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Is It Possible To Make Money Forex Trading?

Statistics place those that make money trading Forex at between 10% and 30% of all market participants. Whether trading personally or professionally Forex trading is not guaranteed to make you money.

So how do you make money in Forex? How can you increase your chances of success in one of the fastest moving financial markets?

Read on, and we will explain how.

How Can you Make Money in Forex Trading?

If you are a retail investor, Bloomberg report that research undertaken by Forex broker FXCM of its retail clients highlights that 68% of accounts had a net trading loss.

It indicates that one in three retail Forex traders did not have a loss on their account, but it does not give a glowing confirmation that everyone becomes rich from trading in Forex.

If you are well researched and disciplined, you can be one of the 32 % of traders who do not lose money trading Forex even going on to make a good income from the markets. Financial rewards can be substantial if you can differentiate yourself and become a skilled Forex trader.

How Much Can you Make Trading Forex?

A robust Forex trading system should win 50% of the time if you have the right trading conditions to undertake a sufficient number of trades. If you are day trading EUR/USD, it may prove challenging to find up to 5 suitable transactions a day if the market is trading in a narrow range.

Assume your strategy limits a losing trade to 6 pips and attempts to make nine pips on winning deals, and you have $10,000 capital in your trading account. 10:1 leverage with a maximum risk of $100 per trade (1% of $10,000), your leveraged trading position is $100,000. The maximum risk is $60 per trade (6 pips of $100,000).

Assume you trade EUR/USD five times a day on 20 trading days a month which is 100 trades a month

A 9 pip win = $90 per trade x 50 transactions per month = $4500

A 6 pip loss = $60 per trade x 50 transactions per month = $3,000

Your net profit is 1245 US dollars per month

image of a chart and money showing profit

Six Basics To Follow To Make Money From Forex

We have listed the following essential points that you need to adhere to make money when you trade in Forex and keep your your capital account stable.

1. Trade Forex less to gain more

Try and focus on the trades that will make the most significant gains rather than trading for its own sake. To do this, you must always be informed and alert.

2. Do not diversify

Stick to trading one currency or specific currency pairs and become an expert on it. If you are having success trading GBP/USD why would you start trading EUR/JPY

3. Understand compounding growth

Small gains compounded over time can produce some astonishing results. Consider the following. If you target a 50% annual profit, you can grow a $10,000 account into over $250,000 in under ten years

4. Make your stop loss into a stop profit

Always maintain your stop loss at its original level. Only move it up when the position is well in profit, but don’t trail your stops too close. Give that open position a chance to run.

5. Give your positions breathing space

Trading can be volatile. If you are after a significant gain give your trade breathing space with a stop-loss that takes account any market volatility

6. Limit risks but maximize your chance of success

Many traders lose money not by market direction but through unstable financial markets that take out tight stop losses. Consider buying in or at the money options to avoid getting stopped out rather than trading the underlying spot.

12 Ways to Avoid Losing Money in Forex Trading

It is essential to have a rigorous system in place to minimize losing money. Below we list the most critical areas of consideration to help reduce the risk of losing money.

1. Do your research

Do not dive in and trade if you have no underlying knowledge of the Forex markets. Here are the key areas to consider

Understand how foreign exchange works, including quotes and what factors affect it.
Will you use technical analysis or fundamental analysis?
Will you use manual or automated software?
Which domestic and foreign currencies or currency pairs will you trade?
What hours and which session (European, Asian, US) will you operate?

forex trader updating his trading journal with research notes

2. Use a reliable broker

Only open an account with a broker that is registered with both the CFTC and the NFA. A central issue here is making sure your deposit and funds in an account will be safe. Interactive Investors, Oanda, TD Ameritrade, IG USA and Forex.com are CFTC and NFA regulated brokers.

3. Make use of a demo account

Good brokers will have a demo account for you to use before going live. Make full use of this to practice getting familiarity with the broker platform, so order errors do not occur when you go live.

4. Begin with small trades and pre-plan

If you have had success with a practice account, it is a great start. When going live, a critical risk is emotion as real money is at stake. Trading in a small size will allow you to practice minimizing emotion, which is an unwanted part of trading. Emotional trading occurs when you do not pre-plan your trades.

5. Protect the downside

Always put a stop loss in place to protect your trading account. Foreign exchange is a fast-moving financial instrument. Unexpected news can move the Forex market and if you have a leveraged position without a stop loss, this could wipe out your cash.

6. Exit trades properly

If you are in a winning position, do not come out too early. If you are in a losing position, do not compound the damage. Try and minimize stress and emotion in your decisions.

7. Be aware of leverage

Leverage should be used with care when you are starting in Forex. Brokers can offer up to 50 times of leverage. If you have $5,000 in your account, a $250,000 position results from using 50:1 of leverage.

8. Do not trade for the wrong reasons

If a currency pair is not moving, do not enter a trade just because you are bored. Have a trading strategy in place for your trade.

9. Do not give up too easily

Getting trades wrong is normal. Even if you are having a bad trading day, try and keep to your daily trading limits and not quit because you are losing.

a forex trader has his head in hands in despair

10. Maintain accurate account book-keeping

Keep an accurate record of every trade. Having instruments traded, why you entered into a position, and the profit and loss to hand can help you identify mistakes and avoid doing them in the future.

11. The impact of tax

What is the impact of tax on your FX trading? Ensure you do not have any unexpected tax bills to pay from your FX trading. A tax specialist can also advise if your trading can be tax efficient.

12. Trading is a business

You do not become a successful FX trader overnight. Stay organized, set realistic goals, and treat every day as just another day at the office, whether you have winning or losing trades.

Key Takeaway

Can you make money trading Forex? The answer is there are no guarantees you will successfully trade Foreign Exchange. However, being organized, disciplined, and having a trading strategy in place will give you the best chance of being one of the 32% of retail traders that do not lose money in the Forex market. For further relevant articles we have written further tips on how to trade forex profitably and how to maintain focus when trading.

