Foreign Exchange Trading Strategies and Risk Management Techniques

February 28, 2012
by Anthony Kureisch

A lot of seasoned traders say that in order to get the most out of currency trading, you need to be strategic and know how to properly manage risks. This statement has truth to it as having a Forex trading strategy will allow you to spot favorable market movements quickly. In addition to that, having a Forex strategy will make you less emotional when making trading decisions which in most cases just lead to missed opportunities and consequently large losses. Forex trading strategies can be based either on technical analysis which makes use of charting tools and indicators like Bollinger bands and moving averages, or fundamental news reports like consumer price index and GDP. To be successful in the currency market, you need to develop your own Forex trading system from these parameters.

Several kinds of software can help you develop your own Forex trading system and these can be installed on your computer or accessed online as a subscription service. These applications will allow you to follow trends and news reports, and in some cases, allow you to place trades on the charts themselves.

You can also create codes on them to automate your trading. Keep in mind however that not all Forex trading software are reliable. To avoid being scammed, get a free trial version first before paying for a software or subscription service. For more information on this click here

There are various strategies used by those who trade in the currency market. One Forex trading strategy is day trading, which as its name implies, is buying and selling a currency within the same day. Price movements are relatively small, so in order to make large profits, some day traders use leverage. The advantage of this strategy is quick realization of profits. Another popular Forex trading strategy is called trend trading. Those who follow this style are convinced that the current direction of a particular of a currency will persist for several days to a few weeks, and will thus remain in a whatever trading position is favorable until the price direction has changed. Swing trading is another popular Forex strategy, and its proponents purchase or sell a currency just before the trend ends, to take advantage of the price volatility which exists as a new trend tries to establish itself.

The currency market is known for its volatility. The demand and supply of a particular currency is affected by a lot of socioeconomic and political factors, and at times, even by natural catastrophes. While risk is inherent to Forex trading, you can use your trading system to measure and manage this. Another way to lower potential losses is to never trade more than two percent of your capital. By doing so, you would have to make 25 losing trades consecutively to wipe out half of your trading capital, and no trader in his right mind will allow such a losing streak. Using stop-loss orders is also an effective way to reduce risks. Stop-loss orders are orders which you place with a broker or your trading software and these will help protect your position against sudden and unfavorable market movements.

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