The best Forex platform that supports Algos

There are many  Forex platform  to figure out what the best Forex platform that supports Algo it's a wonder to everyone, here are some suggestions for you:
It really depends on what type of algorithm you're running. 

Moderate to low frequency strategies: 

NinjaTrader is superior for backtesting and execution. The fact that it's written in C# is a real advantage. Development of simple strategies is very fast and the platform does a great job of loading cleaned data, assuming you find a source. 

The disadvantage is that the platform is not user friendly. It can take quite awhile to learn where all the moving parts are. I'm a programmer and it still took me a solid week to really learn it. The lack of broker choices is also a serious drawback.

MetaTrader is terrible for backtesting and execution. I happen to use this platform for managing my clients, but only because it was so easy to get up and running. There are 500+ brokers that use MT4, so you won't have any trouble switching brokers when needed. Also, the programming language is so easy that it's worth testing in one platform and then re-translating the code into MQL4. 

You can find a full comparison between the two platforms at Comparison: MetaTrader, NinjaTrader, TradeStation

High frequency or venue dependent: Trading Technologies. This is a platform geared towards professional traders. The API lets you customize everything under the sun, but it also allows you to skip a lot of the programming work with hooking into various exchanges and liquidity providers. It's incredibly fast. 

If you trade strictly forex, then Currenex is also a great option.

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The way to learn from Forex trading

I'm sure this is a topic which many people are interested in, so I will provide some useful information following:
First, There is a lot of great character qualities as well as behaviour patters you can get from trading currencies online. Here is the list of the 5 major ones I have developed:

Understanding of the economies
There are a lot of economic, political, geographical and other events that influence the prices of the currencies and not only internal country's events matter but the whole picture actually matters much more. When you trade FX you try to keep up with the recent events and this way it makes you educated about the major events that happen in the world.

Patience
When you trade, you are not successful instantly. The whole process of becoming a profitable traders takes a lot of efforts, hard-work and generally trial and error. When you trade FX you learn to wait for the outcomes of your hard work.

Understanding your mistakes
There are no traders that always make profit. The best traders are the ones that make losses but able to understand that those were the mistakes, identify how this mistakes happened and what should be done to fix them.

Filtering out gold from rubbish
There are many software pieces that claim to bring you profit, you can also often find many scams. When trading FX you will encounter many similar offers daily and as a trader you need to filter them out and get the best for yourself. I would recommend you to save some time and visit http://alpari.com/ for opening demo / live accounts, as this is one of the best brokers that doesn't deliver any unpleasant "surprises"

Networking
The world of trading is actually quite social. When trading FX I met a lot of like-minded people from nearly every country on Earth.
Additionally, as i know that One of the greatest forex education website and forex articles blog in Forex world, one of the best among forex community blogs and forums . They provide all sorts of support to the forex traders who wants to learn and start trading. They have easy-to-understand guide for teaching beginners how to trade in the foreign exchange market. They also provide trading courses, video library, free books and tools and many more! You can also use it as community website and online store serving active traders. They have features like discussion boards, live trading rooms, learning material, competitions, reviews and much more. They have a host of columns covering all things from psychology, automation, and first time trading in a perspective that is accessible to new traders. I will definitely say that this is best forexwebsite for beginners . If you’re new to forex, or know somebody interested in learning, believe me- they belong here!

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What Forex platform do you recommend to get started trading currency?

I hope the information I provide below will help you find a clear answer on this issue:
There are 1000s of trading platforms out there. It's possible some platforms are better for some, depending where you are.  For starters you need to check:

1. Funds - transferring funds methods, minimum deposit, withdrawal fee, transfer fees.
2. Trading  - lot size, spread( fixed or fluctuating), minimum leverage, margin call limits. Allow day trading, scalping, hedging.
3. Platform - online, mobile, meta trader.
4. Resources - teaching material, calculation tools, community support etc.

The most important points are 1. and 2. You should spend some time reading the fine print, T/C. 
Personally I would recommend Oanda Fxtrade for currencies. They have no min deposits, can trade any size and one of the lowest spreads out there. Plus they have  platforms on all devices and excellent learning resources.
 Additionanlly,  It’s relatively easy and simple to use, with both basic and advanced features. You will find tons of free tutorials on Youtube for it. And most important part, there is unlimited amount of indicators for it, for almost anything. So you will have all tools that you need to trade. And it’s FREE!

Make sure that your broker - or the broker that you’re planning to work with - support Metatrader 4 platform. But even if they don’t, you can always use a free demo account for Metatrader, and copy your trades to your broker’s platform.

