John Harun Mwau Facebook: How To Trade FOREX Wisely?!

John Harun Mwau Facebook: How To Trade FOREX Wisely?!

How To Trade Wisely?!
Yes, that’s true 95% losers and only 5% winners,
Why?!
These 5% of investors get everything that the remaining
95% lose. This means unimaginable amounts of money
passing from hands to hands every day.
The 5% who get all the money KNOW what to do, because
they ALWAYS use proper software that makes the
decisions. So the BEST and ONLY working way to earn
money on Forex is by using READY buy/sell signals
generated by highly specialized, intelligent, and selfimproving software (machine). Only machine, a powerful
computer that analyzes all the data from the the
market is able to make the right decision. Machines don’t
have emotions, they don’t know what fear or greed means,
and they never act according to intuition. They obtain
the results by means of calculation, and this makes them
the best advisers. That’s why 95% of ordinary people lose
their money to 5% of wise investors.
And because I was too lazy to sit front of a computer screen
for 12 hours a day or more, So I embarked on a search to
find the ultimate forex trading system, a system which takes the emotions out of trading, and which is consistently
profitable.
But, the Forex market is so powerful that many selfproclaimed gurus and pros have been selling their programs
for years, supposedly helping the average people of the
world to become forex market whiz kids. Unfortunately, most
of these systems are built strictly to capitalize on your
eagerness to participate in the global market, and never
show any real results.
Also a main problem cited by users of previous old forex
methods was that the software was too difficult to
understand, and nearly impossible to use. A person would
have to devote a large portion of their time to the system,
essentially learning about the market before attempting to
make money there. For that reason, people were giving up
and losing money by the thousands.

It is not impossible to join the league of successful traders – the winners’ club. All you need to do is follow a few Forex trading tips religiously. Forex trading tips do not imply following some weird crappy suggestions by mediocre traders, who haven’t spent much time in the trenches yet consider themselves as professionals. I am speaking of the guidelines and experiences shared by those few traders who have spent a large portion of their lives in the industry and can actually be considered masters of their craft. They are the ones who not only have profited time and again from this business, but also helped others along the way.
Following are some of the most significant Forex trading tips, which if deployed in your trading, can result in handsome amounts of profits and a good night’s sleep.
• First and foremost, you need to understand that forex trading is about winning. Your success implies someone else’s loss, and if you lose, you’re helping someone else to take your money. Yes, forex trading is all about making money. So you must act in your own best interest.
• You cannot digest all the information provided by news reports, political and geographical events and numerous technical indicators. This is why you need to follow a simple and uncomplicated system and strategy of trading, which follows the fundamental elements of forex trading. Keep is simple.
• Successful Forex traders identify and recognize the chief support, and the resistance regions of every currency they’re dealing in before the commencement of each trading day. But knowing the entry points will not suffice. You also need to make sure that you are acquainted with the exit points of each day and the factors influencing those exit points. Having an effective entry and exit strategy in place will definitely yield you profits at the end of the day. The key is to keep your decisions mechanical not emotional.
So, make the most out of these Forex trading tips and remember to always act in your own best interest when trading
To run an online Forex trade successfully, one need to know the Forex trading strategies properly. While you are dealing with this strategy, it is always good to be honest to yourself. It will also assist you to turn up with a strategy that you can manage easily. There are a lot of impulsive risks in the currency market that you can never rely on a single Forex trading strategy to be successful.

The key to successful trading lies in your ability to stick to your trading plan when it produces some losses and trade it with high risk reward ratio.
One of the best strategy that I can think of which can produce high risk reward ratio is the breakout strategy. The breakout occurs when the market suddenly burst in a particular direction after a period of consolidation. The burst will usually gives you a decent profit and the loss will usually be much smaller compared to the profit it can produce.
Imagine you being able to generate a risk reward ratio of 3:1 for every trade, your one win can allow you to lost 3 times in a row. Let’s say that your trading strategy can gives you a 50% winning percentage. If you trade 100 times in a month, you will win half of the time and lost half of the time. If your stop loss is always set at 20 pips and your target profit at 60 pips, this is what you get:
Win = 60 pips x 50 = 3,000 pips
Loss = 20 pips x 50 = 1,000 pips
Total Profit = 2,000 pips
If you are trading with a standard account, this is equivalent to $20,000. This is exactly how most successful traders make their income from. They do not have a secret system that they hid in a dark room. In fact most professional traders that I know trade with very simple strategy and a few of them don’t even trade with indicators.
Therefore you should spend some time to pick 1 or at most 2 strategies that you think suits you best. Practice them on your demo account and record down their win and loss for about 300 to 500 trades. Work out the winning percentage and as long as it can produce 50 to 60% winning, you then work on improving the risk reward ratio and you will have an atm on hand for a life time.

