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  • Who are Forex signals providers?

    Who are Forex signals providers?

    By Gorica Gligorijevic

    Almost all Forex traders with their trading system dream of founding signal service. Think, having thousands of subscribers getting your trading signals for a $50 monthly fee. That is everyone’s dream.

    So, let’s say, the signal provider is a trader who grants access to the data on his or her trading operations allowing other traders to copy them on their trading accounts. Signals can be provided either for free or on a financial basis. You can be a signal provider.

    To become a Signal Provider, you need an active MQL5.community account.

    Forex signal provider is a trader who trades on his own life or demo account and sends the same forex signals online to his followers. In most cases, this process is automated and takes no time, literally.

     

    Screenshot from MQL5.community

    The signal provider doesn’t have to do anything manually to send forex signals indicator to his copiers. With a wide variety of forex signals services available today it is important to learn how signal providers are selected and ranked.

    There are a lot of platforms that allow anyone to register and start selling signals without any preliminary verification of traders experience, knowledge or ability to manage risks. Since after registration trading results of a signal provider are displayed publicly, users can make their own analysis to determine whether the strategy worth following.

    But there is another approach: the trader must fit certain risk/reward requirements and volatility levels before being accepted as a signal provider.

    This method helps a trader make sure that signal seller only offers reliable strategies and don’t accept high-risk ones for copying. It also fits well into copy trading advice and regulations of many countries. All providers are then ranked based on proprietary Forex signal indicator algorithm that takes into account maturity of a strategy (how long has it been executed for), maximum drawdown, regular profitability, volatility, the average number of simultaneously open trades and many other parameters.

    But, remember that this is an extremely competitive arena.

    Because information is so accessible via the internet, you can receive it anywhere as was mentioned above, so that you have round-the-clock access.

    A Forex trading platform or “hub” gathers the necessary information to transform it into the signals that you receive. An additional safeguard is present in the fact that Forex companies are extremely careful and consistently pay attention to details when sending these signals to the various brokers, dealers, and individual investors.

    Many, many forex traders are looking for quick money, getting rich in several weeks. Some forex signals services may have a good run for a few months and then it’s game over. A lot of these guys use crazy stops and those that do use stops use loads of taking profit orders. A professional service will not give so many take profit orders and tell the subscribers to pick one or do whatever they want with it.

    Being a forex signal provider is measured by consistency. If there is no consistency it is a waste of money. Any signal provider that promises fast money or big profits is lying to you and to itself. No one can guarantee that you will make money, because there are good months and bad months. Selecting the right profitable signal provider is one of the most difficult tasks, especially for the new traders.

    Many, many forex traders are looking for quick money, getting rich in several weeks.

    Some forex signals services may have a good run for a few months and then it’s game over.
    A lot of these guys use crazy stops and those that do use stops use loads of taking profit orders. A professional service will not give so many take profit orders and tell the subscribers to pick one or do whatever they want with it.
    Being a forex signal provider is measured by consistency. If there is no consistency it is a waste of money. Any signal provider that promises money or big profits is lying to you and to itself.
    No one can guarantee that you will make money, because there are good months and bad months.

    Selecting the right profitable signal provider is one of the most difficult tasks especially for the new traders.

    How to pick the right signal provider

    A lot of forex traders use forex signal providers to assist them in profit. Traders who try to make profitable trades can leverage off successful forex traders by copying their trades. Not all the forex signal suppliers out there are trustworthy. Attempting to figure out which ones are scam artists and which ones are genuine can be an awful task.

    Finding a reliable forex signal service can seem like a challenge.

    There are signal providers that are professional and honest, of course. But unfortunately, some providers do not always have their subscribers best interest in mind. It is up to you to make sure that you are working with a trustworthy forex signals provider that you can have confidence in. There are several things traders would consider when are going to pick your signal provider. A trader should be aware that there are a lot of hardcore scammers in the market working very hard to provide fake, low quality and substandard forex signals.

    Most of these hardcore scammers have no background or training in any financial matters and usually feed the trader with performance statistics that are imaginary but yet convincing to a trader who is not smart enough. The best way a trader can deal with this problem is by spending at least 5 minutes looking at what other traders are saying about this respective signals provider. This will help him or her in making a proper judgment.

    Another way is by looking at the level of detail contained in the signals.

    If you realize that it just entails a few charts with a loss or profitable line, you will have a reason to think twice before following such signals. You should look for testimonials about various forex signal providers available in the market. Be aware of what other players in the industry are saying about the available signal providers. This will enable you to choose the best provider in terms of accuracy, quality, timeliness, and affordability of the services offered. You should check the number of TPs the providers have in one trade. And, also, how the providers put together the performance statistics.

     

    The best way a trader can deal with this problem is by spending at least 5 minutes looking at what other traders are saying about this respective signals provider.

     

    The bottom line is that any trader who wants to be profitable in the long term should start learning by himself or herself about forex signals through experience and self-training.

    How to separate the websites of scammers from genuine suppliers

    Their sites are so similar and competitive. Sometimes you can see forex traders getting in the scammers’ site rather than the genuine forex signal supplier. When they find that the signal is not profiting, they are already passing the point of no return. The scammers had taken the cash and it is past the point where it is possible to do anything.

