Alan's Forex Blog

I recently came across Jim Rogers’ new book – Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets – and I’d figure some of you may enjoy reading a brief review of it.

For those of you who do not know who Jim Rogers is, permit me to give you his brief bio.  James Beeland Rogers, Jr. (born October 19, 1942) is an American investor and author. He is currently based in Singapore. Rogers is the Chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests, Inc. He was the co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI). Jim is a well-known investor who has appeared on numerous financial TV shows.

He has written several other books, some of which are: Adventure Capitalist, Investment Biker, A Gift to My Children, Hot Commodities, A Bull in China. I haven’t read any of his other books but I plan on grabbing a copy of each one soon.

Now on to the book. First of all I should mention that this book is not a “how to” guide on investing. Instead this books is part memoir, part investment primer, part history lesson, part travelogue, part sermon, and just an all around good read. Jim Rogers is a strongly opinionated guy and I for one can definitely appreciate and respect that. He has a wealth of investing experience so what he says is not a bunch of hot air or rehashed investment cliches. So if you get a chance to read the book (and I suggest you do) and you get to a parts where Mr. Rogers espouses his passionate opinions, take a deep breath and consider what he is saying before you react in a sort of “knee-jerk” fashion.

I’m not a literary critic by any means but if I was to comment upon how the book was written I’d say that Jim did a fine job. His language is simple, clear, concise, and empty of any jargon or run on sentences. Put simply, it is terse and pithy, which is precisely how a book should be in my opinion. It is also not a super long read either, so I think if you dedicate an hour tops per day you should be able to finish it in a week or two.

In this book Roger puts forth several personal viewpoints that I believe are worth considering. Some of them you may not agree with some of them you might. I found myself agreeing with quite a few of them. Some of them I can’t comment on as I do not happen to have the relevant background experience (such as the US educational system – I was not educated in the US , etc). Here are some of the interesting “core” ideas in this book:

• The US is declining as fast as Asia is rising.
• If you want to give your kids a good education, make sure they learn Chinese.
• The best investment opportunities are in Asia.
• The US spends twice as much on healthcare as the average nation and gets terrible outcomes.
• High healthcare and litigation costs are the major reasons why American carmakers can’t compete globally.
• The fourth leading cause of death in the US is hospital infection.
• The US will go the way of Rome, Timbuktu, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Greece.
• The cure for high prices is high prices.
• Jim Rogers is always two or three years ahead of the curve.
• Because governments are debasing currencies, commodities are the best investment.
• Don’t believe government statistics.
• According to government stats, there are more pets in Japan than children.
• The school system in Singapore is far superior to any in the US.
• Marco polo did not have a passport.
• Throughout history, the most prosperous societies have been open ones.
• In the US, the primacy of the individual has become subordinated to the state.
• If you want to save America, change to a consumption tax, change our education system, institute healthcare and litigation reform, and bring home our troops (from over 100 countries.)
• The only real failure is not to try; the only improper question is the one unasked.

What do you think? These ideas are definitely unconventional, but wisdom is rarely conventional – especially when one truly has a pioneering ideas. History will prove Jim Rogers right or wrong, and thus far he’s been right with a remarkable level of accuracy.  Let me know what you think of his ideas and if you get a chance to read his book let me know what you think.

So this concludes my humble review. Overall id’s give this book a score of 9 out 10. It is in my opinion a good read and I definitely recommend it. Now on to ebay and amazon to find me some copies of his other books.

Happy investing to you all!

Cheers,

Alan

Hello fellow zulutraders. Time to post the top current ZuluTrade signal providers. This week we have a bit of a surprise. For333 has managed to make a comeback and is now back on the number two spot. Here are the top providers:

#1ZuluRank		Kama-spot		Pips 4.7K	Trades 345	Followers 11594	Amount Following $18M
#2ZuluRank		for333		Pips 10.4K	Trades 870	Followers 3813	Amount Following $4M
#3ZuluRank		duanxian(GBP\USD)		Pips 26.4K	Trades 2563	Followers 1639	Amount Following $888K
#4ZuluRank		ForexAnomaly		Pips 5.3K	Trades 701	Followers 1063	Amount Following $951K
#5ZuluRank		FOREXZONE [SYS-M3]		Pips 11.6K	Trades 1001	Followers 469	Amount Following $387K

Hello fellow zulutraders. Time to post the top current ZuluTrade signal providers.

