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Anyone here into FOREX?

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Music_Producer said:
Shorted everything I had out of GBP/USD and GBP/JPY when the PPI came in at -0.5%. For the first 20 minutes or so.. nothing much happened.. and then the drop began. I got 100 pips on GBP/JPY (when that pair moves, it MOVES) and 40 on GBP/USD. :D

Still has the potential to go down more because of 'Russian sellers' in the market.. but I'm out for now.
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MP, How do you determine the length of time you stay in a trade?
That seems to be the trickiest part of using this new strategy.
 
Yep nathan, if the news is bad enough and there is no move.. it will move eventually. Just keep an eye out for any other news at the same time. PPI came out way worse than expected.. and GU and GJ actually went up 20 pips during the first few minutes! It was just a temporary spike though, as gu and gj were heavily sold during the london session.

Sometimes there is a price consolidation for 30 minutes to an hour (usually 30 minutes) and then the price starts moving fast.

Ocean.. on GJ trades.. that pair moves 100-200 pips in a minute.. so my target is usually 100 pips on gbp/jpy. On gbp/usd it's 20-30 pips but the ppi # was terrible.. so i stayed in a bit longer. Plus, on oanda's news feed I read that some european+russian sellers were short on gbp/jpy.

So it's a combination of everything - bad ppi, risk aversion atmosphere (people already selling gbp/jpy and gbp/usd) and those russian sellers.

If the markets were stable i.e. none of this carry trade unwinding or subprime fears were going on.. gbp/usd would have probably dropped 40 pips and then come back up.. GBP/JPY wouldn't even have been affected by the news.
 
I completely forgot about the NZ sales report while I was posting above :rolleyes: Anyway, I got in after the spike.. sales were pretty terrible - so I ended up with 12 pips. Took a little long for it to drop from 0.7364 to 0.7350 .. but patience pays off.

Next is tomorrow's UK CPI report - if it comes out worse than expected, watch out GBP/USD!
 
Britguy said:
That was the mutha of all reports - UK CPI. Got 80pips. Sweet.
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Nice! I got 65 myself.. shorted a huge lot though.. so it was way more than I expected. I wanted to short earlier - had a feeling cpi would be really bad.. but obviously that would be a totally risky move.

If you also see nzd/usd.. it went down to 0.7298.. about 40-50 pips more after I exited.. but it took a couple of hours. That's the nice thing about nzd/usd (if the reports wildly deviate)
 
Hey All

I have been reading through this forum for the last few days, and I have been browsing through babypips.com and I have a few questions.

First I am new to FOREX, my friend has been explaining a little bit to me, and this thread has helped a lot but I have a couple FAQs for you guys.

Second, I don't plan on doing any real FOREX trading until I have done at least 2 months on a trial account.

So here goes:

1. Who do you recommend I use for the trial, and for actual trading.
2. How much $ should I start with, I am a college student so I don't have a lot of free capital ($250-$500) (or if I don't have enough maybe I should wait a few years)
3. What trader software do you use, and what news software do you reccomend
4. Should I be starting this young, or should I wait a bit till I have a more steady income.
5. What is the lowest $ amount I can trade with,(not leverage wise) like can I be trading for pennies or $1-20 orders?
 
MP,

Did you get in on the spike at Capforex on retail sales? If so, can you tell me the rate you got?

Regards,

Britguy
 
Britguy said:
MP,

Did you get in on the spike at Capforex on retail sales? If so, can you tell me the rate you got?

Regards,

Britguy
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Hey Britguy, I didn't trade this one today.. went for a movie 'Rush hour 3' with the wife.. came back to see that GU retail sales were terrific.. but it was all due to discounted offerings. I thought that would be a good chance to short GBP/JPY.. but didn't.. thinking it was too low anyway..

Now the damn thing dropped 300 pips in a few seconds. :eek: Did you get in on the sales report? I want to get in the GBP/JPY trade.. but I'm waiting for the US housing starts reports.. if they come out bad.. the DOW is doomed and so are the carries (well they are anyway)
 
Macmaniac said:
I have been reading through this forum for the last few days, and I have been browsing through babypips.com and I have a few questions.

First I am new to FOREX, my friend has been explaining a little bit to me, and this thread has helped a lot but I have a couple FAQs for you guys.

Second, I don't plan on doing any real FOREX trading until I have done at least 2 months on a trial account.

So here goes:

1. Who do you recommend I use for the trial, and for actual trading.
2. How much $ should I start with, I am a college student so I don't have a lot of free capital ($250-$500) (or if I don't have enough maybe I should wait a few years)
3. What trader software do you use, and what news software do you reccomend
4. Should I be starting this young, or should I wait a bit till I have a more steady income.
5. What is the lowest $ amount I can trade with,(not leverage wise) like can I be trading for pennies or $1-20 orders?
Click to expand...


