Thread: Introduce Yourself

I am just new Forex Trader and new to this forum.
Hope I can survive in this trading job.

Good luck everybody

Vaughn here NJ, USA. I've been practicing Forex trading for over three years now. This has been a learning curve for me since my BS is in Computer Communication Management. One of the things I am trying to develop as a novice trader is the discipline, to determine when to enter and when to leave a trade. Hopefully I can get advice with this aspect of trading. Currently, I am trying to adapt a weekly trading strategy base on current events coupled with basic charting, and even this takes discipline.
It is a pleasure sharing with the forum, hope to hear some positive and encouraging feed back.

Thank You!

Hello vetecstrader, and thank you for your post! On behalf of myself and everyone here at FXCM, welcome to the forum community!


How can I develop a good exit strategy?

Although there is no right answer for this question, I think that proper Money Management should be the foundation to anyone's exit strategy. I'm a huge advocate of Money Management, and I believe Money Management is going to be one of the most important skills to have in order to improve your chances of being successful in this market. Please click here (Have a question? Ask it here!) to learn more about Money Management and my thought process for setting up stops and limits with my trades once I have determined where I want to enter the market.

Depending on market conditions sometimes I'll set only a trailing stop on a position with no limit and just let it run. Ideally the market will move in my favor to the extent that the trailing stop will pass the break even point and start locking in profits. Sometimes I'll open two lots on a position, later close one lot out, and then leave a trailing stop on the other without a limit. For example let's say I open two lots Long EURUSD at 1.3500 with two stops at 1.3400 and only one limit at 1.3700. If the market moves half way towards my limit or a certain extent towards my limit I'll move both stops to the break even point and I'll enable one as a dynamic trailing stop. Then if the market later hits my limit, it will close out one lot, and I'll let the remaining open lot run as the trailing stop follows. I'll later either let the position close by trailing stop at a profit or manually close the lot myself. That's something that has worked pretty well for me in the past. Please click here (trailing stop) to learn more about how you can use trailing stops with your trading. Also I highly suggest that you read five articles that the DailyFX team has written on client profitability called Building a Better Wheel: Incorporating Profitability Statistics. This will help by providing more ideas about how to improve the probability of being successful in the FX market. Lastly Please click here for an awesome article written by our valued course instructor Richard Krivo that goes over more ideas about how to determine the ideal moment to close positions. I hope you find that helpful vetecstrader!


What other resources does FXCM offer that can help me to hone or develop an exit strategy of my own?

Here at FXCM we always have our clients best interest in mind. That is why we have an abundance of educational resources in hopes that it can eventually help clients become a profitable traders. Here are some more resources that we have to offer from DailyFX PLUS:


DailyFX PLUS Trading Course:

Live clients are entitled to unlimited access to our DailyFX PLUS trading course which comes complete with:

• 60 video lessons for you to choose from with information on technical indicators and different strategies.

• Over 15 hours of live instructor help webinars each week. During these live webinars our instructors will go over a topic for about fifteen minutes and then answer any questions you may have in real time.

• Community forums to get feedback, ask questions, and share what you're learning.

• Optional homework assignments to test your understanding and to see how well you are retaining the knowledge.

I encourage you to go through all of the video lessons if you haven't done so already, and to attend the live webinars whenever possible. You can access the trading course from DailyFX PLUS by clicking here and logging in with the same information that you use to log in to your live account. Please click here for access to the LIVE Trading Room with the course instructors.

For those who don't have a live account with us yet that's ok!

Please feel free to send me an email at julius@fxcm.com and I will be more than happy to set you up with a trial version of DailyFX PLUS.


Course Instructors:

Coupled with DailyFX PLUS, clients also have access to our mentorship program. In the program, you can communicate with the team of Trading Coaches 24 hrs per day 5 days per week. Our instructors can help you build a strategy if you need one or fine tune a current strategy you may be using. I highly encourage you to contact the instructors directly and tell them about the strategy you are currently using, what has been working, and what hasn't been working. This will put them in a good position to share their thoughts, and provide you with information/resources that will be beneficial to you.

You can contact the instructors directly at instructor@dailyfx.com


Please click here for more information regarding our DailyFX PLUS Trading Course and Live Webinars.


Traders of all different levels of experience and backgrounds are most welcome to this forum. Please do not hesitate to post again anytime whenever any questions come to mind, if you need assistance, or just to let us know how you are doing. Remember we are always here to help!