To be more clear, Metatrader 4 may not be the best platform out there. There are possibly better ones. But most - if not all of them - are not free. And they’re somehow more complicated to use, especially for beginners. There are limited in tools and resources.. etc In other words, my recommendation is not only based on the quality of the platform, but I’m also recommending it for many other practical reasons.

Personally, I started trading - long time ago - with Metatrader 4, and it’s still my main trading platform today. You may also want to check Metatrader 5 as well.

Hope that helps.

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Is there any true Forex signal provider out there?

There are a lot of Forex signal providers in the market. You would need to check for the performances of the traders so that you can choose a fair and reliable trader for better profits.

 I will start a forex signal myself to understand what’s going on in this segment of forex trading. Here’s what I’ve learned running a signal service recently.

1. Whatever signal service you find needs to be automated. Receiving text alerts to new trades, tweets, email, etc. just isn’t scaleable. You want someone trading for you, not someone sending you trade parameters so you can enter them manually.
   
   How are you going to place trades in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping? What about while at work, at dinner with your family, etc.? If it’s not automated it’s just not going to work for your lifestyle.
2. Stay away from independent providers. This generally means standalone websites that claim to send forex signals.
   
   One reason to stay away from these guys is they generally aren’t automated (see my first point). They don’t have the technology to automatically place trades for you.
   
   The perhaps larger reason to stay away form independent providers is that they’re almost impossible to verify their reputation. Fake testimonials on their website hopefully don’t fool you, so unless you know someone you trust that has been using an independent signal provider (with success) for a long time, don’t trust them.
3. It’s easy to cheat.
   
   I personally don’t know how, but there are several ways to fake your forex trading stats. Here’s one of the top signals on SignalStart right now:

See anything fishy? A massive 2,500% return with zero drawdown? Please believe me when I tell you that’s not possible. Anyone signing up for this system is kissing their money goodbye to a scam.

Sadly, SignalStart is polluted with providers like these. You’d think a reputable site would do more to weed these sorts of offerings out. Instead, it buries any good signals, making it almost impossible to find something worth subscribing to.

Is it possible to find a signal service that does work and is reputable? Yes.

My advice is to actually sift through SignalStart and MQL5.com. In fact, I’d likely start with MQL5 because it at least has a review section where current subscribers are able to review the signal service.

Still, it’s tough evaluating these signals. So if you want to shoot me a message with a few you’re looking at I’m happy to give you my input.

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The most profitable type of trading

According to my opinion, there is no such thing as the most profitable types of business. It depends on the many factors.

Not only it depends upon how well you could capitalize the opportunity, but also it is your ability to take advantage of market moves can only be improvised by thoroughly learning the market.

While your self learning enables you to trade, there may be many other things in the world of trading that either you are not good at or don’t even know. Hence, it’s always better to get in touch with people from your own industry. You can find them through various trade forums, seminars, interviews, social media, etc. It does not take much time as people think, not only that, I think it was very useful

There is different opinion, for that  the most profitable type of trading is “Day Trading”. They think also known as “Investment” isn’t a cup of tea for all. Only those who could manage to sit with a trade for long and have dip pockets should consider investment. They would also say when your analysis is backed by no fear and emotional control, it becomes a BEST trading situation. They’ve observed that most of the traders generally exit early or wait too long without any trailed stop-loss.

I think that's a proper perspective and should be considered.

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Good books on forex trading and markets

Q : What are some good books on forex trading and markets?

A : Some suggestion around the web

1. The Forex Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide to Becoming a Successful Currency Trader 

2. Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

This book is sublime in explaining human behaviour and cognitive processes and biases, and in that way is very useful to keep in mind with relation to trading emotions and behaviour.

3. Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders – Jack D. Schwager

A collection of interviews with the best traders of the business – or at least the top of around 1980s. It is chock full of timeless wisdoms that still apply today, even though the actual interviews might sound a bit dated with the advent of modern trading techniques. 

4. Trading in the Zone – Mark Douglas

This book is all about trader’s mindset. If you have a solid trading system but still find yourself losing out more than you win, this book might be for you.

5. Trading Price Action Trends – Al Brooks

Al Brooks covers loads of content, explaining the meaning of every single candle on the chart and the meaning of multiple candles as price action patterns.

Good luck with trading! 

Source : Yahoo, Quora

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From where forex data (charts) are driven?

The data is provided by your broker based on the interbank market and it can slightly differ between brokers due to spread differences.

Some old style brokers are still market makers themselves (and some are an hybrid doing both) therefore price is formed within their own infrastructure (their customers trade one against the other or even one against the broker taking the opposite position) and only the imbalance between buy and sell sides gets out to the liquidity providers.

