Forex Trading and Stock Trading Exchange Market Information

How To Bounce Back After Getting Hit By a Bus

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:46:16 +0000

“Everybody having fun yet?” I tweeted the other day. “Between Wen and Junker its like shades of 2008 $EURUSD”. This past Thursday the euro managed to spike to within a few pips of 1.3200 only to drop like a stone a few minutes later crashing though 1.3100 on some negative comments regarding the never ending Greek restructuring talks.

For traders caught in the middle of this price action the volatility felt a bit like being hit by a city bus. If you were unfortunate enough to chase both the tops and bottoms of Thursday’s move you would have been stopped out twice getting a very nasty little slap from the market.

In real life getting hit by a bus hopefully never happens, but in trading FX it is a regular occurrence which is why you have to take it in stride. Currencies are a news driven market and on any given day, at any given time, anything can happen which is why it is extremely important to keep two things in mind. One, don’t lose your cool no matter how bad things get. Two, ask yourself if the loss was preventable or not.

The events on Thursday were clearly unanticipated and therefore not preventable. I was fortunate enough to avoid all the turbulence but just a week prior I wasn’t so lucky. First I managed to sell ten times the amount of EUR/JPY that I wanted to because the default buttons on my platform were set up wrong. Then I compounded my errors by trading ahead of the FOMC meeting and got my head handed to me on the anti-dollar move that followed.

Instead of curling up in fetal position as I did in the past, I took a cold, sobering look at my actions and made the necessary changes. First I removed all the currency pairs from my platform with the exception of only those that I always traded. (EUR/JPY was punt and I shouldn’t have touched the pair in the first place). Then I made sure that all the default buttons on my platform were set to my proper position size. Lastly I paid much more attention to the calendar and stayed out of the way of known risks. The result? I went from four losing trades in a row to making three winning ones.

FX trading may look like it is a fast and furious game but it is actually a marathon not a sprint. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do about the vagaries and vicissitudes of the market. But if you want to learn how bounce back after being hit by a bus, you must ask yourself – what can I do better next time?

———-

follow me on twitter @fxflow

Article source: http://www.fxstreet.com/education/trading-strategies/forex-trading-strategy/2012/02/06/

Forex Trading: EURUSD Pops Higher . Test 50% Of The Range And 100 And 200 Hour MA

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:46:12 +0000

Best Forex Trading Platforms Announces New Website Launch

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:46:10 +0000

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February 05, 2012 —

(PRWEB) February 05, 2012

Best Forex Trading Platforms has announced the launch of their new website, located online at http://www.BestForexTradingPlatforms.org. The site is a review style website that is designed to provide visitors with the most essential facts about each of the most successful Forex trading platforms available.

The owners of this website have been around the Forex industry for many years now and also have several other sites pertaining to forex trading. They have become one of the more reputable names among the online Forex market and continue to develop their online presence. Their goal has always been to bring the best and most useful information to their readers in order to help them become better investors in the Forex market.

The primary goal of the new website is to provide a master list of Forex trading platforms that are thoroughly tested and approved after an in-depth trial phase, according to the site owners. The recommendations at Best Forex Trading Platforms have all been shown to be safe and secure for anyone who is interested in trading Forex.

One of the new website’s major features is the comparison chart: The Forex trading platforms are listed on a comparison chart on the site’s home page. The chart lists each platform by name, any bonus being offered by the program, and lists if the program is compatible with mobile devices.

In order to rank in the top five trading platforms on this site, a program has to first be tested by the site owners and operators and have proven earning potential, say site owners. Another Forex trading program feature that helps forex sites to rank well on their top list is the availability of bonus offers. At press time, these platforms are offering bonuses that range from $1000 to $10,000. The ability to access a Forex site from a mobile device such as a windows phone is another feature that will help Forex trading programs to rank among the best moneymaking platforms today since so many people now use their mobile phones or other devices like tablets to access the web and do their trading around the clock.

