Sunday, June 03, 2007

How foreign currency markets affect us all

You may not be involved in Forex trading directly, but the fact remains that you are affected by what occurs in foreign exchange trading every day. Here are some examples of how this constant flow of currency trading makes an impact on your daily life.

Perhaps the most obvious impact is that currency trading makes an impact on the price you pay for goods and services. Should you happen to live in a country where the comparative value of your currency falls in comparison to that of other countries, you could find yourself paying a higher price for items that you are used to purchasing at a relatively inexpensive rate. The reason is that the rate of exchange for imported goods would have changed and chances are the brunt of that change will be passed on to you, the consumer. These goods may include anything from petroleum products to underwear.

Another way that changes in trading currency impact you is the simple ability to obtain goods and services. A severe enough change in the rate of exchange could mean that it is no longer viable for certain types of business commerce to continue. The result will be that you may find that some items that you are used to purchasing regularly will at first become much scarcer and carry a higher price tag, but ultimately no longer be available to you at all. This will require you to change your spending habits and settle for other goods that you may consider being of lesser quality. An extreme example would be if you were no longer able to get the imported car parts you need for your vehicle and had to turn to either generic replacements or used parts.

Your investments may also be impacted as well. While the stock exchange is a totally different process from currency exchange, the fact of the matter is that they do impact one another. Adverse changes in the rate of exchange can mean your stocks may slow down their process of earning money for you, especially if the stocks happen to be investments in retail companies or any entity that relies heavily on foreign trade. Changes in your portfolio of course make a difference to your overall financial health, and may especially hurt if your stock portfolio happens to also be your form of retirement plan.

Many people do not give the trading of currency a second thought. Nevertheless, this process that is in a constant flow every day does reach out and touch the lives of each of us in some way. We may find ourselves paying higher prices for goods or services that we are used to enjoying. In some cases, we may have to substitute for a lesser product, due to lack of availability. We may see our overall financial health impacted, even to the point of wondering about our future and retirement. Keeping up with Forex trading is a good idea for all of us.

by Bill Nad

"The Secret" and the Science of Getting Rich

Have you heard of the DVD called "the Secret"? Well it isn't such a secret anymore. The DVD was released in March 2006 and according to Time Magazine, the DVD has sold 500,000 units within the first 6 months. Today it sells well over 5,000 copies a day! It ranked in Amazon's Top-5 sellers during Christmas week; and a tie-in hardcover book just entered the Top 10 on the New York times bestseller list.

The amazing thing about "the Secret" is that you won't find it in your local Blockbuster or Barnes and Noble, it is selling briskly through new-age bookstores, New Thought churches like Unity and AGape and the official website at www.thesecret.tv. "It's become the biggest selling item in the 30-year history of our store," says Harmony Rose Allor, a buyer at West Hollywood's popular metaphysical bookshop, The Bodhi Tree. it is "word-of-mouth" marketing at it best.

So what is the secret to "the Secret's" success? It's is a "transformational movie", where a person's view on life and the laws of life will no longer be the same after watching this movie. In a sense, it has created the same kind of effect as "the Da Vinci Code" and the 2004 hit cult movie "What the Bleep Do We Know". The movie has created such waves that it has already been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live and the Ellen DeGeneres show.

At the core of the movie is a central philosophy called "the Law of Attraction". In fact, the movie itself was inspired by this very same law when the producer read a book called "the Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles. This books was written in 1910!

This philosophy states that we create our reality, both good and bad! The message is delivered through 24 "teachers" which include prosperity preachers, chiropractic healers, relationship gurus, life coaches and motivational speakers -- into one clear, cohesive voice. The movie is a "must watch" for anyone interested in taking charge of their life and in creating the life of their dreams.

Following on the success of the Secret, 3 of the core teachers - namely Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield have collaborated to produce a wealth building program called "the Secret Science of Getting Rich Seminar". This program is based on the book that inspired the movie and is set to make history as the fastest selling personal development program in history.

What is the Science of Getting Rich about? Well in the words of Wallace D. Wattles, "The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way. Those who do things in this certain way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich. Those who do not do things in this certain way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor. It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects. Therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich." The Science of Getting Rich is all about teaching how to do things in this "certain" way to create wealth.

The success of this program is built on several rock solid foundations. These factors include: the phenomenal success of "the Secret", the timeless concepts from the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, the credibility of successful personal improvement teachers and New Thought leaders of our time, and the Internet as the distribution medium.

