Good day, dear readers of the blog site!

Can't sleep at night because the question of how to start trading Forex haunts you? Are you already seeing millions in profits and consider yourself the best market analyst? Great!

Unfortunately, now there are a lot of dark companies that simply extort money from gullible pensioners and even mature men and women. People literally tear their hair out after collaborating with them, so you need to be very careful when choosing.

We will work out all the material about analysis skills that I will give you on a demo account, we will open it on the website alpari.com, in this review we will find out whether this broker is cheating and whether he is secretly stealing money from traders. Now we are simply using it for our own selfish interests.

Opening an account

You should always open a demo account first, especially if the broker provides its own trading platform and you have no idea about it. When all the skills have been worked out in detail on the demo version, you can move on to real accounts.

All beginners ask how much money to start trading with? About this and about protecting 90% of money in the next block of the article (that is, below, after the instructions).

Selecting an Analysis Method

To open trades, you need to make assumptions about how the price dynamics will change: the market will rise or fall. Today, in an endless struggle between themselves, there are two areas of analytics: technical and fundamental.

Is it possible to trade without investment? Foreign brokers often offer bonuses with which you can start opening transactions without investing anything at all. There is no point in climbing into this hole; we will discuss the reason in the article.

There are companies like United Traders or ForexStart, who give money for trade, free of charge. But getting them is not so easy. In the first case, having completed training in a company on the stock market for $1,500, you will receive an account of $20,000, which will go to your management (not bad, right?) But they can easily be taken away if there are losses, this is monitored by risk -managers.

To receive money from ForexStart, you need to trade on a small deposit (it is given by the company), make a profit, after which the deposit will increase. If you reach the maximum drawdown (and it is not particularly large), that’s it, the opportunity to earn will be exhausted.

As a rule, you cannot trade on the stock exchange without investments. But if you gain experience and become a real trading professional, the problem of finding funds will disappear by itself. In addition, you will be able to repeatedly increase your deposit, even if not from scratch, but from a very small amount. Fortunately, a number of top brokers give very, very good opportunities training, but more on that in future texts.

Tired of boring theory? Can't wait to start trading? Let's install the terminal and open a demo account. You can even go ahead and open your first trade, relying on intuition (but I don’t recommend it, because extra stress didn’t help anyone, and you came to the market not to play, but to earn money).

Forex trading terminal – where to get it and how to install it

The terminal is the trading platform through which you will open transactions on the stock exchange. You need to download it from the website of the broker you have chosen as your eternal companion. As I wrote above, you and I will choose Alpari company, to learn trading from her example.

The registration form is nothing special: enter your first name, last name, phone number, address, and the like.

Information about your place of residence is needed not so that the broker can come to you if you are in debt and remove your furniture, but so that you can contact the company’s office for support and advice.

Usually managers call new clients and ask if they need help, etc. Tell them that you want to learn Forex and for now you plan to trade on demo accounts.

After registration, log into your personal account via email address and a password that will be sent by email.

IN personal account Find the “Platforms and Applications” tab, click “Download MetaTrader Platform”.

There are three options, let's download the fourth version of MetaTrader for now.

The software is downloaded and installed like any other program. After installation, you need to launch the terminal to start working.

We will make a wide variety of settings for the trading platform as needed, in particular, we will introduce a number of improvements in the next article. Now let's just learn how to open accounts and “see” the chart as needed.

At first, you will see the following in the terminal window (without open transactions, of course).

What do you think, green stripes on a black background? Prices? Absolutely right. And in the upper left corner the currency pair to which these prices correspond is shown. We have currency pair is USD/JPY (Dollar/Yen). The price (more precisely, the dynamics of its changes) can be shown by a line, bars or Japanese candles.

In the images above, the chart is represented by bars, the line will look something like this.

Basically, Forex analysts and traders use Japanese candlesticks as the most informative option for displaying price dynamics.

Displaying fluctuations with a line is not informative either for professionals or for beginners. Click on the Japanese candlestick icon and don’t change anything else, since in absolutely all articles we will learn exclusively from candlesticks.

The chart can be narrowed and expanded: the “Terminal” window, as well as everything on the left (“Navigator” and “Market Watch”), can easily be moved to the sides and even removed completely if you click on the border between them and the chart and move it, or to the “cross”.

You are unlikely to need “Navigator” and “Market Watch” in the near future, but you cannot do without “Terminal”, since it reflects open transactions and their profitability/lossability.

If you accidentally closed one of the three windows and broke out in an icy sweat from the horror of an irreparable loss, click “View” and calmly return them to their place.

Let's finally define what candles are. Click on the graph and press “+” on your keyboard to enlarge it and get a better look at the picture. The candle appears to have a body resembling the wax part of a regular candle and two wicks on either side. Sometimes the body of the candle may be missing (there will be just a line), sometimes there are no wicks.

If the body of the candle is the same color as the chart itself, then this candle shows a rise in price, its increase. Subsequently, we will call such candles “bullish”. If the body is shaded, that is, different from the color of the chart, it means that the candle shows a decrease in price, it is “bearish”.

A candle is a price change over a certain time. We have a five-minute chart (shown in the upper left corner), therefore, each candle shows how much the price has risen or fallen in five minutes.

For example, in the screenshot below we see four shaded candles (they are white, but the chart is black, so they are considered shaded relative to the chart), therefore, the price was falling. How long did the fall last if the chart was five minutes? Five minutes multiplied by 4 candles, it turns out twenty minutes.

What are bodies and wicks used for? One border of the body shows where the candle opened, the other - where it closed. For example, at 15:00 the dollar was worth 115.237 Japanese yen, at 15:30 it became worth 114.962. How did we determine this? Draw lines along the upper and lower borders of the candles.

If the candle is bullish, that is, growing, its lower border shows the price that was at the beginning of the formation of the candle, when the next five-minute period began (let's say at 15:00), the upper border shows the closing price of the candle (at 15:04:59). If the candle is bearish, the opposite is true.

The wicks show where the price was during the time interval. The first bearish candle analyzed on the chart opened at a price of 115.237, but its wick can be seen rising above the body, that is, the price did not immediately go down, but fluctuated for some time, rising above the opening level. By the way, traders usually call wicks shadows, which would be more correct.

Didn't get it? Ask in the comments - I will explain in more detail. Or wait for new posts - in the process of constantly working with candles on charts you will be able to “crack nuts”!

What if we want to see price fluctuations not over 5 minutes, but over a minute or a day, a week? There are special icons for this. In general, a time interval is usually called a timeframe, so expand your vocabulary.

The following timeframes are available in Metatrader: 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 and 30 minutes, one and four hours, one day, one week, one month. You can easily switch between them.

If we look at the minute chart, we will see a more detailed picture.

If you don't really like the color scheme, change it. To do this, right-click on the chart window and select “Properties” from the drop-down list.

The “Black on White” color scheme looks good. In principle, you can paint the candles any color.

In “General”, check the box next to the phrase “Show Ask line” - it won’t hurt to see it, it’s especially important for beginners. If you want, leave the net, I usually remove it because it gets in the way.

The result of the work done.

Don't be scared big spread: on the USD/JPY pair it is tiny, I’m just writing the text on Saturday, the market is closed and the terminal displays this picture.

You are planning to trade multiple currency pairs, right? But does setting up every chart seem like too much of a tedious process? You can make it easier by creating a template. To do this, right-click on our chart (already put in order), click “Template” - “Save template...”

We save our creation to the opened folder. Name the template so as not to confuse it with any other.

Now we open in the terminal the chart that we want to redo, right-click again, select “Template” and the form that we saved (“My Template”).

Everything turns out simply amazing.

How to open a demo account for trading?

You can open a training account directly in the terminal - click “File” and select “Open account”.

We need a “Demo” server; it is the only one in the general list.

You can leave all the settings as they were – your account currency will be USD, your leverage will be 1:100. Consent to receive news by mail must be given.

Now everything is ready - save the data somewhere, close the window.

In the window that opens, indicate the account number, password and server (we always use Alpari-Demo).

In principle, I consider our post today complete: I gave you a number of tips, described a plan according to which we will study the market. We downloaded the terminal and figured out (I hope) what it is Japanese candles. This is still quite small share necessary knowledge, but everything is ahead.

It's no secret that the vast majority of those who start trading on foreign exchange market, lose their money. Only about 3-5% of them become successful traders, whether speculating in currencies, stocks or commodity futures. How do they do this? Those who think that success can be achieved without special knowledge and experience are very mistaken. Before starting to make good money, every trader goes through a series of failures, disappointments and large losses.

