It is surprising that so many new trades select pairs based on their geographical location. For example an Australian would trade AUD against USD and 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?

The criteria of choosing a currency pair should be its liquidity, volume and average trading range. A higher value of all three parameters is most desirable. Based on these criteria our choice of pairs are EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY,EUR/JPY,CHF/JPY,USD/CHF,USD/CAD and GBP/EUR.

Another important criteria to consider is Spreads. Spreads varies from session to session.  If you trading in Asian session then you would find that USD/CAD would have higher spreads compares 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.

No matter what trading style you use it always pays off to watch and monitor your trades once you have placed them. There are several way of doing it and it is up to individual to work out the best method based on his/her personal situation.

• Audible Alerts:

If you happen to use MetaTrader then you have a feature of placing audible alerts.  Once set  properly MetaTrader would alert you when the price reaches a certain point, it can be your  Stop Loss or Take Profit level.  To set it up simply press “Ctrl + T” and then select “Alerts” Tab. Right click and select “Create”.  I personally use this feature a lot, it helps me get away from PC and do other things around the house while still trading at the same time.

• Expert Advisor:

Unless you are very good at programming I won’t recommend creating your own Expert Advisor for managing trades.  However there is an popular free Expert Advisor called “ManageTP” available on forums which works just fine. It helps you to automatically place  Stop Loss and Take Profit levels  and move them as per price action. Simply Google the name you would find the Expert Advisor along with instructions on how to use it.

• Multiple Monitors:

While on your desk looking at charts it helps if you have multiple monitors.  You can then place charts on one monitor and work on something else on the other monitor at the same time.  I’ve a setup of 2 x 22” monitors dedicated for trading and third one for other purposes.

• PDA:

Using PDA to monitor trades comes in very handy while on the road. MetaTrader and several other Brokers offer PDA versions of their trading platform. Before buying a new PDA check with your Broker support to see if it is compatible. You can also use a laptop with a wireless internet to do the same.

Do you know more ways of monitoring trades? Feel free to share your ideas.

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.

Trade more, or Trade Less:
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 realized 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 timeframes.

Best of Both Worlds:
My recommendation to any new trader is to develop 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. 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 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.