    These scammers will give you entry and exit signals. But they will not provide you information on how they find the entry and exit points. They want you to follow their signals blindly, that’s all. The scammers will promise you a great profit, a huge return with minimum investments. With all the fantastic promises, you will be motivated to subscribe.

    That is the moment when you will find that whatever you have subscribed to is a pack of lies.

    The types of Forex signal providers

    Forex Signal providers are typically separated into two different groups based on how they generate their trading ideas – technical analysis and fundamental analysis.

    Technical Analysts

    They base their trading decisions on chart analysis including support and resistance levels, candlestick patterns, price channels, market structure, or other technical approaches. Many technical analysts have a proprietary method for analyzing the markets and the highly successful ones have spent many years researching and testing their methodology over historical data and in real-time market conditions.

    Fundamental Analysts

    Who base their trading decisions on economic and news related data. This could be in the form of long-term interest rate analysis, inflation, central bank policy, employment reports, sentiment surveys, and more. Some are longer-term position traders while many others are shorter-term traders that try to catch volatility spikes after an anticipated news release.

     

     

    Some traders may think “reliable” means having a high win rate, but that is not really what you primarily want to be looking at. Actually, win rates are not that important as a metric by itself. You must also analyze the average risk to reward in conjunction with the win rate.

    There are strategies with 90% win rates that can lose money and then there are strategies with 30% win rates that can make money.

    Another factor to consider is the technology the signal provider is using.

    Do they have a reliable platform to send out notifications and are there multiple ways for you to receive the alerts? Something else to look at is the depth of detail that the forex buy sell signals provide. Do the trading alerts always provide stop-loss levels and targets or do they only provide superficial information such as entries but no exit details?

    These are some of the factors you need to consider.

    Sign up for a Trial

    Sometimes this is the best way to get started is by signing up for a forex signals trial. You may get a real sense of the quality of service by diving in and taking a test drive. Many providers offer a 1 or 2 week trial for members.

    Join their Email List

    Another way to find out the quality of information you will receive from a provider is by joining their email newsletter. You will find the value that they provide for free so that you can evaluate whether their premium forex signals service will meet your expectations

    Check their Track Record

    All reputable FX signal providers will provide a performance record detailing their published trades. This is a good way to find their average pip profit per month, their risk parameters, average win percentage, and other related metrics.

    Google them

    Yes, simply Google them. Are they mentioned in any important trade publications or articles? What type of social following do they have? Do everything possible to find to whom you are dealing with. Just don’t be one of those naysayers.

    Check it, try it, test it and make your own conclusions.

  • Golden rules for fast money and easy earnings

    Golden rules for fast money and easy earnings

    Golden rules for fast money and easy earnings are mostly what young people want to succeed in the business world. They are attracted with exchanges, money are invested in shares.

    However, there are many curves, curvatures, spirals and twists that, and if you don’t know how to avoid them, your trip to the stock market can be very short-lived.
    What are the golden rules for investing in the stock market, which should be known primarily to beginners in this business, but also to more experienced stock traders?

    Create a trading portfolio

    You can do this in a simple way. There are many free portfolio managers on the Internet, so use some of them to make a free account (click here for free demo account).
    Create a fictitious portfolio in which you would potentially invest and monitor the situation for a while, a minimum of one month. This will give you the best insight into market volatility.
    Before you take the first step, the goal is to create a profitable fictitious portfolio as an investor on the stock market. This is one of the golden rules.

    How to build a portfolio

     Read business magazines

    In order to successfully start investing in the stock market, you need to be aware of the world’s stock market and what are the social events that affect the rise or fall the price of shares. There are many respectable business magazines dealing with this topic (Forbes, The Economist, Kiplinger’s are some of the most famous ones). Follow the events in the global economy and finance and you will be able to swim more easily in the very turbulent waters of the stock market.

    Buy stock from a field you know well

    Before investing money into something, you should understand the business the company is dealing with. The first stock you will buy on the stock market should be from the sector you understand and it is familiar to you. For example, if you know the banking sector, try to explore the market and find a bank whose stocks are good and worth investing. Never invest in the action itself, but in the company.

    Investing fields

    Have realistic expectations

    There may be a problem if your financial goals are based on unrealistic presumption.
    Try to be realistic in your ambitions and goals. In this way, there are fewer chances to lose money or be disappointed in your stock market business.

    Do your own research

    You will hear from people who are dealing with the stock exchange that they have bought some stocks because the same was done by their friend or a family member who understands this business.
    Accept everything with reserve. Before buying a stock, do research.

    If some stocks brought in earnings in the past doesn’t necessarily mean that this trend will continue.
    Always believe more in yourself than other people’s estimation.

    how to research and choose a stock to trade

    Stock exchange is NOT a money making machine

    Most of those who want to participate stock market, have an unrealistic desire to double or triple investment in a short time frame.
    If you are one of them, then that’s not a job for you.
    For those who want to invest, 10% to 12% of the earnings for a long period is quite a good investment. You need to realize that you are just a small fish in a big lake and that your success depends on many factors.
    Follow the clues and make conclusions.

    3 or 4 good stocks are enough

    Don’t overplay, especially because you are a beginner in this business.
    More than 10 stocks are a good portfolio, but for investment funds.
    It is true that they make more profit, but if you make a smart and wise decision you will earn enough money.

