Sep 3, 2008 at 10:48 o\clock
What Is A Spread? FIRST, spread is the difference between the ask price (the price you buy at) and the bid price (the price you sell at) quoted in pips. If the quote between EUR/USD at a given moment is 1.2222/4, then the spread is 2 pips. If the quote is 1.22225/40, then the spread is 1.5 pips.SECOND, it is how brokers make money. Wider spreads result in a higher ask price and a lower bid price. As a consequence, you pay more when you buy and get less when you sell, making it more difficult to realize a profitBrokers don't typically earn the full spread, especially when they hedge client positions. The spread compensates the market maker for taking on risk from the time it executes a client trade to when the broker's net exposure is hedged (possibly at a different price). Why Are Spreads So Important? Spreads affect the return on your trading strategy in a big way. Probably more than you think. As a trader, your sole interest is buying low and selling high. Wider spreads means buying higher and having to sell lower. A half-pip lower spread doesn't sound like much, but it can easily make the difference between a profitable trading strategy and an unprofitable one.Sep 3, 2008 at 10:33 o\clock
You can make money with individual stocks no matter what the market is doing.
But it is important to look at some key measurements. One of these measures is the moving average. Short-term moving averages help gauge the short-term direction of the market, while longer moving averages take a big picture view.
For example: if a stock breaks the 200-day moving average on its way down, that's generally thought to be bearish, and the longer-term trend could be reversing. The 200-day moving average can also act as support. If a stock comes down, but stops at the major moving average and then starts moving higher from there, it can act as a firm underpinning of support for the stock.
Looking at the 50-day moving average can be quite useful as well. It's more of an intermediate snapshot of the price trend and is more sensitive than the longer-term 200 day. A rising moving average with the price trading above it is bullish, while a descending moving average with the price trading below it is bearish. More short-term signals can be seen with the 10- and 20-day moving averages. Moving average crossovers can also be valuable. When the quicker moving average (50 day for example) is above the slower moving average (200 day), this is thought to be bullish. Likewise, when the shorter term is trading below the longer-term moving average, this is thought to be bearish.
Using a screener can be helpful in finding stocks that meet this criteria. Of course, moving averages alone don't tell the whole story. But a company with solid fundamentals while also trading above these momentum indicators can help you find stocks bucking a downtrend or confirming an uptrend.
The screen that I'm running today looks for stocks trading above their short term (10 and 20 day), intermediate term (50 day) and long-term (200 day) moving averages. I'm also demanding that their current quarter earnings estimates have been raised within the last 4 weeks (or at the very least, not lowered); their average broker rating has been upgraded (or at the very least, not downgraded): and they have a Zacks #2 Rank or Zacks #1 Rank (Buy or Strong Buy). Sep 2, 2008 at 11:45 o\clock
There are many different types of forex accounts available to the retail forex trader. Demo accounts are offered by forex brokers as a way to introduce traders to their software and execution methods.live account is an account opened by traders with real money deposited in order to start trading for real profitMini accounts, and full accounts are the most common types of funded accounts. Mini accounts are similar to regular trading accounts; however currency is traded in lots of 10,000 rather than 100,000. This allows for lower mandatory initial deposits, and greater customization of risk management.
It is important that the currency trader consider what they want to get out of their account, before deciding on the type to open. Demo accounts, and mini accounts, are great for the retail forex trader to learn a profitable system, and get used to the execution methods of the broker. For the currency speculator that doesn't want to trade by themselves, a managed account would be better.Sep 1, 2008 at 10:06 o\clock
The foreign exchange market is the "place" where currencies are traded. Currencies are important to most people around the world, whether they realize it or not, because currencies need to be exchanged in order to conduct foreign trade and business. If you are living in the U.S. and want to buy cheese from France, either you or the company that you buy the cheese from has to pay the French for the cheese in euros (EUR). This means that the U.S. importer would have to exchange the equivalent value of U.S. dollars (USD) into euros. The same goes for traveling. A French tourist in Egypt can't pay in euros to see the pyramids because it's not the locally accepted currency. As such, the tourist has to exchange the euros for the local currency, in this case the Egyptian pound, at the current exchange rate.
The need to exchange currencies is the primary reason why the forex market is the largest, most liquid financial market in the world. It dwarfs other markets in size, even the stock market, with an average traded value of around U.S. $2,000 billion per day.
One unique aspect of this international market is that there is no central marketplace for foreign exchange. Rather, currency trading is conducted electronically over-the-counter (OTC), which means that all transactions occur via computer networks between traders around the world, rather than on one centralized exchange. The market is open 24 hours a day, five and a half days a week, and currencies are traded worldwide in the major financial centers of London, New York, Tokyo, Zurich, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and Sydney - across almost every time zone. This means that when the trading day in the U.S. ends, the forex market begins anew in Tokyo and Hong Kong. As such, the forex market can be extremely active any time of the day, with price quotes changing constantly.Aug 19, 2008 at 11:18 o\clock

The Forex market is becoming the fastest growing industry on the internet. The secret is out; and a lot of people are making money on Forex currency trading. And these are people like you and me, average people. This is because the government has recently relaxed rules to make the access to the Forex market more easy for the average Joe investor and the advent of the internet into all our homes has given us a currency trading platform. For small investors, Forex trading has become a lucrative source of income and everybody is trying to jump on the bandwagon.
Before you get started, it is useful to learn and understand a little bit about currency trading. There is plenty of information out there to help you learn, but remember that a lot of this supposed information and free Forex currency strategy advise is bogus. But don't let this bias you against seeking real, quality Forex education, because this will be critical to your success as a Forex trader. The second piece of advice that one should keep in mind is to start small. If you do well as a Forex trader, increase your budget slowly, but make sure you do not bet your life's savings on your trades.
Further, seek a good Forex training course in currency trading. There are plenty of these online or find out where you can attend workshops locally. They will provide a lot of information on buzzwords, background material, historical data on currencies and a glossary of terms used in Forex trading. Also, you can ask questions, which will be answered by experts on chat, message boards and forums. There are courses on Forex trading that give you access to their library where you can see historical trends and all types of useful literature. Financial gurus run these Forex training courses and offer videos with their own Forex trading systems explained in detail.