FOREX newbie questions

[Ken from Hantec Australia]

1) I was wondering are there any forex brokers in australia (or provide service to australia) that have guaranteed stop losses or in the effect of preventing negative balances i.e. wont be too worried if I lose my investment but not any more

Depands on what you really want, normally, if you trade with MM(market maker) you probably will have GSLOs, cuz your broker is MM, in the other hands means they are the ppl to take your trade and decide whether put your trade onto market.
For DMA and ECN, normally it is impossible to have GSLOs, cuz the market volatility can be really crazy.
However, some of the broker (such like easy Markets, however I don't know whether they are MM or DMA), they do offer some kind of GSLOs, by using some kind of binary options (which of course extra charge).

2) If there are any brokers that provide GSLOs - how much are the prices - what brokers do ppl reccommend - I was going for Pepperstone but realise they dont provide GSLOs.

As your question 1: GSLOs
you might find some broker they do have it. but the problem is whether they will trade against with you. The other things you might want to know is the slippage usually happen to ECN and DMA brokers, doesn't matter how good their server is, and if your broker says they are MM and they still have slippage - then be careful with them - they might (just might) do taking advantage on you.

3) I assume if I deposited $1000 AUD, then to buy CHF/AUD, EUR/AUD etc would be straightforward - but what about EUR/US..would I need to first exchange from AUD to USD - would the forex broker do this for me at a reasonable price then buy EUR with US? What would the costs be approximately?

The computer will do the math for you no worries.

I understand I have a long way to go but had these initial questions for australians taking on forex markets

Thanks![/QUOTE]

 

[Stratagist]

A long days trade
Used margin $550 200k at average of 0.69198 opened 11.30/2.15
Cassic example of having a margin to play with was $350 down a one stage. Must admit did pull the 0.69108 entry which would've been the cream on the cake but thats the Forex jitters.
15m 2 day chart used 30m chart to get entry/exit.
Paid close attention to Real Volume Histogram. High volume even on red candles you new the bears were working. The consoladation between 2.15pm and 8.30pm indicated the upside was evident.
Days profit $1049

 

[peter2]

@Stratagist I enjoy your contributions and I would like to see more of them. Please consider starting your own thread so we can follow your trades as they progress.

Your current posts are much too advanced for this forex newbie questions thread.

 

[Value Collector]

 

[Stratagist]

Too advanced????
funnybunny seemed to be dipping his/her toe into the water unsure whether to get wet. A bird does not know it can fly until it takes its first leap.
Remember the Forex market is not like trading stocks where you hold for a peroid of time.
I have stated open a demo account, you do not have to deposit initial funds to operate other than go through the registration process. When you are confident you can deposit funds and operate a real account. If the broker you select asks for a deposit find a broker that does not. Preferably one that trades 24/7 and does not run their own trading board only trading on a daily basis.
And practice before entering the real market.
Replicating my trades with a demo account, I would hope, educate any newbie as to how the market can be used to thier advantage.
Any newbie needs an education as to how to set up thier trading strategies with indicators that can be used to thier advantage. I post mine as they work for me, others may have different ideas.
Like a child beginning to read one needs a starting point as the whole concept of trading the Forex markets can be very confusing and if one intends dabbling they need guidance as a path to education.
I might mention 15m 1day, 2day, 30m 2day 5day charts. Go to the demo account account and have a look. Redraw my entry/exit points and how they coincide with the Bollinger Bands top and bottom over a period. I only day trade, rarely more than two days.
Fiddle about with the trading platform right click to create entry/exit/limit points whether you intend going short or long. A window will pop up where you can see your profit or loss margins, cost per pip etc. If you are happy with the results submit the order.
Do not expect to win on every trade, I don’t but I run tight stop losses.
And remember the demo account gives you a substantial amount to play with. Do not get carried away with large orders as they will not translate to the real world. If you intend starting with a small investment trade within that investment ie 20k/50k lots. Remember small fish are sweat fish.
I pick one currency pair to trade for the day that I consider will turn me a profit by going through all the charts of an evening. Some days I do not trade as none catch my eye.
I also subscribe to the Trading Central daily newsletter which sends an email each morning which can give you a guidance as to the expected market action It is free to join.
On top of that research is important.
I have previously suggested a few sites to have a look at.
funnybunny I hope this little incite will encourage you to take the leap.
Remember a little profit averaging out at say $50/$100 per day adds up over a twelve month period.
Any questions ask.

