Anyone here into FOREX?

[elfin buddy]

Good to see you again, ~Shard~! Welcome back!

I think the news came out momentarily before 3:15 (my time, anyway), so probably around 3:14:45 or so. Oanda FXNews was quick to the punch though, so I didn't miss out on too much of the action ;)

[macbookpro10]

Wow this is crazy. I didn't know that many people did forex. I used to do stocks for a while now I am hooked on forex market. For me it is more lucrative and very very very fast. Which I like becuase I am a day trader. I use FXCM's trading station for the mac and it works fine.

[~Shard~]

Thanks guys, good to be back. Hopefully I'll be joining in the trading action with you in the next couple of weeks once I get back on track. :)

[~Shard~]

Well, I carried out my first few “pretend trades” with Oanda last night, just to become more familiar with the platform and things in general. I traded the EUR/USD a couple times, once long and once short, and made a cumulative 6 pips on a 100,000 lot size ($10/pip). Not too shabby for my first go. ;) Oh, and keep in mind I was obviously not trading on any news – this was just more of an exercise to execute and close a trade. I called on some of my charting expertise from all the stock trading I’ve done to try and predict very short term dips and peaks, and managed to hit them fairly well. I didn’t panic when I was temporarily down, as you can never buy at the absolute bottom or sell at the very top. ;)

My better trade was the AUD/JPY. I actually bought this as a long term hold for the interest benefits, however when I woke up this morning, I logged in and saw that I had realized a 50 pip gain during the 6 hours I was asleep! So, I closed the position and took a nice profit. Of course I realize it could just as easily gone the other way, but in this case, I just closed the trade, didn’t get greedy, and perhaps I will put another order in tonight and see what happens.

Here is the chart for my trade. The blue arrow is of course where I bought, and I closed the position just after taking this snapshot:

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/6355/tradeni6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[~Shard~]

Oh, and one question Music _Producer (or anyone else who knows the answer). You mentioned something a few posts about having two trade windows open to expedite trades – which windows are you referring to? The order windows where you buy or sell, or what exactly? I'll have a re-read of the thread myself, since I've been away for a few weeks, but thought I'd ask as well FWIW. ;) :cool:

[elfin buddy]

Oh, and one question Music _Producer (or anyone else who knows the answer). You mentioned something a few posts about having two trade windows open to expedite trades – which windows are you referring to? The order windows where you buy or sell, or what exactly? I'll have a re-read of the thread myself, since I've been away for a few weeks, but thought I'd ask as well FWIW. ;) :cool:

I believe he was talking about the buy/sell windows. The reason it's good to have two of them open is that when you're trading the news, you don't know what the news will be in advance so you don't know whether to buy or sell. Seconds count, and it takes time to click the radio button to switch between buy/sell. Having two market order windows open let you have one of them set to 'buy' and the other to 'sell' so that you can just click whichever one would benefit from the news.

To save space on my little screen, I overlap the windows so that I have the buy window on top, and the sell window behind it with only the 'submit' and 'cancel' buttons showing.

Congrats on the lucky JPY trade! Sounds like you're doing quite well already :)

There was a housing announcement for Canada this morning at 9:15 (Atlantic time), and I got up earlier than usual hoping to trade it. Funny though, Oanda gave signs that there was an announcement pending on the USD/CAD (i.e., the spread increased right before 9:15), but there was no announcement on Oanda FXNews, the market didn't budge, and the spread went back to a normal level a few minutes later.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It was rated orange by the good folks at ForexFactory, and they report the figure as having come out above expectations. I finally got a bit of real money deposited into my Oanda account, so I was really looking forward to screwing around with it a bit :p

[~Shard~]

I believe he was talking about the buy/sell windows. The reason it's good to have two of them open is that when you're trading the news, you don't know what the news will be in advance so you don't know whether to buy or sell. Seconds count, and it takes time to click the radio button to switch between buy/sell. Having two market order windows open let you have one of them set to 'buy' and the other to 'sell' so that you can just click whichever one would benefit from the news.

Ah, now I understand, thanks for that! I thought it was perhaps 2 windows open to execute and then subsequently close a trade. But yes, that makes total sense. Thanks. :)

Congrats on the lucky JPY trade! Sounds like you're doing quite well already :)

Thanks, but I do realize it was more luck than good management, and it could have just as easily gone the other way. ;) Let’s just say I’m not going to let myself get overconfident or cocky because of my initial luck, as that could get very dangerous very quickly. I’m too smart for that and have learned too many lessons the hard way in this respect on the stock market over the years. :o ;) :cool:

[elfin buddy]

Ah, now I understand, thanks for that! I thought it was perhaps 2 windows open to execute and then subsequently close a trade. But yes, that makes total sense. Thanks. :)

No problem ;)

Thanks, but I do realize it was more luck than good management, and it could have just as easily gone the other way. ;) Let’s just say I’m not going to let myself get overconfident or cocky because of my initial luck, as that could get very dangerous very quickly. I’m too smart for that and have learned too many lessons the hard way in this respect on the stock market over the years. :o ;) :cool:

With that kind an attitude, you just might make it into the "elite 10%", as they call it on BabyPips (http://www.babypips.com/) :D

[~Shard~]

With that kind an attitude, you just might make it into the "elite 10%", as they call it on BabyPips (http://www.babypips.com/) :D

Well, that sure would be nice. :o ;) I am hoping that my years of experience in the stock market will assist me in some of my future Forex endeavours. Even though they are different beasts, I believe there are a lot of fundamental principles which spread across both domains, so hopefully that will be an asset to me.

[Music_Producer]

Hey Elfin.. the Canadians are getting notorious for not being punctual.. the CAD report that was supposed to come out at 8.15 am EST, came out at 8.20 am EST :eek:

Anyway, there was not much deviation from the expected results.. and the USD/CAD spread was 10 pips.. so i didn't trade.. and the USD/CAD barely moved enough to make a profit.

I think I'm quite proud of the GBP trade that I carried out today.. (the UK trade balance came out at 4.30 am est) The spread on GBP/USD was 15 pips.. 15 damn pips! And there was hardly any deviation but i went ahead and made 1 pip profit :p I traded a huge lot, so I made $200.. pitiful amount but I was quite tripping on my skills, since I managed to eke out 1 pip from a 4 pip drop, *and* a 15 pip spread.

Of course if the spread was like EUR/USD.. 3 pips at the most, I could have made 14 pips. Stupid spreads :mad:

[Curren~Sea]

There's a whole slew of JPY announcements this afternoon. I wouldn't be surprised if the JPY strengthens considerably. Not sure if I'll trade it, maybe in my alternate account. I'm sticking with ultra-conservative Euro only trades in my main Oanda account.

a 15 pip spread is nasty, but at least you could get in and out of trades. Many other platforms would not let you trade during a volatile period. Speaking of which, I am looking hard at the ACM platform. Looks very good to me at the moment. When my account gets up to the hundreds of thousands, I will probably move funds over there, after all, it's Swiss!

[~Shard~]

Speaking of which, I am looking hard at the ACM platform. Looks very good to me at the moment. When my account gets up to the hundreds of thousands, I will probably move funds over there, after all, it's Swiss!

Indeed, that would be a nice position to be in. ;) :)

[elfin buddy]

Hey Elfin.. the Canadians are getting notorious for not being punctual.. the CAD report that was supposed to come out at 8.15 am EST, came out at 8.20 am EST :eek:

Anyway, there was not much deviation from the expected results.. and the USD/CAD spread was 10 pips.. so i didn't trade.. and the USD/CAD barely moved enough to make a profit.

I think I'm quite proud of the GBP trade that I carried out today.. (the UK trade balance came out at 4.30 am est) The spread on GBP/USD was 15 pips.. 15 damn pips! And there was hardly any deviation but i went ahead and made 1 pip profit :p I traded a huge lot, so I made $200.. pitiful amount but I was quite tripping on my skills, since I managed to eke out 1 pip from a 4 pip drop, *and* a 15 pip spread.

Of course if the spread was like EUR/USD.. 3 pips at the most, I could have made 14 pips. Stupid spreads :mad:

The report came out at 8:20 instead of 8:15?!? :eek: Bastards! I closed down FXTrade at 8:19 (or, 9:19 my time). Oh well, I didn't expect to make much of a profit anyway, so I'm not crying. :rolleyes:

I started playing with real money today, regardless that I missed the announcement I was waiting for. I made about 10 small trades today, just here and there in a bunch of different currencies, trying to shake the butterflies that came with losing my forex virginity :p Even though I wasn't even trading the news or doing any real analysis of the markets, I still came out barely on top, so nothing lost :)

I'm getting very comfortable with trading real money now, which should be a good thing in that my trading practices won't differ too much from when I did well with fake money. I'm having a lot of fun doing this! :D

[Music_Producer]

I made about 10 small trades today, just here and there in a bunch of different currencies, trying to shake the butterflies that came with losing my forex virginity :p

Lol.. good to see you guys are having fun doing this... and it is fun, if you know what you're doing! I remember the awful times when I lost all my money because I didn't have a clue.. and just used to stick to 'charting' techniques. All the charting theories go straight out the door during these news events. For me it was always a mystery as to what caused those 'spikes' .. lol what an idiot :rolleyes:

Curren Sea.. yeah, I'll be looking at the JPY today as well.. and the boj interest rate thing is tomorrow.. but onbiously they won't do anything. *if* they do raise rates.. it'll be totally out of the blue and the JPY will be spanking every other currency's ass. But they won't raise it.. besides, the carry traders will get screwed..and basically the entire world does carry trading :D

[Music_Producer]

Hmm.. everyone I see here (almost) is from Canada.. how's it like living there? Just a general question.. I'm really tired of the American government and all the idiots out here.

I bet Canadians are not punctual though.. like their finance ministry :D

[elfin buddy]

Hmm.. everyone I see here (almost) is from Canada.. how's it like living there? Just a general question.. I'm really tired of the American government and all the idiots out here.

I bet Canadians are not punctual though.. like their finance ministry :D

I absolutely love living in Canada :D I like it less now than I did before on account of Stephen Harper, but overall it's a great place to live. I still can't wrap my mind around all the empty space and wilderness!

There's really a noticeable difference between Canadian and American psyches too. There's none of this "culture of fear" that seems to flourish so well in the US. Of course, if Stephen Harper has his way, that'll all change :rolleyes:

I am of the opinion that on average, Canadians are much more laid back than Americans. I support this with anecdotal evidence from my girlfriend who's a call agent for Budget's International Call Centre (yeah, the car rental place). The majority of her callers are American, and apparently they are always the ones throwing fits, swearing at her, and generally not nice people to serve. She says she's never had a single bad call from a Canadian :confused: I'd love for some grad student in psychology to do a study on that...

Ummm....yeah :) Sorry about that tangent, haha. Even after that, I feel obligated to point out that I've never met an American I didn't like. Maybe I choose good company, maybe the horrible Americans never leave their country...who knows? All I know is that all Americans I personally know are awesome people :)

[Music_Producer]

Yeah.. when I deal with most americans during business.. they're horrible compared to foreigners. I love Australians.. they seem to be the most polite and friendly bunch. Canadains are a lot nicer too.. Americans think they're the frikkin elite bunch.. and hence the attitude.

Thanks for the info Elfin :)

[~Shard~]

I love Canadians and Canada, but what can I say, I'm biased. ;) :D It's an amazing country Music_Producer so if you're ever thinking of a change, let us know and we'll point you in the right direction in terms of where to move to suit your needs and all that good stuff. :)

Oh, and Curren~Sea, too bad I just realized you lived in Vancouver.
I just spent part of my vacation there visiting friends and family. It
would have been fun to have met up in person with ya, chat about investing
over drinks, and all that good stuff. ;)

Next time? :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Thanks Shard.. will definitely take a look at Canada.. sooner than later! :)

I'll be trading the US trade balance report at 5.30 am PST. Seeing how other reports have been, I expect this one to be more negative than expected.

[Music_Producer]

No trade on the US data for me, hardly any deviation on the US trade balance.

[Crimson]

I'm finally back after a sleepless week - btw, it's a girl! Some nice action on the market while I was gone. Now I'm thinking I should start taking advantage of late night feedings - maybe get my laptop set up in the nursery :p So you guys who started out with a live account - at $50 do you feel you get the same "excitement" over the trades? Curious if anyone recommends an amount to start out with for practice with "the real deal".

Glad to see Shard back - and nice to see some new names! :)

[Curren~Sea]

The big move today was, of course, the terrorist plot. I am in a long-term sell from my "wave" account and it's over 100 pips in profit. I will probably trade the BOJ announcement in my "announcement" account because the JPY should move.

Start small with your live account. Small is relative, though, for some people small is $50, for others small is $5000. The main thing is that you will feel completely different when you're trading real money compared to trading demo. After some time, however, you will lose that emotional attachement and you'll become a better trader.

And congrats to Crimson!

Shard - Let me know next time you're in Vancouver and we can hook up. I also do some real estate investing so maybe we can compare notes on investment styles and strategies.

[~Shard~]

Shard - Let me know next time you're in Vancouver and we can hook up. I also do some real estate investing so maybe we can compare notes on investment styles and strategies.

Sounds great Curren~Sea - it's too bad we missed the perfect opportunity a couple weeks ago! My wife would have enjoyed it too, as she is even more into investing than I am - she has her Canadian Securities certification and is a Director of our Strategic Business Development department here, and is thinking about getting into the Venture Capital arena. She knows her stuff as well. :cool:

I honestly don't know the next time I'll be out there (probably not until next year) but when I am you can be sure I'll let you know.

I find the real estate market in places such an Vancouver and Calagry fascinating right now, what with rising interest rates, the recent gains people are seeing, people's debt load in those centers, and the impending housing market correction (as the USA is starting to experience already) so I would definitely like to talk more about it with you. And yes, investment strategies in general as well. :)

If you like, you could always PM or e-mail me as well. :cool:

[Crimson]

For you who use live accounts; have you withdrawn money from Oanda? Are there concerns with withdrawing profits, considering tax laws? I saw Oanda made a comment regarding the amount:

[B]Funds may be withdrawn from a Customer's Account at any time, providing that the value of the customer FXTrade account is equal to or greater than the margin requirement.

Does that just mean that they won't pay out what you currently have in a trade? (That would be obvious!)

[~Shard~]

For you who use live accounts; have you withdrawn money from Oanda? Are there concerns with withdrawing profits, considering tax laws? I saw Oanda made a comment regarding the amount:

[B]Funds may be withdrawn from a Customer's Account at any time, providing that the value of the customer FXTrade account is equal to or greater than the margin requirement.

Does that just mean that they won't pay out what you currently have in a trade? (That would be obvious!)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I read that is as follows: Your margin is based on how much actual funds you have in your account. Drawing on that margin is fine. But you can't draw on that margin then withdraw the actual funds that margin amount was calculated on.

Example: You deposit $5000 in real money, margin is 10:1, so you have $50,000 of buying power. You buy $40,000 of something using margin, but then withdraw $4000 of real money. Now, if you only have $1000 of real money left, your margin should only be $10,000, but you've "spent" $40,000.

Does this make sense, or am I on crack again? It's happened before, and it is getting late here... :o ;) :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Hey, congratulations Crimson!!! :) :) What are you naming her? Not 'Apple' right :p

I can just imagine you with your laptop.. ignoring her during a news announcement.. lol. About that money withdrawal thing..

Shard.. your explanation confused me for a few minutes :D Let me try it..

Say you have $5000 in your account, just like you said.. and you have a 10:1 margin. That means $50,000 purchasing power. Now out of that $5000, I use $4000 to make a trade. So you just bought $40,000 worth of units.

You *can't* withdraw that $4000.. because its locked up in the trade.. its being used as margin for that $40,000. You can withdraw $1000.. because thats free.. but I'm sure you shouldn't withdraw the $1000 because you need to leave some room for any dips.. if you withdraw that $1000.. you will get a margin call almost immediately if there's a slight dip in the currency level.

Thats how I see it.. I hope I'm right.. if I am.. then my crack is better quality :D

[Music_Producer]

Just traded the USD Retail sales news.. grabbed 15 pips.. traded twice actually. The first time I grabbed 13 pips and exited, then I jumped in again, and got 2 pips and got out. Finally, a nice end to a boring week :)

54806

Hope you guys traded this one, it was pretty easy.

[elfin buddy]

I barely got up in time to catch the USD announcements just a few minutes ago :) I was late to the punch, but I still snagged about 5 pips out of it, so I'm a happy camper. I was scared there for a moment, but I hung on and didn't get greedy.