#1ZuluRank		Kama-spot		Pips 4.8K	Trades 337	Followers 11096	Amount Following $18M
#2ZuluRank		ForexAnomaly		Pips 5K	Trades 673	Followers 570	Amount Following $479K
#3ZuluRank		duanxian(GBP\USD)		Pips 25.3K	Trades 2508	Followers 1768	Amount Following $1M
#4ZuluRank		FOREXZONE [SYS-M3]		Pips 11.4K	Trades 980	Followers 219	Amount Following $140K
#5ZuluRank		Saved FX		Pips 9.5K	Trades 576	Followers 6905	Amount Following $11M

Hello, I’m Alex writing for fxmarketleaders.com, and today I want to talk about forex trading strategies.

Those who come to financial markets are often blinded by seemingly easy profits. You hear brokers telling you about big opportunities to make fast profits, thousands of dollars per an hour, but in most cases you will find yourself with your pens down and your pockets empty.

True, the forex market carries a great earning potential, and yes, you can make fantastic returns on your investment, however, in order to become a successful trader, you first need to have a trading strategy. In fact more than just one.

Now, the idea of a forex trading strategy might sound a bit intimidating, but in fact it is very simple. Some of the best forex trading strategies are so simple to execute, that anyone can trade according to them, even novices and inexperienced forex traders.

In this post I will introduce you to my favorite trading strategies, those that can also be applied in other markets such as the binary options market. One of the following forex strategies is aimed for more advanced traders, but the others can be used by anyone.

You should always remember that having your own trading strategy is an essential key to success, but is only one of the important factors.

It is time to reveal my favorite forex trading strategies!

1. Trend Trading – ride the next trend:

Ask any big shot Forex trader or investor and they will tell you they most often use the trend trading strategy. Smart, methodical trend trading strategy can lead to magnificent, consistent profits. Why is it so popular? You don’t have to be an expert to witness a massive trend. It is very easy for your eyes to see it on the charts. What are you looking for? You are searching for clear movement of the chart. For example, looking at the chart below, you can see a clear uptrend. This uptrend could have made you huge profits. Nice, isn’t it?

2. Range Trading – support and resistance:

If in Trend trading you wait for a clear upwards trend to appear, with range trading it is almost the opposite. You wait for the reversal to come. Don’t worry, it will be clear in a second. Looking on a chart, such as the Euro/Dollar chart, you will notice that most of the time, the chart moves in ranges, up and down, like waves. It is almost like you can draw 2 clear lines, one that connect the bottoms, like a ‘floor’ and another connecting the tops, like a ceiling. The ups and downs are how forex traders and investors make their fortune. The beauty of this forex strategy is that it relies on repeating patterns that will most likely stay in their ranges. It means that it is relatively easy to identify a trend, and even better, it is easy to spot an entry point, the point in which you jump in and ride it.

I personally really like this forex strategy, and I know that it is the most commonly used strategy by the traders and analysts at fxmarketleaders.com, a leading portal for forex trading strategies.

3. Breakouts Strategy – When support and resistance levels break:

Every range, channel or pattern has to break sometimes, right? Well, this is where the Breakouts strategy comes into action. This great forex trading strategy is very effective due to the fact that you can use very good and simple graphic tools to help you execute this trading strategy. All you need to do is follow a range or a channel, draw support and resistance lines like in the example beneath, wait for the break, and boom! Make some nice profits. This strategy usually involves great opportunities for high profits, but it is a bit more dangerous, as in many cases we witness false breakouts (when prices break the levels but turn back immediately), so you should have a bit of trading experience to know where to place your entries.

If you want to learn more on how to become successful traders you should read the fxmarketleaders.com trading guide, which I considered the most popular forex guide online.

Hello fellow zulutraders. Time to post the top current ZuluTrade signal providers. I’m going to keep i t short and simple this time around. Nothing much has changed as far as ranking, except that F8 is now back in the top. I am a bit weary of enabling him though due to that massively risky drawdawn he took on. Top providers listed here:

#1ZuluRank		Kama-spot		Pips 4.8K	Trades 336	Followers 9811	Amount Following $17M
#2ZuluRank		f8		Pips 33.3K	Trades 4971	Followers 2030	Amount Following $6M
#3ZuluRank		duanxian(GBP\USD)		Pips 25.8K	Trades 2486	Followers 1505	Amount Following $971K
#4ZuluRank		Saved FX		Pips 9.5K	Trades 576	Followers 6097	Amount Following $10M
#5ZuluRank		xiaolidao		Pips 13.8K	Trades 1197	Followers 2241	Amount Following $2M

Greetings! It’s been a while since I last published my current ZuluTrade signal provider portfolio so I thought it was about time to update you all on what I’m currently using on my live account. This is for your consideration only and it does not mean that these signal providers are in some way “the best”. This is just what I feel is worth using personally, and of course your opinion may differ. I will list each signal provider along some brief commentary.

