If you are a forex day trader or considering it, then you need to know the above facts, if you do they will save you a lot of money. Forex day trading is more popular than ever but how do you make profits? Let’s find out.

If you look online you will find more forex day trading courses than any other type of trading methodology and they will all lose you money here’s why:

Let’s start first of all with the vendors who sell courses

1. Why are they selling them?

To make money for themselves! They don’t normally trade their day trading systems because they know they don’t work.

If these systems could produce regular profits they would be to busy making money for themselves and not have the time to bother you for a few hundred dollars they would be to busy making money.

2. The Evidence That day trading doesn’t work

If you ask for a track record of profits from any of these vendors you won’t get one – What you will normally get is a hypothetical track record of huge gains but this is done in hindsight – KNOWING the closing prices.

If I knew tomorrow’s price today, I would be a multi millionaire but of course forex trading is a bit more difficult – you have to work out where prices are going without knowing them in advance!

These vendors use great advertising copy to dupe people but the logic of day trading simply doesn’t work. Why? Because:

3. All short term volatility is random!

Day traders will claim that it’s not – but of course it is!

Volatility can and does, take prices anywhere in a day and daily support and resistance levels are meaningless. When day traders lose, they blame the system or the indicators they use, however if volatility is random, then it is of course the logic of day trading that is at fault – NOT the indicators.

If you think that you can make money day trading go ahead and try but you will learn a very expensive lesson and lose.

I would love a day trader to prove me wrong and produce a real time track record of gains over the longer term (3 years or more), but have the feeling I will be waiting for a long time.

The belief that you can make money day trading, is one of the biggest myths of forex trading and despite the evidence it doesn’t work, traders still think they can win at it – they can’t.

You’re staying at the beach house working in your office, calm and collected as you collect the profit from yet another successful day trade is debited to your account.

Your kids rush in and you take a break and head outside to play in the sand since you just made another small and easy fortune while those suckers at the office are working harder for less. It’s a nice picture isn’t it?

If this imaginary scenario sounds familiar, it’s because there are probably half a dozen commercials on the television at all times of the day showing scenes like this to encourage people to get into day trading the Forex market, usually through signing up with a certain company or buying an expensive tutorial that is supposed to make beating the Forex market as easy as getting out of bed in the morning and turning on the computer.

So in danger of making myself unpopular, here’s the stark truth of the matter: most traders should not try day trading. Day trading the Forex might be trendy, but it’s not nearly as easy or profitable as these advertisements would like you to believe.

Day trading is an advanced form of currency trading, and often involves many shorter term trades. In fact, many Forex traders argue that turning a profit on day trading is one of the most difficult things to do in the Forex market.

There are literally hundreds of stories out there of smart, educated, sophisticated traders who went to day trading and proceeded to lose a fortune.

In my opinion, most traders would be better served learning to trade on the longer term trends that the Forex market has to offer. Not only does this allow you more data and time to analyze the developing trends in the market, but there is a lot more money to be made by being on the right side of a huge market breakthrough than by being right on even dozens of day trades.

If you’re good enough to make money day trading, why wouldn’t you learn to trade the parts of the Forex that offer bigger profits and less risk (although let me note, there is always major risk in trading Forex)?

While some traders will undoubtedly want to day trade, for most traders the real chance at making a living at the Forex revolves around the long term trades.

Learn to trade long term. That’s where the money is, and that can help you to avoid many of the scams and heartbreak that’s out there.

Be honest, now. Back in ’99 when seemingly every waiter and grocery-store clerk had a stock portfolio, did you get rich day trading? Back in those good old days there was plenty of talk about making money day trading, but how many people do you know who actually accomplished it? One look at a 10 year Nasdaq chart leaves no doubt that some people did get rich on the way up–and a few of them probably had the good sense to get out before it was too late. But most people ‘played’ the market–and lost–through mindless buying of mutual funds, and by accepting worthless corporate stock options in lieu of actual pay.

Fast forward to 2007. The Dow is at its historic high and the Nasdaq is roaring back to life. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that now is the time to think about trading again. But truth be told, most people will not take the initiative to make their own trading decisions. Most people will get burned all over again.

To really profit from the coming bull market you must commit yourself to making your own trading decisions. Don’t trust your broker, your boss, or your brother-in-law. Only by assuming responsibility for your financial future can you expect to achieve success; nobody is in a hurry to do it for you.

Most people who do decide to trade on their own hook will naturally think of day trading. And you can bet when the bull market takes off plenty of pundits and gurus will be urging you to day trade. But for most people day trading isn’t a viable option, either because they can’t afford to sit in front of a computer screen all day, or because they have enough common sense to realize day trading is a lethal game. So how can you profitably trade?