Losers in the forex market lack one of the most important qualities - patience. Every trader has to learn. And each of them pays their own price for it. Those who want to learn how to make money from trading need to learn a few mandatory rules...

A professional trader always knows what, when and why he is doing. He understands perfectly well that he and only he makes all trading decisions, and, therefore, bears full responsibility for them. You are unlikely to meet a successful speculator who would blame someone else for his failures. They simply do not exist in nature.

If a trader accepts responsibility, he will have no reason to “feel sorry” for his unfortunate self. In cases where, after opening a position, the market turns against him, he records his loss and conducts a thorough analysis of the situation in order to avoid its repetition in the future.

To succeed, you need to try and be willing to make mistakes. But not in order to tear your hair out, but in order to gain the necessary experience, drawing conclusions from each such mistake.

One can hardly imagine Warren Buffett, after losing several million dollars, blaming the cruel world for such terrible injustice or blaming his broker for giving him an erroneous recommendation. He always took responsibility for all his decisions and that is why he made a fortune from speculation.

A successful trader, having closed another losing trade, will first of all ask himself why this happened, whether he followed the rules of his trading system. If so, then he will reconsider his trading rules. If not, he will need to work on himself in order to increase his self-discipline and motivation. The lack of these qualities in most cases leads to serious losses.

American traders say: “If you need someone else's opinion, you are better off not trading at all.”

Indeed, if your trading system brings you more profit than passive investment income, why do you need anyone’s advice? Will a bank analyst who gives a positive forecast for a currency only help you to enter into a short position more profitably? This will only confuse you.

If you are trading on long term trend, will the opinion of a day trader help you? It is impossible to find two speculators whose view of the market would be exactly the same. But the paradox is that it is much easier to do what you are told than to make a decision yourself.

So, either take full responsibility or don't trade at all.

Always follow only the signals from your own trading system. If you suddenly have an irresistible urge to ask a recognized currency trading “guru,” do the following:

• close all your positions;
• reconsider your trading plan;
• Assess your psychological state and try to understand what is preventing you from taking full responsibility for making a decision;
• As soon as you feel that you are ready to bear the responsibility, return to trading.

Is it possible to learn to be responsible? Of course yes. To do this, you just need clear trading rules.

This is called a trading system. It is possible, and even necessary, to make changes to it, especially after closing unprofitable transactions. But under no circumstances deviate from it. Having once thought: “it’s all of them (by the way, who are they?) to blame,” “the speculators blew their stops again,” be sure to ask yourself how clearly you followed the rules of your trading system? If you followed, it means that your success is already on the way to you, despite today's failures. If not, then you have to seriously work on yourself to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

Start trading today. Follow your rules and accept full responsibility and you will understand that trading is inherently simple if you know and follow its laws.

Rule 2. Create your own trading system

Every successful trader, investor, portfolio manager has his own trading system. Someone trades intraday, someone enters a position for weeks, someone uses trading robots, someone relies on their intuition. There are a great variety of system options, but the most important thing is that there is such a system. For every trader, it somehow includes trading rules within which he feels comfortable.

Warren Buffett, one of the most successful traders in the history of the financial market, made a fortune trading stocks. There are day traders who earn several million dollars a year. There are even dancers using momentum trading with profits of over three million. What do they all have in common? Yes, that each of them has their own system that suits them in the best way.

Very often traders take someone's trading system and are trying to make money with it. This is especially true for novice speculators. For the most part, these are traders who prefer intraday trading. But few of them manage to derive real benefit from this. It’s not at all easy to spend five hours in front of a monitor, constantly monitoring changing quotes. Of course, there are those who do it very well, but most only lose their money.

One of the main challenges for day trading is maintaining peace of mind. It is not at all easy to follow how the market jumps up and down, sometimes giving profit, sometimes taking it back.

The set of rules of your trading system must clearly correspond to your psychology. If you are not comfortable with intraday trading, expand the time range.

Some speculators have difficulty withstanding the market movement on long-term positions even by 30-50% in their direction. But for most traders, long-term investments are the only possible option. None of them will be able to make a real profit if they cannot be in profitable position, while the market goes in their direction.

Creating a profitable trading system is akin to building a successful career. Successful managers not only worked hard, they also loved their work.

If you get real satisfaction from the result obtained, if you feel that the business you are doing is “yours,” rest assured, you are on the right path.

It's the same in trading. Your system should be convenient for you, and trading with it should be enjoyable. Those who try to go against their self will never succeed.

How to choose the right trading system?

It's as simple as that. Analyze your trades and answer the following questions.

1. What kind of profitability do I want from trading operations?
2. How often do I want to place trades: for the whole or only half of the trading day, once every three days or once a week?
3. Can I handle the stress of day trading? Will I be able to hold long-term positions?
4. What are my personal characteristics? Do I need to constantly take action?
5. What trading books have I read? Do I have any authority among currency speculators? Will a system developed based on their trading rules suit me?

Someone will be comfortable staying in a position for months, devoting a minimum of their time to trading and at the same time making a good profit. But for a less calm trader, such a system can become a real hell. He will prefer to be in the market for a couple of weeks and a movement of 4-5 figures will be quite enough for him.

The main mistake of many traders is that they literally hate the system they trade with. This results in constant stress and nervous tension, which cannot but affect trading results.

If instead of “banging their heads against the wall,” they would take the time to introspect, realize their strengths and weak sides, then they could create their own strategy, which would bring them not only profit, but also pleasure from trading. And no advice from analysts, complex technical programs they wouldn't need it. And you wouldn’t have to look for someone to blame for your failures either.

On average, a novice trader lasts 6 months. Those who were able to hold out for two years, as a rule, begin to earn a stable income.

This is exactly what most speculators need in order to gain sufficient experience, understand what trading style suits them, and feel their comfort zone. But, unfortunately, very few pass this stage successfully. Most often, a trader loses his money, and subsequently his motivation, much earlier. And they never have the desire to understand their own psychology.

If you want to become successful, repeat like a mantra: “I will create a system that will bring me a lot of money and pleasure. And with her I will become the best."

This confidence must become part of your nature. Now feel free to get to work. The most difficult and interesting things are yet to come.

Rule 3. Plan every trade and strictly follow the trading plan

Without a clear trading plan, no trader can stay in the market long enough. Its creation is not an end in itself. You need to not only think through the sequence of your actions, but also strictly follow it, without deviating even an iota. The plan must cover literally everything.

Richard Dennis once said, “Don't worry about where the market is going. Worry about what you will do when it happens."

Once a position is entered, the trader has no control over prices. That's why he just needs a plan that covers everything possible options. Once he appears, you will have nothing to worry about because you are ready for anything. As a result, your trading will turn from an emotional stop placement into a coherent system.

General example of a trading system

Do you think that the euro will rise against the dollar in the near future? Therefore you buy 1 million euros at 1.3320.

Before you open such a position, you need to answer a number of questions.

1. Where do I plan to place my stop? How much money am I willing to lose?
2. How much do I plan to earn? On what basis will I make a decision to exit a position?
3. Am I willing to average out if the market goes down?
4. If the euro does not rise in (specify period), should I close the position or wait until the stop is triggered?
5. If the position is closed with a loss, will I look for new levels to enter the euro-dollar pair or should I switch to another instrument?

Just drawing up an action plan is not enough; you need to strictly follow it.

It’s not for nothing that you thought so carefully about what you would do if the market moves in one direction or another. In this case, you will not need anyone's advice. There will be no reason to worry about lost profits or excessive losses. All you need to do is set out to create your own trading plan. Consider which strategy will bring you the most profit based on your trading style. Develop it and do not deviate from it under any circumstances.

Creating a trading plan is like planning your vacation trip.

Absolutely everything needs to be provided for. Especially unforeseen circumstances.

• You are in a position in a currency pair, and it opens with a gap of two figures, what will be your actions?
• You bought the franc, and the SNB decided to conduct overt foreign exchange intervention in order to increase the exchange rate, what then?
• You are short the dollar/ruble, and oil futures have fallen by half, so what?

If you don’t have a ready answer to these cases, but you are already in a position, then you will quickly realize that you simply don’t know what to do. There is a risk that you will start making rash decisions, and this will immediately affect your trading results, and not for the better.

This is why many traders prefer to rely on the advice of various types of financial analysts. They don't need to create their own trading plan. And in case of failure, it is very easy to blame someone else for your losses.

Analysts cannot be trusted, believe in your trading strategy!

