Forex robots are advertised and marketed as miraculous aids to help in forex trading. While these terms used to describe the forex robots are just marketing gimmick, the fact that they can prove to be quite useful sometimes, cannot be overlooked. There is no forex robot that can work in all types of markets or work for all types of currency pairs. While one robot may work for a specific type of market, it may not work for the other.

There is no harm in using these forex robots or at least in giving them a try. But the trouble is when traders try to base their entire forex trading on these robots. They believe that these forex robots will mint money for them while they sleep, eat or do as they please. Though these robots are capable of auto trading, it would not be entirely recommended to depend on them entirely, as they are after all man made contraptions, and can err sometimes.

Most of the traders base their decision of choosing a forex broker, on the reviews about the brokers that they read on the net. This is a good attempt at filtering the good from the bad. One forex trading broker who has received five star ratings in the reviews is the Forex WebTrader. The additional plus point about this broker is that the initial amount required here to begin the live trading process is just $ 25, and suits the pockets of every new trader.

Foreign currency trading, if done correctly can be a very lucrative business. As with any other industry that has high returns, it is not without risk. If you are considering investing in currency trading in any form, it is recommended that you consider using one of many forex brokers. When comparing or choosing between brokers, look for accreditation from whatever body exists in the country or area for brokers. In the United States, the national bodies are the NFA and CFTC

Forex brokers generally have a very good grasp of the market and the various trends and will guide you through, and hopefully help minimize as much risk as possible. forex trading, in its most basic form is simply buying and selling different currencies as they rise and fall and eventually making a healthy profit. While that may seem like something that you could do yourself, unless you have been in the game for a long time, it is unlikely that you will have any experience on how the markets (and currencies) react to various events.

The current markets, just like stock exchanges fluctuate on everything from corporate earnings calls to any data released on the various economies. Before you embark on any forex trading, whether with or without a brokers, consider following forex news and stay up to date on what goes and get a feel for how a currency reacts to local and international events.

If there’s one thing a rich bitch hates more than a philandering husband, it’s a dishonest forex broker. Ladies, we know that the forex world is laden with unscrupulous degenerates who like to swindle enterprising women out of the thousands of dollars required to open an account. Although the National Futures Association and Commodity Futures Trading Commission try to suppress frauds, sometimes the con artists still manage to squeak through.

Luckily, we’ve found a broker called FxPro who provides real-time quotes, competitive spreads, flexible leverage, a variety of currency pairs, and more. The MetaTrader 4 online trading platform is easy to use and contains just about every technical indicator available. Most of the tools can be customized depending on what kind of trading you do (i.e., scalping, day trading, swing trading, etc.) and which timeframes you work off of. If you’re not ready to begin trading full-time, you can test the platform with a practice account for a few months before you open a live account. Live accounts can be capitalized with as little as $100 to start, though.

We also like FxPro’s customer service. Support staff can be reached via online chats, email, or telephone. The company’s headquarters are in Cypress, but with these tools, they’re easy to reach if we need help with a forex trade. To learn more about FxPro, check ‘em out at https://www.fxpro.com/index.php.

It is 10:37 AM. I have managed to do some updates on another of my websites. I have just logged into my demo account trading forex and opened a eur/usd trade. Things have been pretty crazy in the forex market this morning. I’m glad I don’t have enough money in my real account to risk on a trade. I would probably have lost it all. I’m losing on the trade I’ve just opened but I’ll leave it opened a while longer. It’s just play money after all. I’ll take the loss at $50.

To be quite honest I don’t totally miss trading forex. I’m inclined to think it’s not for people with high anxiety. You can never be sure about anything in forex. There’s no mathematical formula you can use to determine which direction will be the profitable direction on a trade. It’s just not the ideal way for someone to go about trying to make money who doesn’t have years of foreign currency trading knowledge and experience.
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My forex trading adventure is not over; but it’s on hiatus.

I plan to continue trading, but I have to wait until I can afford to deposit additional funds.

I don’t have enough to trade with right now, so I’ll be trading in demo mode for a while. I’ll be trying to build back up the funds in my demo account starting Monday.

If I am successful building back from where I currently stand to where I started then doubling it, then I’ll make a new deposit into my live account and give it another shot.

If that other shot does not work out then I will officially end my adventures in forex.

Guess that didn’t really take a minute.

Let’s face it. We’re not real smart about money and economics. If we were we wouldn’t be here.  Ok, maybe I should speak for myself. I’m not real smart about money and economics. I can’t even tell you in my own words based on my own comprehension of the subject what economics is. I can tell you vaguely that it has to do with money but I know it’s more than just that. In fact, according to Gwartney, Stroup, Sobel and MacPherson in the 11th edition of their text “Microeconomics Private & Public Choice”, “economics is the study of human behavior, with particular focus on human decision making.” So that goes to show you what I know, because they haven’t used the word money in defining economics, although, obviously a great deal of the decisions we make as humans are in some way centered around money.