Funny though, FXTrade decided to crash Safari again about five minutes after the trade :confused: I'm going to look into using another browser.

[Curren~Sea]

Yep, I think the Oanda servers went down. I haven't been able to log back in for about 10 minutes now. The good news is that I have at least 5 pips locked in and according to my other charts, I just keep making pips so it's ok! But this downtime during prime trading hours is worrisome.

[Music_Producer]

Hmm.. my oanda window seems to be working fine. In fact, I have a bunch of windows open. I find that sometimes, a news article on cnn.com almost always crashes safari. I experienced no lag on this trade. Maybe you guys are using game accounts.. so..:confused:

[Curren~Sea]

Hmm.. my oanda window seems to be working fine. In fact, I have a bunch of windows open. I find that sometimes, a news article on cnn.com almost always crashes safari. I experienced no lag on this trade. Maybe you guys are using game accounts.. so..:confused:

Nope, I'm live holding 100,000. I don't mind though, as long as I don't stop out. I'll be earning interest on this trade so I'm happy to just let it run as far is it wants. If it stops, I make 5 pips and I'm happy enough with that. If it keeps running that's all just icing on the cake!

I definitely see a long downtrend (USD strength, I trade only the EUR) so I'm comfortable in a long term trade. I've rebooted already but I'll keep trying. On the main login screen there is a message about the system being down tomorrow. Nothing about today though.

Edit: Ok, it's back up now. Still in my trade and looking good.

Lots of volatility today... interesting. Yes Shard, there are always more opportunities to trade! That's why if I miss a move or only take a few pips from a larger move I try not to care because there will always be another trade.

[~Shard~]

Didn't get a chance to trade this one myself, but there's no lack of announcements in the next couple of weeks. ;)

This short term trading, in for only a few seconds then out, is cool and exciting, but I think I am also going to seriously consider doing long term trades without stop losses. Sure, there will be dips and so forth, but if I really believe currency X is going to go up/down over the next few months, I have no problems buying/selling and holding. I know it doesn't always work, and I know you can probably make more by buying and selling multiple times as you ride the valleys and peaks, but I think this could be profitable as well. Plus, on a currency pair such as AUD/JPY you make that nice little chunk of interest. ;) :cool:

Oh, and Music_Producer, you'll have to send me some of your crack, as you explained what I was trying to explain much easier. :o ;) :D

[elfin buddy]

I don't think Oanda's downtime was only affecting game accounts...I was also live and got shut out. I'm happy I closed my trade before it happened though, even if I would have made a few extra pips by staying in. I don't think I'd have peace of mind knowing that I have money on the market and there's nothing I can do to get at it :o

I was planning on trading the BOJ interest rate decision last night, but I don't know, something weird happened. I specifically remember the decision being scheduled for 2:00am Atlantic time, so I made a point of logging onto Oanda around 1:50am. I waited for 20 minutes with my finger on the button, but nothing happened. No announcement. Then I checked through the Oanda FXNews history and on Forex Factory, and apparently the decision was made hours earlier :confused:

Did anyone else notice that or have problems with it? Or have I been smoking crack too? :p :o

[Curren~Sea]

Did anyone else notice that or have problems with it?

Yep, I noticed that also. I have seen it before where JPY announcements are due to come out during a range of times, like for instance sometime between 12:00 and 6:00. Perhaps this was the case yesterday. It was a non-event anyway.

If I hadn't already locked in profit, I would have been very upset with the Oanda downtime today. I ended up well ahead on two trades this morning so it was a good week :D

[Music_Producer]

JPY interest rate announcements are never announced at any given time. I remember, once, waiting for 2 bloody hours.. staring at the screen for something to happen. The only reason I traded the JPY interest rate decision last time was because they were going to raise interest rates for the first time in six years.

Curren~Sea.. I was looking at Deutsche Bank's website, and they have a forex trading service.. called dbetrade or something. I figure, that would be a good service, you think? I mean, after all they are a bank.. so they might provide better spreads? Or execution? Not that I'm unhappy with Oanda or anything, but I'm trying to see if there are banks that provide this kind of service.

Also, I didn't see mention of any margin anywhere.. so I am guessing banks don't give you a margin to play with.

[Music_Producer]

Didn't get a chance to trade this one myself, but there's no lack of announcements in the next couple of weeks. ;)

This short term trading, in for only a few seconds then out, is cool and exciting, but I think I am also going to seriously consider doing long term trades without stop losses. Sure, there will be dips and so forth, but if I really believe currency X is going to go up/down over the next few months, I have no problems buying/selling and holding. I know it doesn't always work, and I know you can probably make more by buying and selling multiple times as you ride the valleys and peaks, but I think this could be profitable as well. Plus, on a currency pair such as AUD/JPY you make that nice little chunk of interest. ;) :cool:

Oh, and Music_Producer, you'll have to send me some of your crack, as you explained what I was trying to explain much easier. :o ;) :D

I wish I could do long term trading too.. but I've tried it before and failed miserably. I used to hold on to a 300 pip potential loss and pray everyday that the 'trend' would reverse. But it never bloody would.. it would always wipe out my positions.

The method I use now works for me, so I use it. If anyone has any long term trading tips, that would be great. Somehow, I just don't like holding on to a trade when I have no idea of what could happen to the currency in the future. If you're holding AUD/JPY.. and something happens in Australia.. I don't know.. terror attacks, war.. whatever (unlikely but still).. AUD would drop at the same rate your blood pressure would rise.

I know a few folks who were long GBP/USD a day before the UK terror plot was uncovered. Needless to say, they have lost quite a bit of money .. the GBP tanked after the news bit.. and it sunk even more today after the US retail sales came out. Stuff like that scares me.. so I'll be a 2 second trader for now :o

Edit - when i was into stocks.. i remember going long on Worldcom.. we all know what happened to that *grrr*

[njmac]

Also, I didn't see mention of any margin anywhere.. so I am guessing banks don't give you a margin to play with.

Looking around on their site - http://www.dbfx.com I did notice they offer leverage

from their site Margin Watcher

All account information is updated on a tick-by-tick basis, giving clients a complete view of their account activity. Clients have the ability to select the degree of leverage for their account. Margin requirements are fixed for both intra-day trading and for positions held overnight.

Based on each client's margin requirement, the dbFX Trading Station will calculate in real time both the funds needed to maintain current positions (Used Margin) and the funds available for taking new positions (Usable Margin). If the equity in the account drops below the margin required to maintain open positions, all open positions will be closed by the dealing desk at the market price.



But it doesn't say what the margin is. I notice they have a 3 pip spread on EUR/USD so because that's double Oanda, what significance would that have on your overall profits?

[elfin buddy]

The only glaring problem I see with Deutsche Bank is that their trading platform is Windows-only. :rolleyes:

[njmac]

The only glaring problem I see with Deutsche Bank is that their trading platform is Windows-only. :rolleyes:

haha, yup and that excludes me. I don't have a pc or an intel mac. I still have a power book.

[~Shard~]

I wish I could do long term trading too.. but I've tried it before and failed miserably. I used to hold on to a 300 pip potential loss and pray everyday that the 'trend' would reverse. But it never bloody would.. it would always wipe out my positions.

The method I use now works for me, so I use it. If anyone has any long term trading tips, that would be great. Somehow, I just don't like holding on to a trade when I have no idea of what could happen to the currency in the future. If you're holding AUD/JPY.. and something happens in Australia.. I don't know.. terror attacks, war.. whatever (unlikely but still).. AUD would drop at the same rate your blood pressure would rise.

I know a few folks who were long GBP/USD a day before the UK terror plot was uncovered. Needless to say, they have lost quite a bit of money .. the GBP tanked after the news bit.. and it sunk even more today after the US retail sales came out. Stuff like that scares me.. so I'll be a 2 second trader for now :o

Edit - when i was into stocks.. i remember going long on Worldcom.. we all know what happened to that *grrr*

Yeah, that's totally fair enough - you have to go with what works for you. And due to the sensitive nature of the Forex market, things can indeed change very rapidly, and I totally see your point where you could wiped out pretty fast. ;) I'll do some research and see what happens. I still have to get familiar with trading Forex in general though before I attempt anything like that. Otherwise I might as well just be throwing a dart at a dart board and making blind guesses. "Hmm, I think I'll sell USD/CHF... just cuz..." :rolleyes: ;)

I think one thing that helps individuals like you and I (and other here as well, obviously) is that we are not greedy - at least not to the point of recklessness. We cash out when we're ahead (even if it's only after a few seconds, as in your case!) and we attempt to exercise common sense. So many people's downfall is getting emotional about a stock, currency pair, etc. That just leads to trouble.

P.S. I was going to mention that I actually shorted Worldcom during the tech bust for lots of $$$, but decided not to since that would be bastardly of me. :eek: :p ;) :D :cool:

[Music_Producer]

I notice they have a 3 pip spread on EUR/USD so because that's double Oanda, what significance would that have on your overall profits?

oops.. I meant the spread before news announcements. Typically, spreads get widened a minute before any important news event. GBP/USD jumps to a 15 pip spread.. and that pisses me off. I have seen EUR/USD jump to 10 pips too. Most of the time it stays at 3 or 3.5 .. but at times, it does go really high. And that just throws off my mental preparations.. kinda like, you're getting ready to take off in a 747.. taxiing down.. full throttle.. and just as you're taking off the ATC radios "There's no fuel left in yer plane!" :p

I don't mind if its windows only.. I can use parallels on my macbook.. I wish bank of america and citibank.. all the regular banks would offer forex services as commonly as stock trading services. I wonder why they don't :rolleyes:

[Music_Producer]

I think one thing that helps individuals like you and I (and other here as well, obviously) is that we are not greedy - at least not to the point of recklessness. We cash out when we're ahead (even if it's only after a few seconds, as in your case!) and we attempt to exercise common sense. So many people's downfall is getting emotional about a stock, currency pair, etc. That just leads to trouble.


True.. I used to be like that.. and hence I lost all my money. I did learn from that however and now I'm back. Most people give up, and if they do come back.. they get emotional again.

When I visit forex forums to see what everyone's discussing.. its quite amusing and sad at the same time. I see so many newbies taking advice from members.. and losing everything. There will be so many different opinions on where the EUR/USD is heading " Oh the MACD shows this.. so there will be a breakout.. so EUR will drop" .. "The COTS report shows commercials are going long on Euro so EUR will rise"

And then, of course, there are those who predict currency directions based on crystal ball gazing :eek: I don't care if I make a 5 pips a week.. as long as its steady profit :)

[Hoef]

Hmm.. everyone I see here (almost) is from Canada.. how's it like living there?

Hey man, don't forget the Dutch guy in Texas :p

[Music_Producer]

Hey man, don't forget the Dutch guy in Texas :p

Lol.. you must be bullied everyday :p

[~Shard~]

I found one interesting offering here in Canada called CMC Markets (http://www.cmcmarkets.ca/). They trade CFDs and do Forex as well. Their Forex services (http://www.cmcmarkets.ca/cmc_markets_fx_service.html) seem to be fairly decent on the surface, as they have been around a while and their pip spreads are low. The only drawbacks I see are that it only runs on Windows (although I'd need to be running Windows for the FXCM News plug-in regardless) and that they require a $2000 CAD minimum balance - that personally doesn't make a difference to me, but I could see where it might be a limiting factor for other investors.

Anyway, I'm going to investigate them a little further and see what I can find. If anyone knows anything about them, has had experience with them or finds any "red flags" on their website, please share your comments here. Obviously I'll do likewise. :cool:

[~Shard~]

Oh yeah, and what's everyone's thoughts on the US economic data being released on Wednesday this week? Looks like it might be a busy day...

[Curren~Sea]

For Canadian brokers, I looked into Questrade. They seem like a strong company with a good offering. However, I don't see any drawback to Oanda at this time. Their news service and execution provide everything I need to make good money and I am very happy that I am using them. My next account will probably be with ACM, but I'm happy for now.

I think there will be some good volatility in the USD this week. It's possible that good news in the middle east and some strong numbers at home will give it some strength.

[~Shard~]

For Canadian brokers, I looked into Questrade. They seem like a strong company with a good offering. However, I don't see any drawback to Oanda at this time. Their news service and execution provide everything I need to make good money and I am very happy that I am using them. My next account will probably be with ACM, but I'm happy for now.

Cool. Yeah, I'll probably stick with Oanda too, since I am now familiar with their platform tanks to my account and all that. But if I come across a decent one based in Canada I suppose that might be technically preferable - it depends. ;) I'll let you know what else I find out about CMC Markets, as they looks fairly good from the initial look I took at them. The ability to trade commodities 24 hours interests me as well, which they offer. :cool:

I think there will be some good volatility in the USD this week. It's possible that good news in the middle east and some strong numbers at home will give it some strength.

Yeah, I was thinking there will probably be strength in the USD as well this week, but who knows - guess we'll see. This is one of those situations where I ask myself, "Should I just watch the data real-time and pop in and out in a matter of seconds based on the news, or, since I truly believe the USD will strengthen, should I just put in a sell order right now on EUR/USD without a stop loss and see what happens long term (long term being 3-4 days). Ah well, it is just a play money account, so it's nice to be able to try different strategies without the risk of a real loss. That being said, of course, I am taking my play money account seriously and am not being reckless with it. ;) It's all about the learning experience. :cool:

[Music_Producer]

I think the USD will be weaker.. if you're basing its strength solely on the war. Remember that the USD strengthened when the war started, as investors looked at the USD as a safe, liquid haven unlike gold. In fact, its the first time I've seen banks buy currency instead of gold during war-time. Of course, the US wasn't involved in this, so that could be one explanation.

If the US data comes out good.. USD will rise.. but i still think usd should go down.. and jpy up. The USD seems to be overbought.. i can almost feel the strain .. lol.

Whichever way it goes.. I'll be sure to trade :)

[njmac]

What will everyone be trading this week? anything particularly good for a first time real money trader?

[~Shard~]

I think the USD will be weaker.. if you're basing its strength solely on the war. Remember that the USD strengthened when the war started, as investors looked at the USD as a safe, liquid haven unlike gold. In fact, its the first time I've seen banks buy currency instead of gold during war-time. Of course, the US wasn't involved in this, so that could be one explanation.

If the US data comes out good.. USD will rise.. but i still think usd should go down.. and jpy up. The USD seems to be overbought.. i can almost feel the strain .. lol.

Whichever way it goes.. I'll be sure to trade :)

Yea, I hear where you're coming from - makes sense. Now that there is a (temporary) ceasefire as well, it will be interesting to see how that affects things...

[Curren~Sea]

What will everyone be trading this week? anything particularly good for a first time real money trader?

Well... based on this thread we are trading announcements. Check out what and when the announcements are for this week on forex factory and plan your trades around them. I would recommend that you try very hard to take small profits and establish some confidence. If you're a few pips up, take your profit, close your trade station, go on with the rest of your day. Then plan your next trade around the next announcement.

I will be trading Wed morning's announcements for sure.

[Music_Producer]

Just traded the GBP/USD for a 3 pip profit. The UK CPI came out lower than expected..

Slow reaction this time.. I closed the trade just a few seconds after GBP dipped.. I got in right at the beginning of the dip and I saw my profit as '15 pips' and I was like.. "Wow! Thats good!" Too late.. gbp went up.. and i grabbed 3 pips. Hence, as soon as you get your profit.. just close the damn trade.

Next time I'll do the thinking and self congratulatory pats *after* i close the trade :rolleyes:

[Music_Producer]

Sweet US trade :) .. 12 pips profit. Got out in 2 seconds. Next trade coming up for TIC report. Tell me you guys profited from this one.. it was easy.

[Music_Producer]

Really, really good day! Just bagged 5 pips on eur/usd.. on the US TIC report. Notice how the EUR shot back up after dipping for maybe a few seconds.. like I mentioned yesterday.. I think the USD has been overbought and with the peace deal.. banks will unload the $.

55088

3 trades, all profitable.. I like :D

[~Shard~]

Great work Music_Producer! I'll be getting in the game tomorrow (for fun) with all the US data coming out, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. What are your initial thoughts?

[elfin buddy]

I slept in today and missed the USD announcements this morning. But it's okay, because there's always tomorrow :D I'm going to make a point of waking up early tomorrow to trade those announcements.

[~Shard~]

Any recommendations on which News service to use? I will probably end up using that FXCM one when I am trading with real money in the future, even though it costs $40/month (or whatever it is), but anything in the meantime which is free that I could use which is decent?

