What is the Best Forex Trading Software

If you are new to the world of Forex trading, you might not know what the best Forex trading software is. However, this is something you're going to want to know if you want to be successful in Forex trading. Good software can make the difference between being an adequate trader and a great and very successful trader.

This will present an overview of what Forex is and how it can work for you. Forex trading, also called foreign exchange trading, works by trading currency pairs. Basically, you are predicting that one country's currency within your pair is going to do better than the other currency in the pair your trading. You make trades based upon these predictions, and make or lose money based upon how things actually work out.

Even the best Forex trading software can't work for you until you know how the market actually works, but it can streamline the process for you once you do. Learn your way around the Forex market by opening up a "demo" account with one of the Forex traders online and practicing. While you practice, you can also begin to use Forex trading software so that you learn how to use it so that you can make trades to your best advantage. You should know that you should never trade with real money until you know the market very well and have learned how to use your Forex trading software expertly, too.

What the best Forex trading software can do for you

The best Forex trading software cannot "take over" your trades for you completely, even though some sites may tell you that you don't need to know anything about Forex and can still make money as long as you use their software. In fact, you're going to use your Forex trading software to make your trades for you automatically, based upon criteria you give it. That is the main key right there - the criteria you give it, and that is where your understanding of the Forex market comes in, so that you understand exactly what criteria to give the Forex software to maximize your profits and minimize your losses.

What your Forex trading software can do for you is to keep up with the Forex market, which moves very fast and in real-time. There is a lot of data to be analyzed and considered, much more than you can analyze manually. The best Forex trading software will receive this information as quickly as it comes in, and make your trades for you based upon the criteria you've given it so that you have your best success.

What should your Forex trading software be able to do?

Your Forex trading software should be able to provide you what are called "trading signals." These trading signals are basically indications provided to you by a third party that recommend whether you should buy or sell. Therefore, your best Forex trading software is going to have this particular function built into it as part of the service.

A second thing your Forex trading software should be able to do is to allow you to place what are called "stop loss" orders. These are automated orders whereby your currency will be sold if it falls below a certain value that you have specified. This is important, because it keeps you from "losing your shirt" on a trade that is losing money. By defining your stop loss at specific values, you accomplish two things. First, doing so ensures that you don't have to be there in order to have the stop loss order implemented. You simply place it and it is implemented at the appropriate time, automatically, unless you cancel it. It helps keep you from experiencing additional loss.

The second thing placing a stop loss order does is that it negates any psychological factors that may actually help cause extreme losses. Let's say you're losing on a trade and you've placed a stop loss order so that the currency is sold once it drops to two dollars. By doing this, you prevent yourself from risking further loss by saying, "Well, maybe this currency will gain in value once again, so I'm going to stay in on the trade and see what happens." In effect, you are giving yourself an automatic "out" and taking yourself out of the process once that loss has occurred.

Remember that even the best Forex trading software can't do everything. Forex trading software is meant to be a tool to help streamline the Forex trading process for you so that it is automated to some extent. However, you still must have a good solid working knowledge of the Forex system and how it works in order to be able to use your Forex trading software effectively.

It's a bit like learning how to drive a car. Improvements in cars these days like power steering, power brakes, and airbags make driving safer and much easier than ever before. However, you still must be able to steer the car effectively, to accelerate and brake as necessary, in order to be a safe driver. In other words, the car is a vehicle you control, and you can't simply sit back and let it do the work for you.

The same is true of even the best Forex trading software. It can streamline the process for you and make it much easier and more automatic, but you still have to be in control. This is why it's imperative to know the Forex market very well before you try to trade with real money. In addition, having a thorough knowledge of the Forex market will tell you which software is best for you.

Compare Forex Trading and Stock Trading

The forex (foreign currency exchange) market is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world. The forex market unlike stock markets is an over-the-counter market with no central exchange and clearing house where orders are matched.

Traditionally forex trading has not been popular with retail traders/investors (traders takes shorter term positions than investors) because forex market was only opened to Hedge Funds and was not accessible to retail traders like us. Only in recent years that forex trading is opened to retail traders. Comparatively stock trading has been around for much longer for retail investors. Recent advancement in computer and trading technologies has enabled low commission and easy access to retail traders to trade stock or foreign currency exchange from almost anywhere in the world with internet access. Easy access and low commission has tremendously increased the odds of winning for retail traders, both in stocks and forex. Which of the two is a better option for a trader? The comparisons of retail stock trading and retail forex trading are as follows;

• Nature of the Instrument
  The nature of the items being bought and sold between forex trading and stocks trading are different. In stocks trading, a trader is buying or selling a share in a specific company in a country. There are many different stock markets in the world. Many factors determine the rise or fall of a stock price. Refer to my article in under stock section to find more information about the factors that affect stock prices. Forex trading involves buying or selling of currency pairs. In a transaction, a trader buys a currency from one country, and sells the currency from another country. Therefore the term "exchange". The trader is hoping that the value of the currency that he buys will rise with respect to the value of the currency that he sells. In essence, a forex trader is betting on the economic prospect (or at least her monetary policy) of one country against another country.