The answer for many people is swing trading. Swing trading is the practice of holding stock positions (long or short) for a few days to a few weeks. You don’t need to sit in front of your computer all day with your finger on the panic button, and you don’t have to play cat and mouse with market makers looking to hang your scalp on their wall. The typical moves made by a stock during a swing play will dwarf the tweenies that day traders salivate over, and with sensible use of stop orders you won’t need to lose sleep at night fretting about the risk.

Day trading is a little like the World Series of Poker. Do you think you could sit down with Greg Raymer or Chris Moneymaker and beat them at a hand of No Limit Texas Hold ‘em? When you day trade you’re taking the same chance. The people on the other side of your trades are professional market makers. What the stock will do in the next day, week or year may be beyond the control of any one person, but what happens in the next 15 seconds depends entirely on the decisions of individual traders. Your loss is their immediate gain, and these guys (and gals) have been doing this for a long time. Even the most perfectly formed setup quickly turns into a sucker-play because these professionals know the newbies will take the bait. In the world of day trading, the losers get their hat handed to them in short order.

With swing trading you get the same fair chance as everyone else, institutional traders and individuals alike. As long as you trade stocks with a reasonable amount of volume, you can rest assured that no one trader, or even a group working in unison (which would be illegal, to boot) has the resources to bully the market. Setting your stop 5% below your entry point virtually guarantees that you won’t get scalped (it doesn’t guarantee the stock won’t move 5% against you, but if it does it won’t be because one trader decided to scalp you). And the profit potential for a well played swing trade could be 10% in a few days, or maybe 20-30% in a few weeks. Of course, it takes knowledge and experience to identify the right trades, but your chances of success are just as good as any Wall Street trader if you’re willing to take the time to ‘plan your trade and trade your plan.’

Truly outstanding bull markets only come along a few times in a lifetime. Swing trading gives you a realistic chance of profiting from those great bull markets. You already missed the last one in ’99. Don’t miss out on this chance. Now is the time to start studying up on swing trading so you’ll be ready.

Author: Todd Strickland
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
PCB Prototype & Manufacturing

Some experienced traders dogmatically assert that nobody makes money day trading. That is probably because they have tried, failed, and found some other trading style that suits them better. There is no doubt that day trading is a tough, competitive business, but the good news is that if it is your dream, it can be made to work for you.

Successful traders specialize in a trading niche which suits their temperament. In the process of doing this they may try different vehicles and strategies which are unsuccessful (for them). This is usually because the strategy is unsuited to the trader, not because it is “bad”.

After following a few blind alleys, I found my niche day trading grain futures contracts. I enjoy getting almost instant feedback on my trades, and having my money safely parked on the sidelines most of the time. It turns out that day trading suits my temperament, whereas longer term trading does not.

Day trading critics often trade relatively stodgy Forex markets. However, trading costs can sink a day trader, and, despite “commission free” trading offered by brokers, Forex trading costs are too high due to spread and slippage charges.

I prefer markets with greater volatility and enough volume to ensure a tight spread, but not such a huge volume that the market becomes hard to read. The grains (soybeans, wheat and corn) do the trick for me.

Do NOT decide on a market before you decide on your trading style. Find the style that suits you, then find the markets that respond best to that trading style.

Successful day traders should:

• Learn the concept of support and resistance in a market.
• Develop a trading system based on tactics at support and resistance levels.
• Test the system on independent data to make sure it has a positive Expectancy.
• Learn money management techniques to prevent taking on to too much risk.

Day trading often involves regular repetition of a simple trading plan to place high probability trades. If you learn the principles outlined above, stick strictly to your plan, and learn to avoid mistakes made in the heat of the moment, you are well on the way to day trading success.

Most day trading is done by professional traders who experience lower stress levels than you because they are using bank funds. You have to beat them at their own game despite the additional anxiety of having your own money at risk!

Two cardinal sins for a day trader are trading without a plan, and over-trading. You must have a plan which dictates your every move in the fast paced cut and thrust of a market session. Otherwise you will be a victim of bad decisions driven by emotions, the downfall of many a trader!

Over-trading often arises because you experience a loss and try to get it back by taking an unplanned trade. Very often, you end up making a bad day into a disastrous day. Sometimes people over-trade because they feel the more trades they take, the more money they make. In fact, all they are doing is building up huge trading costs which make it very difficult to make a profit.

Even though I am a day trader, I take less than one trade per day on average. If the trades you take are good quality, you can still make good returns. (For example, I placed 15 trades in February 2010 and recorded a return of 39% on trading capital invested. You can see the trades here).

Author: D Bennett
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable pressure cooker