1. Try Oanda for demo trading - for actual trading they're good too (except during news events) You can trade as little as 1 pip. I started with making 3-4 cents of profit per day.

2. Start with $50.. yes.. not more than that.

3. For news, TTN is a good place to start (tradethenews.com) but first check the oanda news ticker.. and see how currency pairs move depending on the deivation of the reports.

4. You're never too old or too young to start! Don't invest all your money in forex though.. I repeat.. do not make that mistake. It's pretty easy to wipe out your whole account in a few seconds. I recommend starting with $50. Once you make that to $100.. then make that into $200 and so on. If it becomes zero.. you can always deposit an additional $50.. instead of putting in $300 and blowing it all up.


5. Yes, with Oanda you can trade with really small lots.. that's what I love about them. Most brokers give you a 400:1 leverage.. they want you to trade with a huge margin.. because 99% of the time, you will lose - and they stand to gain from that.
 
No didnt get in on capforex. my limit order wasnt filled. I shorted aud/jpy last night. left a 100pip take profit. It then moved 600pips from that level. Cant believe it really. A very volatile month. Got to be careful out there.
 
Britguy said:
No didnt get in on capforex. my limit order wasnt filled. I shorted aud/jpy last night. left a 100pip take profit. It then moved 600pips from that level. Cant believe it really. A very volatile month. Got to be careful out there.
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Yup, I was short on AUD/USD.. today the Aussie stock markets collapsed (I was short because of the Rams mortgage group declaring that they can't refinance 6 billion $ worth of loans) I got out after a 75 pip profit - didn't want to get greedy.

You'd be shocked if I told you.. but.. the current volatility is nothing. In 1998 .. and earlier years.. GJ has dropped to a max of 11,000 pips. This is just 2,000 pips.. and there is no way of determining when this will end. Just keep an eye out for any negative reports - related to credit, liquidity, etc. At this time, GBP +ve reports will bring temporary relief.. and then the selling will resume.

Edit - Britguy, just a word of caution - don't try and trade retracements. Remember that right now the trend for all JPY pairs (and aud/usd, nzd/usd) is down. They may bounce off some key levels - but you never know how fast they will swing right back down. If you do want to trade retracements, try trading with a small lot. I don't like the fact that capital forex has a minimum trade requirement.. there are times when I wish I could trade only 100,000 .. just because I'm not too sure what a pair is going to do.
 
11,000 pips - jesus. Very dangerous crosses to play. MP, on Cnx can you tell me what reports you use a limit order on and what for a mkt order? How many pips do you get slipped on mkt orders, typically?

I think today has a capitulation feel to it. But I could be wrong.
 
I have been watching JPY trades today. It really is amazing to watch. Its like non-farm payroll action, but going on for hours. Definately be selling rallies. Not for the faint-hearted.
 
My Nasdaq short is finally paying off big time - I'm loving this. :cool:

My stocks are getting hammered of course, but over 60% of my portfolio is in cash right now, as I knew a correction was imminent. All of this action just results in buying opportunities for the fall - again, I'm loving this. :D
 
Grabbed a quick 200 pips on GBP/JPY after the disappointing housing starts report. At first, GJ didn't move for quite some time - but then the drop began.

As soon as I got out, it kept falling further - another 300 pips!

Here is what I was shocked at though - people kept yelling 'Retracement now! Go long! go long!' even before the housing starts came out. People, fundamentals move the markets! Technical indicators (fibs, pivot points, etc) are only good at showing where potential price can bounce or go through.

Why did the DOW collapse 450 points and then all of a sudden jump back up? Because there were rumors that the Fed was going to hold an emergency meeting to reduce rates.. as soon as that rumor came out, the DOW jumped up.. and so did GJ (by more than 600 pips!)

This whole carry trade collapse started with fundamentals - bad news, banks freezing funds, etc.. let's see how far it goes.
 
Music_Producer said:
1. Try Oanda for demo trading - for actual trading they're good too (except during news events) You can trade as little as 1 pip. I started with making 3-4 cents of profit per day.

2. Start with $50.. yes.. not more than that.

3. For news, TTN is a good place to start (tradethenews.com) but first check the oanda news ticker.. and see how currency pairs move depending on the deivation of the reports.

4. You're never too old or too young to start! Don't invest all your money in forex though.. I repeat.. do not make that mistake. It's pretty easy to wipe out your whole account in a few seconds. I recommend starting with $50. Once you make that to $100.. then make that into $200 and so on. If it becomes zero.. you can always deposit an additional $50.. instead of putting in $300 and blowing it all up.


