Online currency trading in increasing in popularity and with it comes the good, the bad and the “you know what.” Like any business venture there are people out there waiting to take advantage of you and people who genuinely want to help.

Some people hocking learn to trade packages are internet marketers riding the wave of a hot market in search of profits, while others are season professionals looking to create a win-win scenario for you.

So what do you do?

Here are 5 simple thoughts to keep in mind as your search for your Forex education online:

1. The Forex Education Program Itself

You want to make an assessment of the Forex education program’s approach to learning and ensure it matches your style. Some people can learn by reading a book (very few!), while other require a more structured hand holding approach. Some like a classroom environment, while others want to learn live and online.

Make sure you have access to live instructors, this will be your life-line when things get tough. Bottom line; If it resonates with you, then it most likely will fit and you will learn.

2. Guarantee Needs to be Real

Make sure the Forex education program you consider offers an adequate guarantee. Some programs out there offer only a 2-week trial for big dollar training packages. The refund period should be appropriate for the cost and 30-days at a minimum. The guarantee should provide adequate time to evaluate the product or service and then some.

On the flip side of the coin, if the guarantee is acceptable and you have not acted to properly evaluate the product or service within the time frame you should evaluate your own position to determine if you are ready for the training.

No Forex education product or service will make you money sitting on the self.

3. Coaching Required

We all need a coach. Yes, all the information you need to become a successful trader is online. Great, where do you start and how much money are you willing to lose separating the good information from the bad, let alone implementing this vast resource of information?

Any person who participates in activities that require peak performance in order to achieve success (Forex trading qualifies!) needs a coach. Make sure your Forex education includes programs that have individual or group coaching as part of the package. Nothing will accelerate learning like live interaction and mentorship. Don’t fall for the go it alone approach.

4. Establish Your Goals Prior to Learning

Ensure your personal goals are congruent with your Forex education goals. Be clear on why you want to learn Forex trading and what you want to get out of your training. Clarity will ensure the investment in your Forex education will be profitable.

Trading is all about personal responsibility. There is an old Buddhist saying that when you are ready to lean the teacher will appear. Remember, you are 80% of the success equation.

5. Fast Profits Beware!

If any Forex education product or service promises fast money, don’t think; just run away as fast as possible. Forex trading is a process that has to be learned like any other profession. Profitable Forex education will never focus on the money, the curriculum will be established entirely around learning the Process of Forex Trading.

The only Holy Grail in Forex trading lies in the six inch space between your ears. Learn the process and the money will take care of itself!

When done right, Forex trading should be an almost boring repeatable process. In fact the most valuable investment you will ever make is the one in yourself. Your Forex education will determine whether you eventually achieve your financial goals or not.

Remember, there is no such thing as failure there is only feedback. Keeping these tips in mind when searching for your Forex education product or service will allow you find a partner in your success.

If you have ever wondered what distinguishes successful traders from unsuccessfull traders, you are not alone. The industry figure commonly quoted is that 95% of traders lose some or all of there funds and quit. But what makes the winning 5% so different? There is obviously more than one answer, but one important factor is determining the trend. Being unaware of a trend is an easy way for a beginner to suffer substantial losses.

The trend is a subjective term that is relative to a person's perspective. It is real, none the less. The main aspect that remains subjective is the time frame in which one trades. For example an intraday trader may keep his or her eye on hourly, 30 minute, and 5 minute charts. All trades are opened and closed within one day. Many transactions may occur in only minutes or seconds. For this type of trader, the trend is a fragile construct that appears in a flash, and takes a back seat to other indicators. It is true that what appears to be a trend in a 30 minute chart, can quickly succumb to any number of world events.

With a different perspective, the trend can become much more pronounced and important. Pulling up a daily chart of EUR/JPY, for example, can make it appear as if any one could determine the market direction. Sometimes pulling up the weekly chart can make one question if the page has even loaded yet. They are often mirror images. This is especially true in the carry trades. The greater the interest rate differential, the greater bias for the pair to trend.

But determining the trend on other currency pairs may not be as easy. The majors can fluctuate greatly and cause the daily and weekly charts to differ. Sometimes currency pairs are not actually trending within one's designated time frame. This is called ranging. Many traders wait for these conditions, because they are usually followed by a strong breakout and the beginning of a new trend.

Although larger trends in larger time frames are closely associated with market fundamentals, there are ways to measure the trend with technical indicators. The RSI(rate of stochastic increase) has been used with great success for daily charts. Setting the RSI to 45 makes this indicator rather stable. The design indicates an upward bias when the rate is above 50 and a downward bias when the rate is below 50. There is one problem with this setting. If the market is ranging, one will typically see the rate bounce above and below 50 giving a false indication of the absent trend. One way to hedge against this false-positive is to only accept upward bias when the rate is above 52, and only accept the downward bias when the rate is below 48. As with any filter, one is limited to less opportunities to accept the indicator, but one can be more certain of the indicator's reliability.

