Broker to Trading

Forex is a complex market. This is evident to those who trade in it. But what does this mean, what does 'complex' mean when applied to a market. Forex is complex because it does not have a preferred direction across time frames to 'anchor' them. That is it can move up or down. This said, trends can be seen at all time frames, which establish a direction. But this direction can change. This can be seen even on long term monthly charts or at very short time frames.

This means that any directional move is subject to the potential at any time to change direction. This results in retracements against the current direction, which may then return back to the current direction, reverses, ranges and volatility. All of these outcomes are possible. This has a particular consequence in that it means that patterns, which are one way to establish a basis to trade, can change.

One reason traders may wish to use automated trading strategies is that this complex nature of the market makes it difficult for a human trader to stay with a trade, as a retracement can turn into a reverse or can be so deep that it might as well be, in terms of the desired parameters of the trade. A robot, if programmed to do so, will simply plough through, with the idea that the strategy will work out over time. But this is why automated trading can result in sharp losses in the account as well as why human discretion has an important role in trading Forex. But where does this discretion come from. It comes from knowledge.

One way to discover the market is to map out behaviour of the market (since there is not a particular template to establish direction). One way to make a map is to trade in different market conditions. It will become evident that support and resistance is important in the Forex market, in that it establishes regions where the pair may reverse or change volatility. Changes in volatility can themselves lead into more structured moves, thus they can be a pointer themselves for a possible move, making volatility a pattern.

Support and resistance can be seen as being hard wired to an extent into the Forex market, in that it tends to emerge from repeated value levels, such as values as a pair moves to and within big figures. There are many other sources of support and resistance, for example from values established by indicators, such as moving averages. Support and resistance help establish patterns, creating containers within which shapes can be traced out. But part of the complexity of this market is that the effect of value levels can change patterns which might otherwise be expected to continue forming. It is easy to become focused on patterns and indicators and miss what the actual value of the pair is.

It can be seen why knowing the vagaries of this market is important. For a beginner, one way to practice without suffering losses is to use a demo account. MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is a powerful Forex trading platform, which needs getting to grips with, and can allow the more experienced trader to use trading automation and automate their strategy. A demo account can let a trader who is not familiar with the platform learn how to use it. For more experienced traders, a demo account lets the trader take a break to test out a strategy or a feature of MT4 or familiarise themselves with a new market to trade (Forex pairs tend to have particular behaviour, some are more volatile than others, some tend to evidence greater ranges of movement than others, for example, which is discovered from trading them).

Demo accounts are typically free, but MT4 demo accounts may expire. The demo account will have a sum to trade with in the account, but this is not real money and can only be used in the demo account. One thing to watch out for is that the trader may be using a sum in the demo account which is markedly different from the sum in the real account, and the amount of money affects the way a trader may trade, giving more or less room to keep open positions and maintain them as the market retraces. These brokers may offer other platforms, to which the demo account registration may also give access.

It should be noted that the MT4 demo account registration is usually much briefer than a full live account registration. To open a live account, the trader will need to complete this registration and will need to deposit at least the minimum deposit required by the broker. The table above shows what this minimum deposit is to take the next step to a live account.