Click here to learn more about the Secret of Getting Rich Seminar and it's affiliate program. http://sutech.thesgrprogram.com

by Steven Utech

How to Buy Tax Deeds: Start With Little Money And Make a fortune In Tax Deed Investing

Many people are under the false impression that you need to have a lot of money to invest in the amazing wealth-building vehicle of tax deeds. This is a myth that I am going to personally debunk right now so that you are no longer held back from investing in this most lucrative field.


You have the potential to be making huge sums in very little time, even if you only have a few hundred dollars to start with. There is a secret that once you know, will make you unstoppable. Want to know what it is? You're in luck, because I'm about to tell you.


Most people who invest at tax deed auctions think that the only thing worth bidding on are developed properties with houses on them. This means that the bidding will often go into the tens of thousands of dollars before the auction stops. This is not a good thing if you have little money to start with.


Many bidders take little notice of the lots with vacant land that are being auctioned off. They see little value in them. Some of these lots will sell for less than $100. Others will go for several hundred to a few thousand. This is where you can gain extreme amounts of leverage.


If you have done your research properly and won a nice lot for - let's say - $250, you are in for some serious profit. The market value of the lot you just bought may be $10,000 or $15,000. Not a bad profit, wouldn't you say?

Do you see just how fast your personal fortune could grow by investing in under appreciated vacant lots? It is truly phenomenal. You could turn one or two hundred dollars into multiple hundreds of thousands in a very short order if you follow a specific course of action.


Although tax deeds offer great investment with more safety than most investments, there are many key pieces of information you need to know to get the most out of your investing activities. If you do not take the time to learn the proper investment strategy and some of the finer points of due diligence, you will not have a good time and will most likely lose a lot of money.


Luckily, I have created an incredibly comprehensive and well written information product on the subject. It will teach you everything you need to know quickly, so that you can start accumulating your personal fortune immediately. Check out Tax Lien Riches Now.

by Andrew Kryzak

Forex Trading Myths - Why Buying Low Selling High Will Lose You Money!

This may seem odd as it's an accepted wisdom, but if you try and apply it in your forex trading strategy you will lose money.

If you don't realise why this is - read on and we will explain why.

Of course, the aim of all traders is to buy in at the bottom of trends and sell out at peaks - but it's impossible to do and the way most forex traders do it means they lose.

The key to understanding why you can't do it, is to realize that you have to predict in advance where prices will go or buy into a low or sell into a high and "hope" the levels hold.

Fact is you can't predict where forex prices are likely to go and if you rely on hope then you shouldn't be trading forex.

What you have to do is not predict but get confirmation of price momentum changes, above the level of support - BEFORE executing your forex trading signals.

A simple example will show you how to do this.

Many Forex traders watch a support level such as, Fibonacci level, pivot point etc, and as prices come to perceived support; they simply buy into it just above the level.

There logic is, they are in at a low "if" the level holds - of course the important word here is "if".

Support lines, Fibonacci levels, pivot points break frequently, so if you try and buy into them just hoping they will hold you will buy the low will see you lose.

A better way to trade:

Is to use price momentum to check that support and resistance will hold - and then trade on confirmation.

Trading on confirmation gets the odds on your side trying to predict will see you lose it's as simple as that.

So how do spot changes in price momentum?

Great indicators to use are the stochastic and relative Strength Index (RSI)

You simply watch for prices to move to support and then turn up supported by RSI or stochastic.

You won't buy the bottom you will miss a good bit of the move, but by trading in this way you will get stopped out less and always trade with the odds - this means bigger forex profits longer term.

"Buy low sell high" is an accepted investment and many traders accept it at face value trade and lose.

Over 90% of forex traders lose and "buying low selling high" without confirmation will see you join them, don't fall into this trap.

by Sacha Tarkovsky

Forex Education - Understanding Standard Deviation for Bigger Profits

In forex trading the vast majority of novice forex traders don't understand the concept of standard deviation, but they should - as its essential Forex Education and will lead you to bigger profits.

You will greater insight into price movements and how to trade these currency trends for profit.

Let's look at the concept of standard deviation and how it can help you in your forex trading strategy.

Let's do the technical bit first and how to apply it, later we will look at how to apply it and it's advantages.

Defining Standard Deviation

Standard deviation is a statistical term that provides an indication of the volatility of price in any investment and that includes currencies.