For example, analysts at Citi Group bank suggest that the EURUSD pair will rise from current level at 1.3300 to 1.4200. But your trading system says that you need to open shorts with a stop loss at 1.3500 and a trailing stop to take profit.

Why do you care what other market participants think about this? Naturally, they may turn out to be right. But in this case, the maximum that threatens you is exiting the position with a stop loss. But when you ask yourself how closely you followed your trading plan, the answer will be clearly yes.

Analysts often give their recommendations solely for the purpose of opening or increasing their own position in the exact opposite direction. There are plenty of examples of this. In particular, in April 2010, Citi convinced investors that the euro would rise to 1.45-1.48 in the coming months. Everyone knows what really happened. On May 5, 2010, RBS released a forecast for the British pound under the motto: “Buy the pound! We see the target at 1.5260!” And this despite the fact that the market was clearly in the grip of a downward trend. As a result, on May 17, the pair broke through support at 1.43.

Each of us would like to be in the place of George Soros or Warren Buffett. The main question is how to do this. Do you think Soros would have carried out the now legendary speculation with the pound against the dollar in 1992, based on someone else's advice?

Of course not. Traders of this level must guess market movements several steps ahead, and they must do this exclusively themselves, using their own trading system.

But most traders stubbornly ignore the need to create their own trading plan. And those who do do this constantly violate it without a twinge of conscience. All of them, one way or another, fall into 90% of chronic currency losers.

If you do not want to be one of them, develop your own trading system and act strictly in accordance with its rules. Then the ability to make money on change exchange rates will cease to be a miracle or luck for you. Otherwise, you will only learn the art of losing your money.

Rule 4. Study, study and study again

Trading is a profession.

And like any other, it requires knowledge and experience. Is it possible to become a surgeon or an airplane pilot in 2 weeks? Therefore, do not expect to become a successful speculator after a week-long beginner's course.

Any trader who earns constantly and a lot has spent a lot of effort, time and money on this.

Where to start on your path to success? First, you need to understand why you want to start trading. Do you like it or do you just really need the money?

From this point of view, it will be very useful to read the book “Grow Rich with the Peace of Mind” (earn a fortune in harmony with yourself), written by N. Hill. It presents the most correct approach to any income - money cannot be the only goal. You also need to love what you do.

One famous businessman said: “We were just doing what we loved, and we were very surprised that we were also paid for it.”

If you got into trading just to make money, your chances of success will be slim. Most likely, your desire to learn, rather than follow someone’s advice and fashion trends, will very soon fade away.

A huge number of traders do not read books on the foreign exchange market at all. They are chasing an impossible dream fueled by the message “$10,000 out of 100 in a week!!!” The prospect of losing $10,000 doesn't frighten them at first. They prefer to read forecasts rather than books that cover the basic fundamentals of trading.

In order to become successful, theoretical knowledge will not be enough. You need experience and constant self-improvement.

Schwager noted more than once in his books that the path of any trader to success is a series of trials and errors that help him learn how to make money. Are you different from the rest? You are no better and no worse.

But, in fairness, it should be noted that those who decide to engage in trading often consider themselves smarter than others.

This misconception is extremely dangerous. You need to get rid of it before you top up your deposit with real money for the first time. Think about why you should double your deposit every year when you just start trading, without yet having the necessary knowledge and experience? Do you know anything that those who have been trading for 5, 10 or 15 years don't know? Be prepared for the fact that the first three years you will only study. Moreover, this training will not be free; possible losses will be its price. It is in your power to reduce it as much as possible. Ideally, you can even get a scholarship.

Two stages of successful trading

1. You need to develop your own trading system. It needs to take into account as many factors as possible: a convenient time frame for work, the amount of time you will spend on trading, the potential level of profitability and possible risks. To create an effective system, you must first do serious work on yourself. You need to constantly monitor your emotional state during trading, monitor stressful situations and reduce them to a minimum. This is a fairly long process, which usually takes about two years. If it's too long and complicated for you, quit now and save yourself a lot of money. Well, if you are not afraid of such a long and labor-intensive process, go ahead and get to work.
2. The system has been created, it’s time to start your journey to the top of Olympus. But make no mistake, you are unlikely to achieve it. Nobody succeeds. In one period of time you will be as close to her as possible, in another, on the contrary, you will begin to move away a little. But you should never be completely satisfied with yourself. This will be the beginning of the end. This does not mean that you need to constantly look for your mistakes. There is simply no limit to perfection and any system can be made even better. As you gain experience, you yourself will change. Your task is to make the most of these changes and become calmer, more responsible and disciplined.

Everything, even the most experienced traders, make mistakes. The most difficult thing in Forex is not to make money, but to keep the profits.

Be sure to read the book by one of the greatest speculators, Jess Livermore. Try to understand his approach to trading and never do that.

Jess traded stocks and commodity futures. He was able to earn huge money. He twice raised his deposit from meager amounts to millions of dollars. But both times I lost all the money I earned. Realizing that he would repeat such success a third time, he chose a different path - suicide.

The most important thing this book should teach you is to always control your emotions. Livermall was a great trader, but he never learned to control his psyche. If his trading system had not carried excessive emotional tension, the tragic end most likely could have been avoided.

Only control over your psychological state and constant analysis of your own actions, including erroneous ones, will help make trading an enjoyable and comfortable experience.

How to learn to make profits and minimize losses?

Each trader has his own path, but there are several general points that need to be worked on consistently.

1. In the first year of trading:

• focus on psychology. Your task is not so much to make a profit as to maintain emotional calm.
• read as much specialized literature as possible. But after reading another book, don’t put it on the shelf. Try to understand the actions and inner motivations of successful traders. Assess how much effort and time it took them to achieve success. Find out how many times they were left with nothing after another margin call. Formulate for yourself what qualities helped them succeed.
• attend training seminars. But not those where they promise to reveal all the secrets of Forex to you. In fact, there are no secrets. Master the technical and fundamental analysis, capital Management. Don't expect a two-hour course from an "experienced" speculator to help you start making money.
• start analyzing graphs. You can use simple technical programs. Don't make deals, just watch.

By the end of this first year, you should have a clear understanding of what trading is for you. If you realize that currency speculation is not for you, great! You saved a lot of nerves and money.

Many traders have to go through this stage several times, because at one “wonderful” moment trading becomes a real torture for them.

If the thought of having to open a position just makes you cringe, do something else instead!

2. Second year:

• open a deposit on a small amount and start practicing your knowledge. Be prepared to lose this money.
• increase your level of knowledge, attend seminars, learn from the experience of successful traders.
• develop your own style, corresponding to your psychological characteristics. Assess whether your system allows you to conclude 5 profitable trades in a row and what is the probability of such an event. And now there are 7 unprofitable ones. Pay special attention to the emotional state in case of both profitable and unprofitable transactions.
• study technical analysis, read charts. Charts themselves do not drive the market. But they allow you to calculate the expected price movement based on repeating rules. Use the "paper trading method" to control your emotions. To do this, print out any chart. The period should be what your trading system suggests. The main rule is that you should not know about what happened after the printed chart ends. Now try to guess how the price changed after the printout broke. Create your trading plan with detailed description their actions in various situations.
• experiment with different risk settings. Remember that even if the system provides for 50% profitable trades, it can easily give 7 losing ones in a row. When opening a position, do not worry about closing it at a loss. Trading volumes at this stage are insignificant, so you don’t have to worry about possible losses. The main thing is to clearly understand that you are acting strictly in accordance with your trading plan and remain calm even in the event of several losing trades in a row. Remember, your trading system has a positive expectation in the long term.

3. Third year.

If you have successfully completed the three previous stages, then you have managed to assess your capabilities well enough and your trading has turned into systematic profit-making. You have successfully completed your Graduate Diploma in Currency Speculator. It will not be possible to complete this course as an external student.

If you hate wasting three years of your life on these “universities”, don’t even try to start trading. You will get nothing but constant losses and disappointment in yourself.

Well, if you are ready to learn, don’t waste time, get started. The main thing is not to follow the lead of those who promise you doubling your capital every year. Even if you manage to create a system with such profitability, its risks will be corresponding. Trading in the foreign exchange market is not easy at all. You will have to constantly learn from mistakes, preferably, of course, from others.

Rule 5. Healthy self-confidence

“All truly wise thoughts run through our heads thousands and thousands of times. However, in order to make them truly ours, we must be sincerely confident that they are applicable in our lives."
Goethe.

