Wednesday 21 May 2014

Forex, Fraud and Fake Identities

Forex and fraud are very common bedfellows and when you consider the money that is at stake, it' easy to see why.

The Forex market is often touted as a 'get rich quick scheme' and a way to make some quick money. The truth is it's nothing  of the sort and more often than not it's participants will lose all there money. The reason that people tend to lose their money has little to do with the actual market itself, although that accounts for a lot of losses, but rather the scammers and con-artists that prey on the weak and greedy.

One common scam that has been around for years is the 'fake guru' who offers to 'train' losing traders and make them into winners.

The con is as simple as it is outrageous.

First the con-man will set up a false identity and then begin to attribute fake credentials and authority to that identity. They will establish a paper-trail that shows the fictitious person is a competent trader with a wealth of knowledge.

If the con is successful then the thief can make a considerable amount of money which is what makes it so appealing. By using a fake identity the criminals are distancing themselves and ensuring that they will never be held personally liable.

When people lose money or damages are cause as a direct result of the bogus traders advice, the con-man gets away completely unscathed.

One such con that has recently come to light is that involving a Mr. Dale Woods of Woolongong, NSW, Australia who runs the website theforexguy.com

He was recently exposed as a scammer and a fraud on the site www.forexexposed.com and was revealed to be taking money from people under false pretence.

Mr. Woods had created a persona and was using the alias 'Graham Blackmore' to perpetrate his fraud. He had also written a book under the alias to give further credibility and make it even easier to dupe his victims.

It's unknown how many people unwittingly gave him money but it's believed to be in the thousands. When you consider that he charges about $250 per person you can see how lucrative it was for him.

The most shocking fact of all is that at the time of writing this article, it is still going on.

Reports have been made to the NSW Police via their Crimestoppers hotline (https://www1.police.nsw.gov.au/List.aspx) and also the Australian watchdog, Scam Watch (http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/)

If you feel that you have been the victim of this or any other Internet related fraud then you are encouraged to contact the authorities and have these criminals brought to justice.

Thursday 27 February 2014

What is Forex Trading?

If you are wondering what is forex trading, it is essentially the trading of currencies of different countries. Forex stands for foreign exchange, and it works somewhat like the stock market in the sense that you buy low and sell high. But it’s also in many ways different. Here is an example: the currency in many European nations is the Euro (EUR), while in the US it is the dollar (USD). A forex trader may buy Euros while selling USD at the same time, a process known as going long with the EUR/USD, or whatever currency is being traded.


How Foreign Exchange Works
Currency or forex trading is usually done via a market broker. When you trade you have to select a currency pair that you believe will change values, so you make a trade for it. For instance, if you bought 1,000 Euros in January 2014, it will cost you $1,300 USD. Assuming that you held onto your Euros for a year, and by again assuming that time the value of the Euro reached $1,400; if you sell, you will gain a profit of $100.

Currency trades can be made online. These days it just takes a few mouse clicks to place an order, after which your broker will send your order to the appropriate market to set your position. Once your trade is closed, your position is closed and your account will be credited with the profit or loss. This isn’t as complex as it sounds, as the process is now fully automated.

Managing Forex Trades
As you can see, answering the question “what is forextrading” is quite easy, but while the process is simple, you need to approach it with caution and due diligence. Just like the stock market and investing in general, you need to do your homework first. If you want to succeed in currency trading you must rein in your emotions and learn about risk management.

The biggest challenges for new traders is (1) using too much leverage, (2) too nervous about losing money, or both. Before you begin trading, make sure you know your risk appetite and study forex risk management. While everyone can profit from currency trading, you still need to set stop limits so you don’t end up losing money. These measures are very important. 

Getting Started
If you want to go into currency trading, you have to get in touch with a forex broker or trade online. Either way you will need to open an account and fund it. Once your account is ready you have to decide what currency pair to trade. A lot of beginners go with the EUR/USD since it is very liquid and is actively traded. However, you also need to look at the market situation and decide what is best.
Now that you know what is forex trading and have chosen a currency pair, use a chart and start analyzing its prospects. If you expect the currency to fall, you short trade it, and if you think it will go up, you go long, or buy it. Once you have made your decision, you can begin trading and make some serious money.   

To learn more about Forex Trading visit Baby Pips and read their comprehensive guide.

Monday 17 February 2014

Ways of Making Black Box Trading Work for You

Black box trading, or automated trading, is becoming more widespread, and the reason for this is that it allows anyone, even a new trader, to make market transactions that would have been otherwise impossible without these technologies. Not only is the technology becoming more affordable, but there are a lot of benefits that traders can get out of it, not the least being your trades are placed automatically in your account.

How to Get Into Automated Trading
The simplest and most effective method to get into auto trading is to use an existing system. This isn’t as simple as just copying of course as you also need to know how these systems function. If the idea of entrusting your funds to another person or a system makes you uncomfortable, learn as much as you can about it. Does the system work with ranges or trends? What kinds of strategies are in place, and are they for short, medium or long term? Just like with the stock market, you need to check the reward and risk ratio of each strategy, and the win rate as well. In other words, the more you know, the easier it will be to pick a forex automated strategy.



Essential Features of Trading Platforms
Automated trading systems should provide you with real-time and historical data that can help you assess strategies. With automated trading you should know each strategy’s profit and loss as well as other vital facts and figures like the risk/reward ratio, the loss/win percentage and intraday and max drawdowns. Black box trading will give you all the stats necessary to get some insights into each approach.

