2Bull Forex Blog

So you wanna know which is possibly the best Forex trading platform there is out there that you can use don’t you? Well, I’ll tell you a bit later if you promise to be patient.

Without further ado… let’s get right into it.

Now I’ve come across tens of different Forex trading platforms available out there. From retail platforms to institutional platforms (these aren’t available to the general public). Platforms such as Oanda, GFTForex, FXCM and the various brokers that run on MetaTrader4. There are also very professional platforms such as TradeStation and VTrader.

So with all these trading platforms available to you, you must be wondering which one would be best for you?

Want the TRUTH?

No one can actually answer that for you except yourself. We can only give our opinions as to which ones would be suitable for your needs but you need to discover which ones really serve yours. The other thing is… this whole issue about the best trading platform is actually not THAT important in my opinion as compared to issues like your trading psychology and things like that.

When you become more experienced and more familiar with trading, you’ll understand how you like to trade and what features you need. One trader might need trailing stops while another doesn’t. One might need the ichimoku indicator built into the trading platform whereas his counterpart doesn’t. Since all of us are unique and not made the same, what makes you think that there is a trading platform solution that suits all of us?

While I leave you to think about what I’ve just said, do be sure to allow yourself plenty of time to get acquainted with the flavors available. All the best with your search.

The really big money is made from people who can forex trend follow successfully and the reason its so lucrative is the big trends last for weeks, months or years. Let’s see how to trend follow forex correctly.

The first point to keep in mind is that you need to be patient to wait for the right opportunities and then hold them for a long time.

In your forex trading strategy you don’t get rewarded for trading often, or the effort you put in, you get rewarded for being right and that’s it.

The simplest way to make big money forex trend following is to trade breakouts above resistance to a new high or below support to a new low. Most big moves start from breakouts and if there valid the odds are heavily on your side.

What is a valid breakout?

Simply a support and resistance level that has been tested on several occasions – 2 is the minimum but the more the better and the more different time frames and wider apart they are the better. You are looking for levels the market participants consider important.

When they break normally stops are bought back and new buying kicks in creating a surge in price.

When you have a level you think is valid and it breaks don’t just jump in check also that price momentum supports your view and the velocity of price is in your favor.

For this use momentum indicators – there are a number of good ones and we love the stochastic, RSI and ADX indicators. They are covered in more detail in our other articles so simply look them up.

If momentum is on your side, execute your trading signal. Your stop loss is then obvious:

Place it below broken resistance or above broken support.

Well this all sounds straightforward doesn’t it? Well now the hard bit – staying with the trend.

This sounds easy but is incredibly hard for most traders as the bigger a profit becomes the more they want to bank it before it gets away. As the profit gets bigger the temptation to get the stop really close or snatch it becomes too much and the trader banks a marginal profit.

What happens next? The trade goes in the direction he thought it would and piles up $10, 20, or 30,000 dollars and he’s not in – this has happened to me, it’s a horrible feeling!

What you have to do is:

Hold your stop back outside of normal volatility, so you don’t get taken out to soon. For this look up standard deviation of price and make it an essential part of your forex education.

If you want to stay with the big trends, you need to keep you stop back and a good way of doing this is to use a key simple moving average ( we use 40 days) this will keep you with the big trends and your stop outside of random volatility.

Sure you are going to give a big chunk back at the end of the trend, but as you don’t know when the trend will turn that’s not a problem. Catch just 60% of all the major trends and you would be very rich.

So accept dips eating into your open equity on your currency trading system in the short term, be disciplined and keep your eye on the bigger prize.

Does the above sound simple?

It is – but don’t think the above won’t make you money it will.

I know several traders who focus on breakouts on longer term trends and make 100% + annualized gains trading around 10 times a year.

Trend following forex involves being patient, trading the best opportunities and having the discipline to stick with your trading system, to take short term drawdown to bank big profits.

Become a forex trend follower and the potential is huge in terms of profits.

