Forex Quotes

If you can trade successfully for at least three consecutive months in a demo account, and if you are doing everything correctly, then feel free to progress to live trading. Your first live account should be a “micro” account, one that allows you to trade live, but at the same time allows for little risk. It’s difficult (but not impossible) to get hurt when you’re trading EUR/USD for 10 cents per pip. If you continue to trade well in your micro account, move up to a “mini” account, one where EUR/USD has a value of $1 per pip. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

Publications like the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are good sources for information about potential central bank interventions. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

Because of the ability to print more money, it is considerably easier for a central bank to weaken its own currency than it is to strengthen it. While it is still possible to lose money on an intervention trade, the odds are on the side of the trader who pays close attention and takes the side of the central bank—-especially if that central bank is actively weakening its currency. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

The best time to recalculate your stop is when the market reopens for business, after the weekend. This equates to Sunday evening around 5 p.m. U.S. East Coast time. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

Don’t go long EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and AUD/USD at the same time, because that is really just one big “short the USD” trade. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

Quantitative easing is a way of pouring money into a cash-starved banking system. It is a “last resort” for central banks that have already cut interest rates to the bone and are still seeking ways to stimulate their economies. “QE” also has the effect of weakening the currency. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

If central banks slash rates in anticipation of a recession, currencies that traditionally offer a low yield, such as the Japanese yen, tend to benefit. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

EUR/USD accounts for the most activity by far, as 27 percent of all currency trades occur in that pair. This is why EUR/USD features the tightest spread on most currency trading platforms. USD/JPY is a distant second at 13 percent, and GBP/USD accounts for 12 percent of the action. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

Slightly more than one-third of all Forex trading activity emanating from the United Kingdom (34.1 percent). The United States comes in a distant second, providing 16.6 percent of all Forex trading activity. All of the other countries surveyed registered in single digits. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

Far more transactions occur in the U.S. dollar than in any other currency (hence its status as the world’s reserve currency). The euro is the second most actively traded currency, although it is steadily closing the gap on the USD. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

Don’t rely on automated systems or signal services. [2010] - Ed Ponsi

Never risk more than 5 percent of the value of your account on one transaction. [2010] - Jay Norris

Volume generally trails off noticeably leading up to noon EST and stays very low until the Tokyo open. [2010] - Jay Norris

Currency traders often use 89-period and 144-period exponential moving averages simultaneously for their long-term charts, considering a crossover of the two averages an important signal. [2010] - Jay Norris

In a position trade--or any trade--you should be risking only a small percentage of your overall risk capital. For professionals this may be as little as 0.5 to 1 percent. For beginners, who are often undercapitalized by definition, it should never be over 5 percent and preferably should be closer to 2 percent. [2010] - Jay Norris

Low-volume candles such as those between 17:00 and midnight Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) should be discounted. [2010] - Jay Norris

Divergence over a shorter period is more powerful than divergence over a longer period. Although most market reversals exhibit divergence before they turn, they also exhibit this behavior just before normal consolidation periods. [2010] - Jay Norris

Here are the time frames we analyze and trade from: Monthly--weekly--daily--240 minutes--60 minutes--15 minutes--5 minutes. The premise of coordinating time frames is to use the higher time frame to confirm the signal on the time frame we are trading. The downside of using higher time frame charts to confirm lower time frame charts comes when we are in a sideways or countertrending market or when we are seeing trends reversing. [2010] - Jay Norris

Position, or end-of-day, trading is fairly straightforward in that the trader is taking trade signals on the basis of price behavior on the daily charts. Enter orders is just before the end of the trading day at 5 p.m. EST. It is common parlance to refer to 5 p.m. EST as the close because it marks the change from one day to the next on the daily chart. You determine whether the trade is a trend or a countertrend on the basis of the stance of your daily chart and look to the weekly and monthly charts for confirmation. [2010] - Jay Norris

Around 8:00 to 11:00 am NY time — represents among the most active, liquid, and volatile trading hours available in forex. From around 2:00 pm on Sunday to 5:00 pm on Friday, forex trading takes place 24 hours a day, five days a week. [2009] - James Chen