A prerequisite for successful trading is absolute confidence in your trading system, your own strengths and discipline. Every successful trader knows that if you have even the slightest doubt before opening another position, the risk possible losses increases many times over. As you improve your trading rules and constantly work on yourself, your self-confidence will only grow. Without it, it is very difficult to follow your trading plan.

Those who prefer to make decisions based on someone else's strategy lack confidence. As a result, they receive a series of unprofitable trades, become disappointed in someone else's system and choose the next one. And so on ad infinitum.

But any trading strategy requires the presence of both profitable and losing trades. 10 positions in a row closed at a loss is not that uncommon. Moreover, the system as a whole can produce 50% profitable transactions.

Systems that involve trading along the main trend give much less than half of profitable trades. But even infrequent wins more than cover all losses, and in the end such trading gives a positive financial results. If the trader very quickly abandons the chosen strategy, the risk is that new system in the short term will show the same unsatisfactory result, very high. An experienced trader will continue to work according to the previously chosen plan and sooner or later will receive his profit.

You can become a trader who is confident in yourself and your system only after hard and painstaking work on yourself.

No one can avoid losing trades. Sometimes they may come one after another. Everyone knows George Soros and remembers how many billions he made between 1970 and 1980. But his funds also suffered significant losses at one time.

• He knew that his system would bring losses; without this, it was simply impossible to speculate in financial assets.
• He was confident that his system could generate income.
• She works within her expectation and records losses when necessary.
• He knew that over a longer period of time, profits from successful positions would more than cover all losses.

Night gives way to day, summer to spring. Likewise, in trading, periods of failure end, and the time for profitable transactions comes.

One of the main tasks of a trader who finds himself in a “black streak” is to get out of it with minimal losses so that future profits compensate for all losses. But many speculators cannot come to terms with the loss of even a small part of their capital and give up without waiting for their finest hour.

“According to your faith it will be given to you.”

All our problems are associated, as a rule, with the fact that we ourselves do not believe in ourselves.

If a trader doubts himself or his trading system for even a second, he should stop and again, perhaps for the hundredth time, think carefully and answer a few questions. Why is he trading? What's in it for him? Does he believe in his success?

Almost every chronic loser views trading as gambling. For all his failures, he blames anyone but himself. Although, if he had delved a little into himself, he would have realized that his approach to trading was fundamentally wrong. This is not a game in a casino, where everything depends only on fortune, and on the owner of this casino, of course.

Without faith in success, it is simply impossible to start making money on the foreign exchange market. There are many examples when traders earned millions of dollars, starting with penny deposits. But then they lost absolutely everything. Their lack of confidence in their abilities did not allow them to maintain their success. Some of them are lucky. After several global failures, they still began to look for the psychological reasons for their defeats.

Ed Seykota, one of the most successful traders said: “Everyone gets out of life what they want and what they believe in.”

So ask yourself:

• "What is trading?"
• "Is this a game you can't win?"
• "Is this a big casino?"
• “Strict adherence to the plan only brings losses?”

Determine what kind of profitability you would like to receive from trading operations. Decide how much time you are willing to spend on this activity based on your target rate of return.

If it’s enough for you to earn 50% of your capital per year and spend 10 minutes on it every day, great, you’re a realist. Start working towards this goal.

If this profit is too small for you, just trade more. But this should be strictly in accordance with your trading plan. Control your emotional state while staying within your own strategy.

Trading is not a way to make money quickly. This is more of a long-term investment with varying success.

Having gained some experience, you will understand that the trading result is assessed not by a specific amount, but by a relative value. This is exactly what the sixth rule says.

Rule 6. Evaluate your results in relative terms

Trading has the main rule - follow the trading system, not paying attention to external factors.

It is completely wrong and dangerous to evaluate your results like this: “Wow, I earned money for a new car” or “In one day I lost more than I spent on my last vacation.” The fallacy of this approach lies in its emotional component.

When thinking about money, it is extremely difficult to maintain composure and not break your own rules.

Your emotional background will change from frantic euphoria to complete depression. Stop counting money, especially if you are in an open position. Instead, evaluate your deposit as a sum of abstract points. If you succeed, then euphoria and discomfort will be a thing of the past. Neither profit nor loss will evoke strong and dangerous emotions in you.

A quick profit or loss can cause strong feelings, which seriously complicates the trader's self-control. How to get rid of these emotions? It is enough just to follow your trading strategy and not recalculate the financial result every second and not figure out what you will spend or would spend this money on.

The story of Nicolas Darva

This approach is described very clearly in Nicolas Darva’s book “How I made $2 million.”

This is not a book about currency trading, it describes the experience of a stock speculator who went from overly emotional and unprofitable trading to profitable trading “on the machine.” Darv had his own trading system and iron self-discipline. But more importantly, he never looked at the market as a bag of money. If his system gave a signal, he would buy, clearly knowing how much he was willing to lose in case of a loss. The amount of capital made no difference to him, whether it was $5,000 or $500,000. He did not count money, but instead strictly followed his system.

One day Darva bought shares at $53.5 for 350,000. The market rose above $100. Darva received a message from his broker: “Profit is already 250,000.” At that time, Nicolas was working on his own trading system and didn’t even think about money. But, having received this message, I became not myself. He realized that he had secured, to put it mildly, a comfortable old age (in the 50s, $250,000 was worth much more than it is now). He had only one question: should he sell, because his system did not give such a signal.

After spending a lot of time thinking, he decided to stay within his strategy. It was a difficult decision, but time has proven that it was the right one. A few weeks later, the stock continued to rise and Darva earned much more. If he had counted the money, it is unlikely that he would have been able to accept correct solution and stay in position.

Basic rules of trading theory

The basic rules of trading theory are simple and seem to be clear to everyone:

1. Buy low, sell high.
2. Record losses in a timely manner.
3. Let your profits grow, don’t fix them ahead of time.

It's so simple. But if this were actually the case, there would be much more than 5% of successful traders.

A profitable trading strategy involves many different factors. Understanding is not enough, you still need to be able to do it.

When opening a position in any currency, almost every trader at least once said to himself: “I’ll break my rules just once. And then I will trade strictly according to them. Nothing bad will happen." But experienced traders know that this should not be done under any circumstances. Rules are meant to be followed. There should be no exceptions. This is the key to success for any currency speculator.

• Improved financial situation.
• Earn money with minimal time investment.
• The ability to create your own work schedule! Whether you work full time or part time, work for yourself or work from home, you can set your own hours because you are your own boss.
• Compatible with any lifestyle and no matter what Forex trading is for you: part-time job, full employment or financial independence.
• You control the size of your monthly salary- it's your choice how much you want to earn. It all depends on how much effort you are willing to put in. Your profits are limited only by your goals and abilities.
• Making transactions at the most convenient time. The Forex market is available 24 hours, 5 days a week.
• The Forex market is the largest trading platform in a world (larger than the stock market), where there are always and at any time people willing to sell or buy currency.

Earn money with Paxforex today and make your dreams and desires come true tomorrow.

How to make money on currency exchange

The main rule of Forex trading: “Buy cheaper – sell more expensive”

Forex is an international market where currencies are traded. The goal of a Forex trader is to buy a particular currency cheaper and then sell it at a higher price.

With skillful trading, you can earn up to $1,000 per day!

Example trading operation on Forex:

Let's say that yesterday you bought 1 Euro at a price of 1.37 dollars. Today you sold 1 Euro at a price of 1.38 dollars. Your profit will be $0.01 (1.38-1.37=0.01). Of course, this amount is quite small. But imagine that you bought not 1 Euro, but 100,000. Under the same market conditions, your profit will be equal to the amount of $1000! How is this possible? With the help of leverage provided by the Forex broker!

With a leverage of 1:500, you only need to invest $200 to trade up to $100,000!

With a leverage of 1:500 you need to invest only 200 EUR,

to start trading an amount of

100,000 EUR and earn 1,000 USD.

PaxForex provides traders with leverage up to 1:500, so you can operate with amounts up to five hundred times your initial deposit!

PaxForex also provides you with the lowest spreads among online brokers. We provide our clients with the best prices on currency pairs to ensure maximum income.

Of course, as with any other type of investment, there is a risk of loss, but good news is that in the Forex market you cannot lose more than what you have invested.

The art of Forex trading is predicting the right time to buy or sell a currency. Forex traders constantly conduct research and analysis of market data and international trends to decide which currency to trade for maximum profit. Any major event, such as an earthquake in Chile or a civil war in Congo, can have a direct impact on the currency market. Through fundamental and technical analysis, experienced traders gain a better understanding of rising and falling prices and which currencies are best to trade.