Written by Chris Gillie

Chris Gillie is the founder of Axcess FX, a Forex software review and research website. He is a former investment banker who worked in FX Sales on the UBS London trading floor. Chris has been using Forex trading software as part of his trading set-up since the late 2000s and the embryonic days of MetaTrader and the MQL coding language.

What Are Forex Robots & How Do They Work?

There is a myriad of Forex trading strategies and styles. Traders of differing levels, from beginners to professionals, will have different ways of working. There is a divide between those who want to trade manually and others who wish to trade using automation.

Traders who go down the path of automation will need to undertake plenty of research to find automated software that matches their trading style and correctly carries out trades according to their strategy.

In this short article, we will explain what Forex robots are, how they work and how to identify the best Forex robot.

What is A Forex Robot?

To undertake fully automated trading, a trader will need to purchase or develop an automated Forex trading robot. A Forex trading bot, also known as an Expert Advisor or Forex EA, is computer software that uses technical signals to establish if a currency pair should be bought or sold at a point in time.

As part of an overall FX strategy, a robot helps take away the emotion out of FX trading. Emotions can sometimes result in currency traders opening trades that are not based on logical decisions or market analysis and out of line with an overall trading system. Psychology can amplify in fast or volatile Forex markets with the temptation to trade quickly.

The Mechanics: How Do Forex Robots Work?

Many Forex trading robots are built using the MetaQuotes, MQL scripting language used exclusively with MetaTrader Software. MetaTrader is a leading Forex trading platform used by many online brokers through which their clients trade, including major firms like Forex.com and Oanda.

The ability to integrate a robot with MetaTrader allows for the automatic generation of trading signals and order placement according to the trade indicators.

Forex robots are chiefly programmed to scan and interpret charts. Additionally, they can be programmed with specific parameters needed to make a trading decision; using Forex trading signals, they decide when it is appropriate to trade or hold back.

Forex robots work best when employed to trade specific currency pairs and use a defined range or time frame as part of an overall strategy. They are typically designed to make a certain number of pips within a trading range and can identify profitable Forex trades even in unstable markets, which has an unclear trading direction for a human. They can also follow a clear trend to maximize profits.

In Practice: Do Forex Robots Work?

Forex trading bots can be a useful tool to accompany your trading strategy, but it is essential to employ an EA correctly for full effectiveness.

Traders using robots should never entirely depend on them to undertake their full range of trading activity. Expert Advisors can carry out sophisticated tasks, but their functionality can be limited to how they were initially programmed. Forex trading still requires extensive human observations and research and digesting current news and economic developments that Forex robots cannot do.

a forex trader researches trading charts

Are Forex robots profitable?

Expert Advisors can generate strong profits by following short term trends within specific ranges and then identify the clearest signals on which to trade.

Long term trends, though, that can see Forex market conditions suddenly affected by adverse price movements are harder for robots to follow with the same degree of success; although more sophisticated robots with dynamic features are beginning to address this issue.

With how much can I start Forex trading by robot?

Forex EAs typically work with brokers that employ the MetaTrader platform. It is the minimum trade size specified by a Forex broker that drives the minimum size that can be placed for order execution using a Forex trade robot.

For example, Forex.com requires just $100 to open a Forex trading account and then has a minimum trade size of just 1000 units per currency according to the Forex.com website.

A Key Consideration Before Buying A Robot for Trading Forex

Ahead of buying a robot for Forex trading, perhaps the most crucial consideration is whether the Forex robot can trade profitably as part of your broader trading strategy.

The only way of really knowing is by researching for the right EA and then backtesting specific settings and demo trading before deploying it in a real-money environment. Most reputable robot developers like Forex Diamond, will offer a 30 day or 60-day money-back guarantee giving you time to test thoroughly.

An excellent video about automated & manual trading and how you can use a hybrid of both in a trading system

Identifying The Best Robots: Research is Essential

We have undertaken extensive research on the most important considerations to identify solid Forex robots. Through our detailed analysis we have created a guide of the best Forex robots on the market.

The guide provides full details, but as a concise summary:

First and foremost, you should always look for verified performance through real trading accounts. A reputable Forex robot developer will make this available on either Myfxbook or FX Blue.

It is essential when researching EA software to look for authoritative online testimonials and user reviews. Online trader reviews are also essential to determine the general sentiment for a particular robot and if the Forex robot trades profitably to improve winning odds. Dedicated review sites include Forex Peace Army (FPA).

Forex trading forums can also be a good source of feedback. MT5 Forum has a high degree of relevance for automated forex software. MT5 is the Metatrader platform forum, and as the majority of Expert Advisors are developed using the MQL coding language, you will find many references to robots.

Not only does extensive research need to be undertaken before deciding which automated software to use as part of your trading style or strategy. Once purchased, testing the software is vital to establishing statistical expectancy as part of your overall trading system. Testing can be undertaken both through theoretical trading using a demo account and backtesting.

Backtesting

Although backtests are available from a robot’s developer, there are reasons why you should do your own backtests ahead of any live trading.

Not many developers use modeling with enough accuracy to tell whether a Forex robot will perform well as part of your strategy. If you trade USD/JPY and are looking to make a nine pip profit with a six pip stop loss on every trade, if developer backtests do not include individual tick data, real-time spreads, commissions, or slippage, then automated software could actually lose money for you.

Many software developers use the Metatrader Strategy Tester, and as it only uses random bar graph data from the trading day, it is only considered 90% accurate. Developers that provide backtesting with 99.9% accuracy are using historical data with tools like Birt’s Tick Data Suite and offer much more credibility; however, if you are using a robot according to your strategy, you must still backtest according to strict adjustable parameters within the robot algorithms, to align any automated Forex to your trading system.

Here is a screenshot of a backtest employing 99.9% modeling accuracy:

What is the Best Forex Trading Robot?

