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Forex Trading News Week Wrap-Up EUR/USD

If you’ve been learning about forex trading on the rapid forex blog (or elsewhere), you’ve probably been told numerous times to go to fx360.com, follow the economic calendar AND subscribe to a bunch of good forex blogs to follow the news of what’s going on in the online forex trading world.

This is Good Advice – But Who Has the Time?

There is a lot to keep up with to have the most current forex information online.  Fortunately, I’ve spent at least a dozen hours this week following all of the economic fundamental news for the forex market and I’ll give you the ultra-condensed reader’s digest version (if you want the FULL scoop, you’re welcome to spend a few hours per day following all of the news).

Major Forex Events

The EUR/USD is one of the most popular currency pairs for forex traders in the US to trade (80% of rapidforex.com’s readers are in the US).  There are some major factors affecting both sides of this currency pair right now.

Euro – Greece is in the middle of a huge debt crisis right now. As part of the Eurpean union, Greece’s problems are having a negative impact on the value of the Euro, which was shown as the Euro weakened against the us dollar (USD) and the Japanese Yen (JPY).

Germany has offered to bailout Greece but that only puts a bandaid on the situation. From the perspective of the European Union (EU), it’s like robbing peter to pay paul as assets shift from one side of the EU to another.  Clearly, Greece is a threat to the Euro.

US Dollar – Unemployment rates continue to rise in the US as 27 states reported rising unemployment rates in February.  With the passing of Obama’s healthcare plan earlier this week, the US continue to steep itself deeper in debt.

The US Government is even preparing to sell off assetts to help offset some of the massive debt they’ve been accumulating.  This can be a good thing for the USD, but still shows signs of panic. Meanwhile, the cost of the Iraq war continues to grow by billions each day.

Forex Trading News Assesment

The news listed above is interesting. The news gives many reasons about why the EUR and USD are both set for longer term declines. The interesting part of this is, which one will fall more sharply? This is a question nobody knows the answer to, we can only speculate.

As a forex trader, the news is important because it gives me an idea about how rapidly the forex market will move. I’m still looking at my forex technical indicators, drawing trendlines,  looking at Japanese candle patterns, paying close attention to the valuable forex information called fundamental announcements,  applying basic money management guidelines, and following my trade plan (which is all taught in the free 20 part forex trading eCourse at rapidforex.com).

The market news helps us to see cause and affect relationships with forex chart prices. Following this news is like training your mind to see thing the way the Jedi would. You can read all of the news you want & find it completely interesting, but 99% of analysts won’t give you a real opinion about what will happen.

That’s because they don’t know, nobody does.

But there’s still value in knowing what’s going on

Posted in Fundamental Announcements

Rare Treats – Good Forex Blogs

Since rapid forex returned to the Internet on February 21st, I’ve been blogging daily on the rapid forex blog (sometimes three times a day).

I’ve been wanting to connect with other forex bloggers to help share the good information that’s being produced by other forex bloggers with my own blogs’ readers. Over the past few days I’ve been shocked at how hard it is to find good forex blogs.

At least 9 out of every 10 forex blogs out there are total spam marketing hell-holes.

It’s actually been difficult to find good forex blogs.

Diamonds in the Rough

Fortunately, there are some good forex blogs out there. I’ve discovered some good blogs that I think you would like too. Although I haven’t followed these blogs for long, for each one of these blogs I’ve subscribed to through RSS so I can see the new developments as they happen.  As I track these blog posts, I’ll be sharing the very best with the Rapid Forex Blog readers

If you want to stay in tune with the blogs that I’m reading, here is my list for now:

