Investors planning for retirement may finally have an opportunity to keep more of their portfolio profits.  As the cost to carry investments over long periods of time evaporates, the investing class will enjoy a higher standard of living, and banks will build a better relationship with their clients.

Not Free, But Nearly

In just a few short years, the biggest development on Wall Street has grown from just one fund.  Exchange-traded funds are hot; in fact, nearly 33% of all stocks traded each day are an ETF, and companies are catching on the bandwagon, offering new investment plans centered on an ETF model.

Exchange-traded retirement plans are the next frontier; never have investors been so enabled to balance their future however they decide.  And with all of this transparency and good accounting, investors also get annual fees a tenth of what they’re used to paying.  Scrap load fees too, as exchange-traded funds cost only the brokerage fee to make the trade – which is significantly better than the standard 4-5% pure commission load.

Meet the New Boss

The new boss in retirement planning is not financial planners or traditional brokerage firms.  Instead, the new boss is the deep discounting direct broker that allows investors to buy and sell ETFs just like stocks.  The financial sector is quickly divvying up exchange-traded fund demand between themselves as they try to offer as many portfolios as possible to attract investors into the inexpensive funds.

So Many Funds, So Many Opportunities

At present, there are approximately 800 exchange-traded funds operating on Wall Street.  Though many of the funds overlap by offering a similar portfolio of stocks or operate in one sector or commodity, there is plenty of consumer choice in which exchange-traded product to purchase.  The average investor has multiples more funds than ever needed to fully encompass the market, and many investors are slicing up the pie between low-cost index funds and a few personal favorite sectors.  Such buying is prompting ETF issuers to create actively managed and target date funds to court mutual fund investors into something new.

401Ks Are Next

Exchange traded products have been the most popular in IRAs and other retirement accounts, where the investor generally makes one bulk investment each year.  However, as more competition enters the exchange-traded product industry, investors can expect that brokerage fees will ultimately fall to make ETFs the best option for any investor, regardless of total capital.

At present, only the wealthiest of investors see a huge benefit on their initial investment, while less wealthy investors do not see immediate returns and may take as long as 5-10 years to recoup their initial investment costs.  Programs like ShareBuilder and other low cost brokers shall feed the ETF scene as investors have to pay a brokerage fee with each subsequent investment they make.

Will ETFs Supplant Mutual Funds?

It remains to be seen whether exchange-traded funds have enough staying power to become the ultimate investment product for the next generation.  ETFs assets are still dwarfed by mutual funds, as many in the investing public haven’t even heard of exchange-traded funds.  However, the tide could soon change as the populist movement towards saving money grasps a greater part of the investing class.  With such low fees and great liquidity, it should come to no surprise that ETFs will emerge as a mutual fund contender.

Many forex traders like to incorporate forex breakouts into their overall trading strategy because they can be extremely profitable. When a price finally breaks out of a tight trading range, many traders tend to jump on board and carry the price further away from this trading range, which is why this strategy is so effective.

Focus on Opening Range Breakouts

One of the most popular ways of trading these breakouts is by focusing specifically on overnight / opening range breakouts. By that I mean the opening hours of the new trading day. I myself tend to focus on the hours between 00.00 and 06.00 GMT and predominantly concentrate on the British and European-based pairs such as the GBP/USD and EUR/USD pairs, for instance.

These hours are notoriously quiet and yet these few hours before the busy opening session set the tone for the rest of the day. You will often find that the price will stay confined in a fairly tight range during these six hours or so and when the UK and European markets open, the price will trend significantly in one direction and will often break strongly out of this initial trading range.

Therefore a profitable strategy is to open a long position when the high point of this opening range is breached and open a short position when the low point is breached. There are various ways you can put this system into practice. You can either open a position as soon as the price crosses the line or as soon as the breakout candle closes, or you can wait for a pull-back and then jump on board if the price continues to move in the direction of the initial breakout.