Since some traders are looking for trading platforms with a very specific need, they have also included recommendation lists for several key categories of Forex trading including: Best US Forex Trading Platforms, the Best Forex Trading Bonuses, the Best MT4 Forex Trading Platforms, the Best Forex Trading Programs For Mobile Device Users, and the Best Forex Trading Platforms For Long Term Trading.

Platforms that are the best and most effective will be reviewed in detail on the site. At the time of the site debut, the Forex programs included eToro, HotForex, AvaFX, ForexYard, TradingPoint, Easy-Forex, LiteForex, Plus500, and the XForex platforms. Every area of the program, from the program technology to the customer support will be reviewed in detail so that site visitors can make an informed choice.

Best Forex Trading Platforms also features articles and tutorials on how to start trading in the forex market, how to take advantage of the current stability of the market, how to make trades for maximum advantage, Forex market money management, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and how to take advantage of the significant moneymaking opportunities that Forex trading presents.

The BestForexTradingPlatforms.org site is now online and ready for visitors.

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Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/2/prweb9167589.htm.

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Article source: http://www.consumerelectronicsnet.com/article/Best-Forex-Trading-Platforms-Announces-New-Website-Launch-1866878

How Traders Boost Forex Trading Vocabulary with Vantage FX UK

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:46:04 +0000

LONDON, February 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –

Vantage FX UK is helping traders to tell their adjustable pegs from their leading indicators with a comprehensive Forex trading glossary hosted on its website, http://www.vantagefx.co.uk/ .

In the glossary traders can find all the terminology they can expect to encounter in the Forex market and on the trading platform. Traders can use the index both as a source for looking up terms they have come across, or to bolster their market vocabulary and Forex knowledge before their next trade.

As well as the glossary, Vantage FX UK provides traders with a comprehensive education service including a 30-day MetaTrader 4 demo account, an exclusive Expert Advisor Test Lab and daily currency market insights.

Traders can bookmark the Vantage FX UK Forex glossary for ready-reference at:

http://www.vantagefx.co.uk/education/forex-terms/

Trading derivatives and Forex carries a high level of risk to your capital and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose. Forex trading may not be suitable for all investors, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary.

About Vantage FX UK

Vantage FX UK is an internationally recognised FX trading broker based in the City of London, providing foreign exchange trading services to clients in the UK, the EU and the rest of the world.

What sets Vantage FX apart is its wide range of services and outstanding level of customer support. The company strives to provide an intuitive, interactive Forex experience by continually innovating and taking advantage of the latest trading technology, such as MetaTrader 4 and Expert Advisors.

Vantage FX also offers extensive educational resources to help give traders their edge, keep up with daily market commentary and try a FX trading demo account. For further information, visit http://www.vantagefx.co.uk/

SOURCE Vantage FX UK

Article source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=xprnw.20120206.UKF656&show_article=1

Forex Trading: USDCAD Ignores The Better Data.

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:46:01 +0000

FRB Hand Signals

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:45:59 +0000

Just in time for the next FOMC announcement, via William Banzai:

click for larger graphic

Article source: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/frb-hand-signals/

A Few Thoughts on the Employment Situation

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:45:55 +0000

Last week, I went into the details of the NFP report (See Tearing Apart January 2012 NFP data). There were 10 positive bullet points versus 5 negatives — and even those negatives were the same old sore spots (high teen and minority unemployment, persistent long term joblessness, etc.) that have been plaguing the labor market for some time now.

For the past decade, I have been very diligently tearing apart the monthly jobs data with a statistician’s eye: I have discussed the importance of the overall trend versus any one point in time; I have emphasized how far off the Birth Death adjustment becomes at the end of each economic cycle (not the beginning); we reconciled the differences between Household and Establishment surveys; urged the media to report both Unemployment (U3) and Underemployment (U6), and lastly, noted that flat wages are even worse than reported thanks to the Fed/BLS tendency towards focusing on Inflation ex inflation.