Thank you again for your post vetecstrader! Please feel free to post with more questions or send me an email directly at julius@fxcm.com

Originally Posted by vetecstrader

Vaughn here NJ, USA. I've been practicing Forex trading for over three years now. This has been a learning curve for me since my BS is in Computer Communication Management. One of the things I am trying to develop as a novice trader is the discipline, to determine when to enter and when to leave a trade. Hopefully I can get advice with this aspect of trading. Currently, I am trying to adapt a weekly trading strategy base on current events coupled with basic charting, and even this takes discipline.
It is a pleasure sharing with the forum, hope to hear some positive and encouraging feed back.

Thank You!

Hi, my name is Dan, and I have been trading with FXCM for six years now. Started with a practice account and am now working with a micro account. Looking forward to conversing with you here in the forum.

Peace...

Hi, This is Muhammad. I am in final year of my graduation and i do job in a company.

I have been trading on demo since 2009 and opened my first micro account in 2010, which unfortunately got burst on the same day.

After this failure i took a gap of few months and then come back again.
I opened my 2nd micro account in March 2011 which got burst within three weeks.

Then again i took a gap of few months and come back with some education of Forex
which was very useful and new to me. I didn't have any firm trading strategy until that time.
I opened my 3rd micro account in Sept. 2011 which got burst in 01 month.

Now i have been again on demo since last five months. And i am continuously trying to learn about this market from books, articles and booklets, whatever i get from anywhere.

I have formulated a strategy that suits my trading style and now days i am testing it on five selected currency pairs.

I would like to share one thing that played the role of foundation in strategy making, that is
to know about "Psychology of trading". I have been reading on this topic since last two months, and trying to understand it's essence and applying it on my trading (as wells as on my daily life- really useful).

My aim is to be a trader with persistently successful trades.

My purpose of being here is to look for the resources of knowledge,i,e new books, ideas, and trading experiences.


Best Regards
Muhammad

Hello dkbwarrior, and thank you for your post! On behalf of myself and everyone here at FXCM, welcome to the forum community!


How can I learn how to use the forum?

Traders of all levels take advantage of the forum and the resources available on it everyday! Please click here for more information about how you can effectively utilize this forum.

You can find out what other traders are talking about by clicking on the following link: The Trading Room


I'm having trouble finding the information I'm looking for on the forum. Any suggestions?

I would suggest using a search engine and enter the following before searching what you are interested in:

site:forexforums.dailyfx.com

So for example if I wanted to find something about trailing stops on the forum, I would visit the page of my favorite search engine and enter the following in the search field:

site:forexforums.dailyfx.com trailing stops

The following is a list of a few popular search engines that are utilized by our clients:

• Google

• Yahoo!

• Bing

• Ask.com - What's Your Question?

We look forward to your future contributions to the forum dkbwarrior!

Thank you again for your post dkbwarrior! Please feel free to post with more questions or send me an email directly at julius@fxcm.com

Originally Posted by dkbwarrior

Hi, my name is Dan, and I have been trading with FXCM for six years now. Started with a practice account and am now working with a micro account. Looking forward to conversing with you here in the forum.

Peace...

Hello muhammad., and thank you for your post!


What educational resources does FXCM offer to help me with my trading?

I'm glad you asked! Some of the best resources we have to offer have already been mentioned in this thread.

If you are new to the FX market clicking on the link below it will take you to the The Basics of FOREX Trading:

DailyFX For Beginners

This is going to be the best place for you to begin acclimating yourself to the forex market. Although this is the best place for new traders to get started, I believe that traders of all levels of experience can definitely take something from this. I highly suggest that you go through all of the articles on that section of DailyFX.com, if you haven't done so already. If you are more of a visual person, we also have some getting started videos that can be accessed by clicking on the link below:

New to Forex Trading Educational Forex Videos and Webinars

What is DailyFX.com?

DailyFX.com is the free educational resource that we provide for both demo and live clients alike. Here you can find the latest information on fundamental analysis and technical analysis directly from our DailyFX research team. You can even see our analysts sentiment in the market by clicking here.


Highlights of the DailyFX Forex Market News:

• Top Movers - A useful tool to find out which pairs have seen the biggest movement for the day, week, and month.

• Weekly Columns and Special Reports - Each article is tagged, letting you know what day the report is scheduled to update.