    Don’t try to predict the stock price

    Not even the biggest billionaires and owners of the largest multinational companies in the world are doing this.
    No one is able to predict, at least for a longer period, several stock market cycles.
    Ability to guess the moment when the stock will have the highest value is still a myth. Even for those who have an insight into the business of some companies.
    Therefore, for successful business and investing in the stock market, you need to acquire certain knowledge and skills.
    Although, there are some artificial intelligence computer software that might not predict per-se, but behave and act faster and more accurate way than a human being.

    According to the research, the risk of investing in the stock exchange is most often taken over by young people who have just finished college.
    But, like in every other business, the experience you get, will help you be wiser in making decisions in the future.

    That’s how it works!

  • How to find and use the best online stocks trading platforms?

    How to find and use the best online stocks trading platforms?

    update: 2/1/22

    Choosing an online broker platform is one of the most important decision you will make as an investor. And the most powerful tool in your hands..
    Every trader has it’s own investment style of trading, and abundance of brokers’ offers allow individuals to choose what best fits their needs.
    If you’re an active trader looking to try your hand at beating the markets, you probably have a good idea of what you want from a brokerage: low costs, premium research, innovative strategy tools and a rich with features trading platform.

    The era of online stock brokers makes the world as high-risk/high-reward investing available to the wide public.

    Profitable investing takes time and a lot of hard work.

    It also requires you to use a brokerage service that fits your investing goals, educational needs, and learning style.

    If you are new investors, selecting the right online brokerage can mean the difference between a breathtaking new income stream and a short-lived struggle against disappointment, followed by inevitable frustrating handover.

    You have to know one thing, there’s no sure-fire way to guarantee investment returns, but there is a way to set yourself up for success by selecting the online brokerage that best suits you.
    We’ll try to show you all the important things you should be looking for in your ideal brokerage on your path to find the best online broker.

    For a starter, take a moment to focus in on what is most important to you in a trading platform, before you start clicking on brokerage ads.

    You’ll be surprised!

    The most important is to recognize your own needs.

    You must know them.

    If you are the novice, you may prioritize things such as basic educational resources, large glossaries, easy access to support service or the ability to have practice trades before you start playing with real money.

    A really experienced investor, possibly someone who executed hundreds of trades already but is looking for a new broker, is going to prioritize advanced charting capabilities, conditional order options or the ability to trade derivatives, mutual funds, commodities, and fixed-income securities, as well as stocks.

    And you have to be honest with yourself about where you are right now in your investing tour and where you want to go. Do you want to try your hand at day-trading but don’t know where and how to start? Do you like the idea of tailoring your own portfolio, or you want to pay a professional to provide it done right?

    For now, we suggest you start with these crucial deliberations as a way to determine which of the brokerage features would be the most important to you.

    To help yourself to find and use the best online stocks trading platforms be honest when you are answering these questions.
    a) How much do you already know?
    Obviously, no one knows everything. But the question is how comfortable you feel when risking your own funds. Again, we encourage you to start with a demo account (you can find at the end of this book a link to a demo account).
    b) What kind of trades will you want to execute?
    Stocks? Forex? Crypto? Daily?
    c) Are you an active or passive investor?
    Are you the type of person who can start a trade, let it go with its strategy and leave it aside, or you’re the type of person who checks his portfolio daily, read about it, sign up to newsletters, etc.
    d) What kind of help do you need?
    Do you need help on learning how to trade? On what to trade? Recommendations? Or maybe you want to do it all by yourself?
    e) What are your goals?
    This is an important question. Your goal is to make a profit, of course. But, how much you’re willing to lose? How “hard and dangerous” your trades look? How much profit you want to gain and monetize and how much you want to leave at your broker account to use for more money? These questions will act as your guidelines.
    Be brutally honest with yourself about how much time, energy, and effort you are willing to put into your investments. Your answers may change over time, no one can anticipate all their needs and goals for the rest of the life. Just start with where you are right now and go with the flow.

    Pay attention to several more things such as:

    * Does the brokerage website offer two-factor authentication
    * Do they clearly explain how they use encryption or “cookies” to protect your account information and how they work?
    * Try searching the web for reviews of the brokerage, using keywords like “insurance claim”, “fraud protection”, “customer support”, “chargebacks”, “easy withdrawal”
    * Will the company reimburse you for losses resulting from fraud? etc.

    And then test the broker’s platform.

    We recommend you trying out our preferred trading platform, for free. In this link can open a free demo account with virtual $100,000.
    Your capital is at risk.

    Every brokerage should have a decent description of what kinds of tools and resources its trading platform offers.
    But sometimes the best way to evaluate platform quality is to give it a test drive.

    For brokers that allow you to open an free or demo account, it might be worth the effort to go through the signup process just to access and test the trading platform.

  • How Much MONEY Do I Need To Start Day Trading?

    How Much MONEY Do I Need To Start Day Trading?

    By: Guy Avtalyon

    (Updated October 2021)

    How much money I need to invest in order to start day-trading? This is one the most frequently asked questions I get from people who want to start day trading stocks, forex or futures markets.

    Well, the amount of money you need depends on where you want to trade, your style of trading, do you want to trade forex, stocks, or futures.

    I’m going to walk you though it all, so stay focused.

    And of course, how much money you need to start trading depends on which country you are coming from.

    This is how much money you need to trade stocks:

    The general rule is if you want to be a day trader in the USA and to trade US stocks, you need to maintain an account balance of $25,000 or more.

