Strongest Mid Cap Dividend Yield Stocks

Strongest Mid Cap Dividend yields over the past year

Over the course of 2012 the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index has maintained a higher dividend yield than the Straits Times Index (STI), the broader FTSE ST All Share Index, in addition to the regional FTSE Asia Pacific All Cap Index.

In fact, looking back over the past 12 months the FTSE ST Mid Cap Index appreciated +22.4% in price, while providing a total return of +29.4% in Singapore Dollar terms. The approximate +7.0% difference, sourced by Bloomberg, represents reinvested dividend distributions that are weighed according to the weighting of the relevant stock within the Index. In the most recent monthly reports FTSE Group had estimated the difference between price appreciation and total return of the Mid Cap Index to be +6.2% in the 12 months ending 31 October.

Dividend yields for the stocks of the Mid Cap Index that distribute dividends varied from  +0.1% for Ezion Holdings [5ME] to +16.9% for STX OSV Holdings [MS7] over the 12 months ending 23 November. A recent and full list of the 12 month dividend history of the constituents can be found here.

The five Mid Cap stocks with the strongest dividend distributions over the 12 months ending 23 November, were as follows:

1. STX OSV Holdings paid 16.9% in dividends which included a special cash dividend in August. The yield contributed to a 12 month total return of +41.2%. Current indicative yield is 7.4%.
2. SATS Ltd [S58] paid 9.5% in dividends (also included a special dividend) boosting 12 month total return to +34.5%. Current indicative yield is 4.0%.
3. Hutchison Port Holdings Trust [NS8U] paid a dividend yield of 8.2%, boosting 12 month total return to +35.2%. The current indicative yield of the Trust is 8.2%.
4. CapitaRetail China Trust [AU8U] distributed 8.1% in dividends, boosting 12 month total return to +46.4%. The current indicative yield of the REIT is 6.3%.
5. Pacific Andes Resources Development [P11] distributed 7.3% in dividends, contributing to a total return of -16.6% over the 12 months. Current indicative yield is 7.3%.

Of the 50 constituent stocks of the Index, the simple average dividend yield for the past 12 months was around 4.3%. A handful of stocks did not distribute dividends. Furthermore, the simple average of 4.3% does not take into account the different impact of dividend distributions on the Index because of the relevant stock’s weighting in the Index. For instance, consider the dividend yields of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust at 8.2% and Yangzijiang Shipping Holdings [BS6] at 6.1% over the past 12 months. As of the end of October, FTSE Group maintained that Hutchison Port Holdings Trust accounted for an 8.5% weighting in the Mid Cap Index versus a 2.8% weighting for Yangzijiang Shipping Holdings. Thus, the dividend yield of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust had more Index impact than Yangzijiang Shipping Holdings. Comparing the simple average yield to the actual weighted yield associated with the Index reveals that over the past 12 months the Index was more weighted to stocks with a dividend yield above 4.3%.

Correct MT4 Broker Charts - Axitrader

New York Close Forex Charts & Using Correct MT4 Meta Trader

Dear Traders,
This Is A Very Important Message about Using The Correct Forex Charts to Trade My Trading Strategies and I Also Want To Talk About Using Reputable Forex Brokers. Most Importantly You Should Be Aware That Not All Forex Charts Are The Same and You MUST have the correct chart to trade with Price Action. All My Members Must Use “New York Close Charts” . It’s Also Important To Find A Reliable Broker. Please read the important information below.

1. Your CHARTS Should Be The Same As The Ones We Use.

If You Want the SAME Charts and Price Action Bar/Candle formations to Show up On your Charts that Nial Fuller and Our Members Use, You Should Use ‘New York Close Charts on The Correct Version of Meta Trader‘ with the correct Data Feed (Not all Mt4 Platforms are the same, so please read this message carefully)
Only A Handful of brokers offer a True ’5 Day Chart’ with the correct open and close shape of daily price bar). Nial Fuller and his members use a 5 day chart with a News York Close MT4 data Sever to Generate His Price Action Trading Signals. If You are Not Using These Forex Charts, You Won’t See The Same Trading Setups/Signals.
If You Want To Follow Nial’s Methods it would be essential to have the Correct Charts and Data Feed. Not all mt4 Platforms are the same, in fact,  most MT4 Providers are on GMT time and show 6 Daily Price Bars Which is Very WRONG and will show “false signals” and lead to very big problems. You WILL NOT be able to follow my trading patterns or ideas if your not using the correct charts.

So You Need To Find a Good Broker Who Offers the Correct Charts.  See Below For Details of Suggested Brokers & Charts.

2. WHAT BROKER Has The Charts ? (Who Can I trust to trade with?)
I work with several brokers who offer the correct charts and are in my experiences – reputable/reliable in terms of live trading.  (direct access to bank prices), they run a genuine regulated operations. They also have these charts on a mobile dealing from your iphone or mobile. They also offer a wide variety of other markets including CFD’s, Commodities and Indicies. Click the links below for a relevant broker and chart provider in your country/location.

www.axitrader.com.au



(For Australian Traders) , Please Click Here To Download a Demo Of Our Suggested Forex Broker Platform
(For European Traders) Please Click Here To Request a Demo Of Our Suggested Forex Broker Platform And Charts
(For USA traders)  Please Click Here To Request a Demo Of Our Suggested Forex Broker Platform And Charts
(For Asian Traders)  Please Click Here To Request a Demo Of Our Suggested Forex Broker Platform And Charts
(For Arabic Traders)  Please Click Here To Request a Demo Of Our Suggested Forex Broker Platform And Charts
(For All Other Traders)  Please Click Here To Request a Demo Of Our Suggested Forex Broker Platform And Charts

False Breakout Trading Strategy

The ‘False Break’ Trading Strategy (Contrarian Forex Trading)

When was the last time you entered a trade and it immediately moved against you even though you felt confident the market was going to move in your favor? When was the last time you traded a breakout and got stopped out? I’m willing to bet you’ve experienced one or both of these things recently in your own trading, and I’m also willing to bet that me or one of my students probably took the opposite side of one of these trades that seemed to ‘fake you out’ of your position…
You see, false-breaks happen all the time in the markets; they are a result of the ‘herd mentality’ that causes people to buy the top of a move or sell the bottom. As price action traders, we are in a unique position to take advantage of false-breaks and of the weak ‘herd mentality’ that so many amateur traders possess.
I have made most of my money as a trader by using contrarian trading approaches like false-breaks and my proprietary fakey trading strategy. It is the power of contrarian trading and using false-break patterns and fakey setups that allows myself and other savvy price action traders to profit from other traders’ misfortunes. This may sound a little harsh, but it’s the reality of trading that the majority of traders lose money, informed and skilled traders make money, and the ‘pigs get slaughtered’, as the saying goes. I hope there are light bulbs going off in your head now, because this article is all about contrarian thinking, false-breaks, and how to take advantage of the ‘herd mentality’ that causes so many traders to enter right when the market is about to change direction…

So what exactly is a false-break?

