What Is Mini Forex Trading?

By Bart Icles

Many potential forex investors are in the notion that they need to shell out a big chunk of their money in order to invest in the forex market and in order for them to be able to earn big. This is a very erroneous notion. As a matter of fact, millions around the globe are now taking advantage of the liquidity of the forex market and are not really putting a big chunk of money into their forex trading accounts. As a matter of fact, millions of forex investors are doing their forex trading activities with a mini forex trading account and are comfortably earning through it without needing to spend a lot.

What is a mini forex trading account? As its name implies, a mini forex trading account is a forex account that only trades with minimal amounts. In fact, with as little as 250 US dollars alone, a forex trader can already do forex trading like any other normal forex trading account. The advantage with mini forex trading accounts is that they present minimal losses since a trader would not be investing too much in it.

Think of mini forex trading as a business. You can start small in it, with little capital, and eventually, once you have learned the ropes, you will be able to reap bigger profits since you already know the ins and outs of it. Because of the type of leverage that a mini forex trading account offers, which is usually approximately 200:1, a lot of people are really being encouraged to do it because the worse that could happen is to lose your capital, which is not really a very substantial amount, anyway.

If you want to become a big player in the forex market, then test the forex market first with a mini forex trading account. It would be the wisest move for anyone who wants to engage in forex trading since it doesn't require a lot of money to start with and, at the same time, it has very good leverage possibilities. It has a very minimal risk margin as well. It will also be able to allow the forex investor to develop the necessary skills in forex trading with a real account which, in turn, gives him or her the experience and the exposure that is really needed in order to be successful in normal forex trading.

A mini forex trading account has the potential to increase your profits exponentially. As long as you have the right knowledge and the right amount of discipline in trading, you will surely go a long way into forex trading success. - 23199

About the Author:

Investing in forex starts with a desire to learn and a drive to become a great trader. Learning automated forex software takes dedication and a good teacher. But once you learn how to trade and do so successfully your life will change and you have options and financial resources you never had before.

Automated Forex Trading

By Timothy Croize

Automated Forex Trading is the hottest craze in the market today and it is being adopted by most of the top traders in the field. Thanks to technology it is now possible to trade in an entirely automated fashion. These trading robots, also known as expert advisors, can help a trader gain more profit while minimizing losses even for the beginner just starting out in the forex market.

So is it time to drop everything and start using automated forex trading? Well if you are already a forex trader and even if you are not you know that your time means money. You also know that trying to carry out manual trades at the right time of day or night may take hours and hours of market research and strategy. While the profits are great the hours get tiring real fast.

But now you can just setup your automated forex trading robot and start your day. You no longer have to sit in front of your computer for hours on end waiting for the perfect time to trade. The robot will take care of the work for you. You are free to spend your time in a more profitable fashion. Whether that be more research to get better in the market or just spending time with your family. You have your life back.

Most of the automated forex trading systems on the marketplace will have a fancy sales letter and big stats to back it up. Please do your research. There are a lot of good systems out there but you will need to weed through the garbage first. Do not buy based solely on testimonials of the sales page. Investigate for yourself.

There are many automated forex trading systems out there that can get the job done for you. Some are better than others and some have outlived their usefulness. Some of the more successful systems out there are Fapturbo, IvyBot, and Robominer. Fapturbo was one of the most successful forex robots out there in its early days. However, its success kind of caused it to fizzle out as brokers picked up on what was going on quickly.

If you find an automated forex trading robot that looks effective, don't immediately invest all of your money. Start by creating a demo account and play around a little without the risk. This helps you minimize your loss and most brokers out there now will allow you to create demo account for this exact purpose. If you are confident enough that the robot performs well in your demo account you can then try it out on live trades.

There is a constant barrage of new robots coming out all the time. You need to take a lot of their claims with a grain of salt. You're not going to become a millionaire overnight. While a good robot can make an unbelievable rate of return, it probably won't be as good as they claim.

If you do your homework and find the right automated forex trading plan you will succeed. But like anything it takes hard work on your part still. If these robots created instant millionaires no one would be selling them and no one would be working. The goal here is to use it as a tool to help in your success and profits. - 23199

About the Author:

Interested in learning more about automated forex trading be sure to check out Jim Sullivan's blog at http://tradingforexblog.com

Where To Buy Tangier Property

By Gerald Branch

Tangier property is now becoming popular in the business circle. These are the people who know great deal of opportunities they will get when they own Tangier property. This is especially now that Tangier city is being honed as the next Dubai to reckon with. People who know much about the development in that area in northern Africa are getting agog to getting their own property for the investment potential it holds.