I mention these bonafides because I am no sycophant when it comes to BLS data. I have long urged a healthy skepticism, and have tried to look beneath the headlines (perhaps if there is interest, I may post a guide to various ways to read BLS employment data).

However, after Friday’s solid NFP release, some unusual — and to be blunt, quite silly — commentary was about the intertubes. Quite frankly, it embarrassed its authors, whom I would categorize into three distinct cliques: The PermaBears, the Political Knaves, and the Consistently Wrong (some people belong in more than one category).

ZeroHedge has been a terrific site when it comes to CDOs, HFT and other challenging aspects of financial complexities. That’s what makes it so difficult to understand why they completely shit the bed with the BLS census adjustment (Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles To Fresh 30 Year Low).

Good analyst, bad analysis.

Understand what this Census adjustment actually is: BLS takes the decennial census, and adjusts its estimates for total population, work force, and employed, and does so for a variety of demographic factors. No, it is not that the non-institutional population suddenly rose by 1.7 million month-over-month, and therefore the labor force suddenly lost a million people. Rather, this reflects a “frame of reference” revision incorporating the latest census data.

Don’t take my work for it, here is what the conservative American Spectator said:

“I don’t want to overstate the significance of [Zero Hedge's] oversight, which conservative voices around the media and the web are also making, namely the idea that the participation rate dropped 0.3 percent and the labor force dropped more than 1.2 million in the past month. Those things are simply not true no matter how loudly people scream “conspiracy” and “propaganda.” (Having been trading financial markets for about 25 years, I’ve heard these same accusations about economic data being manipulated to help the incumbent president — whether Democrat or Republican — so many times, they just bore me now.)”

This error was immediately picked and amplified by CNBC’s Rick Santelli, who was one of the Tea Party’s founding fathers. Santelli has been dead wrong about NFP the past 6 months (or longer). From the floor of the Chicago Exchange, he has underestimated Employment data month after month without correction or remorse. I haven’t teased apart everyone of his calls, but it seems that he has been consistently on the wrong side of the data since the late Spring. Perhaps The Daily Show might like to take a look at his prognostication skills.

File Santelli under the category Political Knave, along with James Pethokoukis. Jimmy P was once a good economics reporter, but he has allowed his political bias to consume him. It is a shame, because he has a good mind and a head for numbers — but since his joining the Kudlow brigade of hard right touts, his work like Why the official 8.3 percent unemployment rate is a phony number—and what it means for Obama’s reelection is not worth the effort to separate the valuable analysis from the politcial hackery.

Lastly, there are those who have been simply wrong. I have to throw Charles Biderman under the bus here. He has been so consistently wrong over the past 4 years it has been rather astonishing. He utterly missed the signs of the crisis in 2007-08, denied the recession deep into it, and then missed the turn in 2009-10. (If there is interest, I might post his major calls).

Biderman actually complained that — WTF!?! — all of the gains were due to seasonal adjustments in January. This has to be one of the single most clueless economic statements I have ever read. Of course there are massive seasonal adjustments in January! There is a huge hiring surge in November and December — primarily retail sales and shipping — which is unwound in the New Year. This occurs annually, mostly due to a little-known holiday you might have heard of called Christmas.

Ignore the economic foolishness of the biased political hacks and perma-bears. If you want an excuse to be cautious on the markets, then look at the mixed earnings near a cyclical peak, the overbought condition of indices, and the headaches in Europe. There are always plenty of reasons to be concerned and worried — but the January NonFarm payrolls isn’t one of them.