All of these methods tend to work quite well and there is a logical reason why this is the case. The fact is that every currency pair has an average daily range, i.e the average number of points between the high and low points for a given trading day. So on those days where the opening range is very narrow, this initial range will be a mere fraction of the overall average, so therefore you can expect some big price moves to occur during the rest of the day either above or below the overnight range.

Conclusion

So if you are looking for a simple forex trading system (that doesn’t use any complicated technical indicators), then I can definitely recommend you consider trading breakouts from overnight trading ranges because this can be a very profitable strategy.

There are two ways a Forex trader thinks, which one are you?

Whatever type of trader you choose to be, your trading mindset theory will dramatically affect the potential income you would make. Not only in the Forex Markets, but in the totality of life your gonna live. This article has tips to be positive to produce more results.

The mind has much much more effect on the reality we are experiencing right now as much as we realize, people who take the initiative to take control can experience the positive effect of the outcome, as for the more ‘general’ masses that just let the ‘river of life’ determine the kind of live that they will have.

Results( income or quality of life) is directly proportional on the effort and thinking we put to it. As we all know that anything requiring little to no effort produces limited results, and anything that will require the mind to work as it should produces lasting and more consistent results.

Trading the financial markets, whether be it forex investing or the other markets, has many unspoken results to prove that this is true. The most common that are noticed are two, which do you think mindset successful traders have?

The Dependent Trader

Sadly, this type of mindset produces no results. This type of mindset involves wanting forex made easy, making it rich quick, and never wants to put any effort into the process of thinking and doing things that will lead to results that is wanted.

Most of this mindset are the ‘band wagon’ type, trade based not on learning, but on the forex tips that is ever present on all those ‘money-making’ trading programs, listen to all those financial gurus with expecting of a great return which in the end results to the opposite of it.

In more simple terms, they are like lottery players, they know the chances of winning are slim, like 1: 100,000 , yet when they know that there is a big pot of gold over that rainbow, they wager their money still and “hope for the best”. In the end all the negative thoughts are present if (and most probably) they don’t get what they want.

The result? Giving up. No wonder most people are scared in the money making in Forex, they expect big returns for such little effort. There is nothing wrong with the system, it has results, but people fail. Why? because of their mindset. Fear will take us nowhere.

If you possess this kind of mindset, there is always a way to have mindset change which will produce a lot greater results.

On the other side of the coin,there is the Independent Mindset.

The Independent Trader

This trader has the mindset set on success, nothing more. The control over their financial future is theirs. Traders like this have learned (or are learning) to control the financial markets, by the methods that doesn’t rely on others for advices and is not much of a fan of the ‘buzz’.

If you have this success skill, then you must know that only you can achieve the success you want by maximizing the market and making it work for your favor. Learning from others is different from mimicking others, and constant adapting from mistakes, thus reaching new heights.

Most Traders, beginner and experienced, has a little bit of the dependent mindset at one point or another. The thing the separates the successful ones from the not is that people on the track to become Independent Traders seek a mentor or lean with a reliable education source, but as the learning and knowledge grows, they begin to be independent and apply the learning on their own. Dependent Traders fail.

What can you do to adopt a winning currency trading mindset?

Here are steps you can take to improve the forex trading mindset you have.

1. Find 2-3 credible education sources. You can find one forex course here in the end of this article. Your goal is to identify one that you can understand and trust. Get all the knowledge that you can get out from these sources. When you learn to trade forex properly, then you will find your self applying the concepts on your own.

2. Learn and test multiple methods of trading. Success is not possible without some basis in trading methodologies, specifically using technical or fundamental factors.

3. Based on what you have learned, make a trading plan. The best forex strategies is that best suits you. If you have a job or want to enjoy most of your time for other things other than Forex, end-of-day trading is for you. The learning you have from steps 1 and 2 must be aligned with end-of-day trading.

Tips in this article will require time and money as the investment. It should be considered education cost — such as in college. It is far better to invest money on yourself that to easily lose money on the market. If you are still looking for an easy way, then you must be that dependent trader.

Here are 17 beginner Forex trading tips to help you successfully trade and profit in the global currency markets.