• TV and Video - Extensive library of video updates growing every month.

Highlights of the DailyFX Technical Analysis:

• Technicals Home - Overview of important technical levels for each currency pair, as well as trend and current volatility.

• Candlestick Summary - Identifies developing candlestick patterns. Updates tend to be for patterns developing on longer time frame charts such as daily and weekly charts.

• Daily Technicals - A table listing the current bias for the major currencies using Elliott Wave Analysis. If you click on a currency, the appropriate chart and analysis will appear.

I'm very happy to share that the DailyFX team won FX Street's Best Broker Research Team Award for the year of 2011!

Please click here for a list of awards that FXCM has earned from our Company Profile page.


What other resources does FXCM offer that can help me to hone my strategy, or develop a strategy of my own?

Here at FXCM we always have our clients best interest in mind. That is why we have an abundance of educational resources in hopes that it can eventually help clients become a profitable traders. Here are some more resources that we have to offer from DailyFX PLUS:


DailyFX PLUS Trading Course:

Live clients are entitled to unlimited access to our DailyFX PLUS trading course which comes complete with:

• 60 video lessons for you to choose from with information on technical indicators and different strategies.

• Over 15 hours of live instructor help webinars each week. During these live webinars our instructors will go over a topic for about fifteen minutes and then answer any questions you may have in real time. This is an excellent opportunity to have your questions answered about The Psychology of Trading in real time.

• Community forums to get feedback, ask questions, and share what you're learning.

• Optional homework assignments to test your understanding and to see how well you are retaining the knowledge.

I encourage you to go through all of the video lessons if you haven't done so already, and to attend the live webinars whenever possible. You can access the trading course from DailyFX PLUS by clicking here and logging in with the same information that you use to log in to your live account. Please click here for access to the LIVE Trading Room with the course instructors.

Be sure to be on the lookout for the next live webinar by checking the Event Schedule!

Please click here to visit the "Archived Sessions" of DailyFX PLUS and watch a recording of any of the webinars conducted in the past.

For those who don't have a live account with us yet that's ok!

Please feel free to send me an email at julius@fxcm.com and I will be more than happy to set you up with a trial version of DailyFX PLUS.


Course Instructors:

Coupled with DailyFX PLUS, clients also have access to our mentorship program. In the program, you can communicate with the team of Trading Coaches 24 hrs per day 5 days per week. Our instructors can help you build a strategy if you need one or fine tune a current strategy you may be using. I highly encourage you to contact the instructors directly and tell them about the strategy you are currently using, what has been working, and what hasn't been working. This will put them in a good position to share their thoughts, and provide you with information/resources that will be beneficial to you.

You can contact the instructors directly at instructor@dailyfx.com


Please click here for more information regarding our DailyFX PLUS Trading Course and Live Webinars.


Thank you again for your post muhammad.! Please feel free to post with more questions or send me an email directly at julius@fxcm.com

Originally Posted by muhammad.

Hi, This is Muhammad. I am in final year of my graduation and i do job in a company.

I have been trading on demo since 2009 and opened my first micro account in 2010, which unfortunately got burst on the same day.

After this failure i took a gap of few months and then come back again.
I opened my 2nd micro account in March 2011 which got burst within three weeks.

Then again i took a gap of few months and come back with some education of Forex
which was very useful and new to me. I didn't have any firm trading strategy until that time.
I opened my 3rd micro account in Sept. 2011 which got burst in 01 month.

Now i have been again on demo since last five months. And i am continuously trying to learn about this market from books, articles and booklets, whatever i get from anywhere.

I have formulated a strategy that suits my trading style and now days i am testing it on five selected currency pairs.

I would like to share one thing that played the role of foundation in strategy making, that is
to know about "Psychology of trading". I have been reading on this topic since last two months, and trying to understand it's essence and applying it on my trading (as wells as on my daily life- really useful).

My aim is to be a trader with persistently successful trades.

My purpose of being here is to look for the resources of knowledge,i,e new books, ideas, and trading experiences.


Best Regards
Muhammad

The volitility as of late with 50:1 leverage has taken a toll on my account equity. I am searching for how I can change to 25:1. Can anyone help with that?? I have a micro so there is a lack of Tech support via phone. Thanks in advance!!

Hi,

I'm not so new.
I have been lurking for awhile.
I started trading with FXCM back in 2003.
Good to be here...
I probably wont post hardly ever.