5. Yes, with Oanda you can trade with really small lots.. that's what I love about them. Most brokers give you a 400:1 leverage.. they want you to trade with a huge margin.. because 99% of the time, you will lose - and they stand to gain from that.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for your advice! Time to start demo trading, ugh I don't want to look at my pc:(
 
Hey since this is the only thread where financially-minded people tend to hang out I hope you don't mind an off-topic question about margins...
If my stock's price is $53.5, and I invest $3531 (and another $3531 on margin) for a total investment of $7062, and I buy 132 shares...at what price will I get a margin call (assuming a maintenance margin of 30% and no commissions/margin interest charges)?

And now for the on-topic question... What does GJ stand for?
 
I was doing a little search on google for forex information, and I somehow ended up here at one of my favorite forums!

Anyways, I'm only on page 11, but I've learned a lot so far, is anybody still keeping up with this?

Josh
 
Hi Josh. I'm not sure where the others are as I can only speak for myself, but I've been extremely busy lately with work and other summer activities. Honestly haven't been trading much, and when I have been, it's been more on the stock and commodity markets. My forex trading will pick up again in the fall, and I'll be posting more frequently in this thread once it does.

Not sure where everyone else is, but it's always necessary to take a break from things every once and a while. ;)

I'm glad you are finding the tread informative and interesting and if you ever have any questions, post them and hopefully one of us will be around to answer them sooner or later. :eek:

Cheers,
Shard
 
Hello all! Im new to forex and came across this thread and was actually quite surprised to see so much activity on it in a mac thread. I signed up to get my two cents in even though I dont own a mac :eek: . I owned a ibook though and I have much respect for the platform.

I just signed up to chat with you guys about it. I mine as well get an account anyways cause im going to grab me the new iMac so I suppose I can discuss that as well. Im looking to get a ventrilo set up for people who are new to forex. I figure more heads are better than 1 and looking at the amount of activity here compared to other forums I figure you guys are welcome. If I get enough people interested you guys can PM me and I can give you the IP. Id give it here but I dont want no one spamming the vent.

Music_producer your also more than welcome to come ;). I havent read this whole thread yet but Ill be getting to it. Who would've though forex would reintroduce me to the world of macs :apple:
 
ctrackstar said:
Hello all! Im new to forex and came across this thread and was actually quite surprised to see so much activity on it in a mac thread. I signed up to get my two cents in even though I dont own a mac :eek: . I owned a ibook though and I have much respect for the platform.

I just signed up to chat with you guys about it. I mine as well get an account anyways cause im going to grab me the new iMac so I suppose I can discuss that as well. Im looking to get a ventrilo set up for people who are new to forex. I figure more heads are better than 1 and looking at the amount of activity here compared to other forums I figure you guys are welcome. If I get enough people interested you guys can PM me and I can give you the IP. Id give it here but I dont want no one spamming the vent.

Music_producer your also more than welcome to come ;). I havent read this whole thread yet but Ill be getting to it. Who would've though forex would reintroduce me to the world of macs :apple:
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Glad to have you, looks like we're going to put some new blood into the thread.

Congrats on the new iMac, I'm working on a 24" (last version) and couldn't be happier.
 
joshmv said:
Glad to have you, looks like we're going to put some new blood into the thread.

Congrats on the new iMac, I'm working on a 24" (last version) and couldn't be happier.
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Yea its funny after reading a lot of forums even ones dedicated to actual forex trading this seemed to be the most in depth and informative. I have gotten a chance to read more into it and can't stop reading.

Im a PC guy well as far as I build my own computers and went to college for it(dont hurt me ;) ) and I hear a lot of mac bashing and I must say you guys seem to be as mature and intelligent as the rumors go. Take a ride over at anandtech.com off topic forum and get an idea of what im talking about :D
 
ctrackstar said:
Yea its funny after reading a lot of forums even ones dedicated to actual forex trading this seemed to be the most in depth and informative. I have gotten a chance to read more into it and can't stop reading.

Im a PC guy well as far as I build my own computers and went to college for it(dont hurt me ;) ) and I hear a lot of mac bashing and I must say you guys seem to be as mature and intelligent as the rumors go. Take a ride over at anandtech.com off topic forum and get an idea of what im talking about :D
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Welcome to the thread, hopefully we can get that group setup, I think it would be great.

Are you trading anything today or tomorrow?

AUD has some pretty important announcements coming out, I hope to trade the GDP announcement later on tonight.
 
Welcome to you too ctrackstar, it's always great to have fresh ideas and new traders in the thread.

Yes, I'll be watching the AUD GDP announcement tonight. It will be interesting to see if it is indeed going to decrease m/m as predicted and if so if that will impact the carry at all.

Hopefully things will pick up this fall and I will have more time to get back into forex trading. As I said above, my focus right now has been more on the stocks and commodities side of things. I will try to be a bit more active than I have been lately, but we'll have to see... :eek:

Again, welcome to you and Josh and I hope some of our other long time regulars (nathan, Music Producer, OceanView etc.) will be back soon as well. :cool:
 
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