General

General thoughts, observations and discoveries related to forex and trading.  My views together with the argumentation and conclusions.

  • General

    Morning routines and trading results

    A few days ago, I noticed that there is a strong correlation between the way I start my day / my morning routines and my trading results. If I start the day the right way, it usually ends with profit, and if I don’t, it usually ends in red or at break-even. This pattern repeated over and over, so I’m very happy that I finally noticed it. I immediately decided that from now on, I would be doing things the right way. So, here are the key differences: Losing day morning I get up too early or too late. I don’t know what to do with myself and wander around.…

  • General

    Five forex websites I use daily

    With the abundance of financial websites and services for forex traders, one can get easily overwhelmed by all the information and opinions around. On top of that, there is constant distraction caused by the ads blinking in every corner possible and the risk of being exposed to content not relevant to your trades that might throw you out of emotional balance (like breaking news about accidents, crime, dramatic photos, etc.) Over the years, I followed each major financial website on the market for a while, especially websites for forex traders like fxstreet, dailyfx, etc., and I would like to share my opinion on what’s worth your time. But before we…

  • General

    Trading hours

    According to various online trend analyzing tools “forex trading hours”, “forex market hours” and “forex schedule today” are among the most often searched terms in Google related to trading. Since there are a few more nuances than just London open and New York open, I decided to post my take on this subject 🙂 . Best time to trade Forex The Electronic Communications Network (ECN) which connects market participants and facilitates the vast number of FX transactions is operating 24h a day starting from Monday 8:00 AM Sydney Time until Friday 5:00 PM New York time, except for a few bank holidays like New Year or Boxing Day. This constitutes…

  • General

    Understanding currency cross pairs

    Cross currency pairs – introduction There are 28 main currency pairs traded on the forex market. The major currency pairs or the majors are EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, USDCAD, USDJPY, USDCHF, NZDUSD, and the minor currency pairs or the minors are EURGBP, EURCHF, EURCAD, EURJPY, EURAUD, EURNZD, GBPJPY, GBPCHF, GBPAUD, GBPNZD, GBPCAD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDNZD, AUDJPY, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY. When we log onto a trading platform we see quotes available for any of them. What we don’t see is that for the minors, which don’t include the US dollar in their symbol, the exchange rate is actually calculated from two major pairs. Let’s take the CADJPY as an…

  • General

    How to stay focused while trading

    This text is also available as a podcast – click the play button above to listen. Staying focused and being in the flow is in my opinion crucial for success in trading. Such a state of mind allows us to be in sync with the markets and be able to see opportunities, as well as danger zones, which otherwise would be out of sight. Over the years, I discovered that limiting external stimuli while trading is the best policy you can implement, and it has a great influence on trading results. Of course, everyone is different and these are just my personal feelings and experiences, but giving them at least…