[elfin buddy]

Any recommendations on which News service to use? I will probably end up using that FXCM one when I am trading with real money in the future, even though it costs $40/month (or whatever it is), but anything in the meantime which is free that I could use which is decent?

Have you tried using the FXNews that Oanda includes for free with their accounts? I find that it works very well for big announcements, and not-so-well for the smaller ones. Once I get comfortable enough to start trading big money, I'll likely get one of the paid subscription services if it'll make me a few extra pips on every trade.

[njmac]

I couldn't trade this morning, I had to bring my kids somewhere.

Music_Producer,

great trades for you, but I do have a question. Looking back at the announcements and expectations, there were 3 announcements at 8:30am EDT, they all came back lower than expected and if you look at the graph - the EUR/USD made a sharp increase. I know if I was looking real time at the numbers I would have bought but it makes it difficult for me to learn which of these 3 announcements was the important one - and what if all 3 had been different?

... compared to the 9am TIC report, the EUR/USD seemed to move just barely whereas I would have expected a big move like the first announcements of the day.
NOW.... you mentioned that you believe the dollar will be weaker, so the move to strengthen the dollar was small and reversed quickly because of this. So here's my question: if the announcements come out in a way that strengthens the dollar tomorrow, will it be expected to be a quick rise for the dollar, then a quick correction BUT if it weakens the dollar - we can expect a BIG move because the dollar is headed weaker???

I am so sorry if this seems too basic for you, I truly am trying not to lose my money. When one thing is happening - its easy for me to see what's happening. When multiple announcements occur, I'm just not sure sometimes what happened.

[~Shard~]

Have you tried using the FXNews that Oanda includes for free with their accounts? I find that it works very well for big announcements, and not-so-well for the smaller ones. Once I get comfortable enough to start trading big money, I'll likely get one of the paid subscription services if it'll make me a few extra pips on every trade.

No I hadn't tried that actually, thanks for the tip. I'll give them a go tomorrow morning for the US announcements. When real money is on the line though, I'll probably look into one of the paid subscriptions one as well.

[Curren~Sea]

When real money is on the line though, I'll probably look into one of the paid subscriptions one as well.

I have real money on the line and the Oanda news service works well for me. The announcements are released immediately.

NJ: It's tricky with multiple announcements so you just have to be careful if you're in a trade and it goes against you to be sure to close with a small loss. Don't let a small loss turn into a big one. And, always be emotionally ready to lose because it's inevitable especially when you're just starting. Ideally, your winners will make up for your losers.

I agree that this morning would have been a good day to trade. But, I made a plan to trade tomorrow's announcements so I slept in this morning. I love not being a slave to the market! I have already exceeded my August montly goals so anything else I make is gravy.

I expect tomorrow's announcements to strengthen the dollar but of course I don't know, and I'll be ready to trade it either way.

[~Shard~]

I have real money on the line and the Oanda news service works well for me. The announcements are released immediately.


Good to know - perhaps I won't be needing a subscription service after all! :) I'll try Oanda's tomorrow and see how it goes...

So, do you see any potential significant deviations based on analyst's expectations for tomorrow? Or is your guess as good as anyone's? ;)

[Curren~Sea]

Good to know - perhaps I won't be needing a subscription service after all! :) I'll try Oanda's tomorrow and see how it goes...

So, do you see any potential significant deviations based on analyst's expectations for tomorrow? Or is your guess as good as anyone's? ;)

Hm, no idea really. There are a whole slew of announcements so it could be choppy. The main number is the CPI ex-energy. The numbers today were mixed and they could be mixed tomorrow also. I think I'll be happy to just grab a few pips. But then again, if all the numbers are the same direction, i.e. USD strength or weakness, that will paint a compelling picture for a larger move.

[~Shard~]

Hm, no idea really. There are a whole slew of announcements so it could be choppy. The main number is the CPI ex-energy. The numbers today were mixed and they could be mixed tomorrow also. I think I'll be happy to just grab a few pips. But then again, if all the numbers are the same direction, i.e. USD strength or weakness, that will paint a compelling picture for a larger move.

Should make for fun times! I'll be trading (for fun) myself, and this will be my first "trade the news" type of trade, so we'll see how she goes. I have a feeling already that my slow reaction time and inexperience will cost me, but hey, that's why you pratice things first! ;) :D

[Music_Producer]

I couldn't trade this morning, I had to bring my kids somewhere.

Music_Producer,

great trades for you, but I do have a question. Looking back at the announcements and expectations, there were 3 announcements at 8:30am EDT, they all came back lower than expected and if you look at the graph - the EUR/USD made a sharp increase. I know if I was looking real time at the numbers I would have bought but it makes it difficult for me to learn which of these 3 announcements was the important one - and what if all 3 had been different?

... compared to the 9am TIC report, the EUR/USD seemed to move just barely whereas I would have expected a big move like the first announcements of the day.
NOW.... you mentioned that you believe the dollar will be weaker, so the move to strengthen the dollar was small and reversed quickly because of this. So here's my question: if the announcements come out in a way that strengthens the dollar tomorrow, will it be expected to be a quick rise for the dollar, then a quick correction BUT if it weakens the dollar - we can expect a BIG move because the dollar is headed weaker???

I am so sorry if this seems too basic for you, I truly am trying not to lose my money. When one thing is happening - its easy for me to see what's happening. When multiple announcements occur, I'm just not sure sometimes what happened.

Hey guys, weird.. I replied to this post earlier today and it doesn't show up here :confused: Anyway, let me try and remember what I typed!!

The cpi numbers are the most important nj.. and the ppi. Cpi .. ppi.. ok ok, i'll try not to make a silly song about it.

Trading multiple announcements is quite tricky.. since you have to evaluate the overall outcome the reports can have on the currency. In today's case.. everything was negative (at 8.30 am EST) so the Eur jumped. And anyway, like i had mentioned yesterday.. i thought that the usd was overbought.. so its time for banks to sell it a bit.

Lets say you had 3 results - cpi at 0%, cpi ex food and energy at 0% and trade balance at -10 million.

Now cpi comes out at 0.1%, cpi ex food and energy comes out at 0.1% too.. but trade balance comes out at 50 million. In other words.. the deviation on the cpis are small .. but the trade balance deviation is huge. So the market will latch on to that.. because obviously a positive trade balance is good for the economy.. and you will see the currency rise.

If they are conflicting.. I don't trade. for e.g. cpi 0.1% cpi ex food and energy -0.1% and trade balance stays about the same at -10 million.

Today's trade was a no brainer.. i saw all the reports were bad.. so i bought the eur. The TIC came out positive.. so i sold the eur and took my profits.. but since the Eur was in an upward 'trend' anyway, the Eur shot back up. Also.. and more importantly.. the TIC report is not that significant as the cpi and ppi reports. So it was just a knee jerk reaction.. but i look to grab the most out of every report.

Tomorrow's reports are quite important too.. the cpi ex. food and energy. Regarding housing starts.. most of the time, the numbers always come out as expected. I expect the housing starts to come out lower than expected though.. real estate's obviously not looking good. But then i ain't bernanke :p

I'm questioning myself if i should trade the JPY and the GBP today.. since the Bank of japan and bank of england minutes come out .. but probably not.

About the news reports.. i find that tradethenews.com comes out a second earlier than oanda. Oanda's news reports are fantastic.. but anything that buys me more time obviously helps. Some canadian reports don't even show up on oanda's news server.. tradethenews displays those.

I don't know about fxcm news.. i'm quite disappointed with their trading.. they never executed any of my trades when i wanted them to.. so i won't come close to anything with 'fxcm' on it.

If you get serious about trading.. subscribe to bloomberg.. no doubt about it. When I start trading 3-5 million lots (*if* i do) then i will subscribe to it.. it maybe $1700 a month.. but i can make 3 times that amount in 3 seconds with that kind of no-lag news.

And lastly.. you all are sleepyheads :p I almost missed today's trading.. because i traded the gbp at 1.30 am PST.. and then i was really tired (have family over) so i tried staying up till 4 am.. fell asleep.. woke up at 5.17 am :eek:

Anyway, part of my profits went for second row concert seats to see Mariah Carey with my wife :rolleyes: Help!!!!

Edit - Oops, almost forgot to answer another question nj (about the trend).. yes.. for e.g. if the USD is in a downward trend.. and the news are good for the USD.. the spike will be temporary. Not all the time though.. for e.g. if us interest rates are scheduled to be announced.. and everyone expects them to stay the same.. and they are hiked..the USD will then break that downward trend.. because thats a pretty big announcement. Small news stuff doesn't affect the currency that much.

[Hoef]

Really, really good day! Just bagged 5 pips on eur/usd.. on the US TIC report. Notice how the EUR shot back up after dipping for maybe a few seconds.. like I mentioned yesterday.. I think the USD has been overbought and with the peace deal.. banks will unload the $.


Excellent.... I got 6 pips in... in one trade

[elfin buddy]

Good morning folks! Who's up for trading the slew of USD announcements this morning? I've got my finger on the button :D

[Hoef]

Allright .. 14 pips on the cpi news today ... plus 6 yesterday. A good week, if only I was playing real money. Maybe next month :) :)

[njmac]

28 pips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


now, I did make a mistake, I bought just before the news came out. I know, bad, bad idea. Even though it worked out, I will NEVER do that again because I think I'm having a STROKE!!!!!!!!!

55160

[elfin buddy]

I managed to get 7.5 pips on the first USD announcement...how did everyone else do? Are you even awake? ;) :p

http://wood.synchroverge.com/images/08-16-06.png

[Music_Producer]

Hey Elfin! How did you do? I got 9 pips.. could have made 30 pips.. but im happy with 9 :D

I love it when I'm right.. the USD is in a downward trend anyway .. after that peace deal was inked and oil prices are going down. Today's reports? Well..CPI was as expected (0.4%)..CPI ex. food and energy was as expected too (0.2%)..housing starts and building permits were disappointing.. just like I predicted in my earlier post..so EUR went up.

The worst part is I was thinking of buying EUR/USD almost a few hours before the report..because I was so sure that the housing stats would suck.. :mad: ..of course, it could have gone the other way too.

55161

Nj.. this was another example of a multiple news report.. where 2 reports were as expected.. and the third was disappointing.. or rather third and fourth (the housing starts and bldg. permits)

I had a brain fart on this one since i had to think so frikkin quick.. lol :p Owww..my poor head.. ahhh now time to get some good sleep :D

[njmac]

Did you guys miss my post on the last page?

28 pips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


now, I did make a mistake, I bought just before the news came out. I know, bad, bad idea. Even though it worked out, I will NEVER do that again because I think I'm having a STROKE!!!!!!!!!



55162

[elfin buddy]

Well done on the 14 and 28 pips, guys! But njmac, I'd give you a smack if you were in range ;)

I kinda figured that the EUR/USD would rise too, but I wasn't nearly confident enough to gamble on it. Actually, the quirk of this trade for me was that the news didn't appear on Oanda's FXNews service :confused: I saw the wave and rode it, but never actually got the bad news. Anyone else notice that?

[Music_Producer]

Nice! You guys are becoming pros now :D Nj..... watch it.. i don't want to see "I lost 28 pips" in your next post.. ;)

[Music_Producer]

Well done on the 14 and 28 pips, guys! But njmac, I'd give you a smack if you were in range ;)

I kinda figured that the EUR/USD would rise too, but I wasn't nearly confident enough to gamble on it. Actually, the quirk of this trade for me was that the news didn't appear on Oanda's FXNews service :confused: I saw the wave and rode it, but never actually got the bad news. Anyone else notice that?

Elfin.. i use tradethenews.. and i got all the news in one line.. i don't have the oanda channel open. And they tend to display the news on multiple lines.. kinda makes you think harder.

[Music_Producer]

The award for the biggest pip whore of the day goes to nj :eek:

[njmac]

This Is Awesome. :D :D :D :D

[elfin buddy]

Elfin.. i use tradethenews.. and i got all the news in one line.. i don't have the oanda channel open. And they tend to display the news on multiple lines.. kinda makes you think harder.

If only I had a Windows box to use tradethenews...:rolleyes:

Music_Producer, what do you think of the Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Rate announcements to come in a half hour? Are they even worth trading?

[Music_Producer]

If only I had a Windows box to use tradethenews...:rolleyes:

Music_Producer, what do you think of the Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Rate announcements to come in a half hour? Are they even worth trading?

Elfin.. i don't think it will move much.. but go ahead and trade.. i might or might not trade it.. am way too sleepy right now. If you're trading.. use a small amount to trade.. since its not that important as the ones that just passed.

[elfin buddy]

Alright, rather than trade it, I'll just watch it and see what happens. Have a good sleep, Music_Producer :)

[elfin buddy]

Yup, wasn't much of a movement there...maybe 10-15 pips, so barely enough to grab any at all. Fun to watch though :)

[~Shard~]

Well I didn't fare as well as the rest of you, but for my first trade of this manner I was happy with my result - 7 pips. I only traded 1 lot (100,000), so that made me $70 in 5 seconds - not bad at all. Just wanted ot be a bit conservative for my first time out. :)

And I was almost in the same boat as you njmac - I've done my share of speculative trading on the stock market before (i.e. buy before news, earnings reports, etc.) and was thinking of buying when you bought, but I'm trying to treat this game account as real money, (otherwise I'm just fooling myself and hurting myself in the long run), so I didn't pull the trigger early. I was tempted to though, trust me! ;) Regardless, well done. But as Music_Producer said, just don't come crying here when you find yourself looking at a 28 pip loss and you get a margin call... ;) :)

I'll continue practicing over the next couple months and maybe in the winter I'll start with real money.

Edit: Aplpogies for the crappy graphic... :o

[~Shard~]

... And ironically, I just closed a much more successful, overnight trade!

I bought AUD/JPY last night and just closed it for a 30 pip profit! Even better, I bought 3 lots (300,000), so that worked out to $900 profit! :cool: I like making money while I sleep... :D ;)

[Curren~Sea]

Good job all you pipsters!

I didn't pull the trigger on this one because to me, the numbers looked exactly like expectations which, in my mind, meant there probably wouldn't be a very big reaction. Again, I am looking for numbers that do not match expectations which will result in a sure-fire move. At this point in my trading career, I am more concerned with protecting my capital and only taking the few trades that have a very high probability of success.

Anyway, there will always be more trades. I'm happy to see everyone else making pips!

[Music_Producer]

Careful with the JPY Shard.. I hope you have some sort of definite formula that you're working with.. the AUD/JPY dropped by more than 100 pips just day before yesterday (in the morning) As tempting as the interest is on that pair.. I'm a little wary of the JPY, I feel like its going to rise.. sooner or later.

Anyway, tonight there's the UK Retail sales.. if any of you guys are trading :)

[elfin buddy]

Anyway, tonight there's the UK Retail sales.. if any of you guys are trading :)

Are you trading on the EUR/GBP or the GBP/USD for the UK Retail Sales announcement? Which one do you think it'll affect more, and why?

I probably won't be up early enough (or, conversely, late enough) to trade it, but I'd like to understand what's going on just the same :)

[Hoef]

28 pips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Cool ... used real money this time? ... How much did you ended up funding your account for? Just curious, about to step into the deep myself

[elisha cuthbert]

Awful tasting beer XXXX is, terrible stuff.
http://www.lion-nathan.com.au/our+companies/beer/australia/castlemaine+perkins/xxxx_bitter_left.jpg

You do know why they call it XXXX don't you?



It's because Queenslanders can't spell "BEER."
hey man dont knock it its always good when you run out of the good stuff and its still not as bad as fosters

[Music_Producer]

Are you trading on the EUR/GBP or the GBP/USD for the UK Retail Sales announcement? Which one do you think it'll affect more, and why?

I probably won't be up early enough (or, conversely, late enough) to trade it, but I'd like to understand what's going on just the same :)

Oh definitely the GBP/USD.. I think it would affect that pair more because usually the pairs with USD as one of them move the most.. the EUR/GBP is a 'cross'.

[elfin buddy]

Oh definitely the GBP/USD.. I think it would affect that pair more because usually the pairs with USD as one of them move the most.. the EUR/GBP is a 'cross'.

Aha, I see your point. I've set up a little experiment for tonight with my FXGame account, just to satisfy a curiosity of mine. I'll post about it tomorrow if I find the results interesting :)

[elfin buddy]

hey man dont knock it its always good when you run out of the good stuff and its still not as bad as fosters

Way to be completely off topic ;) :rolleyes:

[elisha cuthbert]

Way to be completely off topic ;) :rolleyes:
so... if your growing up in australia you wouldnt know what the hell FOREX is you would only know XXXX

[~Shard~]

Careful with the JPY Shard.. I hope you have some sort of definite formula that you're working with.. the AUD/JPY dropped by more than 100 pips just day before yesterday (in the morning) As tempting as the interest is on that pair.. I'm a little wary of the JPY, I feel like its going to rise.. sooner or later.