Previously:
Tearing Apart January 2012 NFP data (February 3rd, 2012)

No Rick Santelli and Zero Hedge, One Million People Did Not Drop Out of the Labor Force Last Month (February 3rd, 2012)

Article source: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/a-few-thoughts-on-the-employment-situation/

FusionIQ Strategy Session: A Broad Look at Markets & Economy

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:45:52 +0000

We are starting something new this week — a broad based strategy session for clients of our quant tool, FusionIQ. This weekly Market Strategy Call is part of our newly updated and improved FusionIQ Investor site. Kevin Lane, the head of our quantitative technical research and I will be discussing what we see for the market, where the inflection points are, and what to look for as danger signs.

Its free to subscribers of FusionIQInvestor or FusionIQ Trader.

Article source: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/fusioniq-strategy-session-a-broad-look-at-markets-economy/

Magazine Cover Indicator: New York “End of Wall Street”

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:45:50 +0000

This week’s New York magazine — a non Business publication — has a rather bearish cover discussing “The Emasculation of Wall Street.

Last week, I mentioned the Barron’s cover was somewhat bullish, with the caveat that Barron’s is a business weekly. New York magazine is more general interest — its not Time or Newsweek, because it covers Wall Street in its back yard.

meanwhile, Bloomberg is out with this headline today: Investors Fearful as Stock Rally Best Since 1987.

Still, I suspect the NY Mag cover is a bullish sentiment indicator.

Source:
The End of Wall Street As They Knew It
Gabriel Sherman
NY, Feb 5, 2012

http://nymag.com/print/?/news/features/wall-street-2012-2/

Article source: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/magazine-cover-indicator-new-york-covers-end-of-wall-street/

FOREX: Euro Slumps, US Dollar Gains as Greece Flirts with Default

fxreport — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:45:46 +0000

Talking Points

US Dollar Pushes Broadly Higher on EU Crisis Jitters, Unwinding QE3 Bets
Euro Underperforms as Greece Comes Closest Yet to an Outright Default
SP Futures Signal Risk Aversion, Merkel/Sarkozy Press Conference on Tap

The US Dollar (ticker: USDollar) soared in overnight trade, adding as much as 0.5 percent against its leading counterparts, as Greece struggled to come to an agreement that would pave for additional EU/IMF aid. The greenback found additional support as investors pared back expectations for additional Federal Reserve stimulus after last week’s rosy US employment report. The Euro underperformed, down as much as 0.8 percent.

Bad news began to pour out of Greece on Friday amid reports amid reports that all three of the parties in Greece’s ruling coalition have rejected deeper austerity measures required to receive the next tranche of EU/IMF funding before €14.5 billion in maturing debt comes due on March 20.Needless to say, this lays the groundwork for a Greek default.

In practice, that is not nearly as ominous of a prospect as it was even 2 months ago. The ECB has funneled close to half a trillion euro into the banks via its 3-year LTRO and has been dutifully buying other countries’ bonds, so the firewall against a massive credit crunch (especially given small the size of Greece’s economy) is arguably in place. That has not kept markets from entering panic mode amid rising uncertainty however, and more of the same seems likely as traders extrapolate the Greek scenario to other, larger countries.

Looking ahead, a decisive moment appears at hand, with Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos setting a 10:00 GMT deadline for party leaders to make a decision on the second bailout’s terms. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are scheduled to hold a joint press conference at 11:45 GMT, with traders on the edge of their seat in the meantime. SP 500 stock index futures are trading sharply lower in late Asian hours, hinting safe-haven demand will keep the US Dollar well-supported heading into European hours.

Asia Session: What Happened

Euro Session: What to Expect

Critical Levels

— Written by Ilya Spivak, Currency Strategist for Dailyfx.com

To contact Ilya, e-mail ispivak@dailyfx.com. Follow me on Twitter at @IlyaSpivak

To be added to Ilya‘s e-mail distribution list, send a note with subject line “Distribution List” to ispivak@dailyfx.com

Article source: http://www.dailyfx.com/forex/fundamental/daily_briefing/session_briefing/euro_open/2012/02/06/FOREX_Euro_Slumps_US_Dollar_Gains_as_Greece_Flirts_with_Default.html