    You have to start with at least $30,000 if you plan to make more than 4-day trades per trading week.

    Four-day trades or more per week gives you “day trader status” and you’re subject to the $25,000 minimum account balance. It is recommended you start with more than $25,000, to give yourself a buffer over and above the minimum requirement.
    If your account drops below $25,000 you won’t be able to day trade until you replenish your account to more than $25,000.

    But in case, if the country you are in or want to trade, doesn’t require the $25,000 minimum account balance, it is recommended you still deposit at least $10,000 into your day trading account.

    With smaller accounts than this, commissions and fees will significantly erase profits you made.
    Usually, online trading platforms let you trade CFD and forex, and with them you can start with only $250 minimum deposit.

    MONEY-To-Start-Day-Trading-Day-Trading

    One of the common mistakes that traders make is being under-capitalized. Losing trades happen, even to the best traders. But after taking losses you still need to have enough money to keep trading.

    It’s recommended risking 1% or less of your capital on a trade.

    The risk is the difference between your entry price and your stop loss price, multiplied by the number of shares of have.

    This is how much money you required for forex trading:

    To open an account in the forex market you will need smaller amounts of money as it is not subject to the same regulations as stocks.
    Forex provides leverage up to 50:1 (it can be higher in some countries). Increased leverage means increased risk and reward.

    Leverage is essentially using borrowed money to trade.

    In the forex market, most brokers provide leverage with few strings attached but you have to be aware of a few things.

    For example, you may have $2,000 in your account, but you can buy $10,000 worth of the EUR/USD. Your leverage is 5: 1 on this trade.

    The broker doesn’t charge a fee for leveraging, but they are still making money in different ways. You have to realize that leverage is a double-edged sword, increasing profits as well as losses.
    In the forex market, the larger your position size the more the broker makes/charges on commissions.

    While the broker doesn’t charge interest, the market does.

    Currency traders are subject to the interest rates prevailing in the currency they trade.
    Every transaction is buying one currency and the selling of another done at the same time.
    You may make a few dollars a day which will grow your account over time. But you can also earn much money if you open the account with a bigger amount.

    Professionals suggest, if you want an income from forex day trading, start with at least $1000, and preferably $3,000 to $5,000. This amount allows you to potentially start building a monthly income.

    It is what the most day traders are looking for.

    This is how much money you need to trade futures

    Futures contracts are traded on all sorts of products, such as oil, gold, natural gas, and stock indexes.

    In order to day trade futures most brokers only require a minimum deposit of $1,000. Most brokers require you have at least $400 or $500 of available capital in your account to take a one contract trade.

    This is called day trading margin.

    MONEY-To-Start-Day-Trading-Margin.

    Opening an account with only $1,000 isn’t recommended, the word of pros. Open the futures account with at least $8,000. Or more if day trading ES futures. Because your broker may require additional margin.

    You may wish to start day trading with at least $10,000 to give you some flexibility in what you can trade.

    Risk virtual money before investing funds

    Before risking real capital and making a deposit with a broker, create a trading plan and test it out in a demo account.

    You have to be profitable for at least a couple months in a row before opening a real day trading account.
    This gives you time to see where you need revisions.

  • What needs to happen for Crypto market to crash

    What needs to happen for Crypto market to crash

    By Guy Avtalyon
    Many economist say there’s nothing with value in Bitcoin and other crypto’s.

    They also suggest the fact that once there will be a tax on carbon, the crypto value will turn into negative and the price will drop.

    But how can you apply a tax for a decentralized system? A system that lets any person who wants, no matter who he is and where he’s from, to mine crypto on his own computer?

    And people aren’t doing this for free. No, it’s not free. Since they behave as a 3rd party, there’s a complex yet flawless commission system, that takes a small commission out of any transaction and passes it to the miner, and to prevent an inflation in crypto value, the system also halves the commissions the miner gets every 4 years. So if just a few years back you would get several Bitcoins commission for every verifying transaction, now it’s only a small portion of a bitcoin for same commission, and it will keep splitting every 4 years for more than 100 years from now.


    Governments and treasure departments all over the world are worried with Crypto’s market.

    But why?

    Mainly fear. You fear what you don’t understand. They also worry about all the unregulated, dirty money, coming into the system, making criminals and terrorists thrive.

    They are not wrong. Crypto does let you send anonymously funds around the world without any 3rd party (such as bank a involved). In crypto the people are the 3rd party and that’s why it’s not likely anyone can hack its system. It’s simply a decentralized system, with copies spread all over the world.

    What it means is if I send some $100 worth of bitcoin, this action will always be inside the system log (the chainblocks), and in all the copies out there in the world. If, say this person would like to try and scam me and manipulate the logs to send himself other amount than I sent him – he will not be able to do so, because they’re too many copies out there that state the truth (that I sent exactly $100 to this person).

    It’s similar to the fact that we have 8 billion people in the world. If one person will have his DNA manipulated by any reason or way – the rest of the world population’s DNA will remain the same. So that’s why crypto cannot be hacked.

    Another incredible feature is the anonymity.

    Sure, it can cause a lot of headache to governments, but the fact is the anyone in the world can have their funds managed, without any tyranny or corrupt government that can decide who has access to bank account and who isn’t.

    In that matter – I think we’re not yet understanding the potential of crypto’s anonymity on many non-democratic countries.

    Creates the option to easily send funds across the globe.