 

[cynic]

A long days trade
Used margin $550 200k at average of 0.69198 opened 11.30/2.15
Cassic example of having a margin to play with was $350 down a one stage. Must admit did pull the 0.69108 entry which would've been the cream on the cake but thats the Forex jitters.
15m 2 day chart used 30m chart to get entry/exit.
Paid close attention to Real Volume Histogram. High volume even on red candles you new the bears were working. The consoladation between 2.15pm and 8.30pm indicated the upside was evident.
Days profit $1049
View attachment 87310

I believe that it is posts of this nature that could be considered so advanced as to be beyond the grasp of those yet to commence their foray into the forex maeket.
Your willingness to share your analysis is most welcome to this forum, it just seems better suited to one of the more advanced threads, or perhaps a thread of your very own - one opened specifically for journalling the progress of your trades.

 

[Stratagist]

Se ya!!!!!

 

[cynic]

Se ya!!!!!

I fear there may have been somme misunderstanding here.

Please,please, please, do not go!

I am sure that I am not alone in saying that I consider your participation to be most welcome within the ASF community.

 

[funnybunny]

Thanks everyone, i find it very useful so far on the demo- have just played with the indicators etc, MACD seems to be good to me.
With some of these brokers been dodgy- how do pros have actuallly make money ?, Is it a stratgey to just close your trade before the end of the day in that case?
For some who say to email them- is it a good idea to keep like another account open to follow the actual prices- can it be just the demo account or does it need to be a live account from the same broker or a different broker?

cheers

 

[grah33]

I understand I have a long way to go but had these initial questions for australians taking on forex markets

Thanks!

I had a good crack at forex in the recent past and I didn't succeed at it so took time off. Although what I did learn is on other forums there are people out there who are experts compared to me, know way more than me, yet still aren't profitable. So I reckon it might be hard to make money. Maybe try gold or the SP or something else. And test out your ideas first . You might be profitable after e.g. 30 trades, but when you get to 90 you find out your stuff doesn't really work. That aside one can see why it's so attractive. Little margin to get going, great liquidity, but the crashes are terrible.

 

[aus_trader]

It's fairly hard to find out if a broker is running your stops if you are trading on the very small time frames because the stop loss may be placed very close to price action. Then it's hard to say whether your say 7pip stop was hit due to actual market movements or broker increasing it from a 5pip market move against you with a 2pip widening of the spread by the broker i.e. 5+2=7 so your stop his hit so precisely it feels like a curse. Anyway that's how I felt when I tried to scalp a few pips out of the smaller time frames in my early/newbie days.

Nowadays I don't trade very actively in the Forex markets on the smaller time frames but may take a trade every now and then on the Daily or the 4hour charts with much larger stop loss. It would be very hard for the brokers to scam a few pips from me because my stop loss is probably 50 or 70 pips away. If they close my trade by widening the slippage or spread by 50pips, I will take action such as ASIC reporting, legal etc. It hasn't happened and I think no decent/reputable broker will take such a risk because it's so obvious that even a newbie can spot such a huge price anomaly by checking against freely available currency charts to confirm the market didn't go anywhere near their stop loss.

Sorry for the lengthy explanation but I just want to protect fellow traders from Forex brokers.

 

[funnybunny]

Hi
Thanks for the advice- I agree with your plan- i feel that small pips are easily missed but placing the stop loss greater than say 40 pips should be sufficent,, anyone else use this way and found that they did not have any issues?
thanks, again this is prob the most useful info i have found so far ...

 

[grah33]

Hi
Thanks for the advice- I agree with your plan- i feel that small pips are easily missed but placing the stop loss greater than say 40 pips should be sufficent,, anyone else use this way and found that they did not have any issues?
thanks, again this is prob the most useful info i have found so far ...

you're probably gonna do discretionary trading right? you should get FX tester and test out your system. get 30 trades down, then up to 60 and if it looks good take it to 100 to really see. it's hard work, but it save you time. I don't know if anyone is really profitable with e.g. 40 pip stop losses on this forum...maybe they got it going with futures, but currency i don't know

 

[willoneau]

I have been using Pepperstone awhile now and find depositing and withdrawing funds not a problem . As for the platform i have noticed times when the spread can expand quite alot but not sure if when expected news is coming out as i don't follow that at moment .Might look at tracking new release times though . Also the price can move extremely far and quickly at times causing large slippage but all part of trading. Good thing is you can trade with very low risk capital and keep blowing up untill you either find something that works for you or you give up.

 

[willoneau]

I use ctrader which i like as a platform and just started looking at getting into cbots with it maybe.