I thought you’d never ask! Joking, I know you are probably thinking that right now, so here you go…
A false-break can be defined as a ‘deception’ by the market; a test of a level that results in a break of that level but the market then retracts and does not sustain itself above or below that level. In other words, the market does not close outside of the level being tested; rather it leaves behind a false-break of it. These false-breaks are huge pieces of evidence for impending market direction, and we need to learn to use them to our advantage instead of becoming their victim.
Here is a visual example of a false-break of a key market level:

Essentially, a false-break can be thought of as a contrarian move that ‘sucks’ the over-committed side of the market out. The concept is to wait for the price movement to clearly show that a market has committed to one side of a trade and that they would be ‘forced’ to liquidate their position(s) on a strong reversal in the other direction. Typically, we see these scenarios unfold as a trending market becomes extended and all the amateurs jump in right before the counter-trend retrace, or at key support and resistance levels or at consolidation breakout scenarios.
The herd mentality causes traders to enter the market typically only when it ‘feels’ safe. However, this is the deception; trading off feeling and emotion is exactly why most traders lose money in the markets. Many traders become deceived because the market looks very strong or very weak, so they think it’s a no-brainer to just jump in with that momentum. However, the truth of the matter is that markets ebb and flow and they never move in a straight line for very long. This is known as “reversion to the mean” and it’s something I expand on significantly in my advanced Forex trading course.
We really have to use logic and counter-intuitive or ‘contrarian’ thinking to profit off of the weak-minded herd mentality that dominates most traders’ minds. This is why it’s very important to remain disciplined in the area of trading false-breaks, rejections and failures, and why I love trading them so much.

Types of False Breaks

1. Classic Bull and Bear traps at key market levels
A bull or bar trap is typically a 1 to 4 bar pattern that is defined by a false-break of a key market level. These false-breaks occur after large directional moves and as a market approaches a key level. Most traders tend to think a level will break just because a market has approached it aggressively, they then buy or sell the breakout and then many times the market will ‘fake them out’ and form a bull or bear trap.
A bull trap forms after a move higher, the amateurs who were on the sidelines watching a recent strong move unfold cannot take the temptation anymore, and they jump in just above or at a key resistance level since they feel confident the market now has the momentum to break above it. The market then breaks slightly above the level and fills all breakout orders, and then falls lower as the big boys come in and push the market lower, leaving the amateurs ‘trapped’ in a losing long position.

2. False-break of consolidation
False breaks of consolidation or trading ranges are very common. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking a trading range is going to breakout, only to see it reverse back into the body of the range. The best way to avoid this trap is to simply wait until there is a clear close outside of the trading range on the daily chart, and then you can begin to look for price action trading signals in the direction of the breakout.

3. Fakey’s (inside bar false-breaks)
The Fakey setup is one of my all-time favorite price action setups and learning to trade it will do a lot for helping you to understand market dynamics. Essentially, the Fakey is a price action pattern that requires there to be a false-break of an inside bar setup. So, once you have an inside bar setup, you can watch for a false-break of the inside bar and the mother bar. Now, I am not going to get into all the different versions of the fakey trading strategy today or the different ways to trade it, but you can learn everything about my proprietary forex fakey trading strategy in my professional Forex trading course.
Here’s an image of two Fakey setups, note that one has a pin bar as the false-break and other does not, these are just two of the variations of the Fakey setup:

False-breaks can create long-term trend changes

As price action traders, we can use the price action of a market to anticipate false-breaks and look for them at key levels as they will often set off significant changes in price direction or even a change in trend from these key levels.
We need to pay attention to the ‘tails’ of candles that occur at or near key levels in the market. Ask yourself how prices reacted during each daily session…where did they close? The close is the most important level of the day, and often if a market fails to close beyond a key market level, it can signal a significant false-break. Often, prices will probe a level or attempt to break out, but by the close of the daily bar price has rejected that level and ‘tailed out’, showing a false-break or false-test of the level. A failure of the market to close beyond a key market level can lead to a large retracement or a change of trend. Thus, the close of a price bar is the most important level to watch, and the daily chart close is what I consider to be the most important.
Here’s an example of a false-break in the EURUSD daily chart that led to a top in the market and started a long-term downtrend:

History Teaches Us A Lesson
It’s worth noting that on the week famous trader George Soros shorted the British pound and ‘broke’ the Bank of England ( September 16, 1992) -  the chart had shown a massive false-break signal. The chart below shows the price breaking upwards to new highs and then crashing back down. To those who follow me regularly you will note that this was actually a classic fakey setup, and is clear evidence that this price action strategy has worked for decades.

Final word on false-breaks…

As traders, if we don’t learn to anticipate and identify deceptions or ‘false-breaks’ in the market, we will lose money to traders who do. If we pay attention to the price action at key levels on the daily chart time frame, the ‘writing’ is usually on the wall in regards to false-breaks.
If I had to leave you with one crucial piece of advice for your Forex trading career, it would be to drop everything right now and start studying false-breaks and contrarian trading approaches. By doing so, you will be ahead of 95% of traders who are stuck in a cycle of trading off mainstream misconceptions and ineffective trading methods. As a contrarian, I want to be trading when the rest of the retail traders are committed to the wrong side of the market, this can be difficult to do if you don’t understand false-breaks and fakey patterns, but effective nonetheless. Trading false-breaks and my proprietary ‘fakey setup’ is a core focus in my Forex price action trading course, and I expand on these topics in great detail. I teach my students a plethora of different price patterns to look out for when trading false-breaks and fakey setups. This ‘contrarian’ style of trading is something I strongly believe in, and it has proven itself time and time again. If you where to learn only one single trading strategy to apply in your forex trading, this would be on top of the list.

