Trading resources to help you understand the Forex markets

Our Forex industry is a noisy business, we’re bombarded with information on a minute by minute basis. We can follow: traders, economists, analysts and commentators on Twitter and other social media publications. We can: subscribe to blogs, newsletters, follow certain contributors’ posts on various forums and we can be constantly alerted to market movements and all the mentioned can be delivered to us, by way of SMS texts and email alerts.

Notwithstanding this battery of information, we will (presumably) regularly peruse publications such as Bloomberg, or perhaps FX street, in order to follow the news, or read articles composed by our favoured authors. Whilst all this fundamental and technical information is delivered 24/7, we also have to contend with managing our overall trading account, our strategy and our risk. Quite frankly it’s a wonder we don’t blow a mental fuse when trying to cope with all the complications involved, particularly when you’re a novice trader.

So how do we filter out all: the noise, the chatter, the irrelevancies, the distractions, in order to concentrate on the salient issues which will benefit our trading and ultimate profitability? How do we simplify the delivery of information, in order to concentrate on what matters to us?

We can start by identifying what moves your market; generally its the medium to high impact news events highlighted on your daily economic calendar. This isn’t a steadfast rule, as a political or monetary decision could suddenly hit our markets; a black swan outlier can suddenly land, creating chaos in your carefully constructed trading plan.

However, most analysts will testify that it’s only fundamental data and news releases which move our FX markets. There’s our first lesson in separating the signal from the noise; become familiar with the upcoming news events, by way of studying your economic news calendar, other than your trading platform it’s the most valuable free trading tool you can possibly possess. Study it on a Sunday night for the forthcoming week and study it each evening, ensuring you’re aware of the upcoming events for the next day.

Subscriptions to forex market material

Ensure the market and trading reading material you subscribe to is relevant to your trading and make sure it’s interesting to you. Don’t force yourself to read economic, or trading articles that have little relevance to your trading. Don’t read articles, theories, or columns, that don’t grab your attention. If you’ve subscribed to just about any trading newsletter that’s been offered to you, then perhaps it’s time to unsubscribe from many mailing lists, maybe it’s also time to unfollow many of the contacts you’ve built up on Twitter over recent years.

Understanding your trader style

It’s essential that once you’ve decided on your trading plan and as a consequence you settle upon what type of trader you want to be and what trading style you adopt, that you tailor all the material you subscribe to, or have delivered, to be complimentary to your trading. There’s little point in following who you believe to be expert scalpers, or day traders on Twitter, if you’re a swing, or position trader. There’s little point in subscribing to threads on forums relating to methods irrelevant to your trading method either. It’s best to prune the information you receive to match your required outcome.

Trading Signals

When it comes to the signal (or signals) displayed on your charts, delivering the prompts to enter the market in order to make a decision, separating the noise from the signal takes on even greater significance. You may have undergone extensive back testing and research over an extended period of time and developed a simple strategy, devoid of unnecessary information overload. Perhaps it’s that straightforward that a signal is set to chime on your PC, tablet and be delivered to your smartphone, if two moving averages cross. Or if price crosses the daily pivot point, then reaches a critical support, or resistance level, you’ll need to make a trading decision.

These simple strategies can often prove to be the most effective, particularly in relevance to the critical success factor of risk and money management. Crucially, when your smartphone vibrates and or makes a signal as you’re out doing something more constructive than staring at your trading platform on a three screen set up hour after hour, your signal (above the noise) might prove to be a profitable prompt to enter into (what may become) a highly profitable trading opportunity.