The green line is the pivot point (P).
The red lines are resistance levels (R1, R2, R3).
The blue lines are support levels (S1, S2, S3).
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Understanding Pivot Points Using Charts.
Generally speaking, the pivot point is seen as the primary support or resistance level. The following chart is a 5 minute chart, where:
The green line is the pivot point (P).
The red lines are resistance levels (R1, R2, R3).
The blue lines are support levels (S1, S2, S3).
The green line is the pivot point (P).
The red lines are resistance levels (R1, R2, R3).
The blue lines are support levels (S1, S2, S3).
Monday, October 26, 2009
Using Pivot Points In Trading.
You are going to love this lesson. Using pivot points as a trading strategy has been around for a long time and was originally used by floor traders. This was a nice simple way for floor traders to have some idea of where the market was heading during the course of the day with only a few simple calculations.
The pivot point is the level at which the market direction changes for the day. Using some simple arithmetic and the previous days high, low and close, a series of points are derived. These points can be critical support and resistance levels. The pivot level, support and resistance levels calculated from that are collectively known as pivot levels.
Every day the market you are following has an open, high, low and a close for the day (some markets like forex are 24 hours but generally use 5pm EST as the open and close). This information basically contains all the data you need to use pivot points.
Daily pivot points give a structure to each new trading day in the currency market. With these values you can use traditional support and resistance techniques to enter and exit trades. But before I get to the strategy, I'll show you how to calculate pivot values.
Pivot Point (PP) = (High + Low + Close) / 3
Resistance 1 (R1) = (2 x Pivot Point) - Low
Support 1 (S1) = (2 x Pivot Point) - High
Resistance 2 (R2) = Pivot Point + (Resistance 1 - Support 1)
Support 2 (S2) = Pivot Point - (Resistance 1 - Support 1)
(Pivot values for several different currency pairs are posted on the TradingMarkets web site every day.)
The pivot values are plotted as horizontal levels which, in turn, serve as support and resistance. The pivot point itself can be thought of as the day's mid-point, or fulcrum. It's where the buyers and sellers meet to determine the day's trend in a currency pair. The support and resistance levels that are plotted around the pivot point are just that: potential support and resistance.
A daily pivot point (in green), S2, S1, R1, and R2 values are plotted on the chart below of the EUR/USD FX future. The chart is a 5-minute interval. Notice how the Euro broke above the pivot point early in the day, and then proceeded to trade up to R1, where it met resistance and gyrated for the rest of the day. There are many sites providing facilities to calculate pivot points, like the following site:
http://www.earnforex.com/pivot_points_calculator.php
The pivot point is the level at which the market direction changes for the day. Using some simple arithmetic and the previous days high, low and close, a series of points are derived. These points can be critical support and resistance levels. The pivot level, support and resistance levels calculated from that are collectively known as pivot levels.
Every day the market you are following has an open, high, low and a close for the day (some markets like forex are 24 hours but generally use 5pm EST as the open and close). This information basically contains all the data you need to use pivot points.
Daily pivot points give a structure to each new trading day in the currency market. With these values you can use traditional support and resistance techniques to enter and exit trades. But before I get to the strategy, I'll show you how to calculate pivot values.
Pivot Point (PP) = (High + Low + Close) / 3
Resistance 1 (R1) = (2 x Pivot Point) - Low
Support 1 (S1) = (2 x Pivot Point) - High
Resistance 2 (R2) = Pivot Point + (Resistance 1 - Support 1)
Support 2 (S2) = Pivot Point - (Resistance 1 - Support 1)
(Pivot values for several different currency pairs are posted on the TradingMarkets web site every day.)
The pivot values are plotted as horizontal levels which, in turn, serve as support and resistance. The pivot point itself can be thought of as the day's mid-point, or fulcrum. It's where the buyers and sellers meet to determine the day's trend in a currency pair. The support and resistance levels that are plotted around the pivot point are just that: potential support and resistance.
A daily pivot point (in green), S2, S1, R1, and R2 values are plotted on the chart below of the EUR/USD FX future. The chart is a 5-minute interval. Notice how the Euro broke above the pivot point early in the day, and then proceeded to trade up to R1, where it met resistance and gyrated for the rest of the day. There are many sites providing facilities to calculate pivot points, like the following site:
http://www.earnforex.com/pivot_points_calculator.php
Friday, October 23, 2009
How To Place A Forex Order.
Whether you are trading in a demo account or a live "real money" account, when you are ready to make a trade, you will need to place an order with your Forex broker. You will place an order to start a new trade or to end a trade. So now, we'll talk about the types of orders that apply to the Foreign Exchange Market.