    If you’ve ever wanted to send money to someone in another country you found it’s expensive and frustrating if you get lucky and simply impossible in many other times.
    For example, if you want to send money to someone in China, you most likely will not succeed as most of them don’t have access to western banking systems and they all use WeChat app to send money inside China. Hard to transfer money = bad for business = bad for the little people.

    Crypto does just that! You can send funds to anyone in the world, no matter where he is, what’s his government rules, what his bank decides, and simply in one word: EASY.

    And probably the best advantage is that this fund cannot be inflated.

    In general, there isn’t anything in the world that cannot be inflated. Regular everyday money can be printed by governments, that’s obvious.
    But also Gold can be inflated too. If a new technology to locate and extract gold from the ground will be invented, or chemists will find a hypothetically way to generate gold in a lab – Gold’s value will be inflated.

    Yes, I know it’s not something to happen anytime soon, but just for the sake of argument.

    Crypto cannot be inflated. Once it’s generated in the first place, it has an unchangeable number of total crypto to be in the system. It can never be more and no one can add more into the system.

    So the 3 main reasons that if any of them happens – the crypto market will crash are:

    1. If it will turn out to be hackable. If you can hack it – it doesn’t worth anything anymore.
    2. If somehow it will not be anonymous anymore
    3. If a way to generate more crypto than should will come up

     

  • How to buy Cryptocurrency

    How to buy Cryptocurrency

    Buying Cryptos has never been easier. All you need is a Wallet and a credit card. That’s it.

    By Guy Avtalyon

    The first thing you want to do is create a wallet.

    This wallet acts as it’s your bank, since all your funds will be in there. When you hear about people who lost bitcoin worth of million $ it’s because they lost access to their wallet, so be sure to remember all your passwords.

    I use Coinbase as my wallet service, and after you create an account it should look like this:

    Crypto portfolio

    With $0 of course.

    Once we have our “bank account” set up, all we need to do now is buying funds.

    For that you can find many websites that give you this opportunity to buy crypto with them, I use lobstr. I don’t know why them in particular but I did test them and they do send me the funds and they’re not a scam, so I keep using their service.

    Click on “Buy other crypto”

    Choose from the list your desired crypto and the amount of money you want to buy. I buy Bitcoin Cash in this example.

    After clicking “buy”, you get this page that asks you for your wallet information. Remember our wallet from above?

    We go back to our wallet (my is Coinbase) and search for the exact asset you want to buy. You cannot send different asset id’s (like sending Bitcoin to Ripple address.

    Now we click on the Wallet tab, and Receive to get our wallet address

    This is the address, all this letters together. Click on Copy

    Go back to Lobstr’s purchase menu and Paste your address

    Now simply Click on the Buy Now

    At this point they might ask you to provide them with some personal ID documentations.
    After ending all your docs, you wait until a check mark appears on Crypto Delivered.

    Go to your wallet and you’ll see the funds in there. Please note this process can take up to few hours, so be patient. It should look like this:

    You might get different amount than you intended (like in this example, I bought $3000 worth crypto and got only about $2900 worth.). It is because the price volatility and the time it took to approve my request. It doesn’t matter because I’m in this for years to come.

    That is it!

    Buying cryptos has never been easier!

    Please feel free to add a comment below or send me a personal message on Facebook.

     

  • Are we in an overpriced market?

    Are we in an overpriced market?

    By Guy Avtalyon

    As part of my research work, I come across numerus websites that show (in a very convincing way) that the market is overvalued and over-priced.

    I’m not going to argue if it’s true or not, because every noob trader knows that a price isn’t high or low, but it’s simply what all other traders agree on.

    So when it’s an over-priced situation, just like we can see in this image for example:
    (Image from currentmarketvaluation.com)

    Then everyone worry that we’re in a bubble.

    You can also see in this image of fear and greed (found here)

    Fear and Greed

    The general feeling at the moment is more Greed than fear.

    I do not know if we’re in a bubble or not, but to my impression we’re not there yet.

    First, if we look at past crashes, we can see that each of them happened from a reason (Dot Com bubble in the 00′ and fin crash in 08′), in most cases the regulators closed any option for it to happen again.

    Yes, we should except a crash in the future, and yes it will be because of a reason that yet been closed or discovered – but I don’t think it’s the case now.

    Secondly, if we take into consideration the global pandemic (Corona virus) and the market’s reactions (starting in panic in March 20′ that resulted in drops, but just in few months got back to previous price and even exceeded it) – we can definitely see that there’s major confidence in the markets from traders’ and investors’ point of view.

    What we should expect in the near future?

    First we’re in all time’s high (or close to it) in many verticals and index prices.

    I, personally, don’t like to trade on all time highs (or even a current time [weeks, months] high). It doesn’t mean it’s wrong, but due to regression towards the mean principle – statistically there’s more chance for price to drop than there’s to rise.

    So the most likely event to happen in the next few months are price corrections.

    Is student loans going to be the next market crash reason?

    An example to a possible reason for market crash can be found in student loans.