Pin Bar Trading Strategy

Pin Bar Method Forex – Introduction, Definition

An Introduction to Pin Bars in Forex Trading  and How to Trade Them Effectively…
The pin bar formation is actually a price reversal pattern consisting of three bars. Once familiarized with pin bar formation it is apparent from looking at any price chart just how profitable this pattern can be. Let’s go over exactly what a pin bar formation is and how you can take advantage of the pin bar strategy in the context of the Forex market.
What is a Pin Bar?
The actual pin bar itself is the middle bar of a three-bar formation that can be found on any stripped down “naked” bar chart or candlestick chart. We will cover the candlestick pin bar formation after our discussion of the pin bar formation using standard bar charts. Many people prefer the candlestick version over standard bar charts because it is generally regarded as a better visual representation of price action.
Characteristics of the Pin Bar Formation
• The open and close of the pin bar are within the price range of bar 1 and bar 3 of the formation, or very close to being within their range.
• The open and close of the pin bar are very close together, the closer the better.
• The open and close of the pin bar are near one end of the bar, the closer to the end the better.
• The shadow or tail of the pin bar sticks out from the surrounding price bars, the longer the tail of the pin bar the better.
Bearish Reversal Pin Bar Formation
In a top or bearish reversal pin bar formation the pin bar sticks out noticeably in between bar 1 and bar 3 and has a long protruding tail.
Bullish Reversal Pin Bar Formation
The bullish or bottom reversal pin bar formation is the opposite of the top reversal pin bar formation. Here again, we see the pin bar has a long protruding tail that has obviously rejected a certain price level.

Examples of the Pin Bar Formation in Action
Here is a daily chart of CAD/JPY, we can see numerous pin bar formations that were very well defined and worked out very nicely.

In the following daily USD/JPY chart we can see an ideal pin bar formation that resulted in a serious move and mid-term trend reversal.

Here is an example of a trending market that formed numerous profitable pin bar setups. The following daily chart of GBP/JPY shows that pin bars taken with the dominant trend can be very accurate.

How to Trade a Pin Bar Formation
To effectively trade the pin bar formation you need to first make sure it is well-defined, (see above characteristics). Not all pin bar formations are created equal; it pays to only take the pin bar formations that meet the above characteristics.
Next, try to only take take pin bars that are displaying confluence with another signal. Generally, pin bars taken with dominant trend confluence are the most accurate. However, there are many profitable pin bars that often occur in range-bound markets or at major market turning points. Try to also combine the pin bar pattern with strong support  and resistance levels, trend lines, Fibonacci retracement levels, or moving averages.
The pin bar formation is a reversal setup, so for a bearish pin bar formation we will sell on a break of the low of the pin bar and place a stop loss 1 pip above the tail of the pin bar. On a bullish pin bar formation we will buy on a break of the high of the pin bar and set our stop loss 1 pip below the low of the tail of the pin bar.
Candlestick Pin Bar Formations
Candlestick pin bar formations are exactly the same as standard bar chart pin bar formations except the terminology is a little different. They should be traded the same way however.
• A bearish reversal or top reversal pin bar formation can be called a long wicked inverted hammer, long wicked doji, long wicked gravestone, or shooting star.
• A bullish reversal or bottom reversal pin bar formation can be called a long wicked hammer, long wicked doji, or long wicked dragonfly.
Candlestick pin bar candle formations should also display the same characteristics that we listed above for standard bar chart pin bar formations.
Examples of Candlestick Pin Bar Formations

In Summary
The pin bar formation can be a very valuable tool in your arsenal of forex trading strategies. The best pin bar strategies occur with a confluence of signals such as support and resistance levels, dominant trend confirmation, or other confirming signals. Look for well formed pin bar setups that meet all the characteristics listed in this tutorial and don’t take any that you don’t feel particularly confident about. Pin bars work on all time frames but are especially powerful on the 4hour, daily, and weekly charts. It is possible to make consistent profits by only trading the pin bar formation, and you can learn more about it in my price action trading course. Add this powerful setup as one of your main forex trading methods and you will wonder how you ever traded without it.

Price Action Trading Patterns

Price Action Trading Patterns: Pin Bars, Fakey’s, Inside Bars

In this Forex trading lesson, I am going to share with you three of my favorite price action trading strategies; pin bars, inside bars and fakeys. These trading setups are simple yet very powerful, and if you learn to trade them with discipline and patience you will have a very potent Forex trading edge.

Whilst these three setups are my ‘core’ setups, there are many other versions and variations of them that we focus on in our members’ community and advanced price action trading course. However, you can learn some good basics in this article to lay the foundation for future learning. So, without further delay, let’s get this party started…

Pin Bar Setup:

The pin bar is a staple of the way I trade the Forex market. It has a very high accuracy rate in trending markets and especially when occurring at a confluent level. Pin bars occurring at important support and resistance levels are generally very accurate setups. Pin bars can be taken counter trend as well, as long as they are very well defined and protrude significantly from the surrounding price bars, indicating a strong rejection has occurred, and preferably only on the daily chart time frame. See the illustration to the right for an example of a bearish pin bar (1st bar) and a bullish pin bar (2nd bar) —>

In the following chart example we will take a look at pin bars occurring within the context of a trending market; my favorite way to trade them. Also, note that this uptrend began on the back of two bullish pin bars that brought an end to the existing downtrend.

Fakey Setup:

The fakey trading strategy is another bread and butter price action setup. It indicates rejection of an important level within the market. Often times the market will appear to be headed one direction and then reverse, sucking all the amateurs in as the professionals push price back in the opposite direction. The fakey setup can set off some pretty big moves in the Forex market.

As we can see in the illustration to the right, the fakey pattern essentially consists of an inside bar–> setup followed by a false break of that inside bar and then a close back within its range. The fakey entry is triggered as price moves back up past the high of the inside bar (or the low in the case of a bearish fakey).

In the chart below we can see the market was recently moving higher before the fakey formed. Note the fakey was formed on the false-break of an inside bar setup that occurred as all the amateurs tried to pick the market top, the pros then stepped in and flushed out all the amateurs in a flurry of buying…

Inside Bar Setup:

The inside bar is a great trend continuation signal, but it can also be used as a turning point signal. However, the first way to learn how to trade the inside bar strategy is as a continuation signal, so that is what we will focus on here, more info on the inside bar and all the ways to trade it can be found in my advanced price action trading course. As we can see in the illustration to the right, an inside bar is completely contained within the range of–>  the previous bar

It shows a brief consolidation and then a break out in the dominant trend direction. Inside bars are best played on daily and weekly charts. They allow for very small risks and yet very large rewards. The inside bar strategycombined with a very strongly trending market is one of my favorite price action setups.