Market Order – It is an order where you can buy or sell a currency pair at the market price the second that the order is processed. Customers utilizing ACM's online currency trading platform click on the buy or sell button after having specified their deal size. The execution of the order is instant; this means that the price assured at the exact time of the click will be given to the customer. Setting a market order by phone is quite similar but normally takes a few seconds more time.
Entry order – It is an order where you can buy or sell a currency pair when it attains a certain price target. In theory, this can be any price. You can set an entry order for the low price of a time period or the high price of a time period. The entry order is also studied by university students under forex trading education.
Limit Orders - A limit order is an order placed to buy or sell at a certain price. The order essentially contains two variables, price and duration. The trader specifies the price at which he wishes to buy/sell a certain currency pair and also specifies the duration that the order should remain active.
GTC (Good till cancelled): A GTC order remains active in the market until the trader decides to cancel it. The dealer will not cancel the order at any time therefore it is the customer's responsibility to remember that he possesses the order.
GFD (Good for the day): A GFD order remains active in the market until the end of the trading day. Since foreign exchange is an ongoing market the end of day must be a set hour.
For ACM the end of the trading day occurs at exactly 23:00 CET.
Stop orders - A stop order is also an order placed to buy or sell at a certain price. The order contains the same two variables, price and duration. The main difference between a limit order and a stop order is that stop orders are usually used to limit loss potential on a transaction whilst limit orders are used to enter the market, add to a pre-existing position and profit taking. The same variations are used to specify duration as in limit orders (GTC and GFD). Let's take the following example:
Example: Trader x Buys EUR/USD 100'000 @ 0.9340, he's expecting a 60 to 70 pip move in the market but he wants to protect himself in case he has overestimated the potential strength of the Euro. He knows that 0.9310 is a b support level so he places a stop loss order to sell at that level. Trader x has limited his risk on this particular trade to 30 pips or USD 300.
Another usage of a stop order is when a trader is expecting a price breakout to occur and wishes to grasp the opportunity to 'ride' the breakout. In this case a trade will place an order to buy or sell 'on stop'. To illustrate the logic behind this let's review the following scenario:
Example: Trader x sees EUR/USD breaking through the 0.9390 resistance level. He believes that if this happens, the price of EUR/USD could be headed to 0.9450 or over. At this point the market is at 0.9350 so trader x places an order to initiate a buying position of 500'000 at 0.9392 'on stop'.
OCO - An OCO (order cancels other) order is a mixture of 2 limit and/or stop orders. 2 orders with price and duration variables are placed above and below the current price. When one of the orders is executed the other order is cancelled. To illustrate how an OCO order works let's take the following example:
Example: The price of EUR/USD is 0.9340. Trader x wants to either buy 500'000 at 0.9395 over the resistance level in anticipation of a breakout or initiate a selling position if the price falls to 0.9300. The understanding is that if 0.9395 is reached, he will buy 500'000 and the 0.9300 order will be automatically cancelled.
Market Order – It is an order where you can buy or sell a currency pair at the market price the second that the order is processed. Customers utilizing ACM's online currency trading platform click on the buy or sell button after having specified their deal size. The execution of the order is instant; this means that the price assured at the exact time of the click will be given to the customer. Setting a market order by phone is quite similar but normally takes a few seconds more time.
Entry order – It is an order where you can buy or sell a currency pair when it attains a certain price target. In theory, this can be any price. You can set an entry order for the low price of a time period or the high price of a time period. The entry order is also studied by university students under forex trading education.
Limit Orders - A limit order is an order placed to buy or sell at a certain price. The order essentially contains two variables, price and duration. The trader specifies the price at which he wishes to buy/sell a certain currency pair and also specifies the duration that the order should remain active.
GTC (Good till cancelled): A GTC order remains active in the market until the trader decides to cancel it. The dealer will not cancel the order at any time therefore it is the customer's responsibility to remember that he possesses the order.
GFD (Good for the day): A GFD order remains active in the market until the end of the trading day. Since foreign exchange is an ongoing market the end of day must be a set hour.
For ACM the end of the trading day occurs at exactly 23:00 CET.
Stop orders - A stop order is also an order placed to buy or sell at a certain price. The order contains the same two variables, price and duration. The main difference between a limit order and a stop order is that stop orders are usually used to limit loss potential on a transaction whilst limit orders are used to enter the market, add to a pre-existing position and profit taking. The same variations are used to specify duration as in limit orders (GTC and GFD). Let's take the following example:
Example: Trader x Buys EUR/USD 100'000 @ 0.9340, he's expecting a 60 to 70 pip move in the market but he wants to protect himself in case he has overestimated the potential strength of the Euro. He knows that 0.9310 is a b support level so he places a stop loss order to sell at that level. Trader x has limited his risk on this particular trade to 30 pips or USD 300.