Scott

Hi, Russ here. I have been learning Forex since August 2006, but been here at FXCM fo a little over a year. The thoughtful insightful teachers here are what I like. I can also say that I trade best when I'm not stressing over GETTING IN A TRADE ASAP AND MAKING MONEY. That kind of pressure makes for careless trades, over-margining, and keeping losing trades for too long. Signed, Calm & Relaxed (in no trades over this Greek Election Weekend)

Hello Dan.
As an open position is trading more in your favor in the direction that you want it to, you may order a new stop loss every so often. The reason a person (or program) would do that, besides what the moderator sited, is to lock-in profits little by little, and so if the market gets volatile and goes against you quickly, your profits are locked in at the latest stop-loss amount ordered. Actually it is like a trailing stop-loss but done manually using your choice-of-the-moment.

Multiple stops seen ordered inna short amount of time . . .
Hello Dan.
As an open position is trading more in your favor in the direction that you want it to, you may order a new stop loss every so often. The reason a person (or program) would do that, besides what the moderator sited, is to lock-in profits little by little, and so if the market gets volatile and goes against you quickly, your profits are locked in at the latest stop-loss amount ordered. Actually it is like a trailing stop-loss but done manually using your choice-of-the-moment.

Hi, I'm looking for a Trading Station autotrader programming tutorial. The searches are not bringing anything but threads that are not directly related, which I'd rather not comb.

Does anyone know where I can find a tutorial, or even a discussion devoted to Trading Station automated trading programming?

My second choice is the MetaTrader for now, for which there is an extensive tutorial.

Hello PipSqueak2012, and thank you for your post!


How can I change the leverage (or margin) for my demo account?

At this time there is no option to change the leverage for demo accounts. For FXCM LLC (US) demo accounts the leverage is set to 50:1 on the majors, and 20:1 on the exotics. For FXCM LTD (UK) and FXCM Australia (AU) demo accounts the leverage is set to 200:1. Please click on the link below that corresponds to the type of demo account you would like:

FXCM LLC (US) | FXCM LTD (UK) | FXCM Australia (AU)

There is no restriction to how many demo accounts you can open; you can open as many demo accounts as you'd like. If you do not leave the demo account dormant for more than 30 days, then the demo account will never expire.


How can I change the leverage (or margin) for my live account?

If you have an FXCM LLC (US) account, the leverage is set to 50:1 on the majors, and 20:1 on the exotics. For a full list of the margin requirements for FXCM LLC (US) accounts, please click here.

For UK or AU regulated accounts, please follow the simple steps below to change the leverage (or margin) for your account.

Step 1. Please visit MyFXCM.com and log in with the same information you use to log in to your live account.

If you do not have your user name or password, please click on the "Forgot Login/Password?" link to either retrieve your user name or reset your password.

Please click here (Trading Station II Login Help) for a visual instructions on how to reset your password.


Step 2. Once you are logged in, please click on the Change-Margin Request link.

Step 3. On this page, you will be able to change your margin from the drop-down menu indicated below. Please choose your new margin settings accordingly and then click on "Submit".

You will then see the request confirmation page.

It can take up to 1 - 3 business days to process your request, although it often takes less time.

Step 4. When finished, please be sure to log out.

How can I set up my live account for leverage lower than 50:1?

Many professional money managers typically use less than 50:1 leverage. Some examples include 10:1, 8:1, and even 5:1! FXCM offers various solutions to the suit the needs of your trading style and strategy. If you would like to set the leverage of your account to less than 50:1 please fill out the Margin Change Request form that is attached to this post and send it to our dedicated operations team at one of the email addresses below:

Standard Accounts: admin@fxcm.com | Micro Accounts: admin@fxcmmicro.com

Please allow up to 2 - 3 business days for the operations department to respond to your request.


Why is lower leverage important in order to improve one's chances of being successful in the long term?

One of the main reasons that new traders lose money is because they over-leverage their account by opening too large of a position, too many positions, or a combination of both. When you use excessive leverage, a few losing trades can quickly offset many winning trades. To clearly see how this can happen, consider the following example.

Scenario: We have four different traders trading on different levels of effective leverage.

Questions: What happens to Trader A account equity when the USD/JPY price falls 100 pips against them?

Answer: Trader A loses 41.5% of his account equity.