In the example below, we are looking at a current (as of this writing) EURUSD inside bar trade setup that has come off to the downside with the existing bearish market momentum. We can see a nice inside bar setup formed just after the market broke down below a key support level, the setup has since come off significantly lower and is still falling towards the next support at 1.2625, as of this writing. Many of our members are in on this trade as we’ve discussed it extensively in both themembers forum and the daily member’s commentary.

As you can see from the three examples above, Forex trading does not have to be complicated or involve plastering messy and confusing indicators all over your charts. Once you master a few solid price action setups like the ones above and the others in myForex trading course, you will be well on your way to becoming a more confident and profitable trader, just remember, mastering these setups will require passion, dedication and discipline.

Price Action Forex Trading Strategies

Price Action Forex Trading Strategies Explained by Nial Fuller

Price Action Forex Trading Explained – By Nial Fuller

Hello, and welcome to this trading lesson on Price Action Forex Trading.  I am sure many of you newer readers will “REALLY” benefit from today’s article which talks about several important concepts.

Today’s Article Covers …

• 1. What Is Forex ‘Price Action’ Trading ?
  
• 2. How do You Apply it to Forex Trading?
• 3.  Trading with Messy VS ‘Clean’ Forex Charts
• 4. Quick Examples of My Forex Price Action Trading Methods.
  

• What exactly is price action forex trading?
Price action trading is the art and skill of making all of your trading decisions off of a stripped down or “naked” price chart. This means no lagging indicators outside of maybe a couple moving averages to help identify dynamic support and resistance areas. All financial markets generate data about the movement of a security over varying periods of time in the form of price charts. Price charts reflect the beliefs of all participants trading the given market during the specified period of time.
All economic data that leads to price movement within a market is first turned into a belief in the human mind about how this data will affect the market and this belief is then turned into an action from a trader which reflects itself via price action on a price chart. In this way price action trading reflects all variables of any market for any given period of time. This is also the reason why using lagging price indictors like stochastics, MACD, RSI, and others is just a flat waste of time. Price movement provides all the signals you will ever need to develop a profitable and high-probability trading system. These signals collectively are called price action strategies and they provide a way to make sense of market movement and predict its future movement with a high enough degree of accuracy to consistently profit over time.
• How do I apply price action to the forex market?
Price action forex trading can be used to trade any financial market; however the forex market has the deepest liquidity and lowest startup costs as well as widest accessibility of any financial market, for these reasons and more it is the most popular market today among retail traders. My philosophy of price action trading is that you only need to master a few solid setups to be consistently profitable. In fact, having a simple trading method consisting of minimal setups will work to reduce confusion and stress and allow you to concentrate more on the psychological aspect of trading which is what separates the winners from the losers.
The first step you need to take to apply price action trading to the forex market is to setup a clean “naked” price chart, take off all indicators. Next, master a few solid price action setups; I mainly use the pin bar reversal, the inside bar setup, and my proprietary price action setup, the fakey. You can make money consistently from mastering just one of these setups, I suggest you work on one at a time, master it, and then move on to the next. In this way you will develop a price action “tool box” which will provide more then enough tools to take advantage of quality price action signals everyday in the forex market.
• Messy charts vs. clean “naked” price action charts
If you have been trading for a while you are probably using numerous lagging forex indicators on your charts that are no doubt confusing you and are one of the main reasons why you are still unsuccessful and found your way to my price action trading website. For all you newbie traders take a look at the two charts below and ask yourself which one seems more logical and less stressful to make trading decisions from?
A messy chart with the some of the most popular lagging indicators.

A clean price action only chart.

Doesn’t it seem a little silly to use a messy chart when you could learn to trade off a clean price action only chart? Trading is hard enough with out a messy chart full of lagging indicators, stop fooling yourself by believing they are helping you. Price action setups are the best predictor of future price movement, all markets operate in “future time”, this means market participants enter trades based on what they believe will happen to a certain security in the future. Price action is the best indicator of the aggregate belief of all market participants. What happened in the past is the past, lagging indicators only analyze past data and display it to you in a second-hand format that is less clear and less precise than price action. The bottom line is that there is just no logical explanation for using lagging indicators. Price action analysis takes into account all market variables.
• My price action setups
As mentioned previously I stick to three basic and time tested price action setups. They work in all market conditions and provide a unique market perspective that allows you to develop a highly profitable forex trading plan. Price action trading is the only way I trade the markets and I have been trading these price action action setups successfully for years. My price action forex education course goes into great detail in regards to exactly how I trade using price action. I have recently also added a beginning trader introductory forex trading course in addition to my advanced price action trading course.

Trading Journal

A Forex Trading Journal to Track Your Trading Performance

Today’s trading article is going to discuss one of the most important pieces of the puzzle of professional Forex trading; creating and maintaining a Forex trading journal. I am also going to give you a trading journal to log all your trades. I guarantee this will help your trading and mindset.