Thanks for the concern Music_Producer, but no worries, I'm definitely aware of the situation. :) In this case, I was simply not trading on a whim, or solely for the interest - it was a "test" (since this is, again, my game account) to see if I could use some of my charting/technical analysis expertise from my stock trading on the Forex market. I traded the EUR/USD news this morning, and tried trading AUD/JPY "technically" last night. Luckily, both worked out. :o

So yeah, this time is worked, however you don't have to tell me that it will not always be foolproof. ;) I know just as well as anyone that technical analysis means nothing when it comes to fundamentals, geo-political issues, economic announcements, etc. which can throw any predictions or trends right out the window. :cool:

[Music_Producer]

so... if your growing up in australia you wouldnt know what the hell FOREX is you would only know XXXX

The point being.. this thread was started as "FOREX" and not "XXXX" or "4X" or "FOURX" :p

The financially motivated mates in Aussie land would surely know what Forex means :D

[elisha cuthbert]

The point being.. this thread was started as "FOREX" and not "XXXX" or "4X" or "FOURX" :p

The financially motivated mates in Aussie land would surely know what Forex means :D
some people down here do type it the way they say it
so its not as if its the hardest thing to make a connection with

[Music_Producer]

UK Retail sales came out way worse than expected.. -0.3% instead of 0.2%. Bagged 15 pips (hate the damn 15 pip spread on GBP/USD) .. really easy trade. :)

[elfin buddy]

some people down here do type it the way they say it
so its not as if its the hardest thing to make a connection with

Yes, elisha, we get that based on the title of this thread alone, some aussies might make the connection with beer.

The point is that if you'd read through the thread, you'd understand that we are not talking about beer at all, and Chundles' reply was in jest. :p ;)

[elfin buddy]

so... if your growing up in australia you wouldnt know what the hell FOREX is you would only know XXXX

By the way, I thought I should add that I lived in Queensland and went to school there for a bit back when I was a young trooper. They taught us how to spell more than "beer".

[elfin buddy]

With respect to the little "experiment" I set up last night, here's what happened.

Basically, since I didn't expect to be awake in time to catch the UK announcement, I thought I would try to set up a situation where I would benefit from any large move of the GBP. Mind you, I did this in my FXGame account, so no need to worry :)

I figured that any change in the GBP should affect all currencies relative to the GBP in the same manner. So, if the news was good news, EUR/GBP would fall, while GBP/USD would rise. I took out two trades with stop-losses, one on each of those currencies.

As you can see from below, I shorted EUR/GBP in hopes of good news, and I also shorted GBP/USD in hopes of bad news. I set semi-generous stop-losses so that they would be triggered by any major announcement that wasn't in favour of my trades, but also large enough so that they wouldn't be affected by market volatility surrounding trades.

http://wood.synchroverge.com/images/EUR-GBP.png EUR/GBP

http://wood.synchroverge.com/images/GBP-USD.png GBP/USD

Basically, I wanted one of the trades to be closed by the stop-loss, and the other to sink and make me enough pips to cover the the loss and still be in the black.

Those pictures are of what actually happened, while what you see below is the kind of shape I wished had happened :o

http://wood.synchroverge.com/images/GBP-USD_Ideal.png

So, as you can see, things didn't work out quite as I had hoped (I lost more money than I made back when I closed the second trade), but I'm going to keep toying with this over the coming weeks in my FXGame account and see if I can actually get it to work :D

In case I'm wasting my time, can anyone offer me a reason as to why this might never work?

[~Shard~]

In case I'm wasting my time, can anyone offer me a reason as to why this might never work?

I wouldn't say it would never work, but just keep in mind that when you get into the hedging game, you're always going lose to some degree, as you found out. ;) I realize the aim of course is to make more than you lose, but that is easier said than done. That being said, don't let me dissuade you! Have fun with it (since it is a game accuont and all!) and see what happens.

[Music_Producer]

In case I'm wasting my time, can anyone offer me a reason as to why this might never work?

Because you're messing with crosses. Trust me, I've been there.. I've done all these experiments :) Everything.. trading the spike.. trading *before* the spike.. even trading *after* the spike on the rebound :eek:

I've even placed limit orders 10 seconds before the news.. with stop loss and t/p set.. and everytime I have been wiped out.

Nothing works like what I do right now, trading right when the news comes out. Sure, I don't get to make 20 pips, 30 pips, 40 pips.. whatever.. I am satisfied with even 1 pip. But most of the time I do make from 5 to 15 pips.

The key here is to be consistent. Everyone makes losses.. I know I will one day. But it will have to be very tough for me to make a loss.. because I don't try out different things.

Experiment all you want elfin.. on your game account of course, as much as possible. Unfortunately I wish I had done all that playing around on my game account when i was a rookie!

Crosses are not that significant when it comes to trading. When the GBP news came out worse than expected.. banks *sell* the pound and *buy* the dollar. They don't sell the pound and buy euros. Everything is paired to the US$. Well, almost. Oil is traded in $.. so USD/OIL (lol) will move significantly during war time, or short supply of oil. will EUR/USD move when oil moves? Hardly.

[Music_Producer]

I wouldn't say it would never work, but just keep in mind that when you get into the hedging game, you're always going lose to some degree, as you found out. ;) I realize the aim of course is to make more than you lose, but that is easier said than done. That being said, don't let me dissuade you! Have fun with it (since it is a game accuont and all!) and see what happens.

Yeah.. and that loss can often lead you into 'revenge' trading "The bloody EUR should have gone up instead of down! Well screw you! I'm gonna buy more EUR and make up for my losses!" and it goes on..

[~Shard~]

Yeah.. and that loss can often lead you into 'revenge' trading "The bloody EUR should have gone up instead of down! Well screw you! I'm gonna buy more EUR and make up for my losses!" and it goes on..

It's funny cuz it's true. ;) Or "not funny" in this case. :o So many people get emotional over the markets, and that's pretty much the worst thing you can let happen. When emotion gets invoved, logic and reason go out the window and no good can come of that. Many people get burned by a trade, and then revenge trade to "make up for it". A word from an experienced investor - the markets owe you NOTHING. Never forget that. :cool:

[njmac]

Cool ... used real money this time? ... How much did you ended up funding your account for? Just curious, about to step into the deep myself

I was going to start with $50.00 but then I didn't really think that was much different than a game account so I funded with $1000.00. I made $56.00. Each pip was worth $2.00. I could have gone to $3 a pip but I wanted to have a little margin left.

I would loooove to start with $10,000 but unfortunately can't swing that right now.

[elfin buddy]

I was going to start with $50.00 but then I didn't really think that was much different than a game account so I funded with $1000.00. I made $56.00. Each pip was worth $2.00. I could have gone to $3 a pip but I wanted to have a little margin left.

I would loooove to start with $10,000 but unfortunately can't swing that right now.

I take it you like to live dangerously, Mr. Bond? :p

[njmac]

I take it you like to live dangerously, Mr. Bond? :p

danger is my middle name... :p

[Curren~Sea]

I was going to start with $50.00 but then I didn't really think that was much different than a game account so I funded with $1000.00. I made $56.00. Each pip was worth $2.00. I could have gone to $3 a pip but I wanted to have a little margin left.

I would loooove to start with $10,000 but unfortunately can't swing that right now.

It may not seem like much right now, but you want to keep an eye on your rate of return each month. For instance, if you grew your account by $100 in August, that's a 10% increase per month. I would venture to say that most people would be pretty darn happy about that! If you grew your initial $1000 account by 10% per month for a year, you would end up with over $3000. Most people would be happy with 300% returns for the year.

If you can achieve 10% per month every month for several consecutive months, you might feel confident that you could in fact dip into your savings and fund a larger account. It is easier, however, to simply watch your account grow incrementally. You get used to seeing the larger dollar values of each trade. This gradual increase feels more natural than jumping right into trades that are $100 per pip, for example.

It's all about consistency and compounding.

[~Shard~]

It may not seem like much right now, but you want to keep an eye on your rate of return each month. For instance, if you grew your account by $100 in August, that's a 10% increase per month. I would venture to say that most people would be pretty darn happy about that! If you grew your initial $1000 account by 10% per month for a year, you would end up with over $3000. Most people would be happy with 300% returns for the year.

If you can achieve 10% per month every month for several consecutive months, you might feel confident that you could in fact dip into your savings and fund a larger account. It is easier, however, to simply watch your account grow incrementally. You get used to seeing the larger dollar values of each trade. This gradual increase feels more natural than jumping right into trades that are $100 per pip, for example.

It's all about consistency and compounding.

Very well said. Eventually you will get to a point where you are investing in future trades with money which is 100% profit from previous trades, meaning that you aren't even touching your own principle anymore. It's totally putting your money to work for you - to make more money. ;) As Curren~Sea eluded to, never underestimate the power of compounding. :cool:

[~Shard~]

So, what are people preparing to trade this week? Looks like several USD announcements on Thursday and some JPY ones on Friday as well. Any thoughts on what the week will bring?

[Music_Producer]

Hey Shard, I might trade the Canadian retail sales today (5.30 am PST) .. I say 'might' because the spread on USD/CAD usually widens a lot. If its way too much, its not worth it.. and then again, I'm a little wary of the Canadian timing when it comes to news releases.. they might just release the number when i'm busy munching on a cheeseburger!

[Music_Producer]

23 pips on the USD/CAD trade :) Simple trade.. USD is still climbing, massive deviation in canadian retail sales.. expected number was 0.3%.. came out at -0.2% .. hence the nice spike. ( 2 spikes actually)

This was also the first time i traded a demo account with another forex broker.. wanted to see if the spreads widen like oanda's.. stayed at 5 pips on USD/CAD and oanda widened it to 15 pips.. which was pretty sick. I'm going to trade a few more times with this demo account and see what happens to the spreads and the execution. I might leave Oanda, if i get better spreads and the same execution as oanda.

Did anyone trade today's news?

[elfin buddy]

Damn, slept in again this morning and missed that CAD announcement! No worries though, always more trades... :)

Lots of EUR announcements tomorrow morning, as well as some more CAD ones. Think we'll see any big deviation on those?

[~Shard~]

23 pips on the USD/CAD trade :) Simple trade.. USD is still climbing, massive deviation in canadian retail sales.. expected number was 0.3%.. came out at -0.2% .. hence the nice spike. ( 2 spikes actually)

This was also the first time i traded a demo account with another forex broker.. wanted to see if the spreads widen like oanda's.. stayed at 5 pips on USD/CAD and oanda widened it to 15 pips.. which was pretty sick. I'm going to trade a few more times with this demo account and see what happens to the spreads and the execution. I might leave Oanda, if i get better spreads and the same execution as oanda.

Did anyone trade today's news?

No trading for me today - probably later in the week. Nice pip collection there though! :)

As for using another broker, I have signed up for a demo account with CMC Markets Canada. Besides the fact that they are based in Canada and the money stays in Canada (which makes things a bit better/easier for me), they seem to have a pretty solid platform, so I'm going to give it a go in the next week or so, when I have some time, and will see how it compares to Oanda.

Their pip spreads seem to be very competitive, however I am curious to find out if they widen them as well during lucrative trading times. For now though, EUR/USD is at 2 pips, USD/CAD is at 4 pips, GBP/USD is at 3 pips, and so forth, so not too bad on the surface.

The other reason I like the looks of them is that they trade CFDs for both shares and commodities. I can outright buy precious metals (not deal with precious metal funds), 24/7, or go long or short on any stock I want, or even an entire index. For instance, I might be shorting the NASDAQ itself in the near future! And, all with only 5% margin (and yes, I am well aware of the inherent dangers of margin. ;))

I haven't tried the platform out yet at all, but it looks good, so we'll see. Since I'm big into the markets and am new into Forex, this might be a good well-rounded comprehensive platform. Or it might suck ;) Oh, and it is Windows only, but I still have my PC so it's not a huge deal for me. Worst case I run VPC on my PPC Mac, or Parallels on my wife's new MacBook when she buys it in a couple months (if she lets me use it! ;))

I'll let you know how it goes...

[Music_Producer]

Shard, don't look at the regular spread between currencies in your new account. Monitor the spreads before important news releases. The spread between USD/CAD shot up to 15 pips at exactly 5.29 am. Before that, it was 5 pips. The regular spread between USD/CAD otherwise is 4 pips, and EUR/USD is 1.5 pips. So check your CMC account at 5.29 am-5.30 am for increase in spreads. (all this talk about 'spreads' is making me hungry :D )

Oanda provides the best spread I have ever seen.. except during news releases. I tried out Swiss forex - AMC.. but it honestly sucked. The whole platform looked like it was a toy platform.. and I just didn't like it. So I'm sticking with Oanda. I'm only going to trade with a new broker for non EUR/USD currencies.. for EUR/USD.. Oanda stays. The spread goes to only 7 pips during news releases.. which is not significant. Its GBP/USD and USD/CAD that pushes the spread to 15 pips and thats irksome.

I think you'll realize that as you try different brokers, you'll always come back to Oanda. Atleast thats whats happening to me!

[Music_Producer]

Damn, slept in again this morning and missed that CAD announcement! No worries though, always more trades... :)

Lots of EUR announcements tomorrow morning, as well as some more CAD ones. Think we'll see any big deviation on those?

We need some kind of a macrumors alarm..where we can 'buzz' each other if we're asleep. "Wake up sleepyhead!!! trade's coming up!" Lol.

[njmac]

Actually, we should start a .mac group :)

I did not trade today because right now I am only looking at EUR/USD. Once I get better at that I will look at other currencies.

Any luck with Deutch Bank? (DBFX)

[~Shard~]

Shard, don't look at the regular spread between currencies in your new account. Monitor the spreads before important news releases. The spread between USD/CAD shot up to 15 pips at exactly 5.29 am. Before that, it was 5 pips. The regular spread between USD/CAD otherwise is 4 pips, and EUR/USD is 1.5 pips. So check your CMC account at 5.29 am-5.30 am for increase in spreads. (all this talk about 'spreads' is making me hungry :D )

Luckily I just had lunch, so it isn't affecting me as much... ;)

Well, funny you should say that, as I just confirmed my observations with the CMC Support Staff directly - their pip spreads DO NOT move. Ever. EUR/USD is 2 pips and that's all the spread will ever be. Guaranteed. I was impressed by this, so I'm definitely going to be trying them out further with the little game/demo account I set up.

I think you'll realize that as you try different brokers, you'll always come back to Oanda. Atleast thats whats happening to me!

We'll see how my trial goes with CMC. I think it will honestly have a hard time competing with the overall interface and simplicity of Oanda, however it does already beat it in terms of pip spreads, it's Canadian (which is more advantageous for me) and it allows me to trade many other instruments as well in addition to Forex, which is of interest to me as well (not you, I realize.) So, I'll let you know how it goes. I'll be trading the EUR/USD with it Thursday, I think, so we'll see if that 2 pip spread holds. :cool:

[Music_Producer]

That reminds me.. Shard, since you're looking to trade other entities.. such as gold, silver, oil, etc.. take a look at Saxo Bank. Apparently they're the best when it comes to trading commodities, metals and so on.. I have not opened a demo account with them so I don't know what platform looks like.

Let us know how the spreads are during news events on that CMC account :) I'm trying out GFT Forex right now (demo obviously) They provide a 400:1 leverage, which might sound scary.. but hey, if you're an elite macrumors forex member.. you'll make tons of money :p

[~Shard~]

That reminds me.. Shard, since you're looking to trade other entities.. such as gold, silver, oil, etc.. take a look at Saxo Bank. Apparently they're the best when it comes to trading commodities, metals and so on.. I have not opened a demo account with them so I don't know what platform looks like.

Thanks will do! I aprpeciate the info. Gotta keep your options open after all! :) (No pun intended there... options... ah, nevermind... :o ;))

Let us know how the spreads are during news events on that CMC account :)

Oh, I will, don't you worry! If they stay solid I may have found my new trading platform! That being said, pip spreads could indeed stay the same, but trade execution could absolutely suck, so we'll just have to see. ;)

I'm trying out GFT Forex right now (demo obviously) They provide a 400:1 leverage, which might sound scary.. but hey, if you're an elite macrumors forex member.. you'll make tons of money :p

... Or lose tons of money. ;) Sounds interesting, let us know how it goes. 400:1 leverage though :eek: I'm guessing stop losses are key with them! :D CMC has 5% (20:1) for all shares and 1% (100:1) for commodities, so that would be good enough for me. As I said, I'll report back once I've had a chance to play around with them more...