Trading with PaxForex includes:

• Current news and market analytics on a regular basis.
• Forex trading account with all the necessary tools for trading.
• Wide range of deposit and withdrawal methods.
• Forex demo account on which you can work out your trading strategies without risk of loss.

When you feel confident working on a Demo account, familiarize yourself with the Metatrader 4 trading platform in detail and develop your own trading strategies, then feel free to open a real trading account and start earning money!

Technical analysis will help you determine the most profitable time to make transactions, and fundamental analysis will allow you to predict the behavior of currencies depending on global economic and political events.

On our website you will find a wide variety of information designed to help you trade on the Forex market.

The keys to success in the Forex market are experience and knowledge. PaxForex provides all the necessary knowledge, while gaining experience using a Demo account is entirely your prerogative.

By putting in enough effort and time to acquire the necessary knowledge and practice, you will significantly increase your chances of successful Forex trading with PaxForex!

We offer you an introductory lecture on working on Forex market. We apologize in advance if the lecture on the Forex market seems like a bunch of platitudes and repetition of well-known truths. Its main task is to explain the basic principles of the Forex market in a way that is understandable even to those who are far from the foreign exchange market.

Let's start a bit from afar and talk about exchanges.

1. Exchanges

Exchanges have a long history. The first exchanges appeared at the beginning of the millennium in Japan. These were the so-called "rice exchanges". And although, in comparison with modern exchanges, they were more like a bazaar, where they traded only this product, the most valuable for the Japanese, nevertheless, even now modern exchanges use developments that arose many centuries ago.

Now there are several types of exchanges in the world, which can be divided into three groups:

Commodity exchanges. Even from the name it is clear that these are exchanges on which goods are traded. I think most of you remember how a few years ago commodity exchanges in our country grew like mushrooms after rain, and in terms of the number of exchanges we seemed to even be ahead of all other countries combined.

Why are these exchanges interesting to us? The fact is that here we can highlight several characteristics of goods that are universal for all types of exchanges. So, goods traded on a commodity exchange, the so-called “exchange goods” must have the following characteristics:
a) There should be quite a lot of them produced and there should be a steady demand for them. That is, massive supply and demand.
b) The product must have certain unified characteristics that are understandable to all trade participants - for example, gold purity.
c) The product must be divided into a certain standard quantity, the size of which is agreed upon in advance. This certain amount of goods is called a lot, that is, a lot is the minimum amount of goods traded on the exchange.
d) The price for one lot of goods on the exchange is never constant, as in a store. It changes all the time, depending on the balance of supply and demand.

Stock exchanges. I don't know about you, but I have no idea stock exchanges received in childhood, after reading N. Nosov’s book “Dunno on the Moon”. Basic principles of trading on stock market they are stated there very clearly, and, in principle, correct. Shares of firms and enterprises are traded on stock exchanges. A share is a piece of paper, a document that confirms its owner’s right to a share in the enterprise, that is, he becomes the owner of the enterprise.

This exchange is interesting for us at least because the goods traded on them are very abstract. It cannot be eaten or poured into a car tank. Why buy shares? For different reasons. Someone wants to buy this or that company. Someone believes that the profit of this Company will grow and buys shares in the expectation that payments of part of the profit (dividends) to him, as the owner, will increase. Still others buy shares in the expectation that the price of these shares will soon rise and, having bought low, they will sell them at a higher price and pocket the difference.

This is called "speculative market activity." The word “speculative” has acquired a negative meaning in our language, yet there is nothing shameful in it. The English word "speculate" means "to reflect", that is, speculation, in fact, is a highly intellectual activity. A normal speculator is not a nosy person who “through the store manager, through the store manager” gets hold of the deficit and sells it at three times the price. A normal speculator does not need any store manager - he earns money exclusively on his own and exclusively with his own mind, he is a market intellectual. And the essence of speculation in the stock market is very simple - the speculator, through REFLECTION, came to the conclusion that the shares of the Giant Plant Society should increase in price. He buys 10 shares at 3 rubles per share and later sells them for 4 rubles. He puts the 10 rubles he earns in his pocket.

Currency exchange. And finally, the third exchange market, which is the subject of my lecture, is the interbank global foreign exchange market, the Forex market. Where did this word come from? Forex or FX is an abbreviation for the English “FOReign EXchange”, that is, literally, “foreign exchange”. This is a stable expression for currency exchange and you can see these two English words on any exchange office in any country.

But, before we continue talking about the Forex market, let's talk a little about the history of this market.

2. History of Forex

This market is the youngest, it is much younger than the stock market and even more so commodity market. He is young even by human standards - in 2000 he turned 29 years old, since he appeared in 1971.

Why did it appear so late? To answer this question we will have to go back to 1944. The Second Ends World War, everyone already understands that Germany and its allies lost the war and we need to think about how to live after the war. Therefore, in 1944, representatives of the victorious powers gathered in the American resort town of Bretton Woods. Unfortunately, representatives of the Soviet Union did not participate, but they were not there for obvious reasons - the meeting was economic, and economically the Soviet Union was in a different economic dimension than these countries.

Why was this meeting called? It was clear to everyone that after the end of the war, wartime laws would be replaced by other laws - economic ones. The United States suffered the least in the Second World War (as, indeed, in the First), and war-ravaged Europe will need food, goods that are not there and, moreover, there will be nothing to produce them at first. All this is available in America, which means they will buy it. In order to buy all this in America, you need American dollars. This means that after the war there will be a rush demand for American dollars. Accordingly, the price of the dollar will grow explosively. This is not beneficial to anyone, including the United States. If the currency rises, then everyone will have problems purchasing goods in the country - they will be very expensive and America may face a crisis of overproduction. Therefore, in order to prevent this crisis, proactive measures were taken and the so-called “Bretton Woods Agreement” was concluded.

Its essence was as follows. First - U.S. $ strictly tied to gold - they decided to consider that an ounce of gold costs about 30 dollars. Secondly, European currencies and the British pound were strictly pegged to the dollar.

These measures, in principle, achieved their goal and the post-war crisis was, if not avoided, then significantly smoothed out.

However, time passed and the rigid fixation of exchange rates, having fulfilled its function, was already becoming a brake on economic development. Artificial exchange rates have long been inconsistent with the real state of affairs. Therefore, in 1971, the Bretton Woods system was abolished and a decision was made to float the exchange rate. From now on, the rates of all currencies are determined solely by the supply and demand of those who need this currency. This is how the Forex market arose, which includes absolutely all currency exchange transactions carried out in the world.

I will say right away that the “newborn” developed extremely quickly. In less than 30 years, he achieved unheard of results. Now it is the largest international market. Trading volumes in this market range from one to three trillion dollars per day. That is, one to three annual US budgets. Or 40-120 annual budgets of Russia. To give you a comparison with other markets, the stock market is only worth $300 billion a day.

3. Forex market participants.

Who works in this market? Naturally, those who need to carry out transactions with currency.

1. This is first of all - central banks states
What are they doing in Forex? Perform two main tasks: control commercial banks their countries and follow the course national currency.

But the influence on the exchange rate of the national currency in developed countries occurs not by issuing decrees that the dollar will cost 3 rubles or 20 yen, but by market influence on the exchange rate.
How? For example, a dollar costs 28 rubles. The Central Bank considered that it was necessary to reduce the exchange rate. He says that anyone can buy a dollar from him for 25 rubles and throws it on the market a large number of dollars at this price. If he manages to cope with demand, the price will fall and the dollar will cost 25 rubles. Traders call such actions “currency intervention.”

2.Commercial banks. What do they do in the foreign exchange market? First of all, speculative operations. Commercial banks receive about 70-75% of their income from speculation in the foreign exchange market, profitably buying and selling currencies. In addition, they follow the instructions of their clients to exchange one currency for another.

3. The next level, respectively, are bank clients. That is, trading companies, manufacturing companies, investment companies, private investors. Their interests in the foreign exchange market? Firstly, production necessity. If I am a Russian entrepreneur selling timber to Japan, then I periodically need to exchange rubles for yens and vice versa. If I am an American who bought a tour package to the UK, then I need to exchange dollars for pounds. Secondly, bank clients also engage in speculative operations in the market, that is, they make a profit by playing on the difference in rates. This is exactly the category we belong to.

But before talking about the mechanism of speculation in the market, I would like to tell you why Forex is attractive for a speculator in comparison with the same stock market.