If Your Impatient and Can’t wait to the end of this article. Here is a Link To My Forex Trading Journal – I Track All My Trades Using This Spreadsheet. Please Make a comment after reading this article and Click The Facebook ‘Like Button”, Pay it forward and share it around with other traders.
In last week’s article I discussed what a typical day in the life of a professional Forex trader is like.  I am going to first explain to you why having a Forex trading journal is essential to becoming a professional trader, and then I am going to show you what my trading journal looks like so that you get an idea of how to make your own. By the end of this article you will be able to create your very own Forex trading journal, and this is a huge step in the direction of professional trading.
• Why do I need a Forex trading journal Nial?
First off, you need a trading journal because you need to track your trading performance over time. Many aspiring traders get caught up on the results of each individual trade; however, the professional trader knows that their trading performance is measured over a long series of trades, not just one or two. So, it’s important to have a way to track your results so that you can see how you are doing over a series of trades, this allows you to not get caught up on any individual trade. You can think of your trading journal as a constant and tangible reminder that your trading performance is measured over a series of trades. Having this type of reminder is very important, especially early-on in your trading career, it helps keep you focused and it helps to remove any emotion you might attach to any one trade.
Next, developing a track record is something you should take pride and pleasure in doing. If you have a tangible track record that shows your ability to be consistent and disciplined over time, you won’t want to mess up this display of mental strength by committing emotional or stupid trading mistakes. In this way, a trading journal works to keep you accountable, you need something to be accountable to as you trade, because there is no boss looking over your shoulder threatening to fire you if you don’t do XYZ exactly right. If you don’t have a lot of money to trade with, creating a track record that shows consistent trading results over a long period of time is proof that you CAN trade, and if you have this proof you can find people to fund you. So, as we can now see, creating and maintaining a Forex trading journal is a key element to any effective Forex trading plan.
Finally, as we discussed in last week’s article about a day in the life of a pro trader, your trading should be a routine. Creating and maintaining a trading journal gives you the structure required to build your trading routine on and it also helps you examine and focus on each individual element of a trade, which we will discuss below. Essentially, Forex trading success is the result of doing a lot of things the right way every time you interact with the market, and a Forex trading journal helps you do everything the right way every time you trade.
• What should my trading journal include and how do I make one?
The images below are actual screen shots of my trading journal. I have entered example trade parameters below each heading just for demonstration purposes; it wasn’t an actual trade that I took, although it was a good price action setup. However, this is the same trading journal I use; you can use it too if you like, or tweak it to your desire.

- Entry date: This is self-explanatory; the date you entered the trade, the date you got filled is what you want here (if the order got filled). If the order never gets filled just delete it from you journal.
- Security / FX pair: The particular security traded, this will either be a currency pair or Gold / Silver for most of us. If you are unsure which currency pairs are best to trade, check out this article: best Forex currency pairs to trade?
- Entry B / S: Here you enter whether you bought or sold and record the specific level/price you entered at.
- Planned Stop and Planned Target: You will put your pre-determined stop and target price in these boxes. It’s very important to pre-define your stop level and target level. If you have pre-determined that you will trail your stop, you can just type something in this box describing your trail method, for example you might type; “trail stop each time trade moves 1 times risk in my favor”.

- Possible $ Risk: How much money can you lose on the trade?
- Possible $ Reward: How much money are you aiming to make on the trade?
- Position size (lots): Your position size on the trade, or the number of micro / mini / standard lots being traded. To learn more about position size click here: Forex position sizing.
- Exit Price: What price did you actually exit the trade at? To learn about exiting trades click here: Know When to Hold em, Know When to Fold em.

- Pips +/-: How many pips you gained or lost on the trade.
- Total P/L: How much total money you made or lost on the trade.
- Planned R:R : What was the pre-defined risk reward ratio of the trade?
- Actual R:R : What did the risk reward ratio actually end up being? This is important, if you aren’t achieving a risk reward of 1:2 or greater on your winning trades, you will see that over time it’s very hard to make money in the markets. Also, you will notice that if you take profits prematurely this greatly lowers your risk : reward ratio, and of course if you take a risk that is larger than what you had planned the same thing happens.
- Exit date: Date the trade closed.
- Setup: What was the setup / why did you take the trade? Did you trade a valid price action trading strategy?
• Final thoughts
Documenting your Forex trading results is a necessary component to becoming a professional Forex trader. As your trading journal progresses over a series of trades, you will start to see the significance of it more clearly. The power of risk reward and money management will become glaringly evident to you as you look over your trading journal after a few months go by. Having this tangible piece of evidence to explicitly show you how discipline and patience pay off over time, is a critical element to attaining and maintaining the proper Forex trading mindset. The reality of Forex trading is that at some point on your journey of learning how to trade, you absolutely have to figure out a way to become a disciplined and organized trader, otherwise you simply will not become successful in the markets. Creating and meticulously maintaining a Forex trading journal is the quickest and most effective way to develop into a disciplined and profitable Forex trader. 

