There are blogs on nearly every single topic you can imagine and trading is no exception. Today I will share with you blogs I enjoy reading and blogs that will make you a better trader. If you have been living under a rock for the past 5 years a blog is:

“A website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.” Source wikipedia

Blogs are growing at a phenomenal rate as they allow individuals to have a powerful voice. The growth of blogs is highlighted in the chart below: Read the full story

Popularity: 100% [?]

In the Forex market as with other markets there are things that you can control and things that you cannnot. The Forex market provides the opportunity to choose what currency you wish to trade in. It enables you to choose

• to buy or sell a given currency
• the amount or volume of a given currency you wish to trade
• to make a decision when to trade.

These are all key variables that you have control of and need to be considered before trading.

Today we will look at when you can actually trade in the Forex market as it is very different to futures and equity markets. The Forex market is an open 24 hours a day 5.5 days of the week. However as I live in Australia there is no real volume on Saturdays and there are no open markets on Sundays. The reason the Forex market is a 24 hour market is that as soon as trading ceases in one geographical location it has generally already begun in another. Therefore if markets in your region are closed usually you can trade somewhere else.

The Forex market opens in New Zealand followed shortly after by Australia then Asia, Europe and America. It is very important to be aware of the times major trading countries are open. Thankfully there is an excellent tool I use and highly recommend, It is called ZoneTick. This program allows you to have multiple clocks in the taskbar or any other area on the screen for that matter. Read the full story

Popularity: 20% [?]

The ASX share market game is conducted bi-annually, each player is assigned a hypothetical AUD$50, 000. This year however due to technical difficulties game one was cancelled. The Australian Stock Exchange’s (ASX) education arm administers the share market game. The share market game has some very specific rules for trading and takes into account actual functioning of the ASX. Therefore, the simulation is very close to actual trading. Below are some specifics of this year’s games rules.

The Trading PeriodThe first day of trading in the Game is Thursday 6 September 2007 and the last day of trading is Wednesday 14 November 2007 (”Game Period”).

Trading hours indeed reflect the true nature of ASX trading hours making the simulation more realistic

An order to buy or sell shares may be placed at any time of the day during the Game period. Orders will only be matched during the trading hours of the ASX market (which is usually 10.00 AM EST and 4.15 PM EST). Orders in the Game are not matched until they have been matched on the ASX market (i.e. if a participant places an ‘at market’ order to buy or sell a parcel of shares, it will not be executed until there is a match on the ASX market). Orders placed ‘at market’ when the ASX market is closed will be processed at the opening trade price on the next trading day. ‘At market’ orders will be processed within the limitations of the stock volumes available for trading in the ASX market. ‘At market’ and ‘at limit’ orders that can be filled will be processed continuously from the time the ASX market is open at 10:00 AM EST to the time the ASX market closes at 4:10 PM EST*. Read the full story

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This is Part Three and final part of MetaTrader basics if you have not already done so I recommend you read Part One first and then Part Two.

Placing an order in MetaTrader is very simple. You simply need to double click (in the market watch window) on the symbol of the security you wish to buy and the order window will be displayed. Or if you have a chart open for the security you wish to buy you can simply press F9 or go to menu Tools -> “New Order”. The order window will pop-up as shown below.

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This is Part Two of MetaTrader basics if you have not already done so I recommend you read Part One first.

The first thing that we will look at in MetaTrader is charting. I have found that MetaTrader is one of the best free program for this purpose and it has a fairly large user base amongst the FOREX community.

Opening a Chart
In MetaTrader there are two ways to open a chart. The first is by left clicking on the new chart icon in the toolbar and selecting the chart you wish. Secondly you can right click a symbol in the market watch window and then select “Chart Window”. This is outlined below:

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In the next few posts I will go through the basics of the MetaTrader software platform. MetaTrader is a widely used platform in the retail FOREX market. The first thing you will need to do is download the latest copy of MetaTrader
Go to MetaQuotes and download the client terminal. After download is complete install the program.

The first screen you will see after you have installed MetaTrader and run it for the first time is the one below. It is completely your choice if you enter correct details in here or not I usually just fill the fields with random characters.

Do however make sure you change the initial deposit to the required amount you eventually plan on investing. Click through to finish your install and you will be presented with a somewhat busy window shown below: Read the full story

Popularity: 10% [?]