Having Tangier property at the price of today is really a great opportunity for anyone to grab. This is why many people in the business circle are now getting agog to have this kind of property. Knowing that the place is currently develop as a cosmopolitan hub, it is a sure thing to get the kind of investment to your advantage.

You need not have to travel to Tangier city just to acquire any of the property you will be good to have there. You can now secure any property you want to have from Tangier city right in the comforts of your own room with the advent of the powerful internet. It is not hard to have Tangier property in this technologically-advanced society.

Buying the tangier property you wanted to have is now as simple as one, two and three. I can easily be done in just one click right in your own home. This is made possible with the many websites that cater to this kind of business endeavor.

Apart from not having to deal with the hassles of actually visiting the area, big savings through awesome discounts can be availed while doing your purchase online. No need to worry of not being able to see the property in person as websites will show you a comprehensive catalog for it which is as good as real. It would also be much easier for anyone to buy these kinds of properties online. These are sure more than enough to entice you to have your own Tangier property. - 23199

About the Author:

You may want to visit Morocco and definitely you need some place to stay for the stint. There is the Tangier property that is available for sale or lease. You need to have it as it is one of the best places you can get while in the area. You get to see and experience the soothing breeze of the sea and find time to relax and suit yourself. There is no place where you can get satisfaction guaranteed.

Penny Stocks And Their Place In Investment Portfolios

By Chris Channing

A penny stock is defined through several definitions, but for most it is a stock that is any amount under $5. A penny stock is cheap to pick up because of its volatility, but can also make a fortune for investors. Even small changes in stock increase can mean dramatic return on investment with high volume.

A lot of the penny stocks you find will include companies that are new or on the verge of bankruptcy. Obviously, there is going to be a bit of risk involved. Finding a stable penny stock is going to be tough unless you have experience in finding them. You may even be trapped into keeping the stock if you are not able to sell it once you are ready to do so.

It would be logical to assume that all stocks started out at a price of next to nothing, but that isn't the case. Any company with a good history will start out at a price of $10, or even $20 or more. It's a good lesson to learn, so you won't be fooled in thinking that investing in a wide array of penny stocks will yield a sure profit once you get lucky. It's possible, but improbable.

Spread out your investment among several different stocks. Ideally, you should spread it out as much as you possibly can and take it from there. With penny stocks being volatile, you need to be able to shift your investments from one stock to another as soon as you see opportunity. Sticking to one or two isn't a bad idea, but it is inefficient as an investment model.

Know when to get out of an investment. This is especially true with penny stocks, where one recession can wipe a company off the map in a single day. If you have a day where you make a return of 20%, and have invested a considerable amount, it's time to fold your hand and cash out. Penny stocks are rarely good long term investments, and thus have their association with day trading.

Penny stocks will lose you money at some point or another. They are too unpredictable for anyone to make a winning decision every time. The key here is to learn from your mistakes and to funnel your investments appropriately. Make an effort to not use money you shouldn't be investing, and certainly don't turn investing into a game of gambling or chance.

Final Thoughts

The stock exchange is a cruel beast to tame. In time you will gain the experience needed to trade with confidence. Until that happens, read up on strategies and learn from others before you. Having a mentor would be a good idea if you can afford one. - 23199

About the Author:

Learn more on Penny Stocks and Stock Market.

What Happens On a Trading Floor

By Zeke Lee

Have you ever seen a trading floor?

No, were not talking Liars Poker here

Weve all seen the so-called pit traders on CNBC yelling and screaming at each other. But whats it like on a typical trading floor at a large bank that you might work at?

Usually, youll see a large open room " no cubicles. On the outskirts of the trading floor youll see meeting rooms and sometimes the offices of the Managing Directors.

On the floor itself, youll see rows of really long desks that are sectioned off per person. Traders within the same group will naturally sit close to each other. So you might see the foreign exchange group in one area, the credit group in another, and the equity guys somewhere else.

But youll notice something unique about each traders desk: the monitors. No, not that they are eco-friendly and conserve energy " but that there are so many monitors on each desk and that some of them are blinking constantly.

Got Monitors?

If youve never worked in trading before, you might think theres no reason you would actually need between 3 and 8 monitors " the other 7 must be for playing World of Warcraft or catching up on 24, right?

Wrong.

Partly, its for showing off: some traders view the number of monitors they have as a status symbol on the trading floor. Hey, even if you cant see my BMW, my 8 monitors mean that I own a really expensive car, right? Or at least that our P&L is higher than that of the other group over there with only 2 monitors.

The legitimate reason " status symbols aside " is that speed is extremely important in trading, and you dont want to waste time switching between windows. Alt + Tab is for bankers.

If Apple stock has been moving quickly, you need to be able to look up and know by how much it moved. You need to be able to look at a screen that calculates your risk exposure real-time.