Don't worry if you find the next bit confusing - it will become clearer as we get to the end of the article.

Standard deviation measures how widely values (closing prices) are dispersed from the average price. Dispersion is the difference between the actual value (closing price) and the average value (mean closing price).

The larger the difference between the closing prices and the average price, the higher the standard deviation will be and therefore the volatility of the market.

The closer the closing prices are to the average mean price, the lower the standard deviation and the volatility of the currency is.

Standard deviation is calculated by taking the square root of the variance, the average of the squared deviations from the mean.

High Standard Deviation values occur when the data item being analyzed is changing dramatically and volatility is high.

Conversely, low Standard Deviation values occur when prices are more stable and moving within tight ranges.

Major tops and bottoms always feature high volatility as investor emotions are to the fore and greed and fear drive prices.

Using standard Deviation

Most short term price spikes that move to far from the mean price are unsustainable and prices normally "blow off" at highs or lows and return to the mean average.

High standard deviation can be a great way to spot important market highs or lows.

You can then use other technical indicators to generate trading signals to enter the forex markets when the risk is lowest and the rewards are highest.

A big rise in volatility away from the mean, i.e. a spike is normally driven by human emotion and the odds of prices returning to the average are high.

It's therefore a great way to generate contrary trades.

It also great for trend followers to.

For example, if you have a market that features low volatility and you see an important price break accompanied by a spike in volatility, then chances are the trend will continue.

Again you enter the trade with the odds on your side.

Standard deviation can also be used to buy into support (the mean) and can generate profit taking signals and can also help you set stops.

If you understand volatility and standard deviation of forex prices, you will be able to trade with higher profit potential and lower risk.

Bollinger Bands

A simple way of looking and taking advantage of standard deviation when trading currencies is to use Bollinger bands.

If you incorporate them in your currency trading system you will gain an extra edge in your quest for forex profits.

Check out our article on Bollinger bands and how to use them - if you have never used them before, you will be glad you found them.

by Sacha Tarkovsky

Forex Education - Bollinger Bands Can Give You a Huge Trading Edge Here's why

One of the critical pieces of forex education for any Forex trader is to understand the concept of standard deviation of price and how to use volatility to their advantage.

If you understand the concept you can easily apply it with Bollinger bands which are an essential tool for all forex traders.

Let's look at why Bollinger Bands are so useful and profitable, when incorporated in your Forex Strategy.

If you don't know what standard deviation is simply check our article on the concept - right, let's take a look at Bollinger bands.

Bollinger Bands Defined

Bollinger bands are simply volatility bands drawn either side of a moving average.

You calculate Bollinger bands using the standard deviation of price over the same period as moving averages the mean price, then the volatility bands are plotted above and below the moving average.

Moving averages are used to identify the underlying trend of currencies and Bollinger bands take this one step further by:

Combining the moving average of the currency with the volatility of the individual market (or the standard deviation) - this then creates a trading envelope - with a middle mean price (moving average and 2 x bands (expanding or contracting) either side that reflect volatility or standard deviation.

As prices move away from the longer-term average, the standard deviation rises - and thus the bands will fluctuate in varying amounts, away from the average.

Why they work

In any market, the value of a currency traded tends to rise slowly over the longer term.

Prices can and do spike quickly in the short term, but will normally return to the longer term moving average - which represents fair value.

The standard deviation of the outer bands (how far they are from the mean) shows how far prices are from longer-term value.

Most price spikes are caused by trader psychology with greed and fear to the fore and this can be graphically seen with Bollinger bands.

So how should you use Bollinger bands?

There are 3 main ways to use them.

1. Spotting price spikes When the bands are a long way from the mean you can use Bollinger bands as profit taking signal on existing trades or use them to spot contrary trades.

2. Enter exisiting trends If you have a good trend in the forex markets then you can use dips to the middle band to buy at fair value.

3. Entering new trends When prices are trading in tight range and start to breakout with a change in volatility a great new trend could be emerging.

Bollinger bands can certainly give you a new dimension to your forex trading strategy and any currency trading system can benefit from the extra insight that they can give you.

A word of warning

Like all technical indicators you should not use Bollinger bands in isolation to enter trades, however combined with timing indicators such as, the stochastic or RSI, then you have a powerful combination for greater FX profits.

With regard to forex education, knowing what standard deviation is and how to apply the concept through Bollinger Bands, will give you a huge trading edge, so make sure you use them.

by Sacha Tarkovsky