Our detailed research on understanding the role of Forex robots values low drawdowns as the most important criteria for choosing a Forex EA. A robot algorithm generally employing a lower drawdown has a less volatile strategy and should give more consistent monthly performance.

Forex Diamond is the robot with one of the lowest drawdown that we have researched. We have undertaken a full review of Forex Diamond to complement backtesting and full performance results at the Forex Diamond official site.

The other EA we rate very highly at Axcess FX is GPS Forex Robot 3. It is one of the top 20 robots we have identified according to our ranking criteria. Its drawdown is within the parameters of 20% to 40% that is considered safe for an EA, but it is the sheer length of time of 8 years that it has been trading profitably on a verified real trading account that is so impressive.

Unusually for a Forex EA, it has been used by a Wall Street investment firm to trade profitably, and the results are available to view at the GPS official site. It is unusual because most large investment firms have their in-house quants (quantative analysts) and programmers and rarely use external auto trading software, preferring to develop in-house. Read our detailed review of GPS Forex Robot 3

Develop Your Own Forex Robot

Technically capable traders may consider building out their own Forex robot. The advantage of this is developing an automated system based on their own technical trading rules. Demo accounts that use MetaTrader allow for experimentation with MQL scripts, and after backtesting, it may be possible to develop a capable robot.

A simple example of a robot could be one designed for GBP/USD, where a trader has a strategy for take-profits and stop-losses following a technical break-out. A robot could be programmed with rules to place trades automatically rather than the trader making a manual order placement.

Final Takeaway

It is essential to remember that Forex trading robots work at their best identifying a narrow set of parameters to which they are programmed. They are a useful addition to a defined trading strategy but should not be used on their own as a stand-alone trading system.

Forex robots have, at times, received bad publicity due to their association with promises of guaranteed profits that have not materialized when used to trade in live markets. If, however, you do your research and undertake your backtesting, there are enough proficient robots out there to make a difference to your trading.

Written by Chris Gillie

Take the Easy Path to Forex Trading

The key to successful trading, if you are new to Forex, is having the basics correctly in place before trading with real money in live market conditions.

You must be well prepared to trade Forex as it is a volatile financial instrument for trading, affected by economic data, geopolitical events and major news announcements. Adding factors like leverage to the volatility, means an inexperienced trader without a trading plan has a reduced chance of success.

In this short article, we identify five steps that you can take, as a newcomer, allowing you to improve your chances of success from the outset.

Read on to find out how you can take the easy path to Forex trading!

1. Which Strategy Should I Consider?

Before you start trading Forex, it is essential to decide upon a strategy and not just enter the market blindly. Considerations should include:

Market analysis

Will you be more comfortable with technical analysis, fundamental analysis, or a combination of both?

Technical analysis is the study of charts and patterns
Fundamental analysis involves analyzing economic indicators and news events,

currency chart showing volatile charts and patterns

Trading style

Do you want to trade like a day trader, swing trader, or a position trader who takes long term positions? Day trading involves executing multiple trades every day; swing trading is holding trades for days or weeks and being a position trader means infrequent trade placement, instead focusing on trends over months and years.

Capital Availability

The funds you have available to invest will influence your strategy. Some strategies, like position trading require significant capital due to the need to hold a position long term with wide stop-losses. Other strategies like day-trading can be executed with a smaller budget, perhaps with low leverage as the aim is to make an overall daily profit with small profits on every trade.

2. What Currency Pair Are You Going To Trade?

Choosing which currency pair to trade is an important step on the easy path to Forex trading.

Some currency pairs like Cable (GBP/USD) are both volatile and liquid. They are well-suited for day traders looking for intraday profits as there is sufficient daily movement and there is good liquidity meaning tighter spreads and less slippage, which affects the paper thin profit margins of short-term traders.

Other currency pairs like USD/JPY are noted for being more stable. They have an inclination to follow long term trends which are suitable for position traders placing long-term strategies.

Whether it is GBP/USD, USD/JPY or another currency pair, it is important to follow them ahead of live trading until you have a good feel for price action and understand how they react in certain market conditions and to your selected technical indicators.

You will need to use charting software as part of your overall FX strategy, either a solution that is provided on your broker platform, or a stand-alone charting solution.

3. The Importance of Technical Analysis and Charting Software

Technical analysis is a vital skill to learn as a Forex trader. Presented visually, in the form of line, bars and candlesticks, charts supply price data on what is happening to a specific currency pair, and in most instances, the fundamentals reflect in the charts.

A widely held view is that a currency trader is only as good as the charting software they employ as part of a trading system. There are excellent stand-alone charting software tools on the market, and many can also plug straight into your brokers’ electronic trader platform, allowing trading placement straight from charts, with straight through broker trade execution.

Charting software is available to suit all trading styles and is an integral reason for the growth in popularity of online Forex trading. From manual charting software, to tools where you can code your own indicators and algorithms, the choice can appear overwhelming.

Good charting software includes:

Trendspider, an AI-powered technical analysis tool to efficiently navigate and trade on the market
TradingView, which is one of the best cloud-based charting software for access from anywhere
eSignal is a software tool that uses multiple data vendors to give some of the best historical data analysis for strategy testing

For more information on the best technical analysis software including TrendSpider and TradingView, we provide more insight in our detailed guide on the best Forex charting software for traders, researched according to strict criteria to provide the best options out there for all trading styles.

An overview video of technical analysis – Charting patterns for beginners

4. Practice With A Demo Account

As a beginner, ahead of trading live, you should test prospective strategies in a simulated trading environment. Most online broker companies will allow you to open a demo account, without committing to trade through a live brokerage capital account.

Trading in a simulated environment is called forward testing. It allows you to trade safely any strategy that you have backtested using the historical data available through the backtester tool of your chosen charting solution. By forward testing a strategy through multiple trades that have already back tested successfully with historical data provides confirmation of the statistical expectancy ahead of trading live with real money at risk.

5. Ensure A Smooth Transition To Live Trading

The final step on your easy path to Forex trading is a smooth transition to live trading. Having successfully backtested with charting software, and forward tested your strategy on a demo account, there is the temptation to dive head first into live trading.

