5 Forex Trading Strategies
When considering forex trading as a profit making venture, it is important to work out winning strategies beforehand if at all possible. Making decisions regarding your forex trading and developing a strategy can be seen as your foundation. With your strategy you will optimize your risk with respect to the expected reward, or put the odds in your favor. Trading strategies should be disciplined and limit risk, while placing you at the most favorable advantage in the market. One strategy is the simple moving away average, which is based on a technical study over twelve periods, with each period fifteen minutes in length. This is a good example of a trading decision that is arrived at through strategy.
A simple algorithm is used in this strategy. When currency price crosses above the twelfth period, simply move away it is a signal to stop and reverse. In this way a long position will be liquidated and a short position will be established, both using market orders. This system will keep trades always in the market, with either a short position or a long position after the first signal.
Another strategy is of support and resistance levels. This is another technical analysis strategy and derives support and resistance. The idea is that the market tends to trade above support levels and trade below resistance levels. If either a support or a resistance level is broken, then the market will follow through is the direction given. These levels can be determined by analysis of the chart and assessment of where the chart has encountered unbroken support or resistance in times past.
Anther strategy that many see as exotic is called the balloon strategy. A balloon option is an option that balloons, or increases in size when triggers are reached. For example, if an investor believes that the dollar will gain strength against the Euro in the near future and is currently trading at 100, the investor will see 110 as being strong resistance, but the investor also believes it will be broken. So, rather than buying straight dollars at 100 for the next six months the investor will purchase at “at the money” balloon call with a 110 trigger and multiple of two. The investor will then own a 100 call in USD110mm. But if the dollar and Euro ever trade at or above 110, the 110 call will double to USD 20mm.
The double bottom is another strategy worth looking at. The double bottom is significant to the short term trader as double bottoms indicate a possible major change in sentiment and trend. The pattern is used on all times frames, and many powerful intraday and long term bull markets are conceived from this setup. Double bottoms reflect strong support levels. When prices fail to break support in the down trending markets on more than one occasion we see powerful changes of trend. These reversal signals are meaningful. The most common entry point where a trader will open on a double bottom trade is on a move through the high of the two troughs. This high will represent secondary resistance, and when penetrated confirms a price reversal. The stops are placed around the lows of he patters because a move below lows negates the pattern premise.
Forex Definitions, Terms and Acronyms:
Direct quotation: Home Currency / Foreign Currency.
Euro – EUR, the currency of twelve European Union member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain (European Union).
Free-floating currency – a currency with an exchange rate that is allowed to vary against that of other currencies.
Another good potential strategy is the ichimoku chart. These charts are following indicators, which identify support and resistance levels and create trading signals in a way that is similar to moving averages. A big difference however between the two is that the Ichimoku chart lines shift forward in time, creating wider support and resistance zones and decreasing the risk of trading false breakouts. They are calculated using information on trend existence, direction, support and resistance.
The four main lines are:
Turning Line = (Highest High + Lowest Low) / 2, for the past nine days
Standard Line = (Highest High + Lowest Low) / 2, for the past twenty-six days
Leading Span 1 = (Standard Line + Turning Line) / 2, plotted twenty-six days ahead of today
Leading Span 2 = (Highest High + Lowest Low) / 2, for the past fifty days, plotted twenty-six days ahead of today’s date.