[Music_Producer]

Actually, we should start a .mac group :)

I did not trade today because right now I am only looking at EUR/USD. Once I get better at that I will look at other currencies.

Any luck with Deutch Bank? (DBFX)

Just created one :D

http://groups.mac.com/macforex

Lol, i couldn't think of anything else. I've never used this group feature before.

Deutsche bank nj.. not deutch bank (if they ever knew how you spelt it, they would close your forex account hehe) .. next thing you know, you'll be referring to them as douche bank :eek:

Their platform didn't look too inviting to me. I need one-click execution, so thats the first thing i look out for. And then, one-click closing of trades. With many forex accounts, there are too many procedures to do these two things.. i mean ..geez..they're the most important! Why not make it simple?

For e.g. I have to click 'new order' .. then obviously 'buy' or 'sell'. .and then an annoying confirmation window pops up. And then there's a lag where everything freezes (you know how windows is) and the trade gets executed. Then I have to navigate to 'open orders' and then click on my order.. then another bloody confirmation window!!!! And so on.. :rolleyes:

Edit - Lol on that options pun

[elfin buddy]

We need some kind of a macrumors alarm..where we can 'buzz' each other if we're asleep. "Wake up sleepyhead!!! trade's coming up!" Lol.

Ahaha, that would be nice, actually :o

[~Shard~]

Their platform didn't look too inviting to me. I need one-click execution, so thats the first thing i look out for. And then, one-click closing of trades. With many forex accounts, there are too many procedures to do these two things.. i mean ..geez..they're the most important! Why not make it simple?

This is one thing I'm going to be looking out for with that CMC platform. I know their share/commodity trading is one-click (after entering in # of shares, S/L, etc.) but I don't know what their Forex is like. For instance, if I buy a currency pair, can I just close the trade, as Oanda lets you do, or do I have to open up a complementary order to sell the same # of currency units I just bought, and then go through that process again. Hopefully it's painless as well, as seconds count in this game. :cool:

Edit - Lol on that options pun

Yeah, didn't realize that one until after I typed it... ;)

[elfin buddy]

Just created one :D

http://groups.mac.com/macforex

Lol, i couldn't think of anything else. I've never used this group feature before.

I'm having trouble accessing that group...the .Mac website says that anyone with an internet connection can use the Groups, but I think it wants people to sign up with a trial account first. I signed up anyway, but it still won't let me see the group. Keeps giving me an error :confused:

[~Shard~]

I'm having trouble accessing that group...the .Mac website says that anyone with an internet connection can use the Groups, but I think it wants people to sign up with a trial account first. I signed up anyway, but it still won't let me see the group. Keeps giving me an error :confused:

Yeah, I think you need a .Mac account of some form. Sorry guys, but I won't be able to join ya on that one. It's great that you set it up though Music_Producer! :cool:

[elfin buddy]

Yeah, I think you need a .Mac account of some form. Sorry guys, but I won't be able to join ya on that one. It's great that you set it up though Music_Producer! :cool:

I did a little more digging, and it appears you need a .Mac ID of some sort, whether expired or not. Apparently even an expired trial ID is good enough. I think the reason I can't get in just yet is that you need to be invited by someone already in the group.

[Music_Producer]

You mean none of you are .Mac members? :o Oh well, whenever anyone is a .mac member and feels like joining.. please let me know. I love posting here, but that .mac thing will be like a interruption-free group. Also, we won't have to navigate through macrumors/community discussion/anyone into forex?/last page..

We need a one click solution to chat :D

[elfin buddy]

You mean none of you are .Mac members? :o Oh well, whenever anyone is a .mac member and feels like joining.. please let me know. I love posting here, but that .mac thing will be like a interruption-free group. Also, we won't have to navigate through macrumors/community discussion/anyone into forex?/last page..

We need a one click solution to chat :D

.Mac is way too expensive for me right now, haha :) I do have a trial membership though, so I'll PM you my address and you can try to add me to the group.

[njmac]

no, no, no guys.... .mac groups is for everyone - even people on windows computers. You need to sign up for a FREE .mac screen name. Just like if you join a Yahoo! group, you need a yahoo screen name.

HERE (http://www.mac.com/1/Groups_faq.html) is the .mac FAQ. The id you make for .mac can be used in the iTunes music store, groups, iChat etc.

The group you created does not work for me either and I do have .mac

ok, just read the faq, you need to be invited by the group owner.

You can invite me: jumpinginpuddles at mac dot com

[blinkmg]

So I've been considering forex for quite a while, and it's odd that this thread, tucked away on macrumors, has been a wealth of information for me. I found this thread about 2 days ago, and have caught up. One question though, for music_producer, I understand you use tradethenews.com for getting thos early morning reports that you trade on, but does this service also let you know what information is coming out ahead of time? I know that seems kind of a dumb question. I just want to know if it tells you "hey such and such report is coming out on thursday 5:30am" as well as alerting you the minute of?

Also, I remember reading awhile back that you were curious to find a way to have two cursors - but you also said you were using a trackpad. The trackpad can be considerably slower in tracking (movement of cursor across screen)than an optical or laser mouse. You also might see that your tracking is all the way up in sys. prefs. I own a graphic design firm, and have a 17" PB that I work with on the road, I would never even attempt to do anything that needed a hint of precision with the trackpad.

Again just absolutely brilliant info.

[Music_Producer]

So I've been considering forex for quite a while, and it's odd that this thread, tucked away on macrumors, has been a wealth of information for me. I found this thread about 2 days ago, and have caught up. One question though, for music_producer, I understand you use tradethenews.com for getting thos early morning reports that you trade on, but does this service also let you know what information is coming out ahead of time? I know that seems kind of a dumb question. I just want to know if it tells you "hey such and such report is coming out on thursday 5:30am" as well as alerting you the minute of?

Also, I remember reading awhile back that you were curious to find a way to have two cursors - but you also said you were using a trackpad. The trackpad can be considerably slower in tracking (movement of cursor across screen)than an optical or laser mouse. You also might see that your tracking is all the way up in sys. prefs. I own a graphic design firm, and have a 17" PB that I work with on the road, I would never even attempt to do anything that needed a hint of precision with the trackpad.

Again just absolutely brilliant info.

Hey blinkmg.. welcome to our little group! :)

Economic calendars are everywhere.. you can check out www.forexfactory.com. They usually have a detailed listing right on the front page.. of what reports are expected for the next 24-48 hours, and what time (EST/PST) You can also click on 'view full chart' or something of that sort and get events much further in advance as well. Also provided are the expected numbers, and previous numbers for the related reports.

Additionally, tradethenews alerts you 10 minutes before any news report.. and gives you an estimate number.. which is not that important since everyone knows it anyway.

You're right about the trackpad, but i am so used to it, that with a mouse i sometimes 'overshoot' :D With the trackpad i am fast and hit everything precisely. Plus the 'submit' buttons are pretty big.. so if i miss that then i have to be a clumsy oaf! I am so used to being quick now, that i wouldn't need 2 cursors. For all you know, if i did find a way to have two cursors, i would probably hit 'submit' on both 'buy' and 'sell' at the same time :p

[Music_Producer]

Wake up guys.. Canadian CPI numbers coming out at 7 am EST.. this could be a good trade.

[elfin buddy]

G'morning, everyone! The CAD announcements this mornings seem to have turned out to be a lousy trade. Oanda's FXNews didn't even report the results, and the markets barely moved at all. I skimmed 2 pips off the down-swing, but only barely.

blinkmg, welcome to the club! I hope you'll stick around and have some fun with us :D

[Music_Producer]

Hey elfin.. I bagged 8 pips.. I've posted somewhere earlier that oanda never reports canadian news.. I have no idea why they don't :confused: Got my news on trade the news.com.

And the new fx broker i was trying out (GFT forex) completely failed me. It gave me a 'rejected' message twice. So there's no point in trading with a broker with tight spreads but no execution :rolleyes:

Lets see how the US durable goods order comes out on thursday.. tomorrow is canadian leading indicators but i've never seen it move the currency by much. Oh yeah, US existing home sales.. that might move the EUR/USD. I don't remember how that moves the market though!

[elfin buddy]

I think I spoke too soon...Just four minutes ago, at 8:25 Atlantic time, Oanda announced in a "FLASH" that "CANADA JULY CPI UP 2.4 PCT YR-ON-YR".

Didn't move the markets anyway though :rolleyes:

[elfin buddy]

Just traded the CAD Leading Indicators announcement...bagged 3 pips, barely. Friggin' spread is almost killin' me! Anyone else awake this morning? Anyone trading the USD Existing Home Sales announcement at 10:00 EST?

[~Shard~]

Just traded the CAD Leading Indicators announcement...bagged 3 pips, barely. Friggin' spread is almost killin' me! Anyone else awake this morning? Anyone trading the USD Existing Home Sales announcement at 10:00 EST?

I thought it was at 10:30, but regardless, I'll at least be watching it - not sure if I'l be trading or not.

[elfin buddy]

There are two USD announcements according to ForexFactory...the Existing Home Sales is at 10:00 EST, and the EIA Crude Oil Inventories is at 10:30 EST :)

[blinkmg]

Hey Music Producer, can you invite me to the the .mac group? blinkmediagroup AT mac.com Thanks!

[elfin buddy]

Hey Music Producer, can you invite me to the the .mac group? blinkmediagroup@mac.com Thanks!

Whoopsies, there's a request for spam ;) Probably best to PM him your email address so spam-bots don't pick it up too.

[blinkmg]

Whoopsies, there's a request for spam ;) Probably best to PM him your email address so spam-bots don't pick it up too.


Yeah I thought of that after, but my .mac account is only to sync up cals, contacts, etc. between all of my macs. I don't use the mail :) The firm I own has our own server. They can spam away :)

[elfin buddy]

Yeah I thought of that after, but my .mac account is only to sync up cals, contacts, etc. between all of my macs. I don't use the mail :) The firm I own has our own server. They can spam away :)

Haha, fair enough :)

Since you're here, did you trade on any of the announcements today?

edit: fixed some spelling, the perfectionist that I am...

[Crimson]

Hi everyone,

Can someone explain todays drop in EUR/USD? Would the homesales news not weaken the USD? Gosh, I feel like I'm still guessing what news will do what. Is the drop the result of the oil news at 7:30am? Thanks!! :)

[elfin buddy]

Hi everyone,

Can someone explain todays drop in EUR/USD? Would the homesales news not weaken the USD? Gosh, I feel like I'm still guessing what news will do what. Is the drop the result of the oil news at 7:30am? Thanks!! :)

lol, I wish I knew what was happening with it today...I lost quite a few pips on that because I expected the EUR/USD to go up. No biggie, but I certainly learned my lesson about taking a small loss over waiting for a potential turn-around :rolleyes: :o

[~Shard~]

I didn't trade today, however I watched my CMC platform during the USD announcements and the EUR/USD spread stayed a rock solid 2 pips throughout. I'll be testing this again tomorrow, but it looks as though they are men of their word when they say their spreads never change. Regardless, I will still have to execute a trade with them to see how quickly it is filled, etc. - stable pip spreads mean nothing if your trade execution (or entire platform for that matter) suck. ;) :cool:

[njmac]

Hi everyone,

Can someone explain todays drop in EUR/USD? Would the homesales news not weaken the USD? Gosh, I feel like I'm still guessing what news will do what. Is the drop the result of the oil news at 7:30am? Thanks!! :)

My thought was that the new homesales coming out poorly is good news for the fed... they didn't raise rates and now they are more confident that no new hikes are needed and inflation is in check.

[blinkmg]

So I'd like to trade on the US durable goods orders tomorrow, but alas, I don't know where I'm going to get the numbers from - I don't have the "trade the news." I have parralells on an intel iMac at the office, but I don't see myself schlepping up there at 7:30am CST (I'm a graphic artist, we don't get to work before 10am :D ) Anyone else use anything to get the numbers ASA they come out?

Do any of you just stare intently and see which why it climbs or falls?? SEEMS like you could figure out that if that 7:30 it starts to rise a few or more pips the numbers must've been good and vice-versa.. I dunno.

[elfin buddy]

So I'd like to trade on the US durable goods orders tomorrow, but alas, I don't know where I'm going to get the numbers from - I don't have the "trade the news." I have parralells on an intel iMac at the office, but I don't see myself schlepping up there at 7:30am CST (I'm a graphic artist, we don't get to work before 10am :D ) Anyone else use anything to get the numbers ASA they come out?

Do any of you just stare intently and see which why it climbs or falls?? SEEMS like you could figure out that if that 7:30 it starts to rise a few or more pips the numbers must've been good and vice-versa.. I dunno.

I suppose you could just watch for the spike and trade it, but that's riskier than actually knowing what happened. There is often a lot of volatility right before big news announcements, and there are often smaller spikes in both directions that could be mistaken for the real thing.

I have a small account with Oanda, and they provide a service called FXNews to go along with their platform. It's certainly not stellar, but it does provide near-instant updates for big announcements. Eventually I may outgrow them and move on to something better, but for now, it works :)

[blinkmg]

I suppose you could just watch for the spike and trade it, but that's riskier than actually knowing what happened. There is often a lot of volatility right before big news announcements, and there are often smaller spikes in both directions that could be mistaken for the real thing.

I have a small account with Oanda, and they provide a service called FXNews to go along with their platform. It's certainly not stellar, but it does provide near-instant updates for big announcements. Eventually I may outgrow them and move on to something better, but for now, it works :)


I'm on OANDA too (music_producer should probably get a referal fee or something :D ), I'll check it out.

[elfin buddy]

I'm on OANDA too [...], I'll check it out.

Fantastic :D

(music_producer should probably get a referal fee or something :D )

I second that!

[blinkmg]

I have a small account with Oanda, and they provide a service called FXNews to go along with their platform.

Is this (http://www.oanda.com/products/fxnews/html/fxnews.shtml) what you are talking about? Or is there some realtime java app I'm not aware of??

[elfin buddy]

Is this (http://www.oanda.com/products/fxnews/html/fxnews.shtml) what you are talking about? Or is there some realtime java app I'm not aware of??

Not quite...after logging into the trading platform (whether it be FXTrade or FXGame), click on the "Resources" menu in the main window and the top item should be FXNews.

[Music_Producer]

Hey guys! I just woke up (12.32 pm) :rolleyes: .. I didn't trade at all this morning because both reports - Canadian leading indicators, and US existing home sales are not important. The durable goods order will be important this morning. I usually post here with details on what trade i think will be important, etc..so look out for that

the markets don't care about existing home sales.. because they already know that the sales are going to drop.. and in fact, if you look at the charts, the EUR did go up at 7.00 am.. although the spike was only 6 pips. Still, this spike is big for a small report. The market pays more attention to Home Starts and Building Permits.. because thats a major source of a boost to the economy (construction, hiring people, etc) If home starts and building permits fall, its common sense that existing home sales will fall too.

Nj, actually the opposite.. if the markets get news that rates are going to stay the same.. the $ will go down (even though the economy is good) Markets move on interest rate rumors, in fact last night, I was reading on cnn.com that the fed chief might have to raise interest rates again. So I am not sure if the markets caught on to that this morning and moved the USD up, but no.. the EUR/USD "fall" that you see is simply banks buying and selling. Nothing else. NO news caused this move.. just normal banking activity.

Is there any way to know when these type of moves can happen? No way.. unless you know someone who trades in a bank.. at the forex level. If ABN Amro decides to buy 560 million Euros today at 6.15 pm PST.. you will definitely see a spike and wonder "How the hell did that happen?" especially if you just sold the Euro at 6.14 pm PST :p

Hey blink.. i'll add you to the mac group.. maybe i should post on ical what trades i'm going to think are important and post them up on the group.

Those 'color' indicators on forexfactory are fine.. but some of them are inaccurate. For e.g. they always label the japanese reports as volatile (red) but JPY never never moves on reports. It only moves on US reports and the Yuan (chinese currency) reports for some odd reason. I'm not going to try and figure out the Japanese.. :rolleyes:

Tomorrow, durable goods orders are most important. Unemployment claims *could* become important if durable goods orders are the same as expected.. and the deviation is huge on unemployment claims. Although unemployment claims have been marked as 'moderate' at forexfactory.. i've seen those reports move the markets, if they deviate quite a bit.