9 Secrets to Profitable Forex Trading

The 9 Secrets to Profitable Forex Trading

Today I am officially letting the “cat out of the bag”; I am going to give you my 9 BIG secrets to profitable trading…OK OK, they aren’t really “secrets”, but they are 9 very important things I personally do or have done that have helped me become a better trader. Unfortunately, there are no “secrets” to making money in the markets, but there are things that you need to do that you most likely aren’t doing, which will greatly increase your odds of becoming a profitable trader. So, without further ado, here are my 9 not-so-secret secrets to successful Forex trading:
1) PICK ONE trading method and keep it clean and simple. Don’t go wasting time trying to make sense of 15 indicators plastered all over your charts like a piece of abstract art. The truth about trading strategies is that finding one that gives you a high-probability edge in the market is not that difficult. But if you over-complicate it and confuse yourself in the process, you are going to do a great deal of harm to your trading account. Look, your trading strategy should make sense and it should be effective, but it should also be so simple that you could explain to a 5 year old, I’m serious.
The trading method that I have used for years is price action (duh); it’s simple, effective, and flexible, and it doesn’t take rocket science to understand or implement. If you want to master trading you can pick one price action strategy and learn how to trade it in every market condition; make it your bi$#!….REALLY master it before moving on.
For example, say you choose to learn the pin bar setup first, the best way to learn this setup is to trade it from key levels within the structure of a trending market, do that first, and make sure you are consistently profitable for 3 months or more trading only that strategy before moving on.
2) ANTICIPATE your trades and follow some kind of written plan. What I mean by “anticipate” your trades is to make sure you never jump in the market on a whim or without any pre-defined reason. You want to always make sure you are basing your trades on logic and objectivity, not irrationality and emotion (like most traders). So, you should have all the key levels drawn on your charts, and assuming you have mastered price action trading, you can simply sit back and wait for a setup to form at a key level in the market. This is called “pre-empting” your trades…instead of randomly jumping in and out of the market, you are watching pre-defined areas in the market and waiting for price action setups to form near them. Once your trade setup forms, you plan your entry, enter the stop and target, and then let the market do the “hard work”. Seriously, go play golf or something, don’t sit there and think about your trade after you enter it, stop thinking for a while and you might just make some money in the markets.
3) MAKE A DIARY OF YOUR TRADES to keep a written on-going track record of your progress. I cannot tell you guys with enough emphasis how important your trading journal track-record is, except to say that if you don’t keep a trading journal or at least regularly analyze your trading history and equity curve, you are extremely unlikely to ever make consistent money in the markets.
The actual process of updating your forex trading journal will help you stay disciplined and organized. This is part of developing the positive trading habits that are so crucial to becoming a long-term profitable trader. I don’t care if you think updating your journal is boring right now, stop complaining and start doing the things that YOU KNOW you need to do to become successful. I can promise you that if you keep screwing around by being unorganized and half-assing it, you are never going to pull the sort of money from the market that you want. You NEED to look at your track record on a regular basis to see something tangible that reflects back to you your ability or inability to trade. This will work to keep you on top of your game.
4) DON’T LISTEN TO ANYTHING BUT THE CHART, because the chart reflects everything! That’s right, the price movement on a raw, indicator-free price chart, reflects all variables that affect a market. So, don’t get bogged down analyzing economic news and watching CNBC, just learn to read the price chart and then let the price action dictate your trading decisions, not what some talking head on TV thinks. Also, NEVER trade what you think is going to happen, only trade what you actually see happening in the charts. What I mean is this, just because you “think” the EURUSD is going higher doesn’t mean it actually is, and your thoughts have no bearing on the EURUSD or any other market. The only thing that matters is what the price chart is telling you, so learn to read and trade from that instead of outside sources.
5) DON’T GET GREEDY or you will never make a profit. Greed is perhaps the most prevalent reason why most traders fail. The late Rene Rivkin, a famous Australian stock broker and trader, had a classic line about greed: “Leave some for the next guy”. Here are some tips on how to avoid letting greed get the best of you:
• Aim for a target before you place the trade – Yes, that’s correct; you should already have a target in mind before you enter a trade, and it’s best to pre-define your exit before you enter. Exiting is not an exact science, and there are times when deviating from your initial exit plan makes sense, but you should always decide before you enter a trade what your ideal exit strategy is and then try to stick to that plan as much as possible. Don’t change your exit strategy once your trade is live just because you “think” the trade is going to charge on in your favor forever, only change it if you have a very obvious price action-based reason to do so.
• Never move your stop loss further from entry – What I mean by this is entering a trade and then the market starts to move against you immediately, do you move your stop further away from the market price, or do you hold it in place? Obviously, the only logical course of action is to accept your loss and hold your stop where you pre-defined it, yet many traders email me saying they have moved their stop away and now have a very big open loss they don’t know what to do with. The answer is you have to take the bigger loss because you did not take the smaller loss…always take the smaller loss by not EVER moving your stop further from entry.
• Be happy to take a logical profit – If you have a nice 1:2 risk reward profit and there is no obvious reason to try and trail your stop, then by all means take the profit! Don’t just leave a trade open because you are mesmerized by the potential for the market to move further in your favor. Come back down to reality and realize the market ebbs and flows and it’s more likely going to move back against you soon then move in your favor if it’s already given you 2 times your risk.
• Only trail stops once your trade is well into profit – I only attempt trailing my stop if my trade is up about 1.5 times my risk and I am in a runaway trend or a strong breakout move that clearly has potential to keep going. Don’t start moving your stop up just because the trade pops in your favor the first 10 minutes you enter. Give the trade some room to grow and breath. Trading is like a garden, you have to give it time to grow to taste its fruit.
• Don’t live in hope – I like to think of hope as the catalyst for greed. Traders often hope that their trades will go on forever in their favor, or they hope that if they move their stop loss just a little further away, the trade will come back for them. While hope is generally a good thing in every other area of life, in Forex trading it can cause you to do irrational things that destroy your trading account.
6) GET SOME BALLZ, because trading is not for the emotionally weak or for wussies. That’s right, if losing 5 trades in a row makes you cry and whinge, then forget about becoming a trader. Don’t trade if you don’t have the money to lose, it’s really that simple. You can lose money in trading, many beginners seem to forget or ignore this fact. So, you should not be trading with money that causes you to treat every trade like it’s life or death, you really should almost not care at all if you lose on one trade, because ONE trade DOES NOT define you as a trader. Your success as a trader is the result of many months of trading results, not just one or two. Don’t get all excited if you win a trade either, or a series of trades. Instead, stay neutral and act like a strong minded professional with skill, rather than a little school boy who just won $100. You need to be strong to be a successful forex trader; you to focus and believe in yourself, and it’s OK to bet a little harder on a trade if you are confident, but keep in mind this is only advisable if you are 100% sure you have mastered your trading strategy already.
7) DON’T CHANGE YOUR METHOD> STICK TO IT< BELIEVE IN IT, because all trading methods will have losses and losing periods. So, don’t run away and freak out in the face of some losing trades. Instead, you need to hang in there and tough it out, just make sure you are consistent with your strategy and that you are using something like price action that is simple, logical, and has proven itself over time.
A random entry method based on flipping a coin would probably make more money than a trader following 3 different trading methods and running around looking for the Holy Grail every day. The Holy Grail to long term success is in fact…sticking with something, believing in it… and not hesitating when the opportunities present themselves.
8) MAKE SURE YOU CAN SLEEP AT NIGHT, because if you are having trouble sleeping due to your trading, it means you’ve risked too much. Don’t take a position size that you know is too big, because then you almost certainly will be too emotionally involved with the trade which will result you in not sleeping and becoming even more emotional. Not to mention, your frazzled and obnoxious existence from risking too much will probably make your wife or roommates want to kill you or send you to the loony bin.
You need to learn to RELAX…the market is not going anywhere, you need to trade a position size that you can handle emotionally, not one that causes you to have a near melt-down every time the market moves against you by a pip or two. If you find you are waking up over and over to check the latest quote on your laptop or iPhone, you know you are IN OVER YOUR HEAD. Some people risk too much money for the “rush”, some do it out of stupidity or greed, whatever the case, make sure you are risking a decent amount, but not an amount that makes your heart pound, and not an amount that causes you to fall asleep at your computer desk!
9) ALWAYS PAY YOURSELF, because if you don’t, who will? When you make money in the markets you need to pay yourself, don’t re-invest all your profits in some vain attempt to grow your account to infinity. Let’s be honest here, you are in the markets to make money so that you can buy things, whether it’s a house, a car, or trying to buy freedom from your job, you aren’t going to buy anything if you keep all your money in your account. Pay yourself and reward yourself, it will help to motivate you and will reinforce positive trading habits.
Now that the “cat is out of the bag”, and you guys know my 9 “secrets” to profitable trading, you have nothing to hold you back but your own fear and lack of motivation. So, get off your butt and drink a few coffees, or do whatever you need to do, but if you really make an effort to implement these 9 tips, you will see your trading improve.