Good practice, however is to start small. Begin trading with a smaller trading size than you intended from the outset. It will help reduce psychological pressure and get you used to trading with real money as there will be an emotional difference, where the fear of losing real money can affect your decision making.

Try and also replicated the demo conditions as closely as possible in your live account, particularly risk management around tight stop-losses and keeping to the correct trading frequency by not over-trading.

a dial from low risk to high risk around risk management

Our Takeaway

In our five steps on your easy path to Forex trading, we identify that analysis will always be an essential element of your Forex trading strategy. If technical analysis is your chosen route then integrate the best charting software you can find as:

The quality of data not only affects backtesting but has a knock on effect on forward testing.
A greater likelihood of low latency when using direct broker trade execution straight from your chart.

Related Resources

Written by Chris Gillie

Seven Short Forex Trading Tips

There are so many fundamental Forex trading tips that you will be aware of and try and take on board when you begin Forex trading. If you start out doing the basics correctly you will have an improved chance of success.

In this short article, we have included seven short Forex trading tips for newcomers that cover off the basics and will provide you with value for your future trading endeavors. Remember, many new traders go on to make a good income from their FX trading activities and so why should you not be one of them!

1. Your trading style should reflect your personality

Your chosen Forex trading style should align with your personality, as trading involves making decisions under pressure and requires significant risk management to limit potential losses. By aligning your personality with your trading style will lead to improved performance, consistency and discipline

Factors to consider when you are trying to match a trading style with your personality include:

Lifestyle compatibility

Lifestyle is a factor that will impact on the style you trade. A short term trading style, like scalping or day trading is unsuitable if you are trading around a full time job. Instead, swing trading or position trading will be more appropriate.

Emotional control

Forex trading can be an emotional roller coaster and by trading according to your personality is more likely to see you keep control under pressure. For example, following a long-term trading strategy will better suit calm and patient traders rather than an impulsive trader, who is looking for greater trading activity.

Natural decision making

Some Forex traders are very analytical and are driven by data; whereas other traders rely more on intuition. Your style of trading should allow decision making in the way that feels the most natural to you.

2. Never over trade

You should only trade in amounts and frequency that you are comfortable with until you are completely confident with your ability to trade Forex. If you over trade it may have a negative impact in the following ways:

Mental exhaustion

By over-trading you can become susceptible to mental exhaustion, especially in short term trading strategies. It can result in decision fatigue where the quality of trading decisions will gradually decrease with the more decisions you have to make. Over the course of a trading day or trading week, the negative impact of over-trading could really start to impact on you.

The lack of a strategy

When you over-trade it is an indication that you lack a solid trading strategy or the discipline to adhere to one. The absence of a coherent strategy turns your trading efforts into gambling rather than calculated risk taking.

Revenge Trading

After suffering a significant trading loss, ill-disciplined traders may try and get their ‘revenge’ on the market by placing trades with minimal rationale behind them. Such a reaction can result in a vicious cycle of further losses and over-trading

3. Let a winning trade run

To trade Forex more profitably, once you have a winning trade, there are increased benefits from letting the trade and profits run:

Overcome the fear of missing out

The fear of missing out, also known as FOMO, can see traders jump into trades without proper analysis. Through letting winning trades run, traders can offset the negative mindset of missing out on other trading opportunities.

Efficiency of time and resources

The time and effort to manage a large winning position is no different to that of managing a small position. If you let winning trades run, it is a more productive use of both your time and resources.

Improving your risk reward ratio

Having a favorable risk reward ratio is fundamental to successful Forex trading. When you let a winning trade run, the potential reward increases while the initial risk remains the same; assuming you are moving your stop-loss up to break even.

4. Cut your losses quickly and accept them

By cutting losses quickly by letting a losing trade stop out and accepting it is fundamental to being a successful Forex trader. There are a number of reasons the practice is crucial:

Capital account preservation

In our article why FX trading requires strict money management, we identified how small losses of 2% of capital can be recovered quicker than larger losses. Remember that a 25% loss on your trading account requires a corresponding 50% gain to break even!

Avoid the “sunk cost fallacy”

The sunk cost fallacy in trading is the belief of continuing with a loss-making trade due to the time and money already invested, despite the risk of potential losses outweighing the benefits. By cutting losses quickly on a badly performing trade, Forex traders can avoid any fallacy and trade in the present and not the past.

Opportunity cost

By holding on to losing trades may tie up capital from your trading account that could be deployed to better trading opportunities. By cutting losses, traders ensure that their capital is free for fresh trades.

5. The trend is your friend

The old saying is “the trend is your friend,” anchors one of the central principles of technical analysis. The saying implies that Forex traders may improve their chances of success by trading in alignment with the current trend. When trading currencies, there are a few reasons why this principle has relevance:

Momentum

A trend is an indication that momentum lies behind a currency’s price movement. By placing trades that move with the trend, traders are seeking to capitalize on the momentum, which increases the chance of the trade making money.

Filtering out noise

The FX market is susceptible to random price movements or “noise” which can lead to false trading signals. By trading with the trend can help filter out noise and allow focus on more substantial price movements.

A higher probability of success

Forex trades placed in the trend direction usually have a higher probability to succeed as they go with the momentum of the market rather then against the flow.

Here is a very informative video giving further Forex trading tips for beginners

6. Always keep to the rules

An inexperienced trader will feel tested to the limit in times of high volatility. When the spot moves rapidly, losses can occur if a trader does not stick rigidly to the rules set out in their own trading system which includes:

Consistency

Adhering to a ruled based trading system creates consistency in your trading approach. By following a robust set of guidelines allows for accurate assessment of a strategy’s effectiveness and to make adjustments as necessary.

The 2% rule

It is best practice in Forex trading to place no more than 2% of your trading capital on a single trade. As the forex market is so volatile, keeping to the rule can help traders navigate through periods of high volatility by avoiding panic decisions through predetermined actions. Losing 2% of your capital is easier to recover than an ill-disciplined trade that loses 25% of your trading account.