There are a number of large backbones (featured by big names I won't mention because I don't like advertising) connecting the top tier banks. Prices get either decided in there or delegated to more local liquidity providers who are the wholesale liquidity "storage" Forex brokers go and take from / send orders to these liquidity providers who also act as market makers for the various brokers connected to them and therefore price forms on their servers. Brokers get a price stream and an history price stream from them and can show it on their charts.

Forex, unlike stock exchanges is a distributed system. There's no "central location" where prices get posted or securities get traded. The architecture is extremely complex and fast, I am going to write down a really simplified version of it.

source : quora, yahoo

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How to Deal With Stock Market Volatility

Market volatility is a fact of life when it comes to stock market investing. Stock prices fluctuate daily. Markets ebb and flow over time in line with the economy and business cycle. But when it comes to current stock

In times of extreme market volatility, what's an investor to do? Sure, it makes sense to turn to a trusted financial advisor for advice to get a handle on what's going on with the market situation. But everyone has an opinion, and there is . With insider information and dissected reports, some may be thinking it's the beginning of the end while others see it as a bump in the rocky road.

You probably shouldn't rely on the financial media who do a great disservice to us investors by encouraging panic and fear. So-called experts on primetime TV who foresee doom and gloom or rapid recovery don't own or use crystal balls. They really have no better idea of future market conditions than you do. The truth is, nobody really knows. And if they claim to, they're probably just pretending. Past events cannot dictate the future of the market. A solid financial planner will tell you that don't follow a pattern. There are no codes to break – no trends to analyze. Just watch the stock market activity for a couple days. You'll see that what happened yesterday won't necessarily affect tomorrow's stock prices.

So, what's best? Pulling the cord and jumping? Sticking it out and hoping for the best? Some believe that investors who scrutinize the financial news and make investment decisions based on predictions often end up losing money. They believe that those who stay the course and ignore market volatility reap the returns of the capital markets. Others are tired of being told they should just buy and hold, so they panic and sell.

The traditional advice financial advisors give in a market such as this would be to hold tight and don't give into panic. It is easy to be pulled away from a strong long-term strategy when markets are under pressure. The numbers would suggest that it is important to stick with your strategy and remain mindful of getting caught up in the emotional drive of the . Opportune selling times rarely surface during periods of elevated emotions.

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What is going on with the USD-INR exchange rate?

It seems to be a good moment to send money to India if you live in the USA like I do. 

The main reason for this is Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections.The depreciation of Rupee in the past week can only be partially credited to the demonetization.
 

Soon after victory of Trump, there was a rally in US equities sending Dow Jones to an all time high. Moreover, the retail sales also came out positive and now investors are expecting a rate hike in Federal Reserve’s December meeting. As a result, dollar is appreciating.

It’s not only rupees which is depreciating, other Asian currencies are also depreciating at the same time which shows that demonetization might not be the main reason for the depreciation of rupees.

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Zero-Sum Game in Forex Market

In Forex market, change in currency value which leads to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange is a different concept from those in stock market. Changes in currency rate are the ratio of exchange in between two countries, in other words, Forex fluctuation happens when value of one currency drops and increases in another.

For instance, in last two decades, 1 USD (United States Dollar) could exchange for 360 JPY (Japanese Yen). But now, 1 USD only can exchange for 114 JPY. This simply means that JPY has increased, and USD has dropped in value.

Therefore, no matter how the currency rate changes, the total sum of value of both currency pair will not increase, and of course, will not decrease.

Hence, some may describe Forex trading is nothing but a “zero-sum” game. To be more specific, it is a transfer of wealth. Recently, funds flowing into currency market has increased significantly, rate of changes is also getting higher and higher, which caused amount of wealth transferred has become more, and faster.

Assuming there is a daily transaction of USD 30 trillion in global Forex market, either increase or decrease by 10%, there will be USD 3 trillion will get new owners.

Despite drastic fluctuation in Forex market, but there will be no currency that has no value at all. Although one currency plummeted consistently, yet it still has a certain value embedded in it, unless it has been announced to abolish this currency.

P/S: “Zero-Sum Game” is a concept in Game Theory, means that both parties in a game, when one gains then the other one will lose.

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Unveil HFT – High Frequency Trading

Unveil HFT – High Frequency Trading

Flash Boys? Know how the real players earn just in seconds!

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MAKE HONEST MONEY ON WALL STREET

The American financial system spent over $80 million during the election cycle in 2012. This year they will spend more. Big money typically flows to 2-3 top contenders.

So how does the everyman presidential candidate raise an honest buck on Wall Street?

