James Roshwood asked:


are many things to be considered when you begin your online forex trading account and that is to consider how to choose a forex currency trading broker.

The question is how do you select the best forex brokers. Consideration should be given to these 7 critical points when you are making the decision to appoint a forex currency trading broker.

1. Dependable

This works on multiple levels. You need a broker that you can rely upon to be trustworthy and who will not all of a sudden vanish like a puff of smoke from the internet taking with them all of your hard earned money. Please satisfy yourself that your forex broker is a member of a professional trading association as the fx market is largely unregulated so take care to ensure your broker has impeccable credentials.

The first step is to check up on the reliability of the currency trading broker and to confirm your online forex broker is regulated. In the USA this means that you want a forex trading broker that carries a current registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and also the National Futures Association (NFA).

The National Futures Association should be consulted to make sure that your forex currency trading broker has a good record regarding complaints. Other countries have their own regulatory bodies for example the same function is performed by the Financial Services Authority in the UK.

Another consideration is whether the online forex broker’s trading platform is reliable. The forex trading platform is the financial software that will connect you to the FX markets whenever you want to trade. If the online forex trading platform is often offline then this will cause you some major problems. There could be a time when you miss out on an opening price or closing price because of the forex trading platform experiencing some downtime.

Some good advice is to check what others say about the forex broker and go online and check the relevant forex forums on the web and see what experience they have of downtime. Remember it is like with all online forums do not listen to the loudest voice as they may have a vested interest either way in recommending or not recommending who in their opinion are the best forex brokers

2. Services Provided by the Best Forex Brokers

The forex markets trade 24 hours a day from Sunday night to Friday afternoon EST. You will need to check that your forex broker’s trading platform is available all of this time, and certainly the best forex brokers are and they will also offer 24 hour customer support on forex trading days.

Check that they cover at least the seven major currencies USD, AUD, CAD, GBP, EUR, CHF, JPY and again the best forex brokers certainly will.

The best forex brokers should offer you financial trading charts, technical analysis charts and instant execution of your forex trade at the price displayed.

3. Forex Broker Costs

Online forex brokers do not make commission charges but will make their income from the forex trading spread. The forex spread is the difference between the buy and sell prices on any currency pair. The forex trading spread can be anything from 1 pip or less and up to about 3 pips although this will depend upon the online forex brokers terms of service and the currency pair being traded.

The piece of the pie taken by the spread can make the difference between achieving a profit or making a loss in your forex trading account over both the immediate and also the longer term so you will need to check closely at what level the spread is calculated. If you can decide which pairs you are likely to trade most often, for example I prefer the USD/GBP trading pair which is known as cable, the spread on those pairs will be more important to you than on others.

Beware of special marketing tricks like special offers of lower forex trading commissions that may not last long once you have committed your funds.

Consideration need to be given on how much is the minimum amount of capital you can invest. The accepted advice given to new forex traders is to start your forex trading with small lots so you will need to consider a forex broker who will let you open an account with less than $250.

4. Margins which are also known as Deposits

Margin requirements vary from forex broker to forex broker. A lower margin requirement means higher leverage, and higher leverage gives you greater profits or losses on the same fund size. So low margins seem great when you are doing well, but losses will be bigger if things go badly.

5. Lot size

Lot size varies from one broker to another. Generally 100,000 units of currency is a standard lot, 10,000 is a mini lot, and 1,000 is a micro lot. Some brokers offer fractional lots which give you more power to set your own lot size. You may consider this to be of an advantage to you or if you prefer a less complicated approach this may well be an unnecessary complication.

There are other considerations including the interest paid on your margin account, rollover charges and other FX trading policies. However, these are the main points that you should be looking out for when choosing the best forex trading broker.

6. Customer Service

This is very important especially when you have just started out using a forex trading platform. Like with all new things there will inevitably be teething troubles and you will want to be able to speak or email someone and get an instant response. The best forex brokers will provide this service.

7. Forex Exit Strategy

There will be a time when you want to realize some of the profits that you have made and be able to withdraw your money quickly and easily. Make sure that you are able to get your money within a couple of days as some online forex brokers insist on a 14 day delay which is totally unnecessary

Kelly Price asked:


If you read a lot of the vendors online you would think forex trading is a walk in the park and of course its not, that’s why 95% of traders lose. The good news however is you can win – if you follow the advice in this article…

Most forex traders fall for vendors telling them they can make money easily, by following their advice or a mechanical forex robot.