Another usage of a stop order is when a trader is expecting a price breakout to occur and wishes to grasp the opportunity to 'ride' the breakout. In this case a trade will place an order to buy or sell 'on stop'. To illustrate the logic behind this let's review the following scenario:
Example: Trader x sees EUR/USD breaking through the 0.9390 resistance level. He believes that if this happens, the price of EUR/USD could be headed to 0.9450 or over. At this point the market is at 0.9350 so trader x places an order to initiate a buying position of 500'000 at 0.9392 'on stop'.
OCO - An OCO (order cancels other) order is a mixture of 2 limit and/or stop orders. 2 orders with price and duration variables are placed above and below the current price. When one of the orders is executed the other order is cancelled. To illustrate how an OCO order works let's take the following example:
Example: The price of EUR/USD is 0.9340. Trader x wants to either buy 500'000 at 0.9395 over the resistance level in anticipation of a breakout or initiate a selling position if the price falls to 0.9300. The understanding is that if 0.9395 is reached, he will buy 500'000 and the 0.9300 order will be automatically cancelled.
Some Forex Quotations.
Now i'm going to post some famous forex quotes, this might sound off-topic but m going to post it anyways, :D
1.“If you get in on Jones’ tip; get out on Jones’ tip”. If you are riding another person’s idea, ride it all the way.
2. Run early or not at all. Don't be an eleven o'clock bull or a five o'clock bear.
3. Woodrow Wilson said, "a governments first priority is to organize the common interest against special interests". Successful traders seek out market opportunities capitalizing on the reality that government's first priority is rarely achieved.
4. People who buy headlines eventually end up selling newspapers.
5. If you do not know who you are, the market is an expensive place to find out.
6. Never give advice-the smart don't need it and the stupid don't heed it.
7. Disregard all prognostications. In the world of money, which is a world shaped by human behavior, nobody has the foggiest notion of what will happen in the future. Mark that word-nobody! Thus the successful trader bases no moves on what supposedly will happen but reacts instead to what does happen.
8. Worry is not a sickness but a sign of health. If you are not worried, you are not risking enough.
9. Except in unusual circumstances, get in the habit of taking your profit too soon. Don't torment yourself if a trade continues winning without you. Chances are it won't continue long. If it does console yourself by thinking of all the times when liquidating early preserved gains you would otherwise have lost.
10. When the ship starts to sink, don't pray-jump!
11. Life never happens in a straight line. Any adult knows this. But we can too easily be hypnotized into forgetting it when contemplating a chart. Beware of the chartist's illusion.
12. Optimism means expecting the best, but confidence means knowing how you will handle the worst. Never make a move if you are merely optimistic.
13. Whatever you do, whether you bet with the herd or against, think it through independently first.
14. Repeatedly reevaluate your open positions. Keep asking yourself: would I put my money into this if it were presented to me for the first time today? Is this trade progressing toward the ending position I envisioned?
15. It is a safe bet that the money lost by (short term) speculation is small compared with the gigantic sums lost by those who let their investments "ride". Long term investors are the biggest gamblers as after they make a trade they often times stay with it and end up losing it all. The intelligent trader will . By acting promptly-hold losses to a minimum.
16. As a rule of thumb good trend lines should touch at least three previous highs or lows. The more points the line catches, the better the line.
17. Volume and open interest are as important to the technician as price.
18. The clearest and easiest way to determine a trend is from previous highs and lows. Higher highs and higher lows mark an uptrend, lower highs and lower lows mark a downtrend.
19. Don't sell a quiet market after a fall because a low volume sell-off is actually a very bullish situation.
20. Prices are made in the minds of men, not in the soybean field: fear and greed can temporarily drive prices far beyond their so called real value.
21. When the market breaks through a weekly or monthly high, it is a buy signal. When it breaks through the previous weekly or monthly low, it is a sell signal.
22. Every sunken ship has a chart.
1.“If you get in on Jones’ tip; get out on Jones’ tip”. If you are riding another person’s idea, ride it all the way.
2. Run early or not at all. Don't be an eleven o'clock bull or a five o'clock bear.
3. Woodrow Wilson said, "a governments first priority is to organize the common interest against special interests". Successful traders seek out market opportunities capitalizing on the reality that government's first priority is rarely achieved.
