. Get answers to the top Forex FAQS and jump in today. Learn all about this exciting market now.