On Friday, the Fed Chief is going to give us his usual confusing dialog on the economy. If he's hawkish the USD will go up.. I have a feeling that they're going to raise rates one last time.

They should.. they really need to kill this fake real estate 'boom' .. its going to be a major source of the economy's downfall. I never quite understood how the economy could be 'improving' if people are taking loans they can never afford to pay back. :confused:

[blinkmg]

Yeah. I made my first pip. 7 actually, on the AUD/NZD news. I could have made more, but I got in late (i'm setting up a free tradethenews.com account on an old pc tonight), and I got out early, but MAN. what a rush :D . I need a "my first PIP" thing to hang on my wall or something. What a friggin' blast.

[njmac]

Nj, actually the opposite.. if the markets get news that rates are going to stay the same.. the $ will go down (even though the economy is good) Markets move on interest rate rumors, in fact last night, I was reading on cnn.com that the fed chief might have to raise interest rates again. So I am not sure if the markets caught on to that this morning and moved the USD up, but no.. the EUR/USD "fall" that you see is simply banks buying and selling. Nothing else. NO news caused this move.. just normal banking activity.



hmmm, ok - I do remember you saying that stocks go down at an interest rate hike and the USD goes up at interest rate hikes but I missed what happens when rates stay the same... thanks for the reminder. I thought it might have been a confidence in the fed that caused the rise in dollar (inflation in check is good news for the $) obviously I was reading too much into nothing.

I would love to see your calendar on the .mac group. I am making my own calendar in iCal and will publish it also to see if everyone agrees with what I'm seeing.

:)

[Crimson]

Has anyone had problems with logging in to Oanda lately?:confused: I have had some serious issues over the past 24 hours - go figure since I just opened a live account. (although I am not using it yet!)

[Music_Producer]

Absolutely crap trade.. I bagged only 2 pips :mad: The spread on EUR/USD shot up to 15 pips about 30 seconds before the news! 15 pips on eur/usd :mad: :mad:
It used to be max 7 pips.. this pisses me off because its eating into my profits.

How did you guys do?

[blinkmg]

U.S. #s not as good as expected - sooooo why'd the EUR/USD go down??

[~Shard~]

Watched it, didn't like it, didn't trade it. However my 2 pip EUR/USD spread on CMC held throughout, as I was constantly watching the Bid/Ask for the trade.

[Music_Producer]

U.S. #s not as good as expected - sooooo why'd the EUR/USD go down??

I am assuming you traded on the regular durable goods orders. There are 2 durable goods order reports.. the Ex-Transportation order is the important one. The regular durable goods orders came out lower than expected, but the ex-transportation orders came out better than expected.

Whenever there are multiple reports like this, and you don't know which one is important, its best not to trade. Always stick to the one-report trades.. less confusion.. and the market moves better with one report news. Multiple reports (especially when they conflict.. like today) get the markets 'confused' and the maximum move is about 20 pips or so .. out of which 15 was the bloody spread :mad:

Now new home sales are due at 10 am EST.. do i think they will move the market? Possibly not.. if the numbers are lower (because thats expected) .. but for some reason, if the numbers come much higher than expected.. that would be a big surprise.. and would propel the USD up.

[Music_Producer]

Watched it, didn't like it, didn't trade it. However my 2 pip EUR/USD spread on CMC held throughout, as I was constantly watching the Bid/Ask for the trade.


I was just looking at cmcforex.com today. They seem to be based in new york.. but you mentioned something about them being in Canada?

[~Shard~]

I was just looking at cmcforex.com today. They seem to be based in new york.. but you mentioned something about them being in Canada?

They actually have offices all over the world, so they have an American office as well as Canadian. They may not be solely based in Canada, but by having a Canadian presence, that means I can deal with a Canadian institution, with Canadian funds in a Canadian account - much better logistically for me. :cool:

As I said though, I have yet to trade with them, so I'll give it a try i the next couple days and see how their trade execution, etc. is. On the surface, it looks like a pretty slick platform (perhaps not quite as nice as Oanda) but appearances can sometimes be misleading... ;) :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Thanks Shard :) I'm going to give GFT Forex one more chance today.. for the home sales. Lets see if they fill my orders..

[blinkmg]

I am assuming you traded on the regular durable goods orders. There are 2 durable goods order reports.. the Ex-Transportation order is the important one. The regular durable goods orders came out lower than expected, but the ex-transportation orders came out better than expected.

Whenever there are multiple reports like this, and you don't know which one is important, its best not to trade. Always stick to the one-report trades.. less confusion.. and the market moves better with one report news. Multiple reports (especially when they conflict.. like today) get the markets 'confused' and the maximum move is about 20 pips or so .. out of which 15 was the bloody spread :mad:

Now new home sales are due at 10 am EST.. do i think they will move the market? Possibly not.. if the numbers are lower (because thats expected) .. but for some reason, if the numbers come much higher than expected.. that would be a big surprise.. and would propel the USD up.

I stayed out of this one. Which is good, cuz when I saw the #s I thought about what I would do -- and it wasn't sell :) Is there a place somwhere that will tell me which reports really propel the markets? And what those reports are for?

[elfin buddy]

Hoyo, folks! I missed this morning's trade (thankfully) because I had to attend a PhD defense. I just got back in time to watch the New Home Sales USD announcement, and wow...how the Hell is anyone supposed to make profit off a 15 pip spread?!?

http://wood.synchroverge.com/images/stupid_spread.png

[Music_Producer]

Made 7 pips on GFT forex.. filled me in instantly. But then, there was hardly any deviation on the home sales.. so market's not that volatile. Right now, GFT looks better than Oanda though, because Oanda raised EUR/USD spread to 22 pips at 9.59 am and 58 seconds.

And I always used to wonder why the hell I made only 2-3 pips all the time. :rolleyes:

Basically, if the market moves by 20-25 pips.. and you're lucky to get in early, you might just nab 3 pips because of the 22 pip spread. If the markets move by 40-50 pips, thats a different story. I have never seen oanda widen the spread so much though.. it was always 7 on eur/usd.. today i saw 15, 17 and now 22. WTF?

[Music_Producer]

Hoyo, folks! I missed this morning's trade (thankfully) because I had to attend a PhD defense. I just got back in time to watch the New Home Sales USD announcement, and wow...how the Hell is anyone supposed to make profit off a 15 pip spread?!?


Exactly. TO make matters worse, the spread went to 22 pips 2 seconds before 10 am EST. I was a little curious, so instead of trading, I just watched the spread.. and it f@ckin annoyed me.. sorry for the language.. but 22 pips on EUR/USD is absolute crap. What next? 50 pips during an interest rate decision?

[elfin buddy]

Exactly. TO make matters worse, the spread went to 22 pips 2 seconds before 10 am EST. I was a little curious, so instead of trading, I just watched the spread.. and it f@ckin annoyed me.. sorry for the language.. but 22 pips on EUR/USD is absolute crap. What next? 50 pips during an interest rate decision?

Heck, if CMC turns out to fill orders nicely (or if you keep doing well with GFT), we'd all probably be better off just buying Windows boxes and signing up with them. With spreads like 2 or 5 pips instead of 15 and 22 pips on weeny little announcements, they'd pay for themselves in no time :rolleyes:

[Music_Producer]

I wonder why this is happening though. I mean GFT, CMC etc.. keep their spreads fixed.. so why the heck does oanda widen them? Yeah, sure, they fill me in instantly, great platform etc etc.. but the bottomline is.. that we all need to make a profit.

Right now as I was navigating through oanda's forums, it seems everyone is irritated as well about this 15 pip spread. Maybe i should add on their forums that it went upto 22 pips :mad:

[Curren~Sea]

I traded the GER announcement early this morning. Oanda froze up on me for a couple of minutes. That's the first time that has happened. Plus, the spread was an enormous 15.

I am playing around with ACM, out of Switzerland. They have awesome charts. Guaranteed fills in all markets. No requotes. Java based - works on any platform. I will probably open an account with them soon.

So far in August, my "Wave" account is up over 33%. My "Announcement" account took a hit today due to the freeze up, but still showing good profit for the month.

Yep, this is fun! :)

[~Shard~]

Heck, if CMC turns out to fill orders nicely (or if you keep doing well with GFT), we'd all probably be better off just buying Windows boxes and signing up with them. With spreads like 2 or 5 pips instead of 15 and 22 pips on weeny little announcements, they'd pay for themselves in no time :rolleyes:

I hope to execute a trade with CMC in the next couple of days, so I'll deifnitely let you guys know. It's very attractive already for me as far as CFD shares and commodities go, but hopefully the FX component is solid as well for those who have that as their sole/primary focus. I guess what I'm saying is, for me, I'm big into the markets as well, so it looks like an attractive platform overall.

As for it being Windows, yeah, that kind of sucks, but I still have my Windows box so it's not a big deal, and Boot Camp or Parallels are other options too for Mac users.

[Hoef]

Hadn't seen such huge spread at OANDA before. Did they change policy?

Lost a bunch of pips on my game account :mad:

[elfin buddy]

Hadn't seen such huge spread at OANDA before. Did they change policy?

Lost a bunch of pips on my game account :mad:

Imagine how pissed you'd be if you were in my shoes, and had lost pips worth real money because of their greed ;)

[Hoef]

Imagine how pissed you'd be if you were in my shoes, and had lost pips worth real money because of their greed ;)

Yeah no kidding .... so this sudden increase in spread was exceptional? Can't remember being it so large when the interest rate decision came out.

[blinkmg]

Anyone going to trade the German CPI after midnight tonight? Calendar says 1:00am but lists it as tentative...... How tentative? :D I need some sleep. My wife and I had our first child (boy) two weeks ago today, and work has been busy, and I could use some rest :)

Sooooo, if the inflation numbers are high - that could hike the interest rates which would hike the Euro (buy EUR/USD)? And if they are low (which is forcasted) the Euro will drop(sell EUR/USD)? Still trying to wrap my brain around all of this. :)

[Hoef]

Anyone going to trade the German CPI after midnight tonight? Calendar says 1:00am but lists it as tentative...... How tentative? :D I need some sleep. My wife and I had our first child (boy) two weeks ago today, and work has been busy, and I could use some rest :)

Sooooo, if the inflation numbers are high - that could hike the interest rates which would hike the Euro (buy EUR/USD)? And if they are low (which is forcasted) the Euro will drop(sell EUR/USD)? Still trying to wrap my brain around all of this. :)


I might do Japan CPI at 6:30pm Central

[Music_Producer]

Hey guys, I'll be watching the Fed's statement today at 10 am EST.. but not trading (not on oanda). I really want to see what the spread on EUR/USD goes to on Oanda. My screen's a mess.. there's oanda, gft forex, cmc forex, cms forex, etc.. multiple windows, with parallels running.. but everything's working fine so far :) If gft will fill me in today, then i might just sign up with them. If Oanda keeps the spread low to 7 pips max, then I'll stick with oanda.

Hoef, don't bother trading JPY reports.. they really don't do anything. They move a lot more when the chinese yuan is affected. :rolleyes:

[elfin buddy]

I'm also going to watch this one but not trade...After losing all those pips a few days ago, I'm a little queasy, and Oanda's bullsh*t hasn't been helping.

[Music_Producer]

Don't lose hope elfin.. maybe its just a temporary thing with Oanda.. hopefully they will revert to the original spread. If not, there are always other brokers, we just have to do the hard work of finding the right ones. :)

Nothing exciting today.. Fed chief made no comments on the US economy. He's as boring as a rock.

[elfin buddy]

Don't lose hope elfin.. maybe its just a temporary thing with Oanda.. hopefully they will revert to the original spread. If not, there are always other brokers, we just have to do the hard work of finding the right ones. :)

Nothing exciting today.. Fed chief made no comments on the US economy. He's as boring as a rock.

Oh no, I haven't lost hope quite yet ;)

Oanda's spread was very reasonable on this announcement. I didn't see it go over 2.5 pips at any time, even though there was a market deviation of around 25 pips. I don't understand why the market moved at all though...was the market expecting bad news on the US economy and were relieved that nothing was announced?

[Music_Producer]

No Elfin.. those were just regular market movements. At the most i think i saw 25 pips... and as it went down, it went back up again. I am not too sure if the spread was supposed to go up to 7 pips during this announcement.. as everytime this fed chief talks.. people are left confused. There is never any direct answer.

What do you think of a broker who has a 1 pip spread on EUR/USD (and at times 0 pip spread) even during news releases.. but charges $5 per $100,000 lot? I did the math and it works out better with the fixed fee method.

$100,000 = $10 per pip. Say I get in on a eur/usd trade just after the news and make 3 pips. So the broker would charge me $10 ($5 for buying, $5 for selling) and I would make $10 x 3 = $30. So a profit of $20. I think thats terrific for just a 3 pip profit. Now Oanda used to widen the spread to 7 pips.. and we would make profit on that.. so its safe to say that we could easily make (7-1) 6 pips+3 pips = 9 pips. Thats $90.

On the other hand, Oanda doesn't charge any fees, but recently when the EUR/USD spread went up to 15 pips.. that was like half my profit. There's also the danger of a loss.. as if the market goes up by 15 pips (which is covered by the spread) and you buy.. you're in a loss of -15 already. And then the spike goes down.. so you lose even more. I have a feeling oanda widens the spread on purpose so they can pocket more money. What do you guys think? Is the fixed fee structure better or oanda's method better?

[~Shard~]

What do you guys think? Is the fixed fee structure better or oanda's method better?

Hmm, pick your poison... ;) I don't like fixed fees - I prefer the commission to be built intio the spreads. However, I also do not like brokers who take advanatge of those spreads to increase their profits such as the EUR/USD 15 pip example. ;) Tough call. As you did yourself, best to look at the math and crunch the numbers. If the spreads are reasonable, I'd say that's the best way to go.

[Hoef]

Hoef, don't bother trading JPY reports.. they really don't do anything. They move a lot more when the chinese yuan is affected. :rolleyes:

Yeah I noticed .... will stick to the EUR/USD.

[Music_Producer]

Yeah I noticed .... will stick to the EUR/USD.

EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/CAD move really well.

[TheTrader]

Hello everyone, I only had time to read the first page of 18 so I'm not sure what you are all about, but since I started to trade in the forex market recently I thought it would be a good idea if I join to exchange ideas. Before starting though, I did do my research and found that Capital Market Services (www.cmsfx.com) is the best online brokerage for almost every reason. Mainly what I like with them is their 1:400 margin on the first 3 lots, 1:200 on the next seven, and 1:100 on anything higher. Another great thing is their universal account (no mini or standard, just one.) I made some good money in the mornings, and then lost some, and now just play with my practice account while studying. Will catch up more later and hope that we all can benefit from this and so nobody will be posting stupid things on here.
Sincerely,
TheTrader
PS www.fxstreet.com is a nice website with a good comparison chart of brokerages for anybody searching for a good company to join. I also want to suggest www.forex.com to use as a practice or if you like 1:100 margin. The reason for this is that they keep everything online simple in their charts, but for extensive research they let you download some great programs.

[Hoef]

Now this is not quite the typical mac topic but it would be awesome to have a wiki guide or something out there where we can aggregate our collective experience and platform recommendations. I think I lost track of the amount of platforms and am still on my oanda account....

[blinkmg]

Hey MusicProducer, any word on the .mac group you were making? Looks like our little thread is dying :) Maybe everybody is out making loads of cash?:D

[~Shard~]

Hey MusicProducer, any word on the .mac group you were making? Looks like our little thread is dying :) Maybe everybody is out making loads of cash?:D

I can assure you that's definitely not the case. ;) :D

Yeah, I've been pretty busy myself, so haven't had much time to play around with my practice trading accounts lately. I'm taking a day off on Thursday to catch up on a few personal things, and experimenting with my trading accounts and platforms again is on my list, since I can be home during trading hours instead of at work. Hopefully I'll be able to make some headway. :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Hey folks! Nothing's dying blinkmg.. :D .. just no significant news announcements since we last traded. I will add you to the .mac group tonight.. for sure! Then we can post our strategies there.

As for today, I'll be trading the consumer confidence report. I'll be trading on 3 platforms - Oanda, GFT Forex and some other one that i haven't signed up for as yet. Sucks though, as i have to use parallels and *ugh* windows.

I would have stuck to Oanda (as i have since the last 3-4 months) but their recent pip widening gala has got me a little concerned, and rightfully so. After reading the forums out there, it seems that there are a lot of traders who use the term 'gamblers' for us - news traders. Hmm.. when I used to trade stocks.. I always traded the news.. sheesh.. Apple pays Creative 100 mill.. what happens to Creative stock? It goes up 30%.. isn't that news trading? So all the traders who got in at that point are gamblers?

