It is surprising that so many new trades select pairs based on their geographical location. For example an Australian would trade AUD against USD , NZD or even JPY. Someone in Switzerland would be more inclined to trade towards CHF against USD and EUR.  Somehow traders believe that their geographical location gives them an advantage over others regarding certain pairs. How much of it is true?

Another important criteria to consider is Spreads. Spreads varies from session to session and broker to broker.  If you trading in Asian session then you would find that USD/CAD would have higher spreads compared to US session. So if you are a scalper or your profit target is usually small then wider spreads can take a good chunk of your profits. It is wise to monitor the spreads and analyze to see if they fit your trading style in your preferred trading time zone.  You many also perhaps want to consider a commission based broker who offers tighter spreads.

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When I first started trading I faced a lot of challenges, such as what indicators to use, which broker, what strategy etc.  Eventually I found answers to all those questions nevertheless the biggest challenge was how to manage trading around my full-time day job. In this article I would like to share my experience as how it all worked out for me.

As any new trader I was faced with dilemma of how often to trade or look for trades everyday . From my experience so far I believe that trading more often is better when you first start. It helps in learning the use of trading platform, understanding market rhythm and getting used to other aspects of live trading.  To gain such experience I started off with 1 hr and 5 minute systems, trading several times every day after work.  Though sometimes hard to concentrate after an exhausting day at work, my strong motivation overcame any such impediments.

I carried on with this kind of trading for good 3-4 months. However I soon realised that this form of trading won’t help in long run. Constantly watching 5 minute chart is not only tiresome but boring at times.  I knew that I need to do better and look for a system that is based on daily or weekly timeframe.

My recommendation to any new trader is to trade two strategies of different timeframes. One for longer timeframe such as Daily and other for shorter timeframe such as 30 minutes or 5 minutes.  Now here is the most important point, only trade the best setup from both strategies. Every  strategy has both high and low probable trades. It goes without saying that if you only practice to take high probable trades then you have more chances of succeeding.  New traders struggles here, they want to trade more often and when the trade fails they look for more ways or indicators to overcome those losing trades. This creates a ever going process of changing and modifying the system which would have work just fine on its own.

Also when trading shorter timeframe strategy find out the time of the day when it works best. Trade only during those hours. This way you can minimize time you need to sit in front of pc and maximize mental concentration.

I hope these tips were helpful. I would love to hear from people who are trading Part-time on how they manage trading around their day job.

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When you open a position, Forex broker requires you to put aside certain amount from your account balance called Margin Requirement.  This margin requirement is based on the leverage the Forex Broker has provided you with.

Say you have a $10,000 account and your Forex broker has provided you with 100:1 leverage.  When you open a $100,000 position you would be required to put aside $1000. If the position goes against you then you will have until -$9000 to hold the position. Any further loss and you will get a Margin Call and your Forex broker will automatically close the position leaving you with $1000 that you initially put aside.

Now say you are an experienced trader and you know all about Money Management.  You have decided not to risk more than 3% per trade and hence maximum loss you would take is $300. It doesn’t matter what leverage you have because you will always have sufficient funds left in your account even after taking loss. Even if you want to open multiple positions at the same time you won’t need leverage higher than 100:1 You may also want to look at “Forex Money Management : A new Approach“

Higher leverage is not all bad news. It does help in one scenario. When starting off a lot of people don’t like to invest a lot of money. Say you want to start only with $500, in such case a Micro account 400:1 leverage can help to get you started. You can then perhaps open a $1000 position with only $2.5 margin requirement.

You may also be interested in reading “Margin Call“

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A typical Forex Broker would let you borrow 99% of the total value required to open a trade and you only need to come up with the remaining 1%. So if you are about to trade $1000 then you only need to have $10. Big difference from normal stock trading. Also Forex broker won’t charge you interest on the borrowed amount.

Leverage In Forex Market

Note that in case of stock trading you will liable to pay up $500 (or more) you borrowed in case of a loss. In Forex, your broker will close out all open trades as soon as your account available balance reaches zero.

The above table is only a guide, when trading live the Required Margin will change based on currency pair. In my personal opinion one should not go beyond 100:1 leverage in Forex trading. However your opinion may differ so feel to add comment with your preferred Forex leverage and why.

You may also want to read about “Does higher Leverage in Forex Trading help?”

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