4. Attractiveness of the Forex currency market.

1) Firstly, this is the most developed market in terms of communications systems. That is, via the Internet, satellite communications, etc. You can make a deal from anywhere in the world.

2) You can make a deal, that is, enter into an agreement to purchase a batch of currency, in a few seconds, by pressing a few keys on the computer.

3) The huge volume of trading on the market is very attractive. Why is this attractive? Because the larger the market volume, the easier it is to predict. Firstly, collusion in the market is almost impossible due to the huge number of participants. In addition, such large masses of people begin to act according to the laws of mass psychology. And, knowing these laws, you can predict the reaction of market participants. And, most importantly, a large market can be analyzed using mathematical methods. We will teach our students all these forecasting methods. Forecasting based on mathematical methods is called "technical analysis"

4) In addition, Forex is very sensitive to economic and political events taking place in the world. The simplest example: a couple of years ago the German mark was traded on the market (later it was replaced by the “euro”). Germany's investments in the Russian economy are very large. As a result, any announcement about the next troubles in Russia, be it the presidential elections or Yeltsin’s illness, was instantly reflected in the exchange rate of the German mark. All this also contributes to market predictability. A forecast based on world events is called "fundamental analysis"

5) Unlike the stock market, Forex operates 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, excluding weekends. Australians and residents of New Zealand begin work, then the so-called “Asian session” begins - Japan, Hong Kong, etc., then Europe, followed by the “European session” - the “American session”. When the Americans finish work, the Australians are already awake and working at the market. Thus, a deal can be concluded at any time, and this is very important for a speculator.

6) There is only one way to make a profit in the stock market - buy cheaper, sell more expensive. For a speculator working in the foreign exchange market, it does not matter at all whether the currency is rising or falling; profit can be made from both the rise in price and the fall in price of the currency. I'll tell you how a little later.

Now let's move directly to the mechanism of work on the market. Further, in order for me to express myself in a language that you understand, you need to understand several basic concepts and definitions of the Forex market.

5. Basic concepts of Forex:

Currency dealing- carrying out currency exchange operations on the global interbank foreign exchange market Forex

Trader and broker- A trader is an individual or organization that carries out transactions in the market solely on its own initiative. The trader himself determines what to buy, when to buy and how much to buy and sell. Broker is entity, carrying out this order by order of the trader. The foreign exchange market is not a specific place, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where participants in transactions gather. Rather, it is a huge information network through which deals are concluded. So, as a rule, a trader connects to this network through a broker. For this, the trader pays the broker a commission per transaction. However, the broker may not charge a commission, but be content with the difference between the buying and selling rates (in the foreign exchange market, as in any currency exchange office, there is a buying rate and a selling rate, but the difference is usually much smaller)

Currencies.

As I already said, the Forex market includes absolutely all currency exchange transactions carried out in the world. However, the volume of transactions carried out with the Zimbabwean kwacha and even with the Russian ruble in the total volume of transactions is negligible. The majority of transactions are carried out with the most common and popular world currencies. Therefore, most brokers provide their clients with the opportunity to work with five major currencies, the volume of transactions with which accounts for up to 85% of the entire global Forex market. They are the ones that currency speculators most often work with, not least because the large volume of transactions makes analysis easier and more accurate. Here they are:

USD - US dollar.
EUR - euro.
CHF - Swiss franc.
JPY - Japanese yen.
GBP - British pound sterling.

Exchange rates and quotes.

The expression “How much is the Japanese yen” has no meaning in itself. Because the question inevitably arises: how do we measure value? You can measure, as the parrot in the cartoon explained, in anything, even in chewing gum - how many chewing gums can you buy with one yen. But usually the value of a currency is determined by another currency. For example, the American dollar costs 28 kopecks Russian rubles. So you can always talk only about currency pairs. And in the future we will talk about four pairs of currencies. Of the five listed above, the American dollar is involved in all four pairs, that is, we will consider the yen, euro, franc and pound in relation to the dollar.

Main currency pairs of the Forex market (Forex).

The dollar against the Swiss franc is written as follows: USDCHF. The abbreviation for this pair is CHF=
Dollar versus yen - USDJPY (JPY=)
Euro versus dollar - EURUSD (EUR=)
Pound versus dollar - GBPUSD (GBP=)

Please note that in the first two pairs the dollar is in first place, and in the last two pairs it is in second place. This is not accidental and is important for understanding what a quote is. And the quote means how many units of the currency that is contained in the pair in second place (this is called the “quote currency”), contained in a unit of the currency that comes first (this currency is called the “base”).

Here is an example of recording quotes - USDCHF=1.7862, or CHF=1.7862. This means that one dollar contains 1.7862 Swiss francs. The quote EURUSD=0.8467 (EUR=0.8467) means that one euro unit (since the euro is the base currency) contains 0.8467 dollars.

You also need to understand the following - the concepts of “buy” and “sell” in the market always apply to the base currency.

Paragraph.

Everyone has probably heard the expression “The price has fallen by 100 points.” By point we mean an elementary minimum change in price, that is, a change in the last digit in the quote record. If the quote EURUSD=0.8467 changed to EURUSD=0.8466, this means that the euro fell by one point.

Lot is standard amount currency used in exchange transactions. The lot size is always indicated in relation to the base currency. That is, if CHF = 1.7862, then this means that for 10 thousand dollars they give a little less than 18 thousand francs. Lot sizes are usually multiples of 10 and 100 thousand. For convenience, the lot size is written in fractions of a million dollars. That is, the entry “0.3” is a short designation of a lot of 300 thousand. The minimum allowed lot depends on the brokers. For partners of the Forex Club company - International Analytic Service LLC (USA) and CB MeritBank (Moscow) - the minimum lot is 10,000 USD, the maximum lot is not limited.

Margin trading

I see that you were depressed when you heard about the minimum lot of 10 thousand dollars. Don’t worry, you won’t need that amount to work in the market. Here to the rescue of traders who do not have significant amounts To work in the market, comes margin trading. What is the essence of margin trading?

Firstly, the trader must have a so-called security deposit in his account. A security deposit is an amount that is in a trader’s trading account to secure transactions.

The basic principle of margin trading is that operations on the market are allowed to be carried out with an amount no more than N times greater than the security deposit. The number N is called leverage.

And now the same thing, but simpler. Each broker provides traders with so-called “leverage”. It is different for different brokers; the brokers of the Forex Club company have a leverage of 100. What does this mean?

This means that the broker provides you with the opportunity to operate on the market with an amount that is one hundred times greater than your insurance deposit. That is, if the security deposit contains 200 USD, then operations can be carried out with amounts of 10,000 USD and 20,000 USD. If your security deposit is 2,000 USD, then transactions can be carried out with amounts from 10,000 USD to 200,000 USD inclusive. That is, less than the maximum possible amount is possible, more is not possible!

A reasonable question is - what caused such “charity” on the part of the broker? To answer it, we need to analyze the mechanism of transactions in the foreign exchange market.

The mechanism for making a speculative transaction on the foreign exchange market

First of all, you need to understand that for work in the market to be truly work, a trader must have certain knowledge. Based on his knowledge, a Forex trader builds a so-called trading system. A trading system is a certain set of rules according to which it reads the market and predicts it, understands that right now it is necessary to buy or sell some lot of a particular currency. It is impossible to explain how to build a trading system in an introductory lecture, we explain this in courses, so in the transaction mechanism that I will now consider, I will simply say “according to the readings of the trading system, now you need to buy.”

Any transaction consists of two parts - first you need to buy currency, then sell it. Buying from us is called “opening a position”, selling is called “closing a position”.

Let’s say, according to the system’s readings, a trader assumes that the franc should become cheaper relative to the dollar. According to the system, he should buy when the quote is USDCHF=1.7860. The franc exchange rate has reached this level, the trader has $1000 on the security deposit, and using a leverage of 100, he can buy a lot of 100 thousand dollars (since in this quote the dollar is the base currency). He buys this lot, that is, opens a position. So we bought 100 thousand dollars against Swiss francs at the rate of 1.7860.

Let's now look at what happens. There are two sides - the trader and the broker. When concluding a transaction, the trader undertakes to transfer 178 thousand 600 Swiss francs to the broker. At the same time, the broker undertakes to transfer 100 thousand dollars to the trader. Here I want to point out one important point- no money transfer is carried out at this moment, only obligations are accepted. Relatively speaking, they had already concluded a deal, but agreed that the money would be transferred to each other later.