    As you can see in this image:

    “In 2020, the amount of student loan debt that is delinquent or in default is almost equal to the size of the entire student loan market from only 17 years ago. How much longer can this chart increase? Federal student loans are not even cleared in bankruptcy, and so this escalating mountain of debt – including the delinquent/default debt – will carry on as a burden for much of the adult life of the borrower. This debt burden is already becoming a national crisis, and combined with economic downturn and high unemployment, we are setting up for generations of Americans to be trapped under a nearly inescapable mountain of debt, unable to build wealth.” (From currentmarketvaluation.com)

    (Image from currentmarketvaluation.com)

    What the image and the quote are trying to show us is that many students (more than ever) are taking loans without being able to return it resulting in a struggling to keep his head above the water borrower.

    My agenda is just the other way around:

    The best thing that can happen in any economy is education, research, learning and sharing information, and more. This can only happen if someone isn’t worried about how he will feed himself or where will he sleep tonight. The economy in general and the individuals in particular need to be open for creativity, inspirations, and mainly – make mistakes and learn from them. For that reason I choose to look at the blue line (and not the red) and look at them as the future of the economy. Some of them are working, as you read these lines, on the next Facebook, next TikTok and the next Netflix and Tesla, and it’s good for the economy.

    What is overvalued market anyways?

    Overvalued and overpriced market appears when the full potential of the market is exceeded. This is not a real formula you can calculate as it’s mainly the average opinion of ALL players in the market.

    But, since the global economy isn’t close to its full potential and more than 40% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to internet yet(!!). That’s billions of people with buying power that still isn’t in action.Yes, it will take many years for the vast majority of the population to have internet, but that’s also what’s exciting about it.

    Another thing is, usually, you can spot overvaluation in hindsight.

    Bottom line

    Market might crash soon, and indicators all over the place are screaming overvalue, but the fact is no one can predict the future.

    The only thing that has 99.99% to happen is if the market do crashes, it will eventually return to its pre-crash value and even exceed it. Might take months or years, but this is the only thing that is almost certain to happen.

    My personal predication is unless there’s a loophole we can’t still that is risking major parts of the market, we should expect to see mainly market corrections due the overpriced stocks and traders monetizing their gains.

  • Lies That Traders Like To Tell To Competitors

    Lies That Traders Like To Tell To Competitors

    Lies that traders like to tell
    Some traders’ and investors’ lies will confuse you; the other will take your money. Be aware!

    By Guy Avtalyon

    Maybe it’s tough to say, but there are too many lies that traders and investors like to tell. It doesn’t matter if they are lying to their rivals or the audience. I’m always astonished how people pinch every cent at the supermarkets but will let someone they hardly know take their money. Why would you believe anyone you barely know?

    Actually, I can’t even imagine why anyone likes to tell me lies. Do such people want to make a false picture of themselves? What do they think after telling some lies? Are they bigger in their own eyes? More successful? Smarter? Someone might say they are not lying; they are creating a parallel reality. But why? 

    Keep in mind, you have to check everything, or you’ll end up losing your assets. 

    This post aims to unmask the big lies that traders and investors like to tell, yes. All the little lies, the myths, and misleads of traders and investors. I’ll give you the list of traps, so you’ll avoid falling in them.

    What are the lies that traders like to tell?

    Most of us are self-taught traders. We are learning to trade by reading books on trading; we are watching videos, we like to talk with successful traders and investors. In other words, we’re gathering knowledge from every possible source. And we believe they are trustworthy. 

    On the other hand, I’m up for the challenges. When someone tells me that something cannot be performed, I’ll spend hours and days showing how wrong such thinking is. That’s in my nature.

    When I hear someone is picturing him or herself as a professional trader, my alarm turns red. I know they are convinced they are the best, but the truth is something else. For example, some traders would tell lies to give excuses for their lack of profit. Such traders will tell you that some strategy isn’t good enough or impossible to perform, only because they failed to succeed. If you believe them, take a step back, and think twice. Don’t let other traders’ failures stop you. It could cost you money, or, at least, you could waste your precious time.

    If anyone in the world did it, then the contrary is a lie. I always tried to show them how wrong they are. Never believe when someone tells you, “you cannot do it.” Try it; instead, never leave the battlefield. If you know that anyone did it before, find out how it is possible and explore the strategy, method, and approach.

    You will never make money in a short time

    This is a true lie. Why shouldn’t you make money in a short time? You can do it in any trading period of time. We’re living in a high-tech era; we have computers, phones, laptops, we can trade from any place on the Earth at any time. For some trades, you’ll need a few seconds; for others, you’ll need months or years. Where is the problem? 

    Remember, you’re the one who chooses the timeframe. Choosing your trades’ timeframe depends on your budget, personality, trading style, goals, etc. That’s why we have short-term traders and traders with long-term timeframes. It’s completely great to have a trading strategy that combines the short timeframes. So, of the lies that traders like to tell is that you cannot make money in a short timeframe.

    Lies that traders like to tell: you have to analyze the market full-time

    C’mon! Once you understand how the market price is acting, it’s totally possible to turn on your computer at any time and enter the trade. It is actually recommended when you notice the price in the right position or see a good candlestick bar. What is the other way to make a good trade? There is no other way. Just turn on your computer at the right time, enter the trade, and make a profit with the right settings.

    Of course, you’ll need to know a lot about price action and trading to enter the trade at the right time. But the truth is, you don’t need to look at your screen all day long or to study the market full-time. All you need is a good strategy to have more wins than losses. Keep in mind; trading has nothing with certainty; it’s all about probability.