1: youron – I just added this yesterday, so for me this is more of an experimental signal provider

2: xiaolidao – This provider is currently ranked in the top 5. So far I’ve been pretty happy with the way he trades. His past record is also pretty good. He’s only had 4 bad months since Oct 2011.

3: TREND RIDER AUD/USD – This guy is pretty good but I consider him a high risk provider. First of all he’s got a high maximum drawdown (34%) and the necessary minimum equity is $463 so a lot of you small account holders will want to avoid him. Also his max open trades are 14 which is on the high side.

4: Saved FX – This guy is pretty impressive. He has a very low drawdown level and good profits every month since June 2012 which is when he started with zulutrade. He also happens to be ranked #4 overall.

5: Kama-spot – This signal provider is #1 right now on zulutrade and I’d say his performance is very impressive thus far. He is relatively new to zulutrade though having started back in Oct 2012. So I dunno, maybe some of you might want to wait a bit longer to see how he performs after at least 6 months have passed. I chose to take the risk and add him to my portfolio.

6: greenfx777-6 -  I haven’t had this signal provider for long, so I can’t comment much on him. I thought he was worth a try though.

7:  FXturtle-EURUSD – This guys is not too shabby. I found out about him through his other signal provider which specialized in eur/jpy. However I stopped using his eur/jpy signals as things started going sour recently. Either way I’d say he’s worth a try.

8: ForexAnomaly – this is an experimental signal provider I’ve added just today. He is ranked #6 overall. So far I can’t comment much as he’s so new to me, but one thing that I noticed is that his eur/usd trades fair out much better than his gbp/jpy.

9: EUReka V - I found out about this signal provider from the provider himself when he posted in one of my forum’s zulutrade threads. After a month or so watching him on zulutrade I decided to so called “bite the bullet” and put him on my live account. Hopefully he will work out for the long term. Time will tell.

10: EUReka III – This is the same signal provider as the previous (EUReka V) but I guess this one employs a different trading strategy. This one is new to me as well.

That about does it for this post. I will as always keep on making zulutrade related blog posts, and will update you  all on what my portfolio is once in a while. If you want to chat about zulutrade signal providers I recommend you join me at the Forex Nirvana forum. Just go to forexnirvana.com

Cheers, and happy trading to you all!

Alan

Greetings everyone. I’ve received a news update from one of my recommended brokers and I wanted to share that with you all. The broker I’m referring to is Dukascopy and no doubt some – if not most – of  you have heard about them. The news – and it’s good news – is that they’ve recently reduced their spreads.

Checkout what they say In their newsletter/news update:

Please see the recent evolution of our average EUR/USD spreads during the European trading session:

• October 2012 – 0.57 pips
• January 2013 – 0.51 pips
• February 21^st, 2013 – 0.46 pips

A simple calculation suggests that we have achieved a 20% decrease of the EUR/USD spread over the last four months. Our next target is to reach an average level of 0.4 pips for the EUR/USD spread.

–end quote –

Whether or not you decide to trade on their platform is up to you, but it’s good to hear that if you do you’ll get really competitive spreads.

That’s it for now folks.

Happy trading.

Alan out.

Hello fellow zulutraders. Time to post the top current ZuluTrade signal providers. This week I was a bit surprised to see F8 (one of the signal providers that I use live) is no longer in the top 5. He’s now down to rank 47. If I had to guess, it might be because he’s now holing on to quite a few buy gbp/usd positions. In retrospect these might not be such a smart stance on the market, unless of course he ends up being right and the trend in gbp/usd reverses. Either way it’s quite risky to double down and go against the trend. I really wish he hadn’t done that. I personally limited the number of positions he’s allowed to trade so I’m not in a huge drawdawn but it’s a drawdown nonetheless. Luckily I have some other winning positions that I took manually which partially make up for his short gbp/usd positions.

Anyways, enough about that. Let’s get on to this weeks top ranking signal providers. Here they are:

Enjoy:

#1ZuluRank		Kama-spot		Pips 4.6K	Trades 320	Followers 7959	Amount Following $11M
#2ZuluRank		duanxian(GBP\USD)		Pips 25.1K	Trades 2461	Followers 1375	Amount Following $917K
#3ZuluRank		xiaolidao		Pips 13.7K	Trades 1187	Followers 2170	Amount Following $4M
#4ZuluRank		Saved FX		Pips 9.3K	Trades 563	Followers 4685	Amount Following $9M
#5ZuluRank		FXApprentice		Pips 14K	Trades 2300	Followers 167	Amount Following $45K