Now let's look at closing a position. For simplicity, we will consider a price change of 1 point. Let's assume that over some time the dollar has risen in price against the franc by 1 point. This means the quote will be USDCHF=1.7861. The trader closes the position. When a previously open position is closed, an opposite transaction is concluded.

A trader bought 100 thousand dollars from a broker. Now he sells them at the current rate, that is, 1.7861. That is, the obligations are now accepted in reverse - the trader assumes the obligation to supply the broker with 100 thousand dollars, and the broker, accordingly, will supply francs for them at the exchange rate, that is, 178 thousand 610 Swiss francs.. The money is again not transferred, but the obligations are offset .

When opening a position, the broker had to deliver 100 thousand dollars to the trader. When closing a position, the trader must deliver 100 thousand dollars to the broker. As we see, these obligations are mutually extinguished, offsets are carried out, the balance is zero, no one owes anyone anything.

Now for francs. When opening a position, the trader agreed to deliver 178 thousand 600 Swiss francs; when closing the position, the broker must deliver 178 thousand 610 Swiss francs to the trader. Settlement is carried out, the broker owes the trader ten francs more. He gives these 10 francs to the trader. I want to say right away that all calculations on the market are carried out only in dollars. Therefore, let's convert these francs into dollars. We have a rate, one dollar costs 1.7861 francs, divide 10 francs by 1.7861, we get a rounded figure of 5.6. The trader's profit on this trade was $5.60. That is, a price change of 1 point for a lot of 100 thousand dollars gives the trader a profit of 5 dollars 60 cents.

Please note that profit depends on lot size! Why? Let's do the math.

Let’s assume that when opening a position, the trader bought a lot not of 100 thousand, but of 10 thousand dollars (for this it is enough to have only 100 dollars on the security deposit). Accordingly, he undertook to supply the broker not 178 thousand 600 francs, but 17 thousand 860 francs. When closing the position, he accordingly sold these 10 thousand dollars and should receive 17 thousand 861 francs from the broker. That is, his profit was no longer 10 francs, but only one franc or 56 cents. But if a trader bought a lot not of 100 thousand, but of 200 thousand dollars (2 thousand dollars on the security deposit), then the profit for changing the quote by one point would be 11 dollars 20 cents.

We looked at an example where a trader correctly calculated the market movement. What if he had been wrong, and the franc had not fallen in price, but had risen in price?

If the quote changed one point in the other direction, and became not 1.7861, but 1.7859, then in the example we considered, the trader, having delivered 178,600 francs to the broker, would receive back 178,590 francs from him, that is, he would lose 5 dollars 60 cents, which would have been taken from his security deposit and he would have only $994.40 left of his thousand dollars in deposit. This is precisely why a security deposit is required - profits are credited to it and losses are withdrawn from it. As you have seen, compared to the amounts involved, the profit or loss is not that great - $5 on a $100,000 transaction. This is the answer - why a broker can provide leverage that is a multiple of a hundred. The amount of possible losses is not so large and a security deposit of $1000 fully guarantees coverage of possible losses during the transaction.

So, if a trader believes that the franc will not become cheaper, but, on the contrary, will rise in price, then in this transaction he should not buy, but sell. You will remember that the terms "sell" and "buy" refer to the base currency, and in the USDCHF= pair it is the dollar. That is, if the system shows that the franc will rise in price, the trader sells 100 thousand dollars to the broker and in return receives 178 thousand 600 francs. The quote fell by one point, USDCHF=1.7859. When closing a position, the trader receives his 100 thousand dollars back from the broker, but he must give back not 178 thousand 600 francs, but 178 thousand 590 francs. 10 francs or 5 dollars 60 cents remains with him as profit.

For homework, you can look at an example with another pair of currencies where the dollar is not the base currency, for example, with the EURUSD= pair. So, given - the quote is as follows: EURUSD=0.8467. Calculate how much profit a change in quotes by one point will give you. If we think that the euro will fall in price, what should we do - buy or sell? Just do not forget that the base currency in this case is the euro, therefore, in this case we will buy or sell a lot of 100 thousand euros.

And finally, the last question that probably interests you is how much can you really earn in the market? By how many points does the price change? Every day, naturally, gives different figures, but on average for the same franc the quote per day changes by 120 points, that is, with a profit from one point of 5.6 dollars, a trader’s income can be about 670 dollars or even more.

More - because 120 points is the difference between the maximum and minimum quote values ​​during the day, and the exchange rate usually does not grow linearly. It grows, then decreases, etc. Let’s imagine that during the day the quote first increased by 60 points, and then decreased by 45 points. If a trader first “opens up”, closes the position at the peak and immediately “opens down” (in trading jargon this is called “rollover”), then, despite the fact that the difference between the maximum and minimum quotes was only 60 points, it is actually possible make a profit from 105 points.

So it is quite possible to earn money, and earn a lot, on the Forex market. To do this, you only need to correctly predict when and in what direction to open and when to close a position. And for this you need to have a trading system, which requires mastery of the methods of technical and fundamental analysis. It is training in all these intricacies that we offer at the International Academy of Exchange Trading. So, if you have a desire to try your hand at working in the foreign exchange market, you are welcome to study!

How to start trading Forex and where to get lessons for dummies? How to work with the trading platform for beginner traders MetaTrader4? Where should you start analyzing the Forex market?

Hello, dear readers! This is the author of the “HeatBober” website, Alexey Morozov. We continue our acquaintance with the Forex market, today we will talk about the basic knowledge necessary for trading.

I have successfully traded on the Forex exchange with the largest Russian brokers for several years. Based own experience and conversations with professional traders, I can confidently say that without awareness of the material below, trading is simply impossible.

So let's get started!

1. Forex for dummies – basic terms and concepts

We will talk about Forex terminology throughout all articles devoted to this topic. Within the framework of this material, we will only cover the concepts of “trend”, “support and resistance” and some others.

You can get acquainted with these fundamental names in more depth in the material “”.

Most of the time, the foreign exchange market is in motion, which can go either up or down. Therefore, the first two types of trends: ascending(aka upward or bullish), descending(aka downward or bearish).

For successful trading, remember the key definitions:

Bullish trend observed when a new peak updates the previous one, and a new trough does not fall below the previous one

In a downtrend the situation is reversed:

Bearish trend is then observed, a new depression updates the previous one, and the new peak does not rise higher than the previous one

An example of a bullish trend that is apparently close to ending or has already ended:

Ended bearish trend:

Sometimes prices move in a “corridor”: they either rise or fall within certain limits. We wrote earlier that a similar situation is often observed for several days before planned important news.

"Corridor traffic" is called lateral trend(aka horizontal or neutral). For this trend, it is important to remember the following:

Sideways trend observed only when the amplitude of fluctuations is at least 300 points.

If this rule is not followed, trading should not be carried out under any circumstances. In the example below, we see a sideways trend with an amplitude of 158 points - not enough to open positions.

Let us summarize the above in table form:

During the movement, prices rely on or are pushed away from invisible lines, which are called “support and resistance lines.” To carry them out, it is enough to connect the peaks or troughs.

If the price breaks through support or does not reach resistance, this is a signal of a weakening trend. If the price does not reach support or breaks through resistance, an acceleration signal:

The price on the screen above “confirmed” the support (yellow line), but did not touch the resistance (blue line) - the reversal signal was confirmed: the market did not update the top, and then broke through the support.

Let us remember one more very important point:

Transactions can only be opened in the direction of the trend – if it is rising – buy ( Buy), if downward – sell ( Sell)

These were general principles making money on Forex for a beginner, but everyone wants to become a professional, right?

2. Where to start analyzing the Forex market?

When opening any trade, it is important to rely on something, since trading “by intuition” or with automatic robots inevitably leads to failure. There are two main areas of market analysis in Forex: technical And fundamental.

According to technical analysis, schedule prices contains all the necessary information - to make a decision to open a transaction, you just need to study the price history.

In the article “” we will talk about the postulates of Charles Dow, one of which says “The market knows everything” - thereby confirming the logic of the technical direction.

According to fundamental analysis, prices in markets exist and change under the influence fundamental factors, which we will discuss in detail in a separate article.

Example

If a state begins to actively export its products to the market, its currency will inevitably increase in value - there is a fundamental economic basis for this.

Technical analysis is carried out on any timeframes, but, as a rule, the maximum time interval is one day. Weekly And period timeframes are the path of fundamental analysis.

Mastering fundamental analysis is much more difficult than technical analysis, so we will pay special attention to the second area.