Performance evaluation

If you are trading within a wider trading system it makes it easier to evaluate your trading performance. If trading results are lackluster, you can look back at your trading rules to pinpoint what is likely working and what isn’t.

7. Keep a trading journal

A trading journal is essential and the best traders are those that keep detailed records of trades so that they can review them at any time for different reasons:

Goal-setting and tracking

Trading journals are a good way to set trading goals and track any progress towards them. The process helps maintain motivation and keeps your trading aligned with original strategy objectives.

Accountability

A journal will hold you accountable to your underlying trading system and strategies. It makes you question the reasoning behind every trade, helping to prevent irrational trading.

Learning and improvement

Trading journals are learning tools. Through writing your thoughts behind every trade, and comparing the expected outcome with the final result provides insights into trading processes and decision making. With the information at hand for analysis, it will help lead to continuous trading improvements.

For further Forex tips please read this additional guide that we have written that will hopefully help you to trade profitably.

Written by Chris Gillie

Additional Resources

The Difficulty With Short-Term Forex Trading Strategies

The difficulty with short-term Forex trading strategies includes the unpredictable effects of volatility compared to longer-term trading strategies.

Macro-events like economic data, monetary policy announcements and geopolitical events, can instantly move the market and affect short-term trading strategies such as scalping, day trading and swing trading which have tight stop-loss orders. Position trading is less affected by singular events as traders are looking at long-term trends.

We will look at seven key difficulties faced by traders that use short-term Forex trading strategies, including the effects of volatility. We also touch upon the differences between short and long term trading strategies, so that you can make an accurate assessment of what will work best for you.

Market Volatility Caused By Macro-Events

The problem with short term Forex trading lies in an unexpected macro-event or other significant news that moves the market more than your hourly chart or technical analysis on a given day. For scalpers and day traders it can have a profound effect including:

Opportunity cost: Short-term FX traders may miss out on broader trends while they focus on the immediate market reaction
Whipsaw patterns: Macro-events cause prices to change directions quickly triggering confusing entry and exit signals
Liquidity fluctuations: Liquidity can dry up before macro events resulting in larger spreads and slippage, increasing trade entry/exit costs
Stop-loss hunting: Around macroeconomic-events, prices might spike briefly taking out the tight stop-loss levels of short-term Forex traders
Competition from algorithmic trading: Trading algorithms react to macro-events in milliseconds putting them ahead of human traders
Forecasting difficulties: Short-term traders who bet on outcomes of a macro-event may find themselves on the wrong side of a trade

Shorter Time Frames Provide Less Reliable Signals

Technical analysis patterns and indicators appear more frequently on shorter time frames but they have less reliability than longer time frames, where support and resistance levels become more established and take on greater significance.

Furthermore, as you drill down in time frames, the charts become more polluted by false moves and market noise. Market noise refers to random price movements due to minor market fluctuations and can lead to false signals and misleading trends. Day traders are more affected as they might trade off hourly charts or even shorter time frames. Ideally, Forex traders should use a longer time frame to define the primary trend of whatever they are trading.

Impact Of Bid-Offer Spreads

The very nature of short-term Forex trading is the execution of multiple trades over short periods, typically less than a day. Unlike other markets, in the Forex market the cost to trade is typically built into the spread, and the wider the spread the more it eats into profits on entry and exit into trades where a successful trade may only be a 10 pip profit.

As scalpers and day traders rely on small price movements to enter and exit trades, the profit per trade is highly impacted by spreads. In volatile markets, slippage, where take-profit and stop-loss orders are filled at a worst than expected price, can also further reduce potential profits.

Leverage Risk

Scalpers and day traders typically use higher leverage to boost profits from small price movements. While leverage can increase profits it also magnifies potential losses. For example, a trader leveraging 50x to open up a $250,000 USD/JPY trade is now fully exposed to this large position, likely dwarfing the trader’s actual capital account balance. Nothing short of a very tight stop-loss is acceptable when using leverage.

Understanding leverage and managing the associated risks has complexity and for some traders this is is difficult to grasp. Without a tight stop-loss and disciplined money management to only trade 1% to 2% of your trading capital account, then short term strategies can cause significant losses. A tight stop-loss may be as little as ten pips from the current spot price.

Over-Trading Risk

Short-term FX traders are at risk of over trading due to the inherent nature of trading in a system that requires multiple small trades every day to be profitable.

The high frequency of trading opportunities when trying to capitalize on small price movements within a short time frame is a particular problem as it can tempt traders to execute more trades than necessary.

The pressure to meet daily or weekly profit targets is an over-trading risk factor, especially if a trader is behind on their targets. The pressure to make budget can lead to poor decision making and taking on trades with a lower chance of success.

A Reliance On Sophisticated Tools And Techniques

To be successful as a short term trader requires access to advanced trading tools and up to date technology which can be expensive with both start up and ongoing costs. It includes:

High-speed internet connectivity
A high-specification computer with upgraded graphics card and memory to reduce lag
Advanced charting and analysis software
Direct market access via a Forex broker

The need to develop or understand complex trading strategies is also essential for a successful short-term trader. These can be difficult to master especially those based on advanced technical analysis, algorithmic trading or high-frequency trading tactics.

Psychological Stress And Emotional Discipline

Short-term Forex trading requires constant monitoring of the markets and quick decision making. It can be tiring mentally as traders must stay focused for long periods. The need to perform well on a daily basis can lead to burnout or trading decisions driven by emotions like greed and fear which can override rational analysis and decision making.

Furthermore, pressure to rapidly recover from losses can also lead to revenge trading, where traders take poorly calculated risks to recoup the fall in capital on their trading account.

If You Can, Trade for The Long Term

Many Forex traders cannot trade for the long term to become position traders. The reason is day traders need to make money every day to earn a living by scalping the market. A couple of pips here and there only creates a decent trading profit through frequent trading many times a day.