Part 1 - How to become a Professional Forex Trader

Part 1 – How To Become a Professional Forex Trader: Building the Foundation

Building a Foundation for your Forex Trading Career

This week, I am starting a 4-part blog series on “How to Become a Professional Forex Trader”. It will be laid out in a step-by-step easy-to-follow manner. However, before we get started I must issue a note of caution; simply reading this 5-part series alone is not going to make you a pro trader. You have to actually use the information provided within this series and understand that there is no “quick-fix” to trading the market for a living.
Becoming a pro trader is going to take time and effort on your behalf, and you will probably experience some ups and downs along the way. However, you should not be discouraged, because the sooner you accept this reality, the sooner you can get on the path to becoming a professional currency trader. Now, let’s get cracking…

Step 1: Be honest with yourself

First off, let me clarify something; becoming a professional trader is the result of first being a consistently successful trader and building up your trading account and trading skills over time. Thus, your aim as you begin your Forex trading journey should be to FIRST become a consistently successful Forex trader, but that does not necessarily mean you will become a “professional” or full-time trader right away. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, becoming a pro trader is probably going to take a good deal of time if you are starting from a small trading account, but that does not mean you can’t make consistent money each month in the meantime.
Consistently successful trading and professional trading might sound like the same thing, but they are not. Your aim should first be set on making consistent money each month relative to your account size, not on becoming a pro trader right out of the gate.
You see, if you have a $1,000 trading account for example, you will not be able to make enough money each month to live off of, and if you try to trade your $1,000 account like it’s a bigger account, you’ll end up blowing it out.
So, if you eventually want to be a full-time professional Forex trader, you have to first aim a little bit lower; you need to aim to make consistent money each month while simultaneously implementing effective Forex money management. This is called being honest with yourself about what is really possible given your current financial situation, and many traders simply don’t do this.
You need to think about your trading in terms of dollars risked vs. dollars gained, not in terms of “how much money do I need to make to quit my job and buy a Ferrari”, which is how most beginning traders think. Pretend that you are trading a 1 million dollar account even if your account is only 1 thousand dollars. If you can consistently average a 3R reward each month (meaning a reward of 3 times your overall risk) then that means you are making 3 x 12 = 36R per year. Now, if your per-trade risk on a $1,000 account is $25, that would be $25 x 36 = $900 in a year, or a 90% yearly return; a very very good performance by any professional’s standards. Now, take that 36R and imagine you are trading a $100,000 account; it would equal $90,000 over a year if you risked $2,500 per trade. The return would be $900,000 on a million dollar account if you risked $25,000 per trade.
Do you see my point here? Sure, $900 a year might not seem like a life-changing amount of money, but what you need to understand is that if you are consistently making 36R per year on a $1,000 account for example, the exact same processes and thinking that resulted in that $900 and 90% return WOULD result in a life-changing amount on a $100,000 account. So, the point is that focusing on the actual process and mechanics of trading is far more important than trying to make a lot of money on a small account. If you are pulling a number like 36R or even 15 or 20R a year, you will have no problem finding funding for your account or getting a job with a prop trading firm.
Before you begin learning how to trade or before you open a demo account, you need to sit down with a pen and paper and make a monthly budget. You need to list all the expenses you have each month and then subtract them from your monthly after-tax income, if you have any 100% disposable income left over then it’s OK to use that money to trade with. If you find you don’t have any disposable income left over each month, you’re better off saving your money or finding a different job until you are able to make some money to trade with.
The reason why I am telling you this is because most traders never do this; instead they end up trading with money they really should not be trading with, and also because if you truly trade with only 100% disposable income you will significantly reduce the potential of becoming emotional on any one trade. So, if you really think you have what it takes to become a Forex trader, and you are going to be honest with yourself about what is possible given the amount of starting disposable income you have, then it’s time to move on to the next step of learning the basics of Forex trading…

Step 2: Learn the basics of Forex trading

Next, if you have fully accepted that you need to focus on the process of trading rather than the money, and you know you aren’t going to get rich quick on a small trading account, you should focus on actually learning to trade.
Now, it might seem obvious that you should learn the basics first, but most beginning Forex traders simply have no clue what they are doing as they learn to trade. Many of them ignore the basics of Forex trading and of learning how to trade; this is a big mistake because if you really want to become a professional at something you have to start by understanding and building a foundation on the introductory concepts. You should first get a solid education in the foundational concepts of Forex by taking my free beginners Forex course. After you have done this and you thoroughly understand what the Forex market is, why it exists, and how to make sense of it, then you should move on to learning a real-world trading strategy like price action.
I can assure you that if you take this one extra step of learning the basics before you start buying trading systems and strategies, it will save you a lot of frustration, time and money, as well as put you far ahead of most beginning traders who simply dive-in head first without first building a solid foundation to trade off of.

Step 3: Learning to trade with an effective strategy

After you have completed steps 1 and 2, it’s time to learn some real-world trading strategies and really start getting into the “meat” of Forex trading. Now, there are thousands of different ways to trade the market out there, but if you want to learn how to read the raw and natural price dynamics of a market, I suggest you learn to trade forex price action strategies. By making price action trading your primary trading strategy, you will develop chart-reading skills that will last a lifetime and make any other strategy or system you use even more effective. As you probably know by now, I am a huge proponent of “pure” price action trading, and I really feel that it’s the best way to trade the Forex market.
The price action strategies and methods that I trade with and teach my students have served me well for many years now, and it’s because there is nothing complicated about them. I simply use my ability to read and interpret the overall market structure to find high-probability price action setups, and I watch for these obvious price action setups forming at key chart levels. Thus, there is no confusion or uncleanliness to my trading approach; it’s all about taking advantage of high-probability price action events in the market and knowing how to make sense of and read the ever-changing market conditions.
In Part 2 of this mini series (click here) – I am going to share with you guys the importance of testing your trading strategy as well as how to track your progress and develop a trading plan. These next steps are critical in refining your trading approach and developing an organized and structured trading routine that will guide you when you switch to real money trading and help you avoid becoming an emotional trader. If you want to learn more about my price action trading strategies after finishing steps 1 and 2 in today’s article, check out my Forex price action trading course and members’ community.