There are some really ridiculous comments, like "Its because of you news traders that Oanda widened pips" That made me laugh.. because news trading has been around since trading has been around! It just seems like the 'chart' traders are pissed off at the news traders. My question is.. why should they be pissed if they are 'chart' traders anyway? Its not like they get in when any news event is announced.. right? :rolleyes:

Besides, if i sign up for a service.. i should trade whatever way i prefer to trade. When i used to trade using 'technicals' or charting techniques.. I lost all my money. When i trade the news, i have never made a loss.. you really think i am going to switch back to technicals? Yeah right! There's a reason bloomberg charges $1700 per month for news releases.. all the big boys trade the news.

So anyway, logically, I think oanda's just trying to make a little profit by having these insane spreads.. so i will watch carefully.. if the spread goes beyond 7 pips on eur/usd there is no way i am trading on oanda. I don't care if the EUR/USD goes up or down by 50 pips.. its not worth the risk to lose 15 pips rightaway because of the spread.

There's also a potential trade after the Fed meeting minutes are announced. If there is any talk of interest rates being raised in the future, the USD will go up and vice versa.

[Music_Producer]

Also, another very important trade tomorrow - US GDP. Be sure to trade that/watch on your demo or real account.

[Crimson]

This mornings news... again I'm lost. The consumer confidence came in lower than expected and dollar went up??? Or am I reading things backwards?

:mad: Argh... So far I have not made any money on the news but am making money on predicting the ups and downs - that certainly seems like a gamble but it has worked so far. It takes longer, and it is hard to be patient sometimes. :)

[Music_Producer]

Looks like markets were waiting for the Fed meeting minutes result.. instead of consumer confidence. I didn't trade this one, because the spread on oanda, once again, went up to 15 pips.

Tomorrow's the big one.. US GDP. Any GDP news always moves the currency.. hoping for a big deviation here so we can make some money!

[Music_Producer]

A really good trade today was the FOMC meeting minutes at 2 pm EST. The EUR/USD went up by 70-80 pips on this report.. and it was not a crazy spike.. it went up nice and slow.. over a span of 30-40 minutes.

[~Shard~]

A really good trade today was the FOMC meeting minutes at 2 pm EST. The EUR/USD went up by 70-80 pips on this report.. and it was not a crazy spike.. it went up nice and slow.. over a span of 30-40 minutes.

That seems like a rarity! ;) I'm hoping to execute some more "pretend trades" in the next couple of days here, I've been a bit busy lately...

[njmac]

I'm on vacation right now, but I will try to trade in the morning if the spread on Oanda stays decent.

[Music_Producer]

Quite surprised today.. Oanda spread remained at 1.5 during the ADP report (8.15 am EST) and 4 pips during the GDP report. Bagged 10 pips trading the ADP report..came out lower than expected.

GDP came out almost as expected.. but since it was slightly lower, the eur went up .. by 5-8 pips at the most. I got in and got out with zero pips :rolleyes: Anyway, i'm glad that oanda didn't increase the spread to 15 pips as they have recently.. i hope they're back to their regular spread.

[~Shard~]

If anyone has a messier, nastier way of gaining 8 pips on this morning's EUR/USD trade, I'd like to see it... :eek: :cool:

[Music_Producer]

If anyone has a messier, nastier way of gaining 8 pips on this morning's EUR/USD trade, I'd like to see it... :eek: :cool:

LOL.. thanks for the laugh :D

[~Shard~]

LOL.. thanks for the laugh :D

Yeah, I dropped the ball on that one, fully admit that, but luckily held on and came out $80 ahead... :o ;)

Ah, the markets are so much fun.. :D :cool:

[elfin buddy]

Hey everyone! I've been gone on vacation for the past week, so I missed the last week of trading. I'm back now, but school's gearing up, so I don't know what my time situation will be.

I watched the ECB interest rate decision just a few minutes ago, and rates came out as expected (stayed at 3.0%). There was no deviation on the EUR/USD, but Oanda still increased the spread to 15 pips! :rolleyes:

If we're going to be trading the news, there's got to be something better than this...

[Music_Producer]

Hey Elfin, I was ready to trade the ECB interest rate decision too.. but as usual, those folks didn't surprise the market. I was waiting for a hike in rates.. unexpected of course.. but i was ready anyway (just like the bank of england raised rates last month and the pound shot up by 80-100 pips)

These last 2 weeks have been absolutely boring with news reports coming out same as expected (mostly) Honestly, even if the spread does go to 15 pips.. there is a lot of profit to be made if the news deviation is there. Remember that I have traded the GBP/USD with a 15 pip spread and achieved anywhere from 10-40 pips profit.

I traded the ECB chief's speech.. he was a bit hawkish so the euro went up by 15 pips.. I got only 6.. but atleast I got something today. I wasn't going to let a good trade go waste :p

All this while I have been watching the quotes on GFT Forex.. they remained at 3 pip spread for EUR/USD constantly.. no changes.

[TheTrader]

A nice 90pip gain this morning sipping coffee. Oh, wait, that was just a dream:( I'm looking for a good article or something to explain news trading, because the newsletter from forexbastards.com said to be watching, but I still don't understand what these interest rates are and how they affect the currencies. Could somebody please direct me to some information please? Thanks:)


PS I don't understand why people still talk about oanda.. there are so many better brokerages and online platforms.. like forex.com.. and my favorite www.cmsfx.com

[njmac]

A nice 90pip gain this morning sipping coffee. Oh, wait, that was just a dream:( I'm looking for a good article or something to explain news trading, because the newsletter from forexbastards.com said to be watching, but I still don't understand what these interest rates are and how they affect the currencies. Could somebody please direct me to some information please? Thanks:)




PS I don't understand why people still talk about oanda.. there are so many better brokerages and online platforms.. like forex.com.. and my favorite www.cmsfx.com

Honestly, if you go back and read all the posts from this thread, you will learn a lot about trading the news. I made notes from this thread into a word doc. and it worked really well.

Soooo, read this thread and watch each announcement and take notes about what happened. Keep reading about what the market is expecting, and then watch what happens at the actual announcement. If you have a specific question, post here.

I have done nothing this week because I'm on vacation but I do plan to get back into it next week.

[Music_Producer]

A nice 90pip gain this morning sipping coffee. Oh, wait, that was just a dream:( I'm looking for a good article or something to explain news trading, because the newsletter from forexbastards.com said to be watching, but I still don't understand what these interest rates are and how they affect the currencies. Could somebody please direct me to some information please? Thanks:)


PS I don't understand why people still talk about oanda.. there are so many better brokerages and online platforms.. like forex.com.. and my favorite www.cmsfx.com

I've tried all the brokers.. nobody gives me instant execution like Oanda does. A 3 pip spread is good in theory with other brokers, but useless when you need immediate order executions. Limit orders never get filled, market orders get filled at crazy rates.. positions get closed 10 seconds later.. and so on. So yes, even though the spread is horibble at Oanda, I'm still sticking with them because of their flawless operation.

When I find a broker who offers me decent spreads and same order execution as Oanda, then I'll definitely switch.

As for interest rates affecting currencies - simple. If the US interest rate is 5%.. investors from all over the world will deposit their money in US banks to earn interest on their deposits. Would you want to put your hard earned money in a Japanese bank and earn 0% interest? No.

So whenever there are talks of interest rate hikes for a particular currency.. that currency goes up and vice versa. The markets buy/sell more on rumors though than the actual news. For e.g.

The markets expect that the Feds will not raise interest rates again. The Fed chief keeps giving speeches in which its evident that interest rates are not going to be touched. On the day that the interest rate decision is to be made.. if the rates are not touched.. there will be a mild reaction (USD dropping) However, if they do raise the rates.. thereby shocking everybody.. the USD will rise by 80-120 pips for sure.

The speeches that these guys give also move the currencies.. because you can analyze what they are saying.. whether they are hinting at a rate hike or pause.. and so on.

[Hoef]

all ready to take the non farm employment change challenge? After loosing 5 pips today, ready to make some tomorrow.

[Music_Producer]

Yup.. this one better deviate by a lot!

[Music_Producer]

Didn't enter this one.. no deviation at all from the expected number (128 v 125.. ooooh!) Good thing I skipped.. the spread was 15 pips again.. and there was hardly any movement.

[~Shard~]

I traded with CMC yesterday and found their execution speed to be quite acceptable. I was just using market orders, but everything got filled almost instantaneously and I have no complaints at all. Pip spreads NEVER move (EUR/USD is always 2 pips), margin is only 1%, and the platform is slick. I still think Oanda's interface has some advantages, but perhaps it's just me not being used to CMC yet either. Two things I didn't like was that it's
a little more difficult to enter stop losses (have to do it as a separate order) and that the charts only update by the minute, not on 5 second intervals like Oanda, however in a way you shouldn't be trading the charts, you should be trading the news at watching the spreads themselves. ;) :cool:

The platform overall is quite comprehensive and powerful - I think I will be using it in the future. It allows me to do margin trading on international markets, with which I can trade indicies, forex, sectors, commodities (contracts and spot), etc. - and it is very responsive. It also gives me great control over orders, allowing me to do OCO orders and the like, which my current online platform doesn't. I realize this is a forex thread, and that's our main interest, but being a trader in general, these things really interest me as well. ;) :)

[Hoef]

Didn't enter this one.. no deviation at all from the expected number (128 v 125.. ooooh!) Good thing I skipped.. the spread was 15 pips again.. and there was hardly any movement.


mm for some reason it didn't look that bad .... made 10 pips :)

[Music_Producer]

mm for some reason it didn't look that bad .... made 10 pips :)

Thats awesome Hoef :) .. although for me it was horrible, since I have traded NFPs before.. and there are moves of 60-90 pips. So this was rather lame (for me atleast)

Shard, I'll be wiring some funds in my GFT forex account and try a few trades next week. Will let you guys know how it works out. And we're interested in every investment field.. not just forex :D Its just that ,how do you predict where oil will go, or gold will be in the future? Common sense says they will rise.. but who knows? I guess I have always been a little less confident about long term trading.

[~Shard~]

Shard, I'll be wiring some funds in my GFT forex account and try a few trades next week. Will let you guys know how it works out. And we're interested in every investment field.. not just forex :D Its just that ,how do you predict where oil will go, or gold will be in the future? Common sense says they will rise.. but who knows? I guess I have always been a little less confident about long term trading.

I've been trading commodities and commodity-related stocks for quite a while, so I have a good handle on how things behave, for the most part. ;) :cool: With many things like this, seasonality actually has a big part to play. There are tangible economic factors why gold (as an example) is seasonally strong between certain months, and historically a trade during those months has returned positive gains 10 out of the last 10 years. You can't trade based on that alone, of course, but it definitely helps. I'll do that for commodities, financials and even fertilizer stocks... ;) :D

I can get into it more later if you like, but for now I'm going to finish catching up on my other threads here and hit the sack. 'Night all... :cool:

[savar]

Wow, this has been a great thread.

One more question: if you're holding a foreign currency, such as AUD, is it possible to pull this money out and get AUD cash? I'm just wondering because I talked to a guy one time who claimed that when he traveled he would exchange in a forex account and avoid the ridiculous fees that one pays to exchange money in this country.

Also, I'm practicing in my game account trading on fundamentals... I'm printing out economic calendars as we speak and I will be trading them and making notes about the results over the next 3-4 months. When I "go live" I expect to trade solely on fundamentals.

But I'm also curious about technical trading. Looking at some of the daily charts I can see that there are huge profits to make just taking advantage of natural cycles, if one can only find a reliable way to predict them. I know there are a lot of tools out there to analyze investment strategies, but I would like to write my own. (I'm a professional developer but I majored in econ in school.)

What kinds of features should go into a piece of software like this? I was thinking that the interface would have two parts. In one part, you select a dataset (e.g. historical prices for USD/JPY), and the software provides some rudimentary charting/analysis tools. In the other part you select an "investment strategy" plug in (would be written in Java also), and the software runs the plugin on the chosen dataset. The plugin would be fed one piece of data at a time in chronological order, just like a trader sees the market. At any given point in time, the plug-in can execute an order (market, limit, box, etc.). This software would produce a chart that shows when this strategy would buy and sell, and what the net profit would be.

If anybody is interested I will post back with the results and seek some constructive criticism. I've got a good understanding of economics and computers, but I don't have the experience (I'm 23) to know exactly what this software ought to do. Comments encouraged

[~Shard~]

Thanks for the post savar, great to have you as a member of this thread. :) I have had enough experience investing to tell you that, whether it is Forex or otherwise, past results are no indication of future performance, so technical analysis can only take you so far. A stock can be indicating a double bottom with a low RSI for instance, and just when you think it will go up, the company announces a major setback and the stock tanks - and then your predictive charting is out the window - such are the limitations of technical analysis. That being said, they are an important part (but only a part) or the overall picture, combined with fundamentals as an example.

Me, I trade on news, fundamentals, pre-news, and technicals - the whole shooting match, depending on the situation and my investment strategy with whichever security I'm focusing on.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I think you can get burned by simply trying to calculate patterns and the corresponding buy/sell opportunities, however they do exist if you could somehow accurately predict them, so I'm definitely interested in any progress you make in pursuing this. I'm not sure how I could be of assistance, but let me know if you can think of anything. :cool:

Again, welcome to the thread, hopefully it's been of benefit to you. If you have any other questions, post away. I am not as experienced and well-versed in forex specifically as some other members here are (they put me to shame!), however I have expertise in other areas of fiance and investing, so it's all good - together, we make a good team here, I'd like to think. ;) :cool:

[njmac]

Wow, this has been a great thread.





Welcome to the Forex thread. :) You can PM music_producer with your email address and join our .mac group.


I don't think software that can execute your trade automatically is a good idea. Let's say your technical indicators say that you should buy the USD. Everything lines up on the charts for a move.... then a terrorist strike happens in the US. Your charts could NEVER have predicted that, and your trade goes south very, very quickly. You could lose everything.

I would love to know how, as an econ major, how you easy you will find trading forex. I imagine it will give you a huge advantage. You will probably grasp the news releases and their meanings/effects more easily. I wish I had majored in economics.

[~Shard~]

I would love to know how, as an econ major, how you easy you will find trading forex. I imagine it will give you a huge advantage. You will probably grasp the news releases and their meanings/effects more easily. I wish I had majored in economics.

My philosophy is it's never to late to learn. ;) :cool:

[Music_Producer]

Hey Savar, welcome to the thread :) I don't think you can pull out cash in other currencies if your base currency (the one in which the account is opened with) is different. If you open an account with USD, you can only withdraw USD.

Shard.. nice avatar btw :D

[~Shard~]

Shard.. nice avatar btw :D

Thanks. :) I thought it was time that I made some modifications to my "hackintosh" avatar... :cool:

[Music_Producer]

This one has to be the fastest trade I ever carried out.. you can see from the pic, I got in right before the dip. Tradethenews got this one out pretty quick.. and Oanda kept the GBP/USD spread very reasonable to 5 pips. Bagged a 7 pip profit :D

The report was the UK Services PMI.. came out slightly lower than expected.

56677

[Music_Producer]

Couple of possible trades tomorrow..

4.30 am EST GBP/USD - GBP Industrial production - I will only trade this if the spread on GBP/USD is decent - if its 15 pips, I will not be trading. Usually the spread widens about a minute or 40 seconds before the news announcement.

8.30 am EST EUR/USD - USD Nonfarm productivity

9 am EST - USD/CAD - Canadian interest rate decision. I just watched the Aussie interest rate decision and they kept the rates the same..so no trade. Tomorrow, its widely expected that the Canadian interest rates will be kept the same.. but if they do raise them.. I will sell USD/CAD

10 am EST is USD ISM non-manufacturing index.. but i am usually asleep before that time :D

[~Shard~]

Couple of possible trades tomorrow..

4.30 am EST GBP/USD - GBP Industrial production - I will only trade this if the spread on GBP/USD is decent - if its 15 pips, I will not be trading. Usually the spread widens about a minute or 40 seconds before the news announcement.