Forex traders have to be smart about economics. They have to know how different economical factors will impact on different currencies. One of the main lessons I’ve learned thus far in my forex trading adventure is that oil price movements affect currency rates. I owe some big losses to my failure to appreciate just how large an impact changes in oil prices can have on the relationship between certain currencies. You can’t become a successful forex trader and not be smart when it comes to understanding how oil prices and other economical factors typically impact on relationships between currencies.

Kathy Lien is a professional forex trader who is supremely smart about money and economics. I visit her blog occasionally and try to pick up what little I can as I attempt to tear apart the forex trading concepts that are important to understand if I’m to ever become a successful forex trader.

Here is a video I watched today featuring Kathy talking to Polya Lesova of MarketWatch about the connection between the price of oil and US dollar as well as the euro.

I have no illusions about ever understanding forex on the level of a pro like Kathy Lien; but I might come away from this entire forex trading adventure at least a little bit smarter about money and economics and that can’t hurt can it? Source of Video: Video: Can the Dollar Continue to Rally?

Suffer with depression? Thinking about getting into forex trading? Does lack of money play a part in your depression? Are you thinking about getting into forex trading in the hope that you will make money and thereby get rid of the depression that’s related to your not having any money? Well, you might want to reconsider getting into forex trading. Forex trading comes with high risks of losing money. You probably already know that because the Commodities Futures Trading Commission makes the brokers tell you how risky it is; but because the brokers want your money they also entice you to get into forex trading in the same breath used to warn you of the associated risks. They tell you that forex trading comes with high risks of large losses and also the possibility of large gains.

Well, you’ve been trying everything  to make money for years all to no avail. You want an end to your money problems. You’re tired of being depressed about money. You’re tired of feeling suicidal because you never have any money and never know how you’re going to pay your bills; but if you’re thinking about opening an account trading forex in the hope that it will solve your money problems and cure your depression, you need to pay attention to all the warnings about forex trading and the high risks of losing money. No matter what you hear to the contrary, it is easier to lose money trading forex than to make money. Don’t take my word for it because my experience trading forex is only the experience of a single trader and I have not been trading very long. I am also not an expert; but you can trust the CFTC and the NFA. They will tell you that indeed it is easier for the small retail forex trader to lose money trading forex than to make money. They will tell you that, in fact, 95% of small retail forex traders never make any money trading forex.

You will make profits here and there, but you will lose them just as quickly as you make them; and if you have a problem with being depressed because of money, you can be sure losing money trading forex will add to your depression. So keep in mind that you have a significantly higher chance of losing money trading currency in the foreign exchange market and be sure you will be able to deal with that reality once it strikes you before you decide to go forward with your plans to trade forex.

Recommended reading:

Emotions and Trading: Understanding Depression

This week I have spent more time trading in demo mode than in live mode because I have very little money in my live trading account. I find the more money you have in your account the less worried you are when entering into a trade. I suppose that’s not really a profound finding. It’s just common sense. If you have $5000 in your account you’re not going to be as worried about losing $50 as you will be with $100 in your account.

Speaking of having $100 in your account, it’s hard to believe that there are actually some brokers who allow you to open an account with $100. If you’re thinking about opening an account trading forex with a broker that allows you to open the account with $100, by all means if that’s all you can put up to open the account go ahead and do it, but wait until you build up a bigger balance to start any trading. In fact, I would suggest that you don’t open an account with $100 because in all likelihood you will not have the patience to wait until you build up a bigger balance to start trading, and you’re almost guaranteed to lose your money trying to trade with $100. Note: I caution you to take my advice as just a suggestion coming from a fellow newcomer to the world of forex trading. I’ve only been trading for a little while. As such I am not a qualified expert on the subject.

As for my trading week update, even though I said I would not open any trades after my account value dropped to $102, I still went ahead and entered a trade. It resulted in the loss of $10, so my account value is down to $90. I have decided to go ahead and deposit another $300. It’s really not enough money to trade with if you hope to make money trading, I am fully aware of that; but it’s all I can afford at this time so I will take my chances. I am not quite ready to give up yet.

Meanwhile I have recovered the $1000 lost in demo mode and added $500 more to my balance; so in demo mode I’ve made $1500 this week. Too bad it’s play money.

As for why I am doing better in demo mode than in real mode it’s really not that mysterious. With $5000 you can afford to take more risk than you can afford to take with smaller amounts like $300 for example. With $300 you’re almost setting yourself up to lose because you really don’t have room for error. $300 is probably okay for very skilled traders, but for newcomers who are learning as they go along it will be a miracle if you don’t lose your $300 in a couple of weeks.

I think the key to making money in forex with an account funded with as little as $300 is to get an account that allows you to trade very small lot sizes. I am trading with FXCM and the smallest they allow with a mini account is 10K. I remember at the beginning of the process while trying to figure out what kind of account to open I didn’t want to get the mini account because I was thinking about maximum profits; but after I demoed the mini account and realized it would still be possible to trade 100K lots with the mini account I decided to follow the advice of seasoned traders who advised against opening a standard account with less than $50,000. I opened a mini account, but now I’m thinking it would have been smarter to open a micro account which has even smaller lot sizes.