Modifying Strategies to Meet Your Needs
If you’re the type who likes to tinker with different strategies then this is the approach for you. Under this type of trading you take an existing system and make modifications until it suits your style and preferences. For instance, you may have found a forex strategy that generally suits your taste but you don’t like the limit levels imposed. Or perhaps the strategy uses a moving average that you’re not comfortable with and want to change it.

If this is how you want to trade, you’re in luck since there are a lot of web based trading platforms that provide such types of customizable strategies. Using this approach you can customize parameters like currency pairs, stop loss levels, indicators, timeframes and many others. These platforms also allow you to optimize and back test these strategies.

If you are an advanced trader you will probably want to develop your own strategy from scratch. There’s a reason why this is designed for advanced traders; it takes a lot of time and it can be difficult. But if you know a system that’s consistent, there’s no reason for you not to try it.

If you are going to use black box trading while customizing strategies, it is best to open a demo account (virtually all platforms allow this) so you can try out the different strategies. If the results are satisfactory, you can go live and start trading. 

Sunday 8 January 2012

MQL4 Tutorial - Discover at No Cost!

Learning something can now and again seem to be very daunting at first yet as you grow acquainted with the particular subject matter you quickly understand that it wasn't as hard as you had first feared. To easily understand MQL4 you have to find the best introductory MQL4 tutorial.

The mql4 tutorial will take even the most amateur of programmers by the basic methods to create a simple expert advisor and assumes absolutely no preceding programing knowledge or practical experience whatsoever. The tutorial works as a excellent first step to anyone that's enthusiastic about mastering more concerning the metatrader 4 programming language and specifically how to generate expert advisors.

You are going to quickly get into full gear and will have created your individual simple EA right away. The course centers solely on making an expert advisor and does not deal with the way to program indicators whatsoever. That being said it’s really not much more work to adopt what you have acquired within the metatrader mql4 tutorial and put into action the concepts to let you code a good indicator.

When trying to master mql4 as with any other programming language you have to always make an effort to read the help file provided, review other pieces of code and try to make sense of exactly what it’s doing. It may seem challenging in the beginning but believe me if you apply yourself and remain concentrated you'll be able to do it. Look for an article on the net that describes the required steps to become an MQL4 programmer and see if you possess the right state of mind.

As you prepare taking your training a little further there's a free ebook mql4 tutorial tool that can assist you.

Learning MQL4 truly isn’t too difficult at all and is also a great language to begin with since it’s loosely based on Visual Basic which can be one of the simplest languages there is certainly. Many people declare that mql4 is founded on c++ which is a very powerful language but it’s syntax just isn't really instinctive. The exact same may not be claimed of visual basic and thus mql4 as being both use really familiar and simple English language constructs within their syntax. The new coding language for metatrader, mql5, is truly much more similar to c++ and it's hence nowhere close to ‘newbie friendly’ as mql4 is.

When you are seriously interested in trying to learn to code your individual expert advisors or perhaps indicators for metatrader 4 you'll certainly benefit by looking through the mql4 tutorial.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Factors which Make Using Forex Automated Trading Software Essential for Business


A forex trader can indulge into the immense opportunities in the trading scenarios earn profits which can hardly be imagined. Having said this it is essential to understand that forex trading is also a quite risky task, especially when you are unaware of have very little knowledge of trading of this kind. This requires precise and careful understanding of such processes. With an automated trading software or robot trading system you will be able to get the software do your trading which also reduces the risk of acquiring huge losses as well. Hence, it is imperative that prior to indulging into such trading businesses you consider taking enough time to understand the subject thoroughly. Automated forex trading software also provide vital tips and suitable methods which can be used to handle the most changing, unpredictable, and even unpleasant circumstances in the market.

These are computer software which automatically scans the forex market and provides trading decisions based on programmed algorithms. These trading activities are made with little or absolutely no intervention by the user. There are several such automated trading software available in the market. With such systems making complex computations is quite easy since forex will handle all such mathematical concerns. However there are certain benefits of forex automated trading software which makes it suitable to reap profits year after year:

Pay no commissions
Unlike those people who seek commission for their task and ability to make market strategies automated robots will never share your profits. With automated forex trading software you can keep all the profits by yourself. You need not pay for any brokerage or clearing fees. You only require paying the bid needed.

No other person involved
Using automated trading software eliminates the involvement of any other person in your dealings. This essentially means that using such a trade robot you will be able to conduct your dealing online without the intervention of a third party.

Small transaction cost 
Using this software, you will be required to pay for your specific spread only. However in terms of trading two different exchange rates are assigned for every currency pair. The first is the difference in the price between the buy and sell price. This is simply how a broker makes money due to the presence of two different rates for every currency. The money changer then acquires his share of profit based on the difference he places in the exchange rates.

Better liquidity
Forex trading means advantages in initiating transactions immediately by using a forex robot. This speeds up the investment and decision making process allowing businesses to work around the clock.

Access it online
The best part of the automated forex trading software is that it can be used at home on your computer. As long as the place is internet savvy trading can be done simply anywhere.

Ease of usage
Forex robots are generally easy to install, access, and use. This essentially means that you simply do not require operating it at all.

Forex does not need human interference at all. However it is good to keep it updated according to manufacturer guidelines so that it can deliver a great performance. Automated trading software is a suitable inclusion to your business of trading. By understanding the process well and getting hold of the techniques will open up a sea of opportunity to excel in the market thus increasing profitability quite a lot. Get an insight into such automated training program by visiting mql4 tutorial.