• Market Size & Liquidity
  Forex market is the largest market in the world. With daily transactions of over US$4 trillion, it dwarfs the stock markets. While there are thousands of different stocks in the stock markets, there are only a few currency pairs in the forex market. Therefore, forex trading is less prone to price manipulation by big players than stock trading. Huge market volume also means that the currency pairs enjoy greater liquidity than stocks. A forex trader can enter and exit the market easily. Stocks comparatively is less liquid, a trader may find problem exiting the market especially during major bad news. This is worse especially for small-cap stocks. Also due to its huge liquidity of forex market, forex traders can enjoy better price spread as compared to stock traders.

• Trading Hours & Its Disadvantage to Retail Stock Traders
  Forex market opens 24-hour while US stock market opens daily from 930am EST to 4pm EST. This means that Forex traders can choose to trade any hours while stock traders are limited to 930am EST to 4pm EST. One significant disadvantage of retail stock traders is that the stock markets are only opened to market makers during pre-market hours (8:30am - 9:20am EST) and post-market hours (4:30pm - 6:30pm EST). And it is during these pre-market and post-markets hours that most companies release the earnings results that would have great impact on the stock prices. This means that the retails traders (many of us) could only watch the price rise or drop during these hours. Besides, stop order would not be honored during this times. The forex traders do not suffer this significant disadvantage. Also, a stock trader may supplement his/her trading with forex trading outside the stock trading hours.

• Affordability
  In order to trade stocks, a trader needs to have quite a significant amount of capital in his account, at least a few tens of thousands in general. However, a forex trader can start trading with an account of only a few hundreds dollars. This is because forex trading allows for higher leverage. A forex trader could obtain larger transaction compared to stock market. Some forex brokers offers 100:1, 200:1 or 400:1. A leverage of 100:1 means that a US$1k in account could obtain a 100 times transaction value at US$100k. There is no interest charge for the leveraged money. Stock trading generally allows for not more than 2 times leverage in margin trading. There are interest charges associated with margin trading.

• Data Transparency & Analysis Overload
  There are thousands of different stocks in different industries. trader needs to research many stocks and picks the best few to trade. There are many factors that affect the stock prices. There are much more factors that may affects stock price than foreign currency exchange rates. The forex traders therefore can focus on few currency pairs to trade. On top of that, most data or news affecting currency exchange rate are announced officially, scheduled and in a transparent manner. Retail forex traders therefore have better chances of success than retail stock traders.

• Bear/Bull Stock Market Conditions
  Forex traders can trade in both way buying or selling currency pairs without any restrictions. However, stock traders have more constraints to trade and profit in bear market condition. There are more restrictions and costs associated with stock short selling. In a bull market when the economy is doing well, stock traders have a high chance of profitability if they buy stock first then sell it later. Savvy forex traders however, could operate in all market conditions.

• Trending Nature of Currency
  Major currencies are influenced by national financial policies and macro trends This national financial policies and macro trends tend to last long in a certain direction, either in monetary expansionary (rate cutting) or monetary contractionary cycle (rate hiking cycle). Stock prices however tend to fluctuate up and down due to many factors, many of these factors are micro and specific to the stocks. Therefore forex traders can better exploit the trends in foreign currency markets that stock traders in stock markets.

• Regulation
  Generally, most major stock markets are better regulated than forex markets. Therefore, traders need to be aware of this difference to stock markets. Fortunately, there are however many reputable forex brokers in the market. With prudence and proper research, it is not difficult to find a suitable reliable forex brokers.

Based on the above few points, forex trading seems to be a better trading option than stock trading, especially during these uncertainties in the global economy. During bull market condition, stock trading could be a viable alternative. A stock trader should definitely seriously consider supplementing their trading with forex trading. Forex trading enables a stock trader to exploit any opportunity arises during non stock trading hours, by trading in forex trading. Forex trading would also enable the stock traders to understand a more complete big picture of world economies operations and further enhance their stock trading skills.

Forex Trading Course For Beginners

The forex (foreign currency exchange) market is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world. The forex market unlike stock markets is an over-the-counter market with no central exchange and clearing house where orders are matched.