Being aware of larger trends and aligning one's trades with the trend is fundamental to profiting in the forex market. With a little perspective and simple indicators, one can easily determine trends in larger time frames.

Forex trading

What are the main markets in the world? Your first thought probably went right to the stock market, where individuals can invest in major corporations, buy government bonds, invest in institutional mutual funds, or throw their money at an exciting new technology startup. The stock market is not, however, the biggest market in the world.

Ok you say, gas is pretty expensive these days so it must be the commodities market, where commodity traders buy and sell things as diverse as oil, gas, live cattle and coffee. In reality however, neither of these markets is the largest. The largest market in the world, based on cash value traded, is the forex, or foreign exchange, market. Various estimates state that the average daily value of forex trading is between $2 trillion and $3 trillion a day. That, needless to say, is a lot of money.

Where do you go for forex trading?

There is no centralized market organization for forex trading like the NYSE or the London Commodity Exchange. The forex market is a largely unregulated market that occurs whenever foreign currencies are traded with one another.

Who is involved in forex trading?

Since there is no centralized market for foreign exchange trading, forex trading is a rather pricey club to join. For practical purposes, you have to be a major institutional presence to effectively make forex trades. Because of the requirement to have huge amounts of cash, the primary players in the forex market are banks.

Banks make up the unofficial core of the forex market. This is the inter-bank market, where massive investment banks trade billions of dollars worth of currencies back and forth. Central banks, (such as the U.S. Federal Reserve or the Bank of Canada), also play an important role as they intervene in the forex market to help control the price of their own currencies. Increasingly, hedge funds and other investment firms with significant holdings are becoming involved in this market.

Can individuals participate in the forex market?

Because large institutions such as banks dominate the forex trading scene, it is hard for individuals to get involved in the market. Indeed, retail investors make up a negligible amount of the market. Of course, given the size of the forex market, retail investing still accounts for as much as $50 billion a day, (and is growing each year), which is by no means small change.

However, because forex trading is largely unregulated, investors should be careful before putting any money into the market. A large number of scams have come out in recent years promising access to the inter-bank market. As always, be sure you know what you are investing in before you give your hard earned money to someone else to invest.

What currencies are traded on the forex market?

A small number of currencies dominate the forex trading. The most heavily traded currency is the United States dollar. While the dominance of the United States dollar was once unassailable, it is now being challenged by the Eurozone euro, and the Japanese yen is still a very strong player. Rounding out the other major currencies are the British pound sterling, the Swiss franc and the Australian dollar.

Forex trading looks easy yet few succeed, the ratio of losers still remains around 95% with only 5% achieving long term currency trading success.

Anyone can learn to trade currencies successfully, but most novice traders simply do the following and lose all their equity quickly:

They try and buy forex advice from an expert and get their forex education by paying for it.

Now consulting an expert in many fields is a worthwhile exercise. If you want to drive you need a driving instructor and if you want to fix your gas boiler, you need an engineer.

So why not consult a forex mentor guru or vendor and gain from their experience?

Well the answer lies in this question:

Would you take driving lessons from an instructor who had never learned to drive or passed his test?

Of course you wouldn’t!

However that’s what the vast bulk of novice forex traders do.

They pay a few hundred dollars for a system; problem is the vast huge majority of these forex trading systems don’t work and have never worked and have never been traded.

The way to prove this is simply ask the vendor two questions:

1. Are you a trader?
2. Can I see your real time track record of profits?

Of course in the overwhelming majority of cases you won’t get one, so why should you trust your money on a system the vendor hasn’t got the confidence to trade himself?

Many novice traders however fall for the hypothetical track record, which shows huge gains all for $100!

The track record is hypothetical so it’s done KNOWING the closing prices and simply made up to show a profit, they have not been traded.

Now we could all make money if we knew what tomorrow’s closing price is today, but forex trading is not that easy.

The fact is you need to ignore the advice that people try and sell you and do the following:

All the basics of trading are available free on the net and you learn all the essential trading information as well as get some great strategies all free, if you care to look.

If you really want to buy some advice simply go to Amazon and buy the books by the great traders.

These guys have walked the walk and don’t just talk the talk - like most of the vendors on the net and good news it will be cheaper to.

If you pay for advice from a forex system vendor you have little chance of winning, as it doesn’t normally work and of course if it did, they wouldn’t sell it to you they would be to busy making money to hassle you for £100 or so.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that currency trading success can be bought easily it cant – so don’t fall into this trap.