4. People who buy headlines eventually end up selling newspapers.
5. If you do not know who you are, the market is an expensive place to find out.
6. Never give advice-the smart don't need it and the stupid don't heed it.
7. Disregard all prognostications. In the world of money, which is a world shaped by human behavior, nobody has the foggiest notion of what will happen in the future. Mark that word-nobody! Thus the successful trader bases no moves on what supposedly will happen but reacts instead to what does happen.
8. Worry is not a sickness but a sign of health. If you are not worried, you are not risking enough.
9. Except in unusual circumstances, get in the habit of taking your profit too soon. Don't torment yourself if a trade continues winning without you. Chances are it won't continue long. If it does console yourself by thinking of all the times when liquidating early preserved gains you would otherwise have lost.
10. When the ship starts to sink, don't pray-jump!
11. Life never happens in a straight line. Any adult knows this. But we can too easily be hypnotized into forgetting it when contemplating a chart. Beware of the chartist's illusion.
12. Optimism means expecting the best, but confidence means knowing how you will handle the worst. Never make a move if you are merely optimistic.
13. Whatever you do, whether you bet with the herd or against, think it through independently first.
14. Repeatedly reevaluate your open positions. Keep asking yourself: would I put my money into this if it were presented to me for the first time today? Is this trade progressing toward the ending position I envisioned?
15. It is a safe bet that the money lost by (short term) speculation is small compared with the gigantic sums lost by those who let their investments "ride". Long term investors are the biggest gamblers as after they make a trade they often times stay with it and end up losing it all. The intelligent trader will . By acting promptly-hold losses to a minimum.
16. As a rule of thumb good trend lines should touch at least three previous highs or lows. The more points the line catches, the better the line.
17. Volume and open interest are as important to the technician as price.
18. The clearest and easiest way to determine a trend is from previous highs and lows. Higher highs and higher lows mark an uptrend, lower highs and lower lows mark a downtrend.
19. Don't sell a quiet market after a fall because a low volume sell-off is actually a very bullish situation.
20. Prices are made in the minds of men, not in the soybean field: fear and greed can temporarily drive prices far beyond their so called real value.
21. When the market breaks through a weekly or monthly high, it is a buy signal. When it breaks through the previous weekly or monthly low, it is a sell signal.
22. Every sunken ship has a chart.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
How To Trade Trend Lines?
Only one of two things can happen when a price approaches support or resistance: the price can break through it, or it can bounce off and reverse direction. The same is of course true for trend lines.
Trading on a Pullback
If a chart is trending in a clear direction, and a trend line can be drawn connecting a series of relative highs or relative lows, trading opportunities exist when the price approaches the trend line. If the price bounces off the trend line and resumes the trend in the original direction, this can be an excellent opportunity to enter the market in the direction of the dominant trend. This is often referred to as buying on a pullback in an up trend or selling into strength in a downtrend.
Buying on a bounce off such a support line can be done through a limit order just above the support.
Trading a Break of the Trend
The second possible trade is the break of the trend line, which can be traded just as any other broken support or resistance line. If a candle closes through a trend line to the downside, as in the example below, the proper entry point would be to sell once the price moves below the low of the breakthrough candle.
This ensures that the short term force is in the direction of the break lower. The opposite would be true for a break above a resistance line.
Trading on a Pullback
If a chart is trending in a clear direction, and a trend line can be drawn connecting a series of relative highs or relative lows, trading opportunities exist when the price approaches the trend line. If the price bounces off the trend line and resumes the trend in the original direction, this can be an excellent opportunity to enter the market in the direction of the dominant trend. This is often referred to as buying on a pullback in an up trend or selling into strength in a downtrend.
Buying on a bounce off such a support line can be done through a limit order just above the support.
Trading a Break of the Trend
The second possible trade is the break of the trend line, which can be traded just as any other broken support or resistance line. If a candle closes through a trend line to the downside, as in the example below, the proper entry point would be to sell once the price moves below the low of the breakthrough candle.
This ensures that the short term force is in the direction of the break lower. The opposite would be true for a break above a resistance line.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Understanding Trend Lines.
Trend Lines are the most powerful technical analysis tools. They allow you to gauge the trends direction, identify potential reversal levels and enter trades with low risk and high reward. In this article, you will learn how to use trend lines indicators in FOREX trading
An uptrend creates a series of trends that have higher lows and highs. A trend line drawn between the rising lows can often be fairly accurate in determining where the market can find greater support during the next low trend and indicate fairly good buying levels. In the Up Trend, Forex trend line that connects at least two lowest low (Low open/Close) will create a trend line. In the uptrend a trend line acts as Support.