By using lower leverage, Traders B, C, and D drastically reduce the dollar drawdown of a 100 pip loss. Please keep in mind that it is not uncommon for currency pairs to range at least 100 pips a day. By over-leveraging his account, Trader A has lost almost half of his equity in just one trade. We believe that using 10:1 effective leverage on an account is a good general rule of thumb, or never having more than 1K of open exposure for every $100 of equity in the account.

Does lower leverage really work?

FXCM's experience in Hong Kong, where significantly lower leverage levels are mandated by law, suggests lower leverage results in more successful trading. As another example, many professional traders use up to 8:1 leverage and typically much less. The reason to use low leverage is to make sure that a losing position does not make a significant negative impact on the overall account.


How can I use lower leverage?

The DailyFX.com Research and Education team has created a variety of trading videos to help you identify trading opportunities using lower leverage. To learn more about money management and the benefits of trading with lower leverage, log into the DailyFX+ Trading Course. Once you are logged in simply click on "Money Management" on the left.

If you don't have a live account with us yet that's ok!

I will send you an email to provide a trial version of DailyFX PLUS so that you can use these great resources with your demo account. If anyone else needs one please feel free to send me an email at julius@fxcm.com and I will be more than happy to set you up with a trial version of DailyFX PLUS.


What is more important, the margin requirements on the account or the effective leverage applied to the account?

Keep in mind that the margin requirements on your account is not so much as important as the effective leverage that is applied to the account. As mentioned here at FXCM we believe that using no more than 10:1 effective leverage on an account is a good general rule of thumb in order not to over leverage the account, or never having more than 1K of open exposure for every $100 of equity in the account. Let's use a numerical example in order to better understand this concept.

Let's say that there is $5000 in an account. If I am going to follow the 10:1 effective leverage rule then that means that I am not going to open more than 50K it total positions at any given time. A few examples of this include but are not limited to not opening more than:

• One 50K trade at once.

• Two 25K trades at once.

• Five 10K trades at once.

If there is 50K in total open positions on a $5000 account, if you are using no more than 10:1 effective leverage then more positions will not be opened until some are closed out. I tend to use about 3:1 to 5:1 effective leverage on my personal account.

Please click here to read an excellent article on effective leverage written by Jeremy Wagner, our valued Lead Trading Instructor. It's one of a series of articles written on client profitability called: Building a Better Wheel: Incorporating Profitability Statistics. I hope you find that helpful PipSqueak2012!


Based on my position sizes and trading style, it doesn't seem like have enough equity to maintain 10:1 effective leverage. How do I deposit funds?

Please click on the link below that corresponds what type of account you have for more information about depositing funds:

Standard Account Deposit FAQ (Deposit FAQ) | Micro Account Deposit FAQ (Deposit FAQ's)

Where can I find more information about Margin and Leverage?

For more information please visit our Margin and Leverage FAQs (Margin Trading and Leverage FAQ).


Thank you again for your post PipSqueak2012! Please feel free to post with more questions or send me an email directly at julius@fxcm.com

Originally Posted by PipSqueak2012

The volitility as of late with 50:1 leverage has taken a toll on my account equity. I am searching for how I can change to 25:1. Can anyone help with that?? I have a micro so there is a lack of Tech support via phone. Thanks in advance!!

Hello PipSqueak2012, and thank you for your post!


I like the way you think PipSqueak2012

Often when I am trading once the market has moved either half way towards my limit or a certain extent towards my limit, I'll either move the stop to the break even point or to lock in profits. Please click on the links below for some posts that I have written in the past that go over ways that I like to use stops with my trading:

Setting Stops and Limits (Have a question? Ask it here!)
(trailing stop)
Trailing Stops

Developing Exit Strategies (Is it possible to get a demo account for longer than 30 days?)

I hope these ideas I shared on the forum will help you with developing your own!


Thank you again for your post PipSqueak2012! Please feel free to post with additional questions or send me an email directly at julius@fxcm.com

Originally Posted by PipSqueak2012

Hello Dan.
As an open position is trading more in your favor in the direction that you want it to, you may order a new stop loss every so often. The reason a person (or program) would do that, besides what the moderator sited, is to lock-in profits little by little, and so if the market gets volatile and goes against you quickly, your profits are locked in at the latest stop-loss amount ordered. Actually it is like a trailing stop-loss but done manually using your choice-of-the-moment.