1. FirePips.com – very active forex blog by a 29 year old forex trader. I noticed an article he wrote and thought that this guy was cool and he’s pretty passionate about trading forex online.
2. Fxpath – this is James Chen’s blog with daily market commentary provided by fxstreet.com. Plenty of chart examples. Looks like a great way to see new trades develop daily.
3. Forex Blog – news blog covering international stories relating to forex. Provides insight into how major international developments are affecting the forex market.
4. Forex Crunch – Yohay Elam’s forex market commentary blog. The first post I saw on his blog had a really cool video where he was on a CNN-type talk show and provided insight into the US healthcare reform’s impact on the USD for forex trading. This was on my mind and his commentary was helpful for understanding this issue.
5. Forex Magnates – contains posts from several different forex traders, also talks about brokers, regulation, software innovation, etc… Looked like some interesting articles to follow.
6. Kathy Lien – Professionally done personal forex blog by Kathy Lien. After quickly browsing her site I immediately subscribed to her RSS feed. It looks like she has some good information to share.
7. Forex Articles – basic looking forex blog, but it looks like they are tracking forex trades with profitability updates. I’m going to watch these develop and see how well they do.
8. Macro-Man – provides some cool analysis on developing trades. Great looking screenshots & written to be more interesting than a lot of the very dry forex commentary that’s being published on other forex blogs.
9. Alan’s Forex Blog – Active blog with good content. More focused on forex trading courses than analysis, but there are good articles as well as reviews of paid courses.
10. Rapid Forex Blog – provides information about how to be an unstoppable forex trading genius Ok, maybe it doesn’t quite do that yet, but that’s where the rapid forex blog is quickly heading!

When I started writing this post I didn’t realize it would turn into a top ten list.  These are the blogs that I’ve chosen to follow for now. I may unsubscribe from some (if I do I’ll let you know), and I may grow to love some and share tons of great wisdom with you from them.

Reading Any Other Good Forex Blogs?

I haven’t been a forex blogger for very long. There’s probably tons of great stuff out there that I don’t know about yet. If you have found some killer forex resources, let me know by commenting on this post.  I’ll check them out and let the rapid forex blog readers know about my findings.

Have Your Own Forex Blog?

Anyone who reads & comments on the rapid forex blog gets special treatment.

I subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed!

Even if you only blog once a year, let me know if you’ve got a forex blog (by commenting on this post). I’ll be watching for your posts, leaving some comments, and even blogging about your posts.

Posted in News

7 Habits of a FOREX Winner!

Making money in the forex market is of the utmost importance! If forex trading were a religion, consistently making money would be a the highest virtue. Surpassing all the forex losers & forex gambling addicts would help you ascend to the ranks of the true forex genius traders.

The best way to become a forex winner is to know how forex winners act and behave.

By looking at the characteristics of a winning forex trader you’ll know what to emulate for success.

There are seven reasons why forex winners are successful:

1. Forex Winners educate themselves on how the market works.
2. Forex genius traders have a well-analyzed, well-thought trading plan that they stick to. By sticking to a pre-defined trading plan, successful traders allow themselves to remain reasonable and logical. Sticking to a trading plan helps keep emotions at bay.
3. Successful Forex Winners quantify their potential loss before each trade. They don’t risk everything on one trade (in fact, they don’t risk more than 5% on one trade).
4. Brilliant forex traders create a trading plan and stick to that plan when they’re trading. If they deviate from their original plan, they do so only after creating a new trading plan.
5. Forex Winners maintain their focus.
6. Forex Winners do not marry their trades. They are quick to change direction if that’s what the charts and indicators are telling them. In other words, they are not emotionally tied to a particular trade. They do not take it personally if a trade does not go their way. Successful traders do not allow their emotions to overwhelm their intellect in a trade.
7. When successful traders are unsure of the signals they are getting from their charts and/or indicators, they stay out of the market.

Traders who adopt those seven characteristics and attitudes as their own are the ones who will be successful winners, the ones who will net profit overall no matter how often their trades win or lose.

Successful traders, in addition, are disciplined, confident, self-reliant, motivated, optimistic, intuitive, honest, strategic, patient, focused, independent, risk-taking, hard-working, high-achieving, energetic, objective, proactive, organized, goal-oriented, self-confident, knowledgeable, open-minded, determined, ambitious, and committed.

Forex winners enjoy trading, they manage their risk, they manage the stress that comes with trading, and they visualize their success.

If you have, or are willing to develop those qualities, and you educate yourself on how the market works using this book as a guide, then you will no doubt be a successful trader, too.

Nobody wants to be a forex loser. Follow thes habits of a forex winner and create success in your forex trades!

Posted in Forex Trading Mindset