How to Enter Forex Trades

A Guide On How I Enter Forex Trades

Today’s lesson is going to be a complete walk-through of exactly how I find, enter, and manage my Forex trades. I am going to use the GBPUSD pin bar setup from last Friday that I traded as an example to illustrate my analysis and thought process behind taking a trade. Today’s lesson will provide you with a “window” into my mind as I trade the market so that you can better understand how to successfully trade simple price action setups on the daily charts.

How I find an entry signal
The first step to finding an entry signal involves scanning your charts. You need to decide the best Forex pairs to trade and then scan the daily charts first; you should do this around the same time each day. The best time to analyze your daily charts is between the New York close and the European open. This is when the market action dies down from the previous day and the new day begins in Asia, which is typically not as active as the NY or euro sessions.
As I scan through the markets I am looking mainly for the following things: trends, levels, and price action. I will first determine if the market is trending or not, this is not an exact science, but for me I like to see patterns of higher highs and higher lows or low highs and low lows and I also look at the direction of the 8 and 21 daily EMAs.
I then mark any core levels that I see on the chart, this is important because simple horizontal levels and price action is a very powerful combination. Now, I don’t go crazy with drawing levels, I only draw in the “core” obvious support and resistance levels that I see on the chart, you will get better at this with enough screen time. For now, check out my example below of the GBPUSD daily chart:

Note the pin bar setup in the chart above. After I’ve determined whether the market is trending or consolidating and drawn in the core horizontal levels, I will look for obvious price action signals forming within the structure of the market. I like to trade with the trend as much as possible, and from points of “value” (support or resistance) within the trend. But, sometimes the market is not trending, and at these times we can look for price action setups near core support and resistance levels in order to trade a range-bound market or for counter-trend setups.
In the case of the GBPUSD pin bar setup above, we can see the market was just starting to trend lower which was made evident by the 8 / 21 daily EMAs crossing lower and price recently breaking down out of an obvious sideways trading range. The pin bar that formed was in-line with the recent downward momentum, clearly rejecting the old support / new resistance near 1.5900 and was well-defined and obvious. So, since this pin bar met all the parameters in my forex trading plan, I decided it was a good signal to trade.
How to place a stop loss

Determining proper stop placement is also not an exact science, but there are some general rules of thumb that you can operate by:
First, you want to try and place your stop at the most logical level possible. So, on the pin bar setup below, I put my stop just above the high of the tail of the pin bar, because this represented the point at which the signal would be invalid for me. Note, you always want to enter your stop loss at the same time you enter your entry order, never expose yourself to the market without a stop loss in place.
We can see in the chart below that I had a stop loss distance of 100 pips; stop at 1.5887 and entry at 1.5787, this is important to know when figuring out our target, which we will discuss next.

How to find a target
When I set my target I am looking to get a risk reward of at least 1 to 2 or more. In the case of the GBPUSD pin bar trade below, my risk was 100 pips, so I am looking for a 200 pip reward distance or more. Note, I am only using ‘pips’ here to measure distance, not risk, read about my Forex money management strategies here.
I check to make sure there are no ‘core’ support or resistance levels in the way of my desired target placement. If there is no major level in the way I will place the target, if there is a core level that comes before two times risk, I will then use discretion to decide whether or not to take the trade. Sometimes I will take a reward of 1.5 times risk if I feel the setup is sound but there is a core level coming in just before 2 times risk.

Exiting trades is probably the most discretionary part of trading and it’s something you get better at over time. The biggest problem most traders make in regards to exits is not exiting in hope of bigger profits. Don’t be a greedy trader; take your profit of 1:2 or greater if it’s there. If you have pre-defined that you will trail your stop in hopes of a larger profit based on your analysis of current market conditions, that’s OK too, just don’t get into a game of setting your target and then moving it further away once price gets near it, or always thinking the market is going to run in your favor forever.
Placing the trade in your trading platform
I can’t go into too much detail about actually placing the trade with your broker since we are not all using the same trading platform or broker. But, there are a few general comments about this that I would like to make:
Be sure that all your parameters are correct; your stop, entry and target. Double check everything before you hit the button to send the order. There is nothing worse than losing money because you entered your trade incorrectly or too quickly. It’s best to slow down and take a little extra time to make sure you have entered everything correctly.
Managing the trade
After you’ve entered the trade the “real” work begins. For most traders Forex trade management is where they mess everything all up. You don’t really need to do much after you’ve entered the trade besides maybe check on it once a day. After I entered the GBPUSD pin bar setup above I literally did not look at it for 24 hours. When I came back the next day I noticed I was up over 1 times risk, I didn’t do anything at that point but set and forget for another day.
I then came back the next day (Wednesday of this week) and decided to exit the trade for a profit of approximately 2.5 times risk. Some of you will remember that I mentioned in the GBPUSD thread in the members’ forum that I was going to let this trade run into the 1.5445 area. Whilst I had pre-defined my strategy as letting this trade run for a bit, I decided to exit earlier once I was up 2.5 times risk. There’s nothing at all wrong with using discretion to exit a profitable position, just make sure you aren’t acting out of greed by NOT exiting a profitable trade or at least locking in some profit if you are up over 2 times risk.

Handling the emotions of the trade
Perhaps the best way to make sure you do not trade emotionally is to not risk too much money on any one trade. I get many emails from traders telling me they are losing money and that they are up all night staring at their trades or that they can’t stop thinking about them. The only reason traders do these things is because they are risking too much money or over-trading. You need to risk an amount that you are TRULY ok with losing, because you COULD lose it on ANY trade. Yes, price action trading is a high – probability trading strategy when used with discretion, but you still never know for sure which trades will win and which will lose, so you MUST manage your risk effectively on every single trade you take.
The reason why traders risk too much and over-trade is because they have unreal expectations about the market. You need to seriously consider that fact that you aren’t going to get rich quick in Forex. You should aim for slow but consistent profits, and then over time you will build your trading account up. But, most traders don’t seem to have the patience for this, thus they end up getting caught in a perpetual cycle of emotional trading.

After the trade
After you have exited a trade for a profit or a loss you need to record exactly what happened in your Forex trading journal. It’s important to have a trading journal so that you can develop a track record and so you have a tangible piece of evidence reflecting your discipline or lack thereof.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated to the way that I trade the markets. Just simple logic combined with discipline and my discretionary trading skill.