Traditionally forex trading has not been popular with retail traders/investors (traders takes shorter term positions than investors) because forex market was only opened to Hedge Funds and was not accessible to retail traders like us. Only in recent years that forex trading is opened to retail traders. Comparatively stock trading has been around for much longer for retail investors. Recent advancement in computer and trading technologies has enabled low commission and easy access to retail traders to trade stock or foreign currency exchange from almost anywhere in the world with internet access. Easy access and low commission has tremendously increased the odds of winning for retail traders, both in stocks and forex. Which of the two is a better option for a trader? The comparisons of retail stock trading and retail forex trading are as follows;

• Nature of the Instrument
  The nature of the items being bought and sold between forex trading and stocks trading are different. In stocks trading, a trader is buying or selling a share in a specific company in a country. There are many different stock markets in the world. Many factors determine the rise or fall of a stock price. Refer to my article in under stock section to find more information about the factors that affect stock prices. Forex trading involves buying or selling of currency pairs. In a transaction, a trader buys a currency from one country, and sells the currency from another country. Therefore the term "exchange". The trader is hoping that the value of the currency that he buys will rise with respect to the value of the currency that he sells. In essence, a forex trader is betting on the economic prospect (or at least her monetary policy) of one country against another country.

• Market Size & Liquidity
  Forex market is the largest market in the world. With daily transactions of over US$4 trillion, it dwarfs the stock markets. While there are thousands of different stocks in the stock markets, there are only a few currency pairs in the forex market. Therefore, forex trading is less prone to price manipulation by big players than stock trading. Huge market volume also means that the currency pairs enjoy greater liquidity than stocks. A forex trader can enter and exit the market easily. Stocks comparatively is less liquid, a trader may find problem exiting the market especially during major bad news. This is worse especially for small-cap stocks. Also due to its huge liquidity of forex market, forex traders can enjoy better price spread as compared to stock traders.

• Trading Hours & Its Disadvantage to Retail Stock Traders
  Forex market opens 24-hour while US stock market opens daily from 930am EST to 4pm EST. This means that Forex traders can choose to trade any hours while stock traders are limited to 930am EST to 4pm EST. One significant disadvantage of retail stock traders is that the stock markets are only opened to market makers during pre-market hours (8:30am - 9:20am EST) and post-market hours (4:30pm - 6:30pm EST). And it is during these pre-market and post-markets hours that most companies release the earnings results that would have great impact on the stock prices. This means that the retails traders (many of us) could only watch the price rise or drop during these hours. Besides, stop order would not be honored during this times. The forex traders do not suffer this significant disadvantage. Also, a stock trader may supplement his/her trading with forex trading outside the stock trading hours.

• Affordability
  In order to trade stocks, a trader needs to have quite a significant amount of capital in his account, at least a few tens of thousands in general. However, a forex trader can start trading with an account of only a few hundreds dollars. This is because forex trading allows for higher leverage. A forex trader could obtain larger transaction compared to stock market. Some forex brokers offers 100:1, 200:1 or 400:1. A leverage of 100:1 means that a US$1k in account could obtain a 100 times transaction value at US$100k. There is no interest charge for the leveraged money. Stock trading generally allows for not more than 2 times leverage in margin trading. There are interest charges associated with margin trading.

• Data Transparency & Analysis Overload
  There are thousands of different stocks in different industries. trader needs to research many stocks and picks the best few to trade. There are many factors that affect the stock prices. There are much more factors that may affects stock price than foreign currency exchange rates. The forex traders therefore can focus on few currency pairs to trade. On top of that, most data or news affecting currency exchange rate are announced officially, scheduled and in a transparent manner. Retail forex traders therefore have better chances of success than retail stock traders.

• Bear/Bull Stock Market Conditions
  Forex traders can trade in both way buying or selling currency pairs without any restrictions. However, stock traders have more constraints to trade and profit in bear market condition. There are more restrictions and costs associated with stock short selling. In a bull market when the economy is doing well, stock traders have a high chance of profitability if they buy stock first then sell it later. Savvy forex traders however, could operate in all market conditions.

• Trending Nature of Currency
  Major currencies are influenced by national financial policies and macro trends This national financial policies and macro trends tend to last long in a certain direction, either in monetary expansionary (rate cutting) or monetary contractionary cycle (rate hiking cycle). Stock prices however tend to fluctuate up and down due to many factors, many of these factors are micro and specific to the stocks. Therefore forex traders can better exploit the trends in foreign currency markets that stock traders in stock markets.

• Regulation
  Generally, most major stock markets are better regulated than forex markets. Therefore, traders need to be aware of this difference to stock markets. Fortunately, there are however many reputable forex brokers in the market. With prudence and proper research, it is not difficult to find a suitable reliable forex brokers.

Based on the above few points, forex trading seems to be a better trading option than stock trading, especially during these uncertainties in the global economy. During bull market condition, stock trading could be a viable alternative. A stock trader should definitely seriously consider supplementing their trading with forex trading. Forex trading enables a stock trader to exploit any opportunity arises during non stock trading hours, by trading in forex trading. Forex trading would also enable the stock traders to understand a more complete big picture of world economies operations and further enhance their stock trading skills.