These so called forex experts though are anything but and all they have to back up their claims are back tested paper simulations. That’s trading knowing the closing prices and it’s so easy a child could do it. Don’t take this nonsense seriously.

A back tested simulation, means absolutely nothing, in terms of how you will do and in most instances, traders who buy these trading systems get wiped out.

Now in life, you know that to make money you need to make an effort. You need to the basics and learn your art.

Forex trading is EXACTLY the same, you need to know what you are doing and have confidence in your knowledge.

The Good News is

For the effort you need to make, the rewards are huge!

Even better news is – it’s proven that everything about successful forex trading can be specifically learned by anyone with a willingness to learn. Now, let’s look at a story which will inspire you.

A famous trader called Richard Dennis, set out to prove the point anyone could succeed at trading, with the right mindset and education. He taught a group of people who had never traded before to trade in just 2 weeks – the result?

These traders made $100 million, in just 4 years and went down in trading history as legends.

Learning a successful trading system is easy – applying it is the hard part.

Despite what you may read online about you won’t suffer losses for weeks on end – you will. Don’t worry though, even the best traders do! The trick is to keep your losses small and stay on course until you hit profits.

You have to lose to win in forex and this is hard for most people, they simply cannot take their losses and trade with discipline.

A simple system applied with discipline, is the key. Keep in mind, if you don’t have the discipline to apply your system, you don’t have one!

Forex trading is a combination of method and the mindset to apply it.

If you get the right forex education and work smart you can get a simple robust forex trading strategy together in a couple of weeks – then its down to mindset and your ability to stay on course.

While being disciplined is not easy, if you have confidence in what you are doing, you can achieve it.

So forget all the people who tell you forex trading is easy – its not and you would hardly expect it to be with the rewards on offer.

Approach forex trading as a business, learn to take your losses and be disciplined and if your system is soundly based, you will soon be piling up huge profits and enjoying currency trading success.

Thomas Eliot asked:


Are you able to remain calm and unemotional and to look objectively at the criteria at hand when you are trading the currency exchange markets? If not, you may wish to look into Avi Frister’s Forex Trading Machine system to help take the human error factor out of your trading pattern. Frister, who has been successfully trading for more than ten years now, has designed a forex trading strategy that uses only one major factor in its trading algorithm: that of price and where the price is headed.

Actually, the name Frister chose for his strategy — Forex Trading Machine — is an apt description of the system itself, which is totally mechanical, meaning no interpretation, no confusion, no judgment, no tricks, and no vague chart formations. Combine that with principles which are easy to learn but extremely difficult to spot and interpret in real time, and you’ve got the essence of Frister’s trading system.

In his 180+ page ebook, Avi Frister presents three different forex trading strategies based solely around a mechanical model of trading. The focus of his book is on strict entry and exit rules and looking only at Price Action. Since price is king in forex trading, you are more likely to be profitable trading currencies basing your buy and sell decisions on what price is doing rather than trying to interpret indicators which are mostly all lagging. This is not a system for the squeamish.

Of the three strategies for trading, the Cash Cow strategy is the most popular because it bases itself on the volatility of two major trading currencies: the U.S. Dollar and the Great Britain Pound. One reason why many like this trading strategy is because it only identifies three or four trading situations per month, which allows you the freedom to do other things besides looking at your computer screen all day.

If you have the time and enjoy day trading, then the Flip & Go strategy may be more to your liking. It shows you how to take advantage of a certain characteristic of the EUR/USD pair — the most liquid of all currency pairs. Large profit objectives and VERY small stop losses are the objectives of this trading strategy.

A mechanism that Avi created allows you to stay out of bad trades before you even know you are in a bad trade. Once 90% of traders realize the market has started moving in a certain direction, you will already be in the move and profiting from it. While most traders will struggle in choppy market days (and lose money in the process) Forex Flip & Go will keep you out of this pattern.

If there is one weakness in the strategies that Frister recommends, especially for those new to currency trading, it is in the non farm payroll strategy, which comes as a bonus with the program. Inexperienced traders would do well to gain some experience with this kind of trading opportunity before jumping in with both feet. If you know what you’re doing, and what signs to look for, then this can be a profitable trade. But if you don’t, the volatility inherent in such trades can dry up any profit you might have thought to have made.

To learn more about this forex trading system, you can read a further opinion at Review of the Forex Trading Machine.