Many Forex traders will choose an area below the trend line at which stop orders are are placed resulting in a sharp sell off. New sellers are generally attracted by breaks below the uptrend line. It's quite normal to see a series of lower lows and lower highs during a downward trend in the market.In this case, the trend line is drawn in alignment with the descending highs and will mirror the analysis as described above. In the Down Trend Forex trend line that connects at least two highest highs (High Open/Close) will create a trend line. In the downtrend a trend line acts as Resistance.
An uptrend creates a series of trends that have higher lows and highs. A trend line drawn between the rising lows can often be fairly accurate in determining where the market can find greater support during the next low trend and indicate fairly good buying levels. In the Up Trend, Forex trend line that connects at least two lowest low (Low open/Close) will create a trend line. In the uptrend a trend line acts as Support.
Many Forex traders will choose an area below the trend line at which stop orders are are placed resulting in a sharp sell off. New sellers are generally attracted by breaks below the uptrend line. It's quite normal to see a series of lower lows and lower highs during a downward trend in the market.In this case, the trend line is drawn in alignment with the descending highs and will mirror the analysis as described above. In the Down Trend Forex trend line that connects at least two highest highs (High Open/Close) will create a trend line. In the downtrend a trend line acts as Resistance.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Leading And Lagging Indicators.
The term “indicator” refers to a metric whose main task is to point towards a certain situation/aspect etc - in short: to “indicate” something. For example the metric “cost-per-click” indicates how much one has to pay for one click at a certain time on a certain link.
Leading Technical Indicators are the indicators that help to predict possible future trend. Many trading systems use these types of indicators to generate trend reversal signals. However, there is no guarantee that the analyzed security, index or market will reverse its trend after a signal is generated. The common problem with this type of technical studies is that in some cases a trade could be opened too early and the signal could be ignored (no reversal). Examples of such indicators could be volume based technical indicators. Examples of these would be:
1. number of booked impressions for a certain ad position for the coming quarter (e.g. 100000 ad impressions for REC booked for Q2 2007)
2. budget for specific keyword groups for the next quarter (e.g. 100.000 USD for keyword-group “fitness” booked for Q2 2007)
3. number of leads referred by affiliate partner campaigns to a certain product (e.g. 500.000 leads monthly referred by campaign “X” to product “Y”)
Lagging Technical Indicators are the technical indicators that would rather follow a trend then predict its reversal. These studies are more reliable than the leading technical indicators. However they have other problem: in many cases a trade could be opened and closed when it is too late and the trend already in reversal movement. Example of these studies could be MACD, Moving Averages, etc. Examples
1. number of page impressions for a specific product within the past month (e.g. 1 million page impressions for product “X” in August 2006)
2. number of unique users for a specific site (e.g. 100.000 unique users for the sports special “FIFA WM” in June 2006)
3. amount of revenue generated with a specific product
Leading indicators mostly refer to the beginning of the value chain and reflect the drivers and/or causes of value whereas lagging indicators mostly refer to the end of the value chain and reflect the effect certain measures, decisions, actions had.
Leading Technical Indicators are the indicators that help to predict possible future trend. Many trading systems use these types of indicators to generate trend reversal signals. However, there is no guarantee that the analyzed security, index or market will reverse its trend after a signal is generated. The common problem with this type of technical studies is that in some cases a trade could be opened too early and the signal could be ignored (no reversal). Examples of such indicators could be volume based technical indicators. Examples of these would be:
1. number of booked impressions for a certain ad position for the coming quarter (e.g. 100000 ad impressions for REC booked for Q2 2007)
2. budget for specific keyword groups for the next quarter (e.g. 100.000 USD for keyword-group “fitness” booked for Q2 2007)
3. number of leads referred by affiliate partner campaigns to a certain product (e.g. 500.000 leads monthly referred by campaign “X” to product “Y”)
Lagging Technical Indicators are the technical indicators that would rather follow a trend then predict its reversal. These studies are more reliable than the leading technical indicators. However they have other problem: in many cases a trade could be opened and closed when it is too late and the trend already in reversal movement. Example of these studies could be MACD, Moving Averages, etc. Examples
1. number of page impressions for a specific product within the past month (e.g. 1 million page impressions for product “X” in August 2006)
2. number of unique users for a specific site (e.g. 100.000 unique users for the sports special “FIFA WM” in June 2006)
3. amount of revenue generated with a specific product
Leading indicators mostly refer to the beginning of the value chain and reflect the drivers and/or causes of value whereas lagging indicators mostly refer to the end of the value chain and reflect the effect certain measures, decisions, actions had.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
