Sunday, February 1, 2009

Money Management Forex Books

While Forex trading is tightly connected with analysing the charts and the fundamental indicators, knowing where to enter and where to exit a position is not enough. Professional traders manage their risks and devote a lot of their time to learning the techniques of the proper money management. Here you can find some of the best Forex e-books about money management in the financial trading.

Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.

If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, contact me and I will gladly remove them.

Risk Control and Money Management — by Gibbons Burke.

Money Management — A chapter from The Mathematics of Gambling.

Position-sizing Effects on Trader Performance: An experimental analysis — by Johan Ginyard.

Fine-Tuning Your Money Management System — by Bennett A. McDowel.

Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom — by Van K. Tharp.

Money Management: Controlling Risk and Capturing Profits — by Dave Landry, a short but educative guide to money management for the financial traders.

Money Management in Gambling — an excerpt section of the classic book by Dr. Edward O. Thorp — The Mathematics of Gambling; this chapter deals with the probabilities and money management in risk activities, so it's included here.

Money Management Strategies for Serious Traders — a book by David Stendahl that tries to explain the process by which the traders can develop, evaluate and improve the performance of their trading systems based on the money management strategies.

Forex Trading Information

FOREX — the foreign exchange (currency or forex, or FX) market is the and the most liquid financial market with the daily volume of more than $3.2 trillion. Trading on this market involves buying and selling world currencies taking the profit from the exchange rates difference. Forex trading can yield high profits, but it is also very risky. Everyone can participate in Forex trading via the Forex brokers.

Don’t forget to check and bookmark my Forex blog to get the latest updates about Forex market and this site’s content. You can also join a friendly Forex traders community at the Forex Forum.

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Latest Forex News
Korean Won Leads Asian Currencies Decline
Sat, 31 Jan 2009 08:39

The South Korean won was the worst-performing currency among the Asian ones this month as the investors moved out of the country’s assets and the exports to the developed economies fell sharply.

Yen Grows against High-Yielders
Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:06

The Japanese yen is currently positioned as the locomotive of growth on the Forex market as the global economic slowdown takes its toll, keeping the traders and investors away from the risk-ridden high-yielding currencies.

New Zealand Dollar Falls on Rate Cut
Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:25

The New Zealand currency declined against the U.S. dollar, the yen and its Australian counterpart today after the country’s central bank decided to cut the interest rate to a record low amidst the raging recession.

Dollar Falls on Banks Support Expectations
Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:41

The U.S. dollar along with the yen declined against almost all other major currencies today as the traders expect that the bank bailout plan will be adopted soon in the United States.

Latest Glossary Entries
Standard Lot — 100,000 units of the base currency of the currency pair, which you are buying or selling.
Swap — overnight payment for holding your position. Since you are not physically receiving the currency you buy, your broker should pay you the interest rate difference between the two currencies of the pair. It can be negative or positive.
Leading Indicators — a composite index (year 1992 = 100%) of ten most important macroeconomic indicators that predicts future (6-9 months) economic activity.

Forex for Dummies

Forex Basics

If you've already read the "What is Forex?" section then you should know what Forex market is and what it is all about. If not, please, do it. There are five essential aspects of foreign currency market a beginner trader (and an old one as well) should be aware of:

  • Forex Fundamental Analysis
  • Forex Technical Analysis
  • Money Management
  • Forex Trading Psychology
  • Forex Brokerage

Understanding and mastering these sides of trading are crucial to organize your Forex trading experience.

Forex Fundamental Analysis

Fundamental analysis is the process of market analysis which is done regarding only "real" events and macroeconomic data which is related to the traded currencies. Fundamental analysis is used not only in Forex but can be a part of any financial planning or forecasting. Concepts that are part of Forex fundamental analysis: overnight interest rates, central banks meetings and decisions, any macroeconomic news, global industrial, economical, political and weather news. Fundamental analysis is the most natural way of making Forex market forecasts. In theory, it alone should work perfectly, but in practice it is often used in pair with technical analysis. Recommended e-books on Forex fundamental analysis:

Forex Technical Analysis

Technical analysis is the process of market analysis that relies only on market data numbers - quotes, charts, simple and complex indicators, volume of supply and demand, past market data, etc. The main idea behind Forex technical analysis is the postulate of functional dependence of the future market technical data on the past market technical data. As well as with fundamental analysis, technical analysis is believed to be self-sufficient and you can use only it to successfully trade Forex. In practice, both analysis methods are used. Recommended e-books on Forex fundamental analysis are:

Money Management in Forex

Even if you master every possible method of market analysis and will make very accurate predictions for future Forex market behavior, you won't make any money without a proper money management strategy. Money management in Forex (as well as in other financial markets) is a complex set of rules which you develop to fit your own trading style and amount of money you have for trading. Money management play very important role in getting profits out of Forex; do not underestimate it. To get more information on money management you can read these books:

Forex Trading Psychology

While learning a lot about market analysis and money management is an obvious and necessary step to be a successful Forex traders, you also need to master your emotions to keep your trading performance under strict control of mind and intuition. Controlling your emotions in Forex trading is often a balancing between greed and cautiousness. Almost any known psychology practices and techniques can work for Forex traders to help them keep to their trading strategies rather to their spontaneous emotions. Problems you'll have to deal while being a professional Forex trader:

  • Your greed
  • Overtrading
  • Lack of discipline
  • Lack of confidence
  • Blind following others' forecasts

These are very professional books on psychology written specially for financial traders:

Forex Brokerage

Every Forex trader like any other professional needs tools to trade. One of these tools, which is vital to be in market, is a Forex broker and specifically for Internet - on-line Forex broker - a company which will provide real-time market information to trader and bring his orders to Forex market. While choosing a right Forex broker things to look for are the following:

  • Being a professional company you can trust
  • Provide you with real-time quotes
  • Execute your orders fast and accurately
  • Don't take a lot of commissions
  • Support the withdraw/deposit methods that you can use

For beginning Forex traders I recommend these four brokerage companies that are probably the best Forex brokers to start with:

  • FXOpen — one of the most popular and progressive brokers with MetaTrader platform and comfortable trading conditions for all kind of traders.
  • InstaForex — a reputable MetaTrader 4 brokers, allows Islamic Forex trading accounts, while you can deposit and withdraw money via WebMoney.
  • FXcast — good because you can start trading Forex with as little as 10$, use MetaTrader 4 platform and the dozoen of various deposit and withdraw methods, including WebMoney, e-Bullion and wire transfer.
  • LiteForex — broker that supports MetaTrader 4 Forex trading platform and doesn't require a lot of money to start with.

Forex FAQ

What is FOREX?
You can read the detailed answer in the separate section of the site — "What is Forex?".

How can I start trading Forex?
You'll need to register a trading account with a Forex broker, such as Marketiva. Then you can begin using their Forex client program to buy and sell currencies. This will take less than 5 minutes of your time!

Who owns Forex and where is it located?
It's not owned by anyone in particular. Forex is an Interbank market, meaning that it's transactions are conducted only between two participants - seller and the buyer. So as long as existing banking system will exist, Forex will be here. It's not connected to any specific country or government organization.

What the working hours of Forex market?
Forex market is open from 22:00 GMT Sunday (opening of Australia trading session) till 22:00 GMT Friday (closing of USA trading session).

What is margin?
Margin is money you need to have in your broker account to secure your open position. Different brokers require different amount of margin money to keep your positions open.

What are the "long" and "short" positions?
Long position is a "buy" position, meaning that this position will be in profit if price goes up.
Short position is a "sell" position, meaning that this position will be in profit if price goes down.

What is the best Forex trading strategy?
There is none. You should constantly develop your own strategies for every possible market situation, if you want to be in profit. Specific strategies can only be good for a certain period of time and for certain currency pairs.

How much money I need to start trading Forex?
With Marketiva you can start trading Forex with as little as $1. Usually, the minimum amount varies from $100 to $10,000 ($100,000 and more for Interbank trading).

I can't (or don't want to) install any Forex trading software on my computer. Can I still trade Forex?
If you don't want (or it is not possible) to install new software to start trading Forex then a good option for you would be using web based trading platform. You can browse our Forex brokers list to find those which support such platform. Here are those brokers which have web based trading options: Easy Forex, ForexYard, Oanda, Saxo Bank, ACM, Interactive Brokers.

I've downloaded the expert advisor for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What should I do?
You can read the MetaTrader Expert Advisors User's Tutorial to find out how to intstall those expert advisors.

I've downloaded a custom indicator for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What should I do?
You can read the MetaTrader Indicators User's Tutorial to find out how to intstall those indicators.

Forex Glossary

Ask (Offer) — price of the offer, the price you buy for.

Aussie — a Forex slang name for the Australian dollar.

Bank Rate — the percentage rate at which central bank of a country lends money to the country's commercial banks.