The Tip enclosed will help you avoid forex trading robot scams and the vast majority of losing systems. It’s very simple and if you use this tip you will save a lot of money – here it is…

Check If the Track Record Is Real!

This might sound obvious after all you want to know the system has been tested and traded in real time and made money. While making money in the past is no guarantee of future results it at least shows the logic of the system is soundly based.

The problem with most forex robots is they have never been traded by the vendor. Sure you get a track record but the catch is. Its only simulated knowing what happened in the past. Here is the disclaimer you will normally see:

“CFTC RULE 4.41 – Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not been executed, the results may have under-or-over compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profit or losses similar to those shown“.

So if you see a robot with the above on it pass it by or ask for a real time track record or proof the vendor has traded it supported by account statements.

The Power of Marketing

You won’t get an answer normally as these systems are simply designed by marketing companies. Make up a track record, add some clever copy and sell it. The forex trader who buys these systems either doesn’t see the disclaimer, or doesn’t consider it important and pays for this with a swift wipeout of equity.

The Real World

Your not going to get rich by buying a software package for a few hundred dollars – making money isn’t that simple – if it were, then everyone would be trading and not working. Banks and brokerages would sack their fund managers and cut their wage bills dramatically and most of these software packages claim to have better performance than most funds!

Making Money

There are a few good forex trading robots about with real time track records – but there few and far between and there not cheap expect to pay $2 – 20,000 for one. There are some free ones around to and were huge fans of Richard Donchian’s 4 Week Rule – it’s not perfect – but it will beat 99% of robots sold and its free.

Make sure you keep the above tip in mind and consider that you, me, my 8 year old son, or anyone else, can make money in forex trading backwards but you don’t get money for that you get paid for trading without knowing what will happen next and that’s a bit harder.

I see numerous advertisements from gurus and system traders who say they can predict prices in advance with science – but this is impossible and if you try it you will lose. Avoid this forex myth and learn a better way to trade…

Predicting is another word for hoping and guessing and if you predict, your prediction in forex will be as accurate as your horoscope! You don’t get anything in life for hoping or guessing and the same is true in forex trading.

Why there is No Way to Predict

There is a huge industry online that sells courses and currency trading systems based upon the law of human behavior.

Human nature is constant they argue and they know the law – follow it and you will predict and win but there’s a problem with this logic:

If there was a scientific law of investing everyone would know where prices were going and there would be no price movement! Furthermore, if a law is based on science it needs to be totally objective and work all the time – that’s the scientific definition. If someone had found the law of market movement they wouldn’t tell you or me they would simply make themselves billionaires.

The theories Of The Far Out Crowd

The most common methods that are sold which are supposed to be scientific are based on:

- Elliot Wave
- WD Gann
- Fibonacci

Are any of them scientific and tell you what to do?

Of course not, there all subjective and that’s not scientific by definition. Elliot died poor, Gann made a lot of money then dumped it and poor Fibonacci – his theory (which was to solve a puzzle of multiplication) has been hijacked for something it was never intended.

The far out investment crowd, love all the above theories and there mystical connotations – but they are not scientific and are not objective.

If it’s not objective and doesn’t work all the time – it’s not scientific – PERIOD

The REAL Way to Win

Trading is not a game of science it’s a game of odds. Just like the poker or blackjack player doesn’t win every hand you won’t win every trade but you can make a lot of money by trading when the odds are in your favor.

Trade the reality of price change as it happens and don’t predict. Sure you will miss a bit of the move but you wouldn’t be able to see that anyway so there is no point in trying.

Can you make a lot of money doing the above?

Of course you can – it’s the only way to make big gains.

Try trading a breakout method – this means basing your forex trading strategy on buying new highs and selling new lows. It’s a fact that most major forex trends start from these levels and if you wait for them and trade them, you will make a lot of money.

Leave science to the far out crowd and get a forex trading system that’s based around trading the truth and reality of price change and trade the odds.

The scientific theory of human nature is one of the biggest forex myths out there.

Sensible and logical people in other walks of life for some reason believe them despite the fact there obviously isn’t one – don’t make the same mistake.