Many times, I have heard people saying something like this. “This trading strategy is too simple, how can it be making money?”
In fact, this is what I think when I first started trading forex. I was always looking for sophisticated trading strategy as I always have the thinking that a system that I dun understand must be a good one. Ironically, this is the same strategy that wiped out my account.
If you have been following some forex gurus, you will find that they are trading with pretty simple strategy with at most 2 indicators. Are you one of those traders who clutter your computer monitor with indicators that you hardly can see the price movement?
I hope that this post can debunk the myth that a good trading strategy must be one that is complicated with a lot of indicators.
More often than not, a good trading system is usually a simple one. But in order to profit from it, it requires you to be able to trade with full discipline. There are always time where you are tempted to enter into a trade even when there is no setup according to your plan and this is what really kills your account.
It is not how complicated or how many indicators you use that determine your trading success. It is the mindset and your psychology that really makes or breaks your trading career.

A typical forex trap is a fake out that is very common in trading. There may be times when you will see a price bursting out of a triangle in a particular direction causing you to enter a trade. After some time, you will see the price moving back into the triangle again and then breakout in the opposite direction. This is what is usually known as fake outs and this is very common for those of you who love to trade forex breakout strategy.
However those losses cause by fake outs can be reduced with the help of a MACD indicator. Whenever you see a breakout occurring, you can immediately take a look at your MACD indicator.
If the breakout is in the UP direction, you have to make sure that the MACD cuts above the signal line to create a bullish crossover and if the breakout is DOWN, you have to check if the MACD cuts below the signal line.
Any breakouts that are not confirmed by the MACD crossover are usually fake outs and you should avoid entering any trades. It is always better to miss a trade than to lose in a trade.

I bet you have heard of the statement “The Trend Is Your Friend”. From this statement alone, you should understand the importance of trading in the direction of the trend. However, not many people really know how to trade in the direction of the trend. Therefore I decided to write this post to elaborate more on how you can trade the trend.
The key to riding the trend is to always remember this statement: Buy the dips in an uptrend and Sell the rally in a downtrend.
So how can you buy the dips in an uptrend?
Even when the price is in an uptrend, there are also times where it will retrace backward before it continues to move further up. The time when it retraces are known as DIPS.
If you are able to analysis when the dips will reverse, you will be able to enter a LONG trade when the price moves back up.

Being able to sport market trends and ride them are what make professional forex traders bank millions almost instantly. The market is revolving around a series of patterns – mostly based on human psychology and other external factors – and you should take your time and learn to spot the patterns and benefit from them. To help you get started, we are going to talk about some technical indicators that you can use to spot trends when forex trading.
First of all, we have Moving Average, known as the simplest, most universal technical indicator to use. Spotting trends can be done easily using multiple Moving Average indicators; we are not talking about advanced Moving Average indicators here, we are simply going to use Simple Moving Average or SMA to spot market trends.
Start by placing a 7 period, a 20 period, and a 65 period SMA on your chart. When you see the three indicators pack together and then spreading to a particular direction, you are looking at the beginning of a market trend. If the 7 period SMA is on top of the 20 period SMA with the 60 period SMA under both indicators, you are looking at an upward trend. On the contrary, if the situation is reversed then you are expecting a down trend.
You can also predict market trends easily by using the ADX or Average Directional Index. You can simply set up the indicator and start seeing market trends right away. However, the ADX is slightly a bit behind compared to the SMA when it comes to predicting trend so you should combine it with other technical indicators to support you.

If you are still trading foreign currency pairs using a line chart, you are missing the benefits of using the forex candlesticks. Although they might look simple at first, there are actually a lot of information you can gather from the market when you use forex candlesticks. There are four main aspects you should look into when viewing forex candlesticks and we are going to discuss them in this article.
First of all, you need to understand that a candlestick represents the chart time frame you choose to use. If you are trading at 30-minute time frame, then a candlestick represents a period of 30 minutes. If the market is moving upwards, the candlestick is usually hollow or displayed as white; on the contrary, the candlestick is filled or displayed as black if the market is moving downwards.
The main square of a candlestick represents the open and close prices of the time frame. If the candlestick is hollow, the upper end of the main square is the close price while the lower end represents the open price, and vice versa if the candlestick is filled. The lines you see extending from each end of the square are called shadows. The upper shadow represents just how high the price moved during the time frame while the lower shadow represents the lowest price of the time frame.
When used properly, you can easily predict market movements just by seeing the candlesticks. If you see three candlesticks having the same lower shadows – or in other words, the same lowest prices – then you can expect it to be a sign of reversal or the beginning of an upward trend.
You can’t just enter the forex market and expect some easy money in return. Even though the forex market offers tons of money making opportunities and great profits to be made, you still need to be patient and have proper skills and strategies. Not only that, you also need to have proper trading plan in hand if you want to stay profitable at all times.
Formulating a good trading plan that suits your personality and skills is relatively easy to do. First of all, you need to pick one or two foreign currency pairs that you will be focusing on. This is a necessary step to take since you will be able to focus your analysis on one or two markets, making taking the right decisions much easier to do.
Once you have selected the pairs you will be trading, learn as much as you can about the foreign currency pairs. If you plan on trading the GBP/JPY, for example, you need to understand the necessary fundamental elements of both the Pound and Japan Yen. Keep in mind that fundamental analysis can really help you anticipate trends and market movements, which means it will help you bank profits easily.
Last but certainly not least, you need to learn about the nature of the market and the right technical indicators to use. Technical analysis can help you make quick decisions during live trading sessions. Put all these aspects together and you will be able to formulate your own trading plan without hassle.