Then you need to monitor the market news and major headlines coming in through Bloomberg " is Steve Jobs OK? Is some analyst raising his/her forecast for the number of iPhones sold? Was there an news release that just came out regarding Apples contract with AT&T or talks with Verizon? Did consumer spending numbers just come out?

As an active prop trader, youre multi-tasking all the time and constantly thinking about these kinds of questions, assessing risk, and making quick decisions.

Bloomberg

Bloomberg is an expensive news/finance information service that all banks and trading firms have access to.

Beyond just watching the news, you also need to track stocks youre interested in and see their prices updated in real-time " so you use another monitor for that. These screens are constantly blinking as the prices of securities are changing every second.

Bloomberg has a price feature that lets you organize and track stocks by sector (Technology, Financials, Energy, etc.) and lets you see where everything is trading.

You can also get a real-time heat map of the market, so you can see which sub-sectors of the S&P are up, and by how much.

Trading Platform

Next, you use another screen to actually transmit your trades " this might be Merrills MLX platform, Goldmans REDIPlus platform, FlexTrade, Fidessa, or anything else.

If youre trading equity derivatives, you need to enter your orders for stocks, puts, and calls quickly and monitor any pending orders that are waiting to be filled.

Why do you need an entire monitor just for making trades?

Because you be managing a HUGE portfolio of securities and each of these securities could have various derivative products attached to them. For example, a list of a hundred stocks could each have derivatives like calls and puts with various maturities and strike prices.

Depending on what youre trading, you might actually need 2 monitors to track everything.

Option Valuations / Other Calculations

If youre not trading derivatives, you wont need to value options " but you may well have to make other calculations, whether youre valuing bonds, analyzing the yield curve, or back-testing a trading strategy.

While the math itself is not quite rocket science, it goes beyond what most bankers deal with: simple arithmetic. While investment bankers may come from liberal arts, finance, or engineering backgrounds, derivatives traders primarily come from mathematical / engineering backgrounds.

Your firm might have a proprietary way of valuing options, developed by a senior IT programmer (see, the back office may have some merits after all) " and depending on what youre trading, it might be very complex.

Getting these programs working properly can be difficult because they need to be synced up with other programs you use. Getting the # of shares and contracts held, exposure to risk, and other variables linked together dynamically rarely works perfectly " and this complexity means youll be calling the back-office tech guy or floor IT guy to fix technical issues quite frequently.

Messages

Of course, youll also need a monitor for Outlook " the standard email program at any bank " to handle email and see incoming emails from brokers and the rest of your team.

The Rest of Your Desk

So what else is on your desk?

Just like at a bank, you get a phone terminal along with a headset and regular phone " but be careful about the conversations you have, because anything between brokers and clients is recorded.

Talking about bottles may not get you fired " but you probably want to postpone talking with your model(s) until later. Even if its not recorded, everyone else on the desk will hear what youre saying.

The phones are also connected to CNBC audio, so you can listen to whats going on in the news throughout the day.

So What Else Do You Do On the Phone Besides Chatting with Models?

For one, the phone actually rings quite often " especially between the trading hours of 9:30 AM and 4:00 PM.

Most of the time, brokers call to tell you what their clients are looking to buy and sell and see if you have any interest. Some of this is shifting to online chat instead, but its still common for brokers to call to get your attention on larger orders.

Junior traders will have often help deal with the influx of phone calls by screening the phone calls and taking down broker quotes.

Forget About the Bathroom " or Trips to Starbucks

This also brings up another key point and a major difference between banking and trading: most traders hate leaving their desks for fear of missing out on something important.

Lunch breaks are limited to 15 minutes (and often the junior guys or interns will go get the food for them). Bathroom breaks are rare unless you really need to go. Forget about 10 trips to Starbucks during the day: bankers can do that only because they have so much down time. No friendly chats with the cute marketing intern " at least not until the market is closed. This also means that its common for traders to gain weight: they pretty much just sit there all day, eyes glued to the monitors, only taking the occasional break to eat.

If you walk up and try to talk to a trader, half the time he wont even look at you: this might seem rude to you, but to him not paying attention for even a few seconds might result in a loss of thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

And part of it is just habit: theyre so used to having their eyes glued on the screen that its almost weird to look away from it.

Hey, if you had that much money on the line constantly, you probably wouldnt give the time of day to bright-eyed interns or newbie traders either - 23199

About the Author:

This text was contributed by Zeke Lee, a Stanford graduate, former management consultant with Booz & Company, and current derivatives trader on Wall Street. He founded the GMAT Pill (GMAT Prep course) based on his experience scoring in the 98th %ile on the GMAT in just 2 weeks with a special study method.