Taking a longer-term strategic position will require a deeper stop loss and trading with a higher percentage of your capital account. A larger transaction size justifies inactivity in the market by holding out for more significant currency moves.

A long-term trading strategy means that you are not affected by what happens on any one given day. You can forget about having to predict short term trends and you will have more chance making money Forex trading.

A table showing the differences between short-term and long-term trading

Factor	Short-Term Trading	Long-Term Trading
Goal	Benefit from small price movements	Gain from big market trends
Time Frame	Minutes, hours and days	Weeks, months and years
Trading Frequency	High, with multiple daily trades	Low, with few trades
Profit and Loss Realization	Quick, usually on the same day	Slow, realized over a long time
Capital Requirements	Low per trade	High per trade
Risk management	Tight stop-losses	Wider stop-losses
Analysis type	Technical analysis	Fundamental & Technical Analysis
Trading stress level	High, due to constant monitoring	Lower, due to reduced monitoring

A video explaining the benefits of long-term over short-term Forex trading

A Parting Thought

The Forex markets are a market of probabilities and not certainties. Trading long term Forex trends makes big profits. If you have the capital forget about trading the short term where unpredictable or unforeseen events will always mean that the odds are on a knife edge.

Additional Resources

Seven fundamental Forex trading tips

Written by Chris Gillie

The 15 Best Resources to Learn Forex Trading Online

When starting out in online Forex trading, you must understand the mechanics of the Forex market. If you want to preserve the cash balance on your brokerage account, at the very minimum, you must have some concept of economic fundamentals and technical analysis.

The primary influences of the Forex market are global macro-events and news, providing the potential to make significant trading profits from the volatility.

If the FOMC cuts US interest rates unexpectedly, currencies are likely to move wildly. Inexperienced traders may be unsure how to trade in volatile markets and make irrational trades in panic. Experienced traders with a system, trade without emotion and will always benefit when the inexperienced do not.

Without having a robust strategy or trading plan in place, trades are mostly thoughts only, and thoughts are emotions. It is a weak base from which trade. Getting a Forex education and developing a trading plan is vital if you want to thrive as a forex trader. How can you do this?

There are different ways to study Foreign Exchange basics before you dive into the volatile world of live Forex trading. There is also no reason why it should cost you any outlay with an extensive number of free Forex learning resources available on the internet.

An FX trader analyzing a trading strategy

The Best Free Forex Resources Online

Until you understand basics like the Forex currency pair quotation system, trading terms, and market participants, you will not be able to move on and develop a robust strategy for forex trading. Free resources are available online to help you get the basic Forex education necessary to move forward and trade. The top trading resources for mastering Forex basics are:

1. FX Street

The A to Z of everything Forex from the basics to advanced strategies, FX Street is an accessible resource in the online trading community. It has a significant education section providing hundreds of articles and videos and which you can access directly here.

2. Forex.com

An extensive library of educational content is available at Forex.com. This well-regarded CFTC registered online broker caters for all levels of trader from the newbie to the experienced pro and it is free to open an account to access the full suite of educational trading resources. They include, an academy, tutorials, beginner webinars and popular guides. Here is a link directly to the webinar section.

forex.com image of website education section

3. Investopedia

Interactive learning from basic up to mid-level education, Investopedia is an all encompassing bible of financial information which is easy to navigate with a simple to understand layout.

4. Babypips

Great for beginners to understand the basics of Forex by presenting complex information in a simple way. They have their School of Pipsology, an excellent free online course to help newbies learn how to trade FX. Baby pips also have a busy forum where you can ask any Forex related question and expect to receive an answer from a member of this thriving community.

5. Investing.com

A forex trading website that can help beginner traders by providing free to use information and resources, including educational material via their education hub as well as analysis and real-time data.

6. Bloomberg TV

Expert panelists and reporters will provide you with copious amounts of Forex market information to digest. Immersing yourself in Bloomberg TV every day is a necessity to get an understanding of the FX market.

7. Youtube

Learn from Youtube channels dedicated to Forex from researching tools and platforms to videos explaining trading concepts. Here is an example of a high quality beginner Forex tutorial made available on Youtube by Trading 212 which has more than 1.2 million subscribers.

8. DailyFX

A free-to-use site, DailyFX provides real-time news, live market data, and in-depth technical analysis for those looking to build their Forex education. A dedicated education section includes free trading courses, guides and research.

9. TradingView

Excellent for charting, TradingView, through cloud-based software, allows all traders to track and research the Forex market with customizable charts. Importantly, TradingView has sections dedicated to education and research.

10. Forex Factory

Forex factory has a trades section where beginners can watch live trades placed by a more experienced market participant. An excellent forum section hosts a broad range of active Forex related discussions.

The Best Free Online Forex Courses

Online courses train you to read charts, understand price dynamics, open and close positions, and see developing patterns, a further move towards developing your trading strategy. We see courses as an integral step to learn how to trade forex.

There is a number of free online forex trading courses to choose from. We have selected our best five

11. Udemy

Udemy, the well respected learning resource offers free Forex trading courses which you can browse here.

12. Ava Academy

Ava Academy is provided by the online exchange, Avatrade and has free Forex courses ranging from topics such as an introduction to technical analysis and how to start trading-the quick and dirty way.

Here is the link to the online courses at Ava Academy.

13. Class Central

Class Central is an aggregation service that finds free courses including Forex trading from all over the top learning platforms on the internet. Below is the direct link to free online Forex trading courses.

https://www.classcentral.com/subject/forex

14. FX Academy

FX Academy is a highly rated, educational website with a significant number of Forex courses ranging from an Introduction to Forex Trading to Trading With Double Bollinger Bands.

15. Tutorialspoint

Tutorialspoint offer a very comprehensive free multi-chapter Forex trading course covering everything from types of market analysis to fundamental market forces and position sizing and money management. The course can be accessed here.