Bid — price of the demand, the price you sell for.

Broker — the market participating body which serves as the middleman between retail traders and larger commercial institutions.

Cable — a Forex traders slang word GBP/USD currency pair.

Carry Trade — in Forex, holding a position with a positive overnight interest return in hope of gaining profits, without closing the position, just for the central banks interest rates difference.

CFD — a Contract for Difference — special trading instrument that allows financial speculation on stocks, commodities and other instruments without actually buying.

Commission — broker commissions for operation handling.

CPI — consumer price index the statistical measure of inflation based upon changes of prices of a specified set of goods.

EA (Expert Advisor) — an automated script which is used by the trading platform software to manage positions and orders automatically without (or with little) manual control.

ECN Broker — a type of Forex brokerage firm that provide its clients direct access to other Forex market participants. ECN brokers don't discourage scalping, don't trade against the client, don't charge spread (low spread is defined by current market prices) but charge commissions for every order.

ECB (European Central Bank) — the main regulatory body of the European Union financial system.

Fed (Federal Reserve) — the main regulatory body of the United States of America financial system, which division — FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) — regulates, among other things, federal interest rates.

Fibonacci Retracements — the levels with a high probability of trend break or bounce, calculated as the 23.6%, 32.8%, 50% and 61.8% of the trend range.

Flat (Square) — neutral state when all your positions are closed.

Fundamental Analysis — the analysis based only on news, economic indicators and global events.

GDP (Gross Domestic Product) — is a measure of the national income and output for the country's economy; it's one of the most important Forex indicators.

GTC (Good Till Cancelled) — order to buy or sell of a currency with a fixed price or worse. The order is alive (good) until execution or cancellation.

Hedging — maintaining a market position which secures the existing open positions in the opposite direction.

Jobber — a slang word for a trader which is aimed toward fast but small and short-term profit from an intra-day trading. Jobber rarely leaves open positions overnight.

Kiwi — a Forex slang name for the New Zealand currency — New Zealand dollar.

Leading Indicators — a composite index (year 1992 = 100%) of ten most important macroeconomic indicators that predicts future (6-9 months) economic activity.

Limit Order — order for a broker to buy the lot for fixed or lesser price or sell the lot for fixed or better price. Such price is called limit price.

Liquidity — the measure of markets which describes relationship between the trading volume and the price change.

Long — the position which is in a Buy direction. In Forex, the primary currency when bought is long and another is short.

Loss — the loss from closing long position at lower rate than opening or short position with higher rate than opening, or if the profit from a position closing was lower than broker commission on it.

Lot — definite amount of units or amount of money accepted for operations handling (usually it is a multiple of 100).

Margin — money, the investor needs to keep at broker account to execute trades. It supplies the possible losses which may occur in margin trading.

Margin Account — account which is used to hold investor's deposited money for FOREX trading.

Margin Call — demand of a broker to deposit more margin money to the margin account when the amount in it falls below certain minimum.

Market Order — order to buy or sell a lot for a current market price.

Market Price — the current price for which the currency is traded for on the market.

Momentum — the measure of the currency's ability to move in the given direction.

Moving Average (MA) — one of the most basic technical indicators. It shows the average rate calculated over a series of time periods. Exponential Moving Average (EMA), Weighted Moving Average (WMA) etc. are just the ways of weighing the rates and the periods.

Offer (Ask) — price of the offer, the price you buy for.

Open Position (Trade) — position on buying (long) or selling (short) for a currency pair.

Order — order for a broker to buy or sell the currency with a certain rate.

Pivot Point — the primary support/resistance point calculated basing on the previous trend's High, Low and Close prices.

Pip (Point) — the last digit in the rate (e.g. for EUR/USD 1 point = 0.0001).

Profit (Gain) — positive amount of money gained for closing the position.

Principal Value — the initial amount of money of the invested.

Realized Profit/Loss — gain/loss for already closed positions.

Resistance — price level for which the intensive selling can lead to price increasing (up-trend).

Scalping — a style of trading notable by many positions that are opened for extremely small and short-term profits.

Settled (Closed) Position — closed positions for which all needed transactions has been made.

Slippage — execution of order for a price different than expected (ordered), main reasons for slippage are — "fast" market, low liquidity and low broker's ability to execute orders.

Spread — difference between ask and bid prices for a currency pair.

Standard Lot — 100,000 units of the base currency of the currency pair, which you are buying or selling.

