May-23-2012Brokers:Swissquote launches Swiss DOTS - a derivatives trading system
May-24-2012Software:Markets.com launches Sirix - Leverate's new social trading platform
May-01-2012Signals:xForex provides traders with free forex signals
May-24-2012Market:Chinese Pmi Hsbc Drifts Further Lower Into Contraction at 48.7

Don't use automated trading or FXCM's MT4 platform

I continue to like the service, the research provided (free and membership) and the executions. When had issues, its not been because of FXCM, only because of my own poor trading decisions.

Here's what I recommend to newbies, being barely out of that category myself:

- Don't use automated trading or MT4 platform
- Trade the news; find a news coverage provider (live, or pre-news strategy; many are freely available) and ** listen ** to what they say
- Learn to use indicators, but don't overdo them. MACD is perhaps the most valuable indicator out there. Stochastics provides detail MACD doesn' show. RSI/Momentum is your gut check. Pivot points show chart levels other indicators don't show. Bollinger, and a good MSA and EMA to confirm sell and buy points and you're all set.
- Learn the "personality" of the pairs you trade and don't trade linked pairs in the same direction (use one to hedge the other if needed).
- Keep greed and fear out of the equation - meaning set your stops and don't change them in the negative direction, and your limits so that when you walk away from the data you benefit from spikes before retracement.
- The trend is your friend. Trade in the trend one timescale up from your trading timescale unless you have a serious reason to go in the other direction.
- Listen to signals. Ignore opinions.