The thing about the smaller lot sizes is that your profits are smaller. I know for myself this was a huge consideration. I wanted to be in a position to make decent profits in the smallest amount of time possible so an account that limited me to lot sizes under 10K would not have appealed to me; but now that I have experienced trading forex and losing money trading forex, I can see how a micro account might have been better to start out with.  With a micro account your profits might be smaller but your losses are also smaller, which means you it will have more money at your disposal to try to recoup your inevitable losses. It would seem to me that with a micro account, you have a better chance of turning $300 into some kind of profit, assuming you trade smartly, than with $300 in a mini account; but again, I am no expert.

For now I will finish the week in demo while I look for $300 – $600 to deposit into my real account and decide if I want to stay with FXCM or try a different broker, like OANDA.

I’m down to $102 in my FXCM account. That’s as good as having no money in my account. I don’t plan on entering into any trades today. I did enter a few trades yesterday. All but 1 was a profitable trade but the losing trade wiped out the profits from all the others; and that’s the nature of the forex game in a nutshell. Your losing trades usually wipe out your profits from your winning trades. At least such has been my experience.

In my demo account I lost the $1000 I made on Monday ($1000 in 1 day trading forex). I’m back down to the starting value of my account; but having $5000 in your account makes a world of difference from having $102 in your account. It’s pretty much impossible to turn around $102 unless you’re a forex trading wizard which I am clearly not. I probably will not venture to enter into any trades in my live account for a while. I will have to trade exclusively in demo for a while and try to figure out whether or not I should put more money into the live account and keep on trying.

I’ve been thinking FXCM might not have been the smartest choice for a broker. While I enjoy using the FX Trading Station, the smallest lot size you can trade with FXCM mini account is 10K. It doesn’t seem like such a huge problem at first considering you’re only losing $1 per pip ( when you’re losing ) versus $10 per pip with the standard account’s $100k lot size; but $1 can turn into $25 in the blink of an eye. I’m inclined to think that for someone like me, being able to trade sizes smaller than 10K would be beneficial, which would have made OANDA a better choice than FXCM, presumably.

It wasn’t very long ago that I discovered the world of forex trading. My introduction to forex came about as a result of a web development project. I was hired to build some websites for a client, and the first website built was a forex website. My job was to build the site and fill it with useful forex content. Since I knew nothing about forex I had to do extensive research in order to create believable content for the forex website and that was how I developed an interest in forex trading.

The world of Forex trading seemed very exciting to me when I first began my research. The idea that I could wake up in the morning, boot up my computer, load up my trading station and have opportunities to make money every minute was more than a little bit tempting. With my financial situation in a perilous state I was looking for ways to make money that would not hinge on being able to get other people to pay me money for a product I would sell to them, or a service I would perform on their behalf. Forex trading seemed like the perfect solution.

After testing out a few forex trading platforms I settled on the FXCM trading station. I traded with a demo account for a little while and came to the conclusion that it would be possible to make up to $1500 per day trading forex based on my experiences with the demo account. Fast forward to the present time and I have almost wiped out the value of my account trading forex with FXCM. The experience of trading in real mode is not the same as the experience of trading in demo mode.

Based on my experiences trading demo, trading live, and trading live and demo simultaneously, you somehow end up with more profits than losses when trading in demo mode with FXCM, but in live mode, it’s difficult to finish a day with $1 in profit much less $1500.

I do believe that much of the difference in the experiences trading live vs the experiences trading demo come from the trader’s awareness that in one case there’s really nothing to lose since the money is only play money and in the other case there is everything to lose. In my first four days trading I lost $1000. It would be easy to suspect FXCM scams to be the culprit but I think it was more a case of panicking and making insane mistakes under the influence of my panic. It was also a matter of not really knowing enough about forex trading and not having any strategy or plan.

Once I realized that I was not really ready to be trading I withdrew all but $500 from my account and decided to focus on trading with that amount. I lost $365 of the $500 over the next several weeks. I then deposited $160 to bring my account to $295 and I now have $119 left in my account.

Can I possibly turn $119 around? I strongly doubt. My adventures in forex trading will either come to an end in a few days or I will deposit another $300, if I can manage to find it, and keep on trying. I would rather keep on trying because I am convinced that it is possible to make a great deal of money trading currency and I believe that I am capable of making money trading forex. That it took me 4 days to lose $1000, but has since taken weeks to lose the $760 I will have lost once my account runs out completely says to me that I have settled down considerably since my first 4 days. In the last several weeks many people have lost money in the market because of significant volatility and unprecedented events.

Considering that most of the the successful forex traders went through the same experience when they first started, I’m not convinced that I should regard my experience as as a failed experiment. I want to continue trading for a while. The problem is, I’ve used the rest of the money already. We’ll see what happens…..