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Currency Pair Personalities

Each currency pair exhibits a unique behavior, just like a human, it collectively represents the economy of a country. To have better trade performances, take time to understand and read their peculiar personalities. We can categorize personalities of currency pairs by: best trading time, factors affecting pairs, volume, range, momentum etc. You will have a more vivid understanding of these when you gain more experience in the market.
EUR/USD: Most traded currency pair on the Forex market, with approximately 28% of total daily volume. This is one of the recommended currency pairs for beginners to start trading. Of course, to trade this pair, you are ought to follow Euro time zone, ie. 0700 GMT – 1700 GMT or Malaysia Time: 3 pm – 1 am. (Take note of their 2-hour lunch break too, which is around 6pm – 8 pm Malaysia Time). Factors which are affecting the EUR/USD rate are:-

1. The interest rate differential between the European Bank (ECB) and the Federal Reserve (FED)
2. Dollar strength drives EUR/USD lower
3. FED intervention to weaken the dollar that sends EUR/USD higher

Refer: Forex Economic Calendar to know when you should be cautious for big movements!
In other words, focus on European economy and US economy only when you are trading this pair. Like see-saw game, Euro strength will push EUR/USD higher while Dollar strength pulls it lower. What if both of the currencies are going same directions (strong together or weak together)? Then you need to have other supporting pairs to determine which one is stronger and dominant in the overall EUR/USD pair direction.
Refer: Supporting Currency Pairs (coming soon)
USD/JPY: This currency pair is rather mild in fluctuations, as compared to other ones. The best time to trade USD/JPY is 2400 GMT – 0900 GMT (or Malaysia Time 8am – 5pm). Note that Japan is one hour ahead of Malaysia time, so be ready at your monitor at least 1 hour before and analyze before placing your order. Factors influencing USD/JPY are:-

1. The interest rate differential between the Bank of Japan (BoJ)
2. Japanese government intervention to strengthen their currency sends USD/JPY lower

Refer: Forex Economic Calendar to know when you should be cautious for big movements!
Japanese Yen serves as an alternative to hedge against US Dollar (other instruments like Gold and commodities serve the same function as well). Hence, investors tend to buy more JPY when USD doesn’t perform well, similarly, investors will switch their funds back to buy greenbacks when US economy is recovering.
GBP/USD: Pretty much similar to EUR/USD pair, in terms of time zone, behavior, movements etc. You may consider entering into this market when there is nothing much in EUR/USD side. Best time to trade this pair is exactly the same with EUR/USD, which you also follow Euro time zone, ie. 0700 GMT – 1700 GMT or Malaysia Time: 3 pm – 1 am. Factors causing movements in GBP/USD are:

1. The interest rate differential between the Bank of England (BoE) and the Federal Reserve
2. High yield and attractive growth in the UK drives GBP/USD higher.

Refer: Forex Economic Calendar to know when you should be cautious for big movements!

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18 THINGS MENTALLY STRONG PEOPLE DO

From my 10-year experience of trading in Forex market and other instruments, I strongly feel that mentality is the utmost important to excel in trading. Unlike any other job, trading requires the highest and strongest mentality to move on in each trade. “Practice makes perfect” only applies to technical part, you may practice and repeat the same successful techniqueover and over again; but for your mind, you need longer and tougher training to enhance it.

Let’s see what mentally strong people do in order to be success in their lives:

1. They Move On.

They don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves.

2. They keep control.

They don’t give away their power.

3. They embrace change.

They welcome challenges.

4. They stay happy.

They don’t complain. They don’t waste energy on things they can’t control.

5. They are kind, fair and unafraid to speak up.

They don’t worry about pleasing other people.

6. They are willing to take calculated risks.

They weigh the risks and benefits before taking action.

7. They invest their energy in the present.

They don’t dwell the past.

8. They accept full responsibility for their past behavior.

They don’t make the same mistake over and over.

9. They celebrate other people’s success.

They don’t resent that success.

10. They are willing to fail.

They don’t give up after failing. They see every failure as a chance to improve.

11. They enjoy their time alone.

They don’t fear being alone.

12. They are prepared to work and succeed on their own merits.

They don’t feel the world owes them anything.

13. They have staying power.

They don’t expect immediate results.

14. They evaluate their core beliefs.

• and modify as needed.

15. They expend their mental energy wisely.

They don’t spend time on unproductive thoughts.

16. They think productively.

They replace negative thoughts with productive thoughts.

17. They tolerate discomfort.

They replace negative thoughts with productive thoughts.

18. They reflect on their progress every day.

They take time to consider what they’ve achieved and where they are going.