    You can’t profit with a small trading account

    Really? When I hear something like this, I have to ask: Can you tell me what is the right trading account, please? For some traders, $100.000 is nothing. Well, guys, during my early days as a trader, $100 was big money for me. Honestly, it was all I can put into the trade. 

    Moreover, some of the most successful traders started with much less money. And look at them now!

    The truth is that you need to know how to manage your trades to protect your capital invested. Always keep in mind the size of your position. That’s the key. Your primary goal should be to protect your capital. Your account will grow with the winning trades. As the old song says, the winners take it all.

    Automated trading algorithms control the markets

    The truth is that automated trading algorithms do over 70 percent of all trades. Also, the truth is that they are not the largest part of the trading volume. Large institutions do account for the majority of the trading volume in the market. No one can say that algorithms control or run the market. That would be stupid. But it is one of the lies that traders like to tell when they fail. 

    How many times did you hear: What can I do against algorithms? They are smarter than I am? Oh, dear man, algorithms are made by people, like you and me, but they are smarter, that’s true. No jokes, these guys are programmers, developers very familiar with complicated mathematical operations, but there is a different case with the markets. Every second of a trading day, you can see traders taking the bull or bear side on every trade. What can you do as a home-based trader? Follow them. Copy their actions. The main goal in trading is to take the winning side—nothing less, nothing more.

    One of the lies that traders and investors like to tell, especially to their competitors, is that they can’t learn to trade. They will try to discourage you by saying that you do or do not have the talent or abilities for successful trading. It’s BS, trash, pardon my French! Everyone can lose money; it’s the part of trading. No one is profitable all the time. Losing trades are normal. The goal is to have more winning than losing trades in sum.

    Take your time, don’t waste it on lies that traders like to tell, build your confidence, learn as much as you can, and enter the trade.

  • Trading Myths That Need to be Told!

    Trading Myths That Need to be Told!

    3 Trading Myths That Need to be Told!
    Surprisingly, you can find so many myths and misconceptions in trading and get the idea that they have become common knowledge in trading. They can actually hurt your trading.

    By Guy Avtalyon

    When you start trading, you can be faced with too much advice that other people may give you, and some of them might be about trading myths. Yeah, there are trading myths that need to be told. I know you may think that paying attention to some trading myths could give you more profitable trades. But they are myths. They don’t really exist. Some of them might seem reasonable, but you have to check them. What if some profitable trade came randomly? Honestly, you can not take it as a truth. I’ll point out some of them to help you avoid useless behavior and waste precious time.

    You have to understand why they are trading myths.

    Trading myths: Only one winning strategy

    Honestly, I have heard so many times traders saying that one winning strategy is enough for the whole life. Not many traders would admit they are looking for only one perfect strategy that can work in any circumstances, in any market condition, one strategy that never loses. Based on my experience, many traders are looking for that exactly.

    Keep in mind, the majority of profitable traders have approximately 50% winning trades. The point is to have more profits on winning trades and have fewer losses on losing trades. The number of trades you take isn’t important. You might have one winning trade and three losing trades and still be profitable.

    You couldn’t be more wrong if you think that some profitable traders are winning all the time using only one strategy. That’s impossible. Also, it’s impossible to have only winning trades and beat the market all the time.

    What you can find is some scammy platform offering only one but winning strategy. It would help if you were careful because all data they present you are based on past performances and might not work in the future. 

    As I said, all you need is to be right over 50% of the time. That’s exactly how you can produce huge returns. You should forget that one perfect strategy, there are more possibilities not to find it ever. Try to create a strategy that will provide you more wins than losses. That’s the whole wisdom.

    The entry point is more important than the exit

    Traders-Paradise wrote so many times about the importance of the exits. Yes, the entry point is important, but when you know where and when to get out, the trade is more important. The exits show how much you know how to take profits. So, let me know how this doesn’t deserve your full attention.

    What else do you have to take into consideration? Position size. With the wrong position size, your entry points and exits mean nothing. If you have the wrong position size, you’ll drain your account in a few trades. The good entry points are important, but we’re talking about the trading myths if you think they are essential. To make this thing simpler, think about all parts of the trade as the most important. Never underestimate any of them. Being dependent on only one aspect of trading is the worst choice. You’ll need them all if you want to be profitable.

    Trading myths: Trading is gambling.

    Really? If you really think so, you’re wrong. There are some similarities in vocabulary, but that’s the place where similarities end. For example, a gambler places a bet. But traders place trades.

    The main difference comes from the prospects and control. You cannot control roulette, for example. All you can do is to pick from proposed odds and place a bet. The rest is a matter of luck.

    You have more control over the probabilities in trading. Let’s say you notice a pattern that has a 65% of breaking out and a 35% chance of failing in your chart. What would you do? 

    First of all, you should use a risk/reward ratio of at least 1:3. This means you’re willing to risk $1 for $3 in profit. So, you have the control. You’re the one who is going to decide when to sell. For this example, let’s say you place a $2,000 trade. You decide to set a stop-loss at 5%, and your profit target is at 15%.

    Let’s calculate the expected value of this trade (assuming that both the Take Profit and Stop Loss of an asset has 50% chance for both of them. To check for actual stats about assets, please check on our Trading Strategy Planner):

    (2000×0,15)-(2000×0,05) = 300-100=200

    The expected value is $200. But you can improve it if you find better probability setups, for example, 70%, or if you use a better risk/reward ratio, for example, 1:4.