Stop-Limit Order — order to sell or buy a lot when the market reaches certain price. Usually is a combination of stop-order and limit-order.

Stop-Loss Order — order to sell or buy a lot for a certain price or worse. It is used to avoid extra losses when market moves in the opposite direction.

Support — price level for which intensive buying can lead to the price decreasing (down-trend).

Swap — overnight payment for holding your position. Since you are not physically receiving the currency you buy, your broker should pay you the interest rate difference between the two currencies of the pair. It can be negative or positive.

Technical Analysis — the analysis based only on the technical market data (quotes) with the help of various technical indicators.

Trend — direction of market which has been established with influence of different factors.

Unrealized (Floating) Profit/Loss — a profit/loss for your non-closed positions.

Useable Margin — amount of money in the account that can be used for trading.

Used Margin — amount of money in the account already used to hold open positions open.

Volatility — a statistical measure of the number of price changes for a given currency pair in a given period of time.

Forex Books for Beginners

Here you will find the Forex e-books that provide the basic information on Forex trading. You can learn basic concepts of the Forex market, the technical and fundamental analysis. While all these e-books are recommended for every new Forex trader, they won't be very useful to the very experienced traders.

Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.

If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, contact me and I will gladly remove them.

Candlesticks For Support And Resistance — The basics of trading with candlesticks charts by John H. Forman.

Online Trading Courses — Course #1 lesson #1 by Jake Bernstein.

Commodity Futures Trading for Beginners — by Bruce Babcock.

Hidden Divergence — by Barbara Star, Ph.D.

Peaks and Troughs — by Martin J. Pring.

Reverse Divergences And Momentum — by Martin J. Pring.

Strategy:10 — Low-risk, high-return forex trading by W. R. Booker & Co.

The NYSE Tick Index And Candlesticks — by Tim Ord.

Trend Determination — A quick, accurate and effective methodology by John Hayden.

The Original Turtle Trading Rules — by OrignalTurtles.org.

Introduction to Forex — by 1st Forex Trading Academy. This trading course intends to provide to all of the students analytical tools on the trading system and methodologies. In this respect, the purpose of the course is to provide an overview of the many strategies that are being used in Forex market and to discuss the steps and tools that are needed in order to use these strategies successfully.

The Six Forces of Forex — by Scott Owens. A small e-book covering the basic and the main problems of Forex trading.

Study Book for Successful Foreign Exchange Dealing — by Royal Forex.

Forex. On-Line Manual for Successful Trading — an introduction into every aspect of the Forex trading including detailed descriptions of the technical and fundamental analysis techniques, by unknown author.

18 Trading Champions Share Their Keys to Top Trading Profits — as the name suggests, the book shares the secrets of the 18 prominent traders with the Forex beginners, by FWN.

Forex Market Books

The Forex books that are presented in this section cover the general aspects of Forex and financial trading. They provide the information that is interesting not only to the Forex beginners but also to the experienced Forex traders that want to learn something new or to maintain a proper structure of their knowledge of the Forex market.

Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.

If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, contact me and I will gladly remove them.

Screen Information, Trader Activity, and Bid-Ask Spreads in a Limit Order Market — An in-depth work on a Limit Order Market by Mark Coppejans and Ian Domowitz.

Strategic experimentation in a dealership market — by Massimo Massa and Andrei Simonov.

Limit Orders, Depth, and Volatility — by Hee-Joon Ahna, Kee-Hong Baeb and Kalok Chan.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator — the best of the best book on financial trading by Edwin Lefevre.

Market Profile Basics — by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan.

Quote Setting and Price Formation in an Order Driven Market — by Puneet Handa, Robert Schwartz and Ashish Tiwari.

Phantom of the Pits — General thoughts and opinions on trading and market by Arthur L. Simpson.

An Introduction to Market Profile and a User's Guide to Capital Flow Software — by J. Peter Steidlmayer and Ted Hearne.

The Effect of Tick Size on Volatility, Trader Behavior, and Market Quality — by Tavy Ronen and Daniel G. Weaver.

Trading as a Business — by Charlie Wright.

What Moves the Currency Market? — by Kathy Lien - Find out which economic factors help shape the short-term and long-term forex landscape.

Macroeconomic Implications of the Beliefs and Behavior of Foreign Exchange Traders — by Yin-Wong Cheung and Menzie D. Chinn.

All About the Foreign Exchange Market in the United States — by Sam Y. Cross — a general review of the Forex market made by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1998.