Technical analysis methods:

1. Graphic(classic) – analysis of graphs. This includes trading strategies based on patterns, equidistant channel, Fibonacci lines and many others.
2. Candlestick– there are several hundred candlestick models that predict certain changes in the market - “maribozu (bald candle)”, “long-legged rickshaw”, “hanged man”, “hammer/shooting star”, “tombstone” and so on.
3. Indicator- usage special programs for trading (see article "").
4. Wave– the Elliott wave theory is controversial, but many traders trade using it and make very good money.

Over the course of several articles, we will review all of these methods in fragments, focusing on classical analysis.

Now let's talk about how to reach the pinnacle of trading prowess with maximum efficiency.

3. How to quickly achieve success - the main stages of Forex trading

Any professional growth can be represented as a sequence of steps, Forex is no exception. Successful traders follow the path described below.

Stage 1. Select a broker

In a separate article “” we will talk about what to rely on when choosing a broker. There are several factors, first of all, licensing (in Russia so far only three brokerage firms have licenses).

The second is trading conditions: minimum lot, number of instruments, spread size. After reading all the articles in the stock trading cycle, you will understand how to figure it all out and not get confused.

Stage 2. Learning to work in the trading platform

As a rule, brokers provide trading instructions, but this does not always happen. Below we will talk about trading in the most popular platform today called MetaTrader4.

It is important to be able to work with tools, use alerts, and trade “ in one click“- without all these skills it will be difficult for you.

Stage 3. Gaining knowledge

If you don't understand financial markets– you won’t be able to trade, this is an unequivocal fact. In previous articles, we gave several instructions for “mastering” the market.

You shouldn’t think that to succeed in Forex you need to study for five years, like in a university - if you spend 2 hours every day for two to three months, you can form a good understanding of the market and master several strategies.

This will be enough for a successful start, but in the future you will need to continue learning.

Stage 4. Replenish your trading account

When we open a trade, we set the level Stop Loss– if the price goes against us and reaches it, the transaction will be closed with a minimal loss. Losses due to Stop Loss should not exceed two percent of capital.

Almost all traders agree with this: 2% reserve the right to make another 49 transactions and “win back”; psychologists have noted that because of such losses, we do not lose control of our minds, but continue to think sensibly.

Calculations show that for trading on timeframes from 15 minutes to 1-4 hours, covering Stop Loss with two percent of capital requires at least two hundred dollars– this is the optimal deposit size for a successful start.

Stage 5. Choose a strategy and follow it

The essence of any strategy is the excess of the number of successful transactions over unsuccessful ones, so when trading you must be guided by a clear plan.

We will look at short-term and intraday strategies in the future, and you will figure out where to enter a trade, where to exit, and at what level to set the Stop Loss.

4. How to work in the MetaTrader4 trading platform - 8 simple steps

Many companies are trying to create their own platforms, but so far nothing better has been invented in comparison with MetaTrader. Following eight simple steps will give you the most complete understanding of this program.

We will return to MetaTrader in other articles, for example, in “”, so the material presented below must be studied carefully.

Step 1. Download the platform

MT4 must be downloaded from the website of the broker with whom you plan to cooperate: the set varies financial instruments and some minor parameters.

Installation is straightforward - the program is downloaded to drive C and opens automatically.

Step 2. Log in

A trading account, as a rule, is opened on the broker’s website - you receive a password and a server, and connect to it.

Step 3. Create a template and set up charts

To trade successfully, we will bring the charts into the desired form and remove all unnecessary things. At first, only four currency pairs are available, but you can open new ones without any problems.

To configure the chart, right-click on it and select “ Properties"or just press F8. A window opens with two tabs, the first one is “ Colors" Here we change the color scheme to “ Black on White”:

Now in the " Are common» put the necessary checkboxes and remove the unnecessary ones as in the screenshot below:

Great, we have successfully set up the schedule! In order not to carry out this procedure with each currency pair, we right-click on the chart and select “Template” - “Save Template”:

We save to the folder that opens (for us it’s Templates). Now, to set up a new chart, you just need to select the saved one in the list of templates and click on it.

Step 4. Install indicators

We talked in detail about installing indicators in the previous article. Let’s repeat: to install a program, you need to select it in “ Navigator", drag it onto the chart and configure the parameters.

Step 5. Set up alerts

Sound notifications or alerts will significantly improve your trading - when the price reaches a certain level, you will hear a signal that will be repeated periodically.

To configure, right-click in the desired place on the chart and select “Trade” - “Alert”:

After clicking, a red arrow will immediately appear on the screen; when the price touches it, a signal will sound. If the notification is activated by a mouse click, then in the settings window you only need to change the timeout and the number of repetitions:

“Timeout” is the time period after which the signal will be repeated, the minimum value is 10 seconds, “maximum repetitions” is the number of times the alert will make itself known.

Step 6.

In almost any strategy you need to determine the trend. This can be done either using the indicator or the “Drawing Trend Line” tool - connecting each top and bottom:

After trading for several days, a beginner gets the hang of it and determines the trend simply by looking at it, but at first it can be a little difficult. In the figure and above, both trend lines and the MA indicator helped us in determining the trend.

Step 7

To open a deal, click “Open order” on the toolbar, or press F9, or double-click on the chart. The window looks like this:

The lot is indicated depending on the capital (more on this in other articles). Stop Loss and Take Profit must be entered directly at the moment of opening a position, at what level depends on the trading strategy.

When the order is opened, trading begins - we will see the profit or loss online on the board.

This concludes our brief tour of the MT4 terminal, but we will return to certain points in other texts.

5. How to work with graphical tools - useful tips for beginners

Analyzing the questions that newbies have, we have prepared three recommendations for some elements of the MT4 platform.

When you draw a trend line, by default it is drawn as a “ray”, but you can also make a “segment” - right-click on the line, select “Properties”, and uncheck the box in the “Parameters” tab:

In the “General” tab, you select the thickness and color, which can also be important. If you click on the extreme points of a segment, you can change its slope; clicking on the center allows you to move the line.

If you hold Ctrl and start dragging the line to the side, we will get a parallel “copy”:

Two more points. " Crosshair"shows the height from one point to another, and not the length of the line (contrary to the misconception of beginners). So if you move it horizontally, the number of points will not change.

Sometimes a beginner wants to rewind the chart to the side, but it stubbornly comes back. To prevent this from happening, you need to turn off autoscroll - the green arrow on the toolbar:

The red arrow, on the contrary, “pushes” the chart to the side, opening up more space for graphical analysis.

The video will allow you to get acquainted with MetaTrader on a more professional level.

6. Basics of profitable Forex trading - 5 golden rules for the novice trader

As we approach the end of this material, we will point out five rules that should never be violated by those who want to trade successfully in the foreign exchange market.

The largest Russian brokers provide free training for everyone who wants to learn trading.

Rule 1: Always control your emotions

The great trader of our time, Alexander Elder, says that most people on the stock exchange are controlled by two emotions: fear and greed. They equally deprive the ability to think rationally.

Never follow your emotions, no matter where the price goes - in your direction or against you. Emotions definitely lead to death; strategies require cold calculation and sober reason.

Rule 2. Strictly follow the chosen strategy

As we have already said, strict adherence to the chosen strategy will not give you constant profits, but will increase the number of successful transactions compared to unsuccessful ones, so you should not deviate from the intended trading plan under any circumstances.

If you doubt the logic of a strategy, do not use it on a real account - conduct a thorough analysis on a “demo” account, and then risk your own hard-earned money.

Rule 3. Manage risks wisely

Set a Stop Loss according to your strategy, measure the distance to it and determine how much you will lose if the price touches it. If possible losses exceed two percent of your capital, do not open a deal.

Don't try to take big profits by taking risks large sums. A more reasonable way is to increase the deposit or take money under management (through the PAMM account service), receiving more profit with the same risks.

Rule 4. Always study

To successfully follow the strategy, basic knowledge and understanding of the very essence of the trading plan is enough. But if you have a burning desire to become a real professional, study constantly, love the market.

Rule 5. Practice constantly

You need to trade Forex every day, no matter how much time you devote to it: constant trading builds a trading skill, without which success is impossible.

It is advisable to keep a diary in electronic or printed form and write down the results in it, provide printouts of graphs, and note your emotions.

7. Conclusion

Dear friends, in this article we have already come close to real trading - we have learned to determine the direction of the trend, got comfortable with the trading terminal, and figured out some of its useful functions.

In subsequent articles we will look at a variety of trading strategies for short- and medium-term trading, so you can move on to making transactions with “real” money.