    The odds are more flexible in trading, and you have control.

    You can find a lot of trading myths out there. I pointed out three that are the most common. If you know that something is a myth and not a real issue, you’ll have the advantage in the market. You will not waste your time to examine actually losing strategies or seeking the holy grail. Moreover, you’ll become a profitable trader faster. 

    Just keep in mind, no one has winning trades all the time. 

    You don’t need to win every single trade to be profitable. You’ll need time to acquire the knowledge but investing your time is a better choice than losing hard-earned money. Spend some time to learn and master trading, test your strategy, tweak it if necessary, and do it before you place the trade. Trading isn’t just simply picking the entry point randomly. You’ll have to know the right time to enter the trade, the right point to exit the trade, and the position size. These are essentials.

  • How to recognize early warning signs to exit the trade

    How to recognize early warning signs to exit the trade

    recognize early warning signs to exit the trade
    What can make or destroy the trade is the right exit point. Don’t hold on to trades in the hope of making just a few more dollars when the market is moving against you.

    By Guy Avtalyon

    As a trader, you’ll often consider possible profit when you have to decide about exits, but can you recognize early warning signs to exit the trade? Traders Paradise wrote many times about the importance of exit strategies in trading stocks, forex, or currency. And I have to repeat if you think about the level where you enter the trade without thinking about your exits, it’s more likely you’ll end up in losses.

    Some early indicators can warn you it’s time to exit the trade.

    I know it’s sexier to buy stocks. We all like it. The feeling is wonderful after you spent so much time examining stock, analyzing it to find the perfect one. How would you feel if your stock is not performing well? What about your attitudes? Do you feel like a loser?  No one likes to watch the stock go down. Even if it is obvious that the stock is performing badly, most of us would hold it and wait for better times. What is behind this attitude? We want to avoid the feeling of loss, the experience of losing something. Contrary, when the stock price increases, most traders will sell the stock to lock-in profit and lose the possibility of further gains.

    Anyway, it’s important to sell stock at a specific moment to prevent further losses, and you have to recognize early warning signs to exit the trade. But what they are and how to recognize them?

    Recognize early warning signs to exit the trade

    Getting out of the trade isn’t complicated, but it requires research of price action, finding and noticing signs that could predict a reversal or changes in trend. 

    You have to know that markets tend to trend between 15 and 20 percent of the time. Strong trends are helping in the consolidation of recent price changes. They are helping in taking profits, lower the volatility. But what if a trading range becomes bottom or top and exits in the opposite direction of the previous trend swing?

    This could be one of the early warning signs to exit the trade. When you’re watching the price action and notice a failed breakout or breakdown, the best strategy is to exit the trade.

    Failed breakouts or breakdowns are signs to exit the trade with profit or loss. You can re-enter the trade when the price surpasses the breakout high or low of the breakdown. That could be a logical move after recovery because the possibility of the underlying trend to resume is great. It’s also possible the price moves to the other side of the trading range and forms a strong trend in the opposite direction.

    High-volume days as an early warning sign 

    Well, to notice these kinds of early warning signs to exit the trade, you’ll need to track the average daily volume. For example, observe the last 50 sessions. It’s easy to notice trading days with four times or higher volumes. That’s a good sign if it happens in the direction of the position you are holding but take it as a warning sign if it is opposite from your position. This is exceptionally valid if the opposing swing breaks an important support or resistance level.

    High-volumes that oppose the direction of your position could ruin patterns. They are often a signal to exit the trade and to take the profit in an uptrend.

    Also, pay attention to peak days that can stop trends. They could show four or five times average daily volume in price bars that reach new highs in an uptrend or new lows in a downtrend. The top bar shows up at the end of a price swing after RSI indicators scored uptrend or downtrend levels.

    Moving average and trends can help to recognize early warning signs

    Take a look at these three lines: 20-day EMA, 50-day, and 200-day EMA. It could be a difficult position if, for example, 20-day EMA descends through the 200-day EMA. Also, when 20-day EMA ascends through the 200-day EMA. The first example signals the danger for long positions, while the second is important for short sales.

    Price actions are also early warning signs to exit the trade when the intermediate moving average is higher to sideways on long positions. The change from lower to sideways on short sales also is a warning. Don’t hold or wait for the moving average to change the slope. Exit the trade.

    Be adaptable, not emotional. 

    The market isn’t always moving in your favor. So, never force your initial targets further away. This could lead you to loss or fewer profits than you awaited. But before you exit the trade, you have to understand whether your decision is a product of emotions or logic. If you move your target far away from your initial plan, you’re actually showing greed. Don’t do that. You must have a strategy and stick to it. Your strategy must be well pre-planned. If the market moves against your stop-losses, you have to exit the trade. Move your stop-losses only to reduce possible loss. If you exit the trade before the stop-loss target, you’ll probably miss the possibility of making a profit when the market shifts and starts to move in your favor.

    When you enter the trade, make adjustments only if necessary. The most important is to keep the balance and reduce the risk.

    Honestly, there is no best strategy to exit a trade. One strategy could work properly for some trades but lead to a great loss in others. But one thing is true, so many researches showed that you’d end up in losses more often if you fail to stick to your strategy.

    Risk is an integral part of trading. You have to watch market movements and set proper risk management strategies. The exit strategy is an important part of them. Moreover, the exit strategy can decide your profitability in the market.