Finishing Your Online Forex Education

Once you think you have covered the basics through free online resources and furthered your Forex education with online tutorials, it is the time to develop a strategy.

Unless you have done so already, you will need to open an account with an online broker, and the final stage before you start trading with real money will be to hone your strategy on a demo account. A reputable CFTC regulated broker like forex.com will allow you to open an account and practice in their demo environment.

Forex resources, ourselves included, advocate getting hands-on experience by using a demo account. Learning not only to develop or fine-tune a strategy but also to familiarize yourself with your broker’s online platform to avoid making order placement errors when you commence trading live.

We wish you happy trading – From everyone at Axcess FX

Written by Chris Gillie

Chris Gillie is the founder of Axcess FX, a forex software review and research website. He is a former investment banker who worked in FX Sales on the UBS London trading floor. Chris has been using forex trading software as part of his trading set-up since the late 2000s and the embryonic days of MetaTrader and the MQL coding language.

Our Fap Turbo 3 Review

The FAP Turbo 3 is the most up to date version of the Forex Auto Pilot (FAP) series of forex robots. It follows on from the original FAP and FAP Turbo 2. The FAP Turbo 3 is another of our robot reviews where we will look at the strategy employed, evaluate performance and look at trader feedback.

Our review, together with the full facts at the official website will help you decide whether FAP Turbo Version 3.0 can help you trade profitably.

History

The FAP Turbo has been around for over ten years, with the original FAP launched in November 2008. It was developed by a team of professional forex traders and programmers and is one of the earliest forex robots made commercially available for purchase. FAP Turbo 2.0 followed, and we are now on the current version 3.0. FAP 3 which has over 85,000 worldwide users.

The FAP is a fully automated forex trading robot meaning that both identifying and placing trades are done automatically. It differs from semi-automatic trading software where the decision whether to place an identified winning trade remains with the human trader. FAP Turbo 3.0 runs on the MetaTrader trading platform.

What Trading Strategy Does The Fap Turbo 3 Use?

The FAP Turbo 3.0 provides users with two different forex trading strategies available in separate trading modes. The legacy scalper strategy from previous FAP models is still available and is known as Scalper Mode. Version 3 now includes the new Medium-Term Strategy (MTS mode) algorithm. The aim of FAP Turbo 3.0 is to move away from scalping to medium-term trading.

Scalper Mode

The Scalper trades more frequently than the MTS mode, and like many forex robots, the legacy scalper works best in rangebound conditions. The developers have built the Scalper algorithm to trade the night session in the cross over between the US and Asian trading sessions, which is known to be a quieter trading session.

The Scalper targets opening between 1 and 5 trades targeting small take profits on each trade. Algorithms uses a specific 15-minute chart timeframe, indicators, and filters to create trade signals. Signals include RSI, MA, and also volatility filters and opening time filters.

The Scalper is programmed to trade eight currency pairs in the same way, including EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF, GBPCHF, EURCHF, and USDCAD.

MTS Mode

The MTS strategy opens trades during the day employing different trade timings for different currency pairs. The MTS does not tie to specific chart time frames like the Scalper. The MTS algorithm is continuously monitoring the markets and will open trades only when its internal indicators identify conditions that indicate a high probability of success. The aim is to trade profitably and not to open trades up in conditions that are not optimal. It employs more substantial take profits and stop-losses of between 20 and 100 pips.

The Expert Advisor works right out of the box with default parameters; however, these can be substantially altered to align closer to a trader’s required risk and leverage levels. More information about strategy and settings are available at the FAP Turbo site

How Good Is The Performance?

The developers of FAP Turbo 3.0 provide performance backtesting using the MetaTrader strategy tester. Below are the performance results from over six years employing the Medium-Term Strategy across the eight currency pairs the forex robot is programmed to trade. The performance does not take live account spreads, slippage, commissions, or live tick data. Furthermore the modelling quality is only at 90%. Best practice back-testing using a tool like Birt’s tick data suite can get modelling accuracy up to 99%. For scalping strategies, not testing at 99% can make a seemingly profitable strategy unprofitable. The below results appea impressive at 90% we would hope this is also the case at 99% where every tick is taken into account.

Performance Results

Find Out How The Fap Turbo 3 Works in 3 minutes

If you have found this video useful and need more information about FAP Turbo 3 you can visit the official website.

Setting Up FAP Turbo 3.0

Implementation

The FAP Turbo 3.0 can be set up with any MT4 Broker. Once purchased, the product comes as a .ex4 downloadable file, a script for MetaTrader, and can only run in MetaTrader 4 software. Therefore, MetaTrader must be already set up on your computer for the EA to operate smoothly at an optimal level.

Once the Robot successfully activates, it needs attaching to the relevant chart from where it will analyze the Foreign Exchange market and trade automatically on your behalf 24/5 as long as your computer is always on; otherwise, you can still use a VPS for continuous robot trading.

Trade settings

FAP Turbo 3 allows you to choose to either run with the default recommended Scalper or MTS settings or tweak the parameters to align closer to your forex trading strategy. A large number of parameters exist; including manually setting lot size which increases the leverage on the trade (making it higher risk), selecting specific days to trade and adjusting take profit and stop-loss levels.

Key Features

Once a customer takes out a subscription, FAP Turbo 3 comes as part of a comprehensive package:

FAP Turbo 3.0 Robot
Free Forex Brokers trading account registration with MyFXChoice and Tallinex
Comprehensive 100-page user guide
Video Tutorials
Optional Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Buying FAP Turbo 3.0

Unlike many forex robots which offer a one-off purchase price, FAP Turbo 3.0 has a different pricing model.

It is available on a monthly subscription of only $39.95 a month including 7-day trial for just $1 to see if the robot works for you & 60 day 100% money back guarantee.

The Robot is available as a direct download from a third party marketplace who will process your payment for purchase.

Forex Trader Feedback

Online trader feedback for FAP Turbo 3 is mixed. Some traders report the EA trading profitably on the default lot size of 0.1 and point to lower leverage levels producing excellent performance. Other traders say performance is erratic across different currency pairs.