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SECRET: 3 PRACTICAL WAYS TO HAVE WINNING TRADES

There are always people asking me why there are so many people lose money in currency trading market, that is simply because he/she has not learn the correct way. Why there are people who traded foreign currency for years, but still losing money, that is because he/she has not learn the correct way.

Is it difficult to earn money in FOREX market? Even you have spent years and years in this? On the other hand, why the newly joined beginners can make profit in the initial stage? In fact, the winning strategies of trading can be learnt in just ONE WEEK, but provided the strategies must be correct and efficient.

What is the practical ways to have winning trades? You got to ask the traders who make tones of money in forex market, remember to only listen to those who are making money. I always believe that only winners are qualified to make the statements. Articles and forums with 99% fancy wordings are nonetheless useless to you, only 1% is useful, but do you think you are able to extract that 1% useful content? If you couldn’t, I would suggest you not to read at all. Profiting traders do not have time to comment, only those average “professionals” have it.

The problem is here, useful content is always limited, obstructed by a lot more useless articles. Then, what content is important to us? This is highly depending on your effort. We read only useful articles, and keep these good contents. There are many forums on Forex that share good articles, I highly appreciate because I have learned a lot from them.

1. Follow the trend

This is the most direct way in market trading, i.e. follow the trend. The most appropriate way to handle the market trend is to follow it. This is the greatest treasure to earn money, be it sculpting or long-term investment.

A well-known investor in USA, said: “The most profiting and safest way to trade, is always follow the big trends. The biggest losses and stressful trade, is always when I hold trades that are going the opposite way”. For new traders to learn forex, you must understand and confirm the direction of price movement. This is very important in trading any instrument. Once the price direction is confirmed, set your lot size and hop into the market, follow the trend, sit back and wait for take-profit. Learn how to trade by following the trend, using appropriate risk management skills, then only you will have outstanding trading results.

Recommended indicator(s): Moving Average (MA). This is a very simple yet powerful tool to analyze the direction of price movement. Mix different time-frame parameters to get better results.

2. Focus the big, let go the small

Fresh traders should build solid trading foundation to aim for long-term consistent overall profit, and not to focus only on individual losses. To achieve this, we must learn how to pick the correct ones in the market, focus on big opportunities, let go the small ones. So we need the following two measurements: risk-adjusted return ratio and success rate.

Success rate, is the rate of successful profit trades. Eg. In 10 trades, which profit trades are 5, so the success rate is 50%.

If our risk-adjusted return ratio is 100 pips : 300 pips, with success rate of 70%. This translate to in every 10 trades, average return is 300 pips, average loss is 100 pips, so the total average return would be (300 x 7) – (100 x 3) = 1,800 pips.

In contrast, if our risk-adjusted return ratio is 300 pips : 100 pips, with success rate of 90%. I.e. average loss of 300 pips and average profit of 100 pips in every 10 trades. So the total average return is (100 x 9) – (300 x 1) = 600 pips.

By considering these two measurements, we shall strive our best to get the lowest risk-adjusted return ratio and highest success rate.

3. Stop-Loss

Set your stop-loss, save your capital. Before that you must have chosen right position(s) to grow your capital, this is the third secret of trading.

In trading, there is no crystal ball to predict 100% correct trades, all predictions are just possibilities. Therefore, to deal with uncertainties in market, we must take necessary procedures, i.e. set stop-loss order to control drawdown risk. Imagine that market risk is just like a crocodile in mud that biting your leg. If you do not cut your leg, then this crocodile will eventually eat your whole body. Risk is always inherited in trading, we cannot avoid it, but we can properly manage it. After setting stop-loss, traders will have a vivid, measurable, quantifiable loss limit. This is utmost important in upholding the confidence in you.

When you have stop-loss orders, you must also learn how to make long-term profit, as to cover the losses caused by mistakes. You have hold longer to make big money, you must make big money to cover the losses, you must cover losses then only you have net profit in the end.

Investors who do not set stop-loss orders will eventually face great losses; traders who only have stop-loss orders will certainly lose in the end too. Only traders who know to make money while having stop-loss orders to control will make the great success in the market.

To learn Forex, you must put your greatest effort into it. I would suggest that every night before you sleep, close your eyes and think the underlying principles of Forex market, analyze the market psychology, know the main stimulant of the market. To earn money in Forex market, it is advisable that you spend at least 2 hours of learning every day, while spend half day learning during weekends. We couldn’t say we need long hours to know how to earn money, but we need very long period to explore for the small portion of useful knowledge. Successful traders will not tell you their secrets, even if they do, that is still their skills. Develop your own skills.

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