1. Establish Stop Loss : Before making any Forex trade what soever, decide before how much you’re willing to lose and you just follow that amount. Set a stop loss level before entering a trade and place it as soon as possible. Never alter your stop loss if your position is losing.

2. Let your profits Run : Never let your emotions govern a trade. Keep in mind why you are entering the market and of course you follow these reasons. You’ll be less emotional, you will be better. Do not turn your trading plan, move your stop loss as the market moves in your favor and let your profits run.

3. Do not influence them : You must have your own forex trading strategy. If you are influenced by others, you change your mind so incessant, learn to ignore the outside once you have made your choice. You will always find someone who can give you a logical explanation to take a position opposed to yours.

4. Keep sizes and positions within acceptable limits : Forex Traders have a real success when they know that trading is a game of probabilities, and in long term if you stick to your strategies and you implement healthy strategies that you follow, it is likely that you will succeed. To be a successful trader, you will never take a position that could jeopardize substantial capital. In fact, you will find only very rarely win trader risk that more than 10% of its capital in a trade, and 10% is already extremely high. For example, if you deposit 25, 000 USD in your trading account, your maximum loss should be USD 2, 500, representing a maximum loss of 250 pips for a standard lot of 100,000 units (on a trade EUR / USD for example) . Generally, try to put more than 2 to 5% of your available capital.

5. Know your risk ratio Vs your earnings ratio : The ratio of benefit ,minimum risk you should use is 2:1. For example, if you are trading long GBP / USD and you want to gain 50 pips, you should not risk more than 25 pips. Another example, you should never risk 40 pips to gain 15. If you do, you lose trades will ruin your chances of profits. The analysis of risk Vs profits is an extremely important for any forex trader.

6. Have a suitable capital : following question: “If I lose 50% of my starting capital in a period of 6 months, can I still enable as a trader? . Only if the answer is yes you can start trading. One of the keys to success is independence of mind in the trading, which means your trading freedom must not be influenced by your fear “crippling” to lose.

7. In Trend or Neutral : Learn how to analyze the forex market, is this a trend or rather neutral? In a market trend, follow the trend, in a neutral market, buy low and sell high, since you are using stop loss, and you control your risk.

8. Do not fight against the trend : Do not try to sell high in a bull market or to buy low in a bear market. Follow the good old adage “the trend is your friend!

9. Average : One of the most common mistakes made by traders is the continuous addition of positions on a losing position. I have personally never seen a trader profits on the long term by using such techniques. For short-term trades, preserving capital is the most important, involve too much capital will undermine your success. Trading in the short term, if your strategy is good, the market will evolve in the desired direction in a relatively short time, however if the market gives you wrong, the short-term traders will have to accept that they trade so incorrectly, gets cash losses and seek a new trading idea. Do not leave room for pride in your trading.

10. The idea of yesterday is no longer necessarily valid today: Regularly we may detect a potential trade and decide to wait until the following day to see if he is confirmed. When you see that everything went exactly as you thought, remember that it may already be too late. Back over your reasoning for this trade, make sure your original reasons are still valid, if not forget this trade. There will always be opportunities for trades, be patient and attack.

11. Understand how the market thinks : Everbody should accept that any information (except for newly published information that the market adjusts immediately) is already included in the price of a currency pair. You must know the indicators to come (especially the most important), and you need to know what is already anticipated by the market. The vast majority of the publications of the market is already anticipated and prices by the market.

12. Trading – a game of probabilities : Nobody can get 100% results in forex trading, you must accept it. Trading is a game of numbers, you win sometimes and lose other times, the idea is simply to win more than you lose. Trading is a game of probability and if you act properly in the long term, you will come out winner.

13. Know why you are in a trade : Keep a journal of your trades and record exactly why you went into each trade. Do not be impulsive, follow your strategy, that way you will learn what strategies work for you long term and which do not work.

14. If the logic disappears, exit : If you think you are on a low and that it breaks down, exit the trade, and then reassess the situation to make a new decision.

15. Establish a follow up : If you chain 3 or 4 losing trades, take a break! It is obvious something is not working, leave, go drink a coffee,Do not be afraid to take a break.