Summary and Rating

The refund rate is low; the subscription package is very comprehensive and includes a 100-page guide. There is also a 60-day money-back guarantee offered on the software. Performance appears solid over the six years of backtesting provided by the developer; however, it is not based on real-time quotes and does not take slippage and commissions. Backtesting quality is also only at 90% and not our preferred 99% which is crucial for any strategies where scalping is involved.

We have mixed views on the monthly subscription pricing model employed by FAP Turbo. On the one hand it might be considered more expensive than buying a robot outright; however with constant monthly income streams from subscribers, it allows the robot developers to continually reinvest in software development, keeping FAP Turbo always up to date.

Trader feedback is also mixed. We could not find consistency in the reviews. Instead, a multitude of different areas received feedback, some good and others bad.

Based on our review, with everything considered, we rate FAP Turbo 3.0 with a 3 1/2 out of 5-star rating.

Area Reviewed	Star Rating
Customer Support	3
Price	3
Performance	3
Usability	4
Axcess FX Rating	3.25

Written by Chris Gillie

Considerations When Buying Forex Trading Software

Purchasing the right forex trading software at the outset is crucial if trading software is part of a broader FX strategy that you want to pursue. Opting for the wrong software and your forex trading career could go from very good to very poor in a short time.

The concept of using forex software, which provides you with charts and graphs and sends signals, may seem desirable. However, to justify the implementation of software, your sole concern when undertaking research should be functionality alone.

Search online and find out as much as you can. Do your homework and make sure you understand what you need to know. Unless you know how all the features in forex trading software works, you will not be in an excellent position to analyze the software by backtesting and paper trading as part of a broader strategy.

Forums as soundboards

If you feel you may have identified the right forex software package, hold off instead of purchasing it immediately. Authoritative reviews and forum feedback on the software are essential reading. You need to invest in the software only when your exhaustive research has identified that it is the best option for any more comprehensive trading strategy.

We have a detailed guide that covers the merits of thoroughly using online reviews to identify the best software.

The best forums for foreign exchange where you can interact with the Forex Community, including for trading software include but are not limited to the following:

EarnForex

A forum with a large community ensuring quick answers to your questions

MT5 Forum

A valuable forum dedicated to software around the MetaTrader trading platform

Forex Abode Forum

A forum with a large community with a heavy emphasis on the subject of analysis

Babypips Forum

A forum focusing on the needs of beginners which is the overall aim of the Babypips site

Forex automated trading systems and software explained

No product becomes popular without possessing something attractive and beneficial for the targeted user. The industry of trading has become quite popular and there are number of reasons for this popularity. Some of the benefits include the fact the foreign exchange market is open day and night all over the world and is extremely liquid. Currently, it has been reported that every day 2$ billions changes hands.

Automated trading systems play an important role in this industry. Through the program you can trade currencies online on autopilot, without needing any human supervision. The aim of the program is to maximize your profits to its full potential. It achieves its purpose by identifying and capitalizing on signals when to initial or exit trades as per the parameters initially defined.

They are scripted and encoded in a way that the mathematical algorithms are able to produce money-spinning results. It is worthwhile to mention that functioning of these systems is dependent very much on the extent of how well the system has been executed and programmed.

Although the systems work on autopilot, your trading skill and the experience you have as a trader is also important as it increases your chances of finding and exploiting more trading opportunities. Trading programs can be aiding tools in the process of your earning money, but your trading skills remain your most important assets.

They can only help but not lead the way to success. Also, you have to understand that there are no immediate returns, systems can be beneficial in long term and you must understand how they function.

It is generally claimed that most programs can generate a regular income for $100 or so to say the least. But that is not always true. The back tests that they offer as a proof are not actually a proof. The reason being those tests are conducted in only favorable conditions without projecting the element of unpredictability of the market. Often it is assumed that the simulation profits of the software will actually repeat itself in real life. However, it is not history. Simulation track record never repeats itself.

It is a very difficult choice as in which autopilot system is suitable for you. There are numerous trading systems available. Not all of these trading systems are useful. Some of them are just worthless pieces of software. But is it not like going to the moon and back to find an affordable system which actually performs well. I would suggest that you choose systems, which has good price and all the functions are as per your business needs.

Avoiding Mistakes – Forex Tips for beginners

Depleting your capital account with your online broker is undesirable.

As an inexperienced trader, what are the ways that you can cut out mistakes and limit trading losses?

We highlight what essential controls need to be maintained to at least give yourself a chance to make profits as a forex trader.

Essential controls to avoid trading mistakes

1 Master one strategy at a time

If you are new to forex trading, trying to learn too many strategies could slow up your learning process and cause losses on your trading account.

As you become more experienced, it is reasonable to use different trading strategies, but at the beginning, master one strategy at a time.

2 Simplify your trading

Novice traders tend to overcomplicate trading creating technical indicators and trying different expert advisors. If you use chart software, your chart may obscure by all the technical indicators flashing up on the screen.

It is best to focus on the raw price action that presents itself on every chart. Learn what the price is telling you, and the simplicity of trading will become apparent to you.

3 Avoid trading in different markets

Novice traders tend to trade on multiple markets with little understanding of the market. Known as noise trading, traders enter trades without the proper technical or fundamental research to justify the trade. If you want to trade on different markets, it is essential first to trade them on a demo account.

4 Over leveraging positions

Inexperienced traders are often susceptible to using too much leverage in their trades. Online brokers offer levels of leverage that put the capital account of a new trader at risk. Leverage of more than 100:1 is not uncommon. As the amount of leverage magnifies the profit and loss on a trade, it needs monitoring.

5 Lack of research

Proper research of a currency pair or currency market is essential to trade successfully. In-depth analysis should shed light on entry and exit timings and market trends. There may be slight differences between currency pairs and how they work. Detailed research is essential to put a proper strategy in place.