8.30 am EST EUR/USD - USD Nonfarm productivity

9 am EST - USD/CAD - Canadian interest rate decision. I just watched the Aussie interest rate decision and they kept the rates the same..so no trade. Tomorrow, its widely expected that the Canadian interest rates will be kept the same.. but if they do raise them.. I will sell USD/CAD

10 am EST is USD ISM non-manufacturing index.. but i am usually asleep before that time :D

Thanks for the head's up Music_Producer. I won't be able to trade tomorrow since I have to go into work early, but I'll definitely watch the announcements and see how it affects the currency pairs. You can observe a lot just by looking. ;) :)

[Hoef]

8.30 am EST EUR/USD - USD Nonfarm productivity



It's the best I can do in my time zone so I'll give it a shot

[elfin buddy]

Oi! Hello again, everyone! I'm going to try to hit up tomorrow's trades, but it all depends on how early I get up. School starts in two days, so I should probably try to get back on my early-morning schedule :)

savar and TheTrader, welcome to the club!

[mooncaine]

I happened across this thread accidentally, and I'm fascinated. What are pips, please?

[elfin buddy]

I happened across this thread accidentally, and I'm fascinated. What are pips, please?

Have you read the rest of the thread?

[Music_Producer]

No trades as yet.. everything was as expected.. but holy cr$p!!!!!! The 24 inch iMac just got launched :eek: :D :eek: :D Thats more exciting than a 70 pip profit lol

Wb elfin! Good luck with rearranging your sleep schedule.. I hate doing that (when i fly overseas) I'm all awake right now.. looking at the imac specs.. guess I'll have to drink a beer to go to sleep :p

[~Shard~]

I happened across this thread accidentally, and I'm fascinated. What are pips, please?

Read through the thread - all is explained, and plenty more! :) If you really want to learn, it's worth taking the time and effort to read through everything, there's lots of great info here. :cool:

[hoyboy9]

Hey guys! I've been following this thread with interest. I want to get into short term stock trading or forex and have been investigating both.

I have a question about (United States) capital gains tax. Let me set up an example.

Say you buy $1000 in USD/EUR and sell out, making $1200. That leaves you with a $200 profit. After the pip spread has been deducted, say that leaves you with $100 profit.

At this point, are you paying capital gains tax on $200, or $100? What is the tax rate on those profits? I've read about a 60/40 long-term/short-term split if you decide to forgo Section 988 IRS rules (for an overall 23% tax rate). Can you fill in some of the details here?

[Music_Producer]

I've been having quite a bit of fun shorting the GBP/USD today. The pound has been hammered anyway because of all the political chaos going on in England, on top of that.. the Bank of England did not raise interest rates.

So I've been shorting.. and buying back.. at 5 pip profit intervals. Total profit = 40 pips :D
56799

And Oanda has been playing very nice. The spread on GBP/USD was 2.8 pips! :eek: I was expecting 15 as always.. for a few seconds I thought something was wrong with my platform.. but the spread remained at 2.8 all throughout.. enabling me to execute these multi-profitable trades.

I expect the GBP to go through some crazy ranges today.. especially when UK prime minister Tony Blair is expected to speak (9am ET-10 am ET) The pound has the potential to move up or down by 50-100 pips (I'm guessing) I won't be trading though.. because I have no idea what the exact time will be when he speaks.. and its too late for me anyway. Besides, I'm very satisfied with 40 pips for the day.

Apparently he is going to announce that he will quit by next year..

[Music_Producer]

Hoyboy.. the capital gains tax is only the profit that you make .. not on any spreads that the broker earns. If you made $5000 profit for 2006.. you have to pay tax on that $5000.

I am not sure what the rate is.. I let my software do all the work.. I merely fill in the details.

[Music_Producer]

Hey folks! I traded the GBP today (at 4.30 am EST) The GBP PPI came out worse than expected.. and the pound dropped by 30 pips.. and continued to drop to about 40-50 pips or so. I bagged 15 out of those (Oanda took another 15 via their crazy spread) The UK trade balance also came out slightly worse than expected.

Canadian housing starts (at 8.15 am EST) was a no-trade.. there was hardly any deviation on the report. Tomorrow, the US Trade balance is due at 8.30 am EST.. and that should be a good trade (provided it deviates a bit)

I posted on Friday regarding my USD/CAD trade.. but for some reason, it doesn't show up here. :confused: That was a really good trade because the Canadian $ dropped by 40-50 pips against the US$. Canadian employment reports came out pretty disappointing.. I think the prediction was -0.1% and it came out at -1.2% .. so a pretty big deviation. Even though the spread was 15 pips on USD/CAD it was fairly easy to snatch atleast 15-20 pips out of that one. Good luck for tomorrow!

[~Shard~]

Hey folks! I traded the GBP today (at 4.30 am EST) The GBP PPI came out worse than expected.. and the pound dropped by 30 pips.. and continued to drop to about 40-50 pips or so. I bagged 15 out of those (Oanda took another 15 via their crazy spread) The UK trade balance also came out slightly worse than expected.

Canadian housing starts (at 8.15 am EST) was a no-trade.. there was hardly any deviation on the report. Tomorrow, the US Trade balance is due at 8.30 am EST.. and that should be a good trade (provided it deviates a bit)

I posted on Friday regarding my USD/CAD trade.. but for some reason, it doesn't show up here. :confused: That was a really good trade because the Canadian $ dropped by 40-50 pips against the US$. Canadian employment reports came out pretty disappointing.. I think the prediction was -0.1% and it came out at -1.2% .. so a pretty big deviation. Even though the spread was 15 pips on USD/CAD it was fairly easy to snatch atleast 15-20 pips out of that one. Good luck for tomorrow!

As always, thanks for the updates Music_Producer! You continue to provide us with great insight, and seeing your results, and how you trade based on the news continues to provide concrete examples to the rest of us - I, for one, appreciate it. :)

Things have been hectic the past little bit here, but I hope to do some more trades myself (pretend of course) soon. :cool:

[Hoef]

Hi Music_Producer, care to reflect on this week's USD action?
- Thu retail sales
- Fri CPI
Going to be an exiting week!

[Music_Producer]

Hoef.. the US CPI is the trade to look out for.. (trade the retail sales too.. as they might deviate) like today's GBP trade.. (GBP shot up by 60 pips :eek: ) The UK CPI came out much higher than expected so the pound practically hammered the dollar.

I made 38 pips .. my best trade in a long time. :D *But* I am switching from Oanda to GFT Forex. Oanda had the spread on GBP/USD at 15 pips.. and kept it at 10 pips for a FULL 8 minutes! If only they could hear me on the phone right now. Yes, I made a profit.. but a 10 pip spread for so many minutes is unheard of. Usually the spread falls back to 3.5 pips within a couple of seconds after a news release.. or at the most - a minute. I am guessing Oanda is getting greedy and I am quite apalled by this.

Executions on GFT were instant, and the spread remained at 5 pips.

[Music_Producer]

Geez.. just when i think of quitting Oanda.. made 20 pips on the EUR/USD. The US trade balance came worse than expected (man, i already knew that.. i wish i had placed a trade before the news report) and the eur jumped by 40 pips.

I got out, and almost a couple of seconds later, the EUR tanked.. back to where it started its rise.. and dropped by 30 pips gradually! Its always a good thing to get out early.

[Curren~Sea]

Just an update from me since I haven't posted for awhile:

1. I am trading announcements on Oanda and it's going very good. While the profits aren't mind-boggling, I realized a modest 5% return in August and I'm currently up another 5% in Sep. Compounded, that's pretty good.

2. I am also trading a different account using various strategies and this account realized 50% in Aug and is well ahead in Sep so far.

Keep learning and you'll find a strategy and style that works for you!

[~Shard~]

Keep learning and you'll find a strategy and style that works for you!

I think that's a good point - do whatever works for you. For some of us, it's getting up early and making trades that last 10-15 seconds on news spikes. For others, perhaps it's long term trades based on fundamentals. Others prefer using technical analysis to dictate how they will trade. Some trade forex, as we do here, others stocks, others commodities - there's lots out there!

In the end, if it works for you, it's all good. :cool:

[njmac]

I hope everyone is doing well. :)

I have not traded since my stellar 28 pips ;) because I have been working. (I'm a freelancer and have a very busy September month...) But will be back in the swing in October. I check this thread everyday though to keep up on what's going on, tips etc.

[~Shard~]

I hope everyone is doing well. :)

I have not traded since my stellar 28 pips ;) because I have been working. (I'm a freelancer and have a very busy September month...) But will be back in the swing in October. I check this thread everyday though to keep up on what's going on, tips etc.

Good to see you again njmac. I'm in a similar boat - I've been very busy lately, but always read the thread whenever there is a new post. Hopefully when things calm down a bit I get back into trading and contribute more to the thread. ;)

[Music_Producer]

Two trades today to look out for if there is deviation - UK Retail Sales and USA Retail Sales. Hope these deviate by a big number :)

[Music_Producer]

Wow.. just wow. Made a 2 pip profit on GBP/USD. Guess what Oanda's spread was?

25 pips. See Ya OandA

[Music_Producer]

Awesome trade! USD retail sales came out better than expected.. a big deviation (exp was -0.2%.. came out at +0.2%) The eur has dropped 40 pips so far.. and still falling...sorry, make that 50 pips! MB trading filled me in quite nicely and I got 29 pips.

This, despite the fact that the EUR was appreciating because of ECB comments that EUR interest rates will likely be hiked. I love news like this when its totally unexpected, because this is what moves the markets the most. :D

[~Shard~]

Thanks again for the updates Music_Producer - I hope to be back in the trading game with ya soon! ;) :cool:

That's crazy about Oanda's spreads. I have signed up for a full-fledged CMC account and will let everyone know how it goes. As well as forex though, I'll be trading stocks, indicies and commodities, so I am not using it solely as a forex platform. But one thing that I do know is that they NEVER widen their spreads. EUR/USD is always 2 pips, always. :cool:

[Hoef]

Awesome trade! USD retail sales came out better than expected.. a big deviation (exp was -0.2%.. came out at +0.2%) The eur has dropped 40 pips so far.. and still falling...sorry, make that 50 pips! MB trading filled me in quite nicely and I got 29 pips.

This, despite the fact that the EUR was appreciating because of ECB comments that EUR interest rates will likely be hiked. I love news like this when its totally unexpected, because this is what moves the markets the most. :D


Excellent .... just made 3 but with the insane spread I am not complaining. Can we have a tally of what trading platform people are using? I am about to say goodbye to my game account and go live but still not set on a platform (only tried Oanda). Music_Producer, did you make the switch to GFT Forex and are you using that in Parallels?

[Music_Producer]

Hoef and Shard - I've tried almost every broker who maintains a fixed spread on all currency pairs.. during news times, but I have found out that almost 99% of them will never fill your orders when the market is volatile. So, I have to give that honor to Oanda.. they have never failed me when it comes to instant execution. I've tried forex.com, fxcm, fxdd, deutsche bank (they use fxcm.. who would have thought?) hotspotfx.com, interbank fx.. lol.. you name it.

GFT was a *little* slow at market executions.. Mb Trading performed very well last night for the US trade that I carried out. I have a live account with MB trading Hoef, GFT is still a demo one. For sure though, I will choose between GFT and Mb Trading.

I use parallels for both GFT and MB Trading software. Parallels runs great. no complaints at all. I've heard people say that Oanda is keeping their spreads high to scare off news traders.. and that it might be a temporary move. Lets see.. when they're back to resonable spreads, I might just go back.. but for now, no thanks.

Shard, if you've noticed.. the price of oil has started to drop.. now that the elections are coming up in November. Coincidence? :p

[Music_Producer]

Disappointing data.. CPI came out as expected.. so EUR jumped 15 pips and then down.. and then up again. I traded with MB, got about 7 pips and got out. Execution was a little slow, but when you click on' buy' or 'sell' you get filled in at the rate that you see on the screen.. its not like they change the rate due to the delay.. so I was very happy.

These USD bulls are ridiculous.. the EUR, in my opinion.. should go to 1.2900 or atleast 1.3000. There are greater chances of the Euro interest rates being hiked, the EUR economy is faring better as well.

Hoef, did you trade? The spread went up to 15 pips on Oanda.. so if you got in early, you probably made a loss (unless you sold after the first spike)

[Hoef]

Hoef, did you trade? The spread went up to 15 pips on Oanda.. so if you got in early, you probably made a loss (unless you sold after the first spike)

I did ... I tried to get in after the big EUR jump up figuring that the EUR would come down again (looking at the trendlines) which it did, so ended up netting 13 pips. Not bad.

[~Shard~]

Shard, if you've noticed.. the price of oil has started to drop.. now that the elections are coming up in November. Coincidence? :p

Yes, I have noticed - and nope, not at all... ;) cool:

[Hoef]

I've heard people say that Oanda is keeping their spreads high to scare off news traders.. and that it might be a temporary move. Lets see.. when they're back to resonable spreads, I might just go back.. but for now, no thanks.

Confirmed

I sent them an email asking what was going on, this was their response...

OANDAs FXTrade spreads vary over time depending on a number of factors,
including the currency pair in question, the time of day, the day of week,
general market conditions, timing of anticipated announcements, etc.
Typically, during normal market conditions you will find the spreads to be
in the 1.5-3 pip range on most of the currency pairs.

As you know, we have increased the spreads at the time of newsreleases.
We expect them to continue to be increased at news releases,and we'd
like to give you some additional background on why this occurs:

Today,traders and market makers execute the bulk of their
transactionselectronically. This has increased the speed of trading.
Even thoughthis development is a good thing overall, it has had the
negativeeffect of increasing the peaks of transaction volume at the time
ofnews events. Not just at OANDA, but everywhere. Whenever this
happensglobal liquidity dries up and exchange rates literally jump to a
newprice level.

From a risk management point of view, at times ofnews events, when
there is relatively tight liquidity coupled withpotentially large
volatility, the situation is more problematic thanover the weekend,
where liquidity might be very tight but there is novolatility in the
common case. Market makers, globally, have toresponded to this
development by widening there spreads at the time ofimportant market
events. Given the overall level of uncertainty in thefinancial markets,
OANDA has been forced to follow this development andalso increase
spreads at the time of news releases.

We atOANDA can assure you that having tight spreads lies very close to
ourheart. We will do everything in our to power keep the spreads as low
aswe possibly can, and in particular, to minimize the magnitude and
timeof spread increases. We encourage our clients who typically use
tightstops widen their stop loss bands prior to news releases. Also,
clientswho trade at news events should understand that prices can
movequickly, with large gaps, and that considerable slippage can ensue.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

Kind Regards,

The OANDA FXTrade Team

[honamos]

Hello All,
I'm a new poster to this board. I've delved in Forex a little in the past. Only with game accounts though. I've used Forex.com and it's not that bad, in my opinion. However, I have nothing to compare it against. Now I'm trying Oanda. I've read this forum a bit and I'm impressed with much of the insight on these boards.

I like the concept of trading on news. Tomorrow (Monday) will be my first trade on news. I am looking at Forex Factory's calendar and I'm looking at:
EUR Industrial Production m/m

My question is, how do I know what the announcement is? Some of you use paid services like tradethenews.com, but at 5AM, when it's announced, how do I know what it will be?

[Music_Producer]

Hey honamos.. welcome to the thread. :) You can get the news on Oanda.. just click on 'resources' and then 'news' .. a separate news window opens up. Tradethenews is not all that reliable.. sometimes they are faster than Oanda, sometimes they're the same.

Remember, that any major deviation in an expected result .. causes major moves in the currency. If the news comes out more or less the same, the currency might move maybe 15 pips at the most (up or down)

A definite trade to watch out for is during interest rate decisions (US, EUR and GBP) Most of the times, the interest rates are announced as expected i.e. if the UK bank is expected to keep interest rates same at 4.5%.. they will not change. However, if the banks surprise the markets by announcing a rate hike(or cut) you can expect that currency to move by 80-100 pips. For sure, 100%.. without a doubt.

I am not trading the EUR industrial report because it doesn't move the currencies that much. Its also a m/m (monthly report) so the markets don't take note of it that much. Of course, if it deviates by some insanely crazy number then the markets will take notice.. but usually it doesnt.

I'll be trading the US Current Account at 8.30 am EST..if it deviates quite a bit, I'll enter the trade. Before a trade.. (usually 15 mins before) I make a note of what the forecast number is going to be.. and memorize it... That way, when i see the news come out.. i know if it deviates by a lot or not much and accordingly I can trade.

Oanda was great for every trade, but lately they have increased their spreads, so you might actually make a loss on small deviation trades..because the spread will eat up your profits.

Hoef, thats the usual reply they give everytime someone asks about their spread policy. I would love to ask them why GFT, MB Trading, etc dont raise their spreads during news time. Oanda seriously has no excuses, I am just tired of whatever reason they might give to justify their spreads.