16. Study : Learn new ideas, keep up to date, and do not trade on the ideas of others, you should always know why you are in a trade.

17. Fun : Enjoy what you do, have fun! However, keep calm, stay as uneffected and never give up – you’ll have more success.

If you have any experience in using any kind of charting packages to assist you with your forex trading, you will know that there are endless different technical indicators you can use. In this article I’m going to be asking what are all these indicators and which ones do you really need?

There are essentially four different types of technical indicator and they are as follows:

1.Trend indicators.

MACD, Parabolic SAR and the various moving averages are a few examples of trend indicators and they can all be used to identify a trend. It’s widely argued that you should only trade with the trend so all of these indicators will help you to take the decision out of your hands, and therefore dictate which way you should be trading. Your only decision now is at what level to enter the trade.

2.Momentum indicators.

These types of indicators are essentially oscillating indicators and are most useful for determining overbought and oversold positions and can be very useful in signalling the start of a new trend. Examples include RSI, Stochastics and CCI.

3.Volume indicators.

As the name suggests, these types of indicators show the volume of trades behind a particualr price movement which can be extremely beneficial because a price movement backed up by high volume is a much stronger signal than a price movement based on low volume. Examples here include Chaikin Money Flow, Force Index, Money Flow Index and Ease Of Movement.

4.Volatility indicators.

Volatility indicators generally use ranges to show the behaviour of the price and the volume behind any movements. This is useful because any dramatic change in behaviour can provide a good entry signal. Common examples include Bollinger Bands, Average True Range and Envelopes.

So there you have the four different types of technical indicators available to you. Which ones you use is entirely up to you, but it’s generally advised that you have at least one type of each in order to provide additional confirmation for entering a trade.

Trading forex using technical analysis is all about probabilities in that when you enter a long position, for example, you want all of your chosen signals to be signalling an upwards movement, therefore indicating a high probability of an upwards movement taking place.

Conclusion

If you use a strict stop loss policy and use these different types of indicators to confirm positions, then over time this high probability trading method should provide you with more winners than losers in the long run.

James Woolley has been trading currencies for around five years and also runs a forex trading blog dedicated to offering free forex tips and strategies.

Most traders don’t take a rational approach to trading and have unrealistic goals. A return of 200% on your account is possible but it is not possible every month, a return of 10-15% every month is more realistic and possible.

Here are 8 tips that will increase your trading profits and help you reach that level of consistence you are looking for.

1. Do not trade on anything lower than 4H charts.

If you are new to trading or loosing consistently you must follow this rule, it will keep your trading account alive and growing. The higher the time frame the easier it is to make money, you can easily grow your account by 10-15% each month only taking 2-4 trades a month.

2. Only take the A trades.

Be Patient, the markets will be around longer than you, plan your trades and wait for the perfect setups then pull the trigger with out hesitation.

3. Never risk more than 3% of you account.

No mater if your stop is 150 pips or 30 pips your risk should be exactly the same, most brokers allow micro lots (.10c) which make it easy to get the correct position size.

4. Keep your system very simple.
My core system’s are very simple and and very profitable! You do not need to have 10 indicators pointing in the same direction to take a trade.

5. Back test your system.
Candle by candle back testing your system will give you great feeling of confidence in you trading.

6. Use price action.
Although there is nothing wrong with indicators try to keep them to a minimum, start learning how to read price action, it will reward you greatly.

7. Don’t over trade.
This is the most common problem with traders, 95% of traders would be more profitable if they just took 1 trade a month and no more, this would force them to plan that trade with immense forethought and more often than not it would be profitable.

8. Cut your losses short and add to your winners.

This has been said time and time again, but how many of you actually do this? Your wins should be at least twice the size of you losses, preferably three times the size. Start trying to build on profitable positions instead of taking profit as soon as it appears.

If you are a newbie looking to get into the forex market or even a trader who just cant seem to stay consistently profitable. Following these rules will get you on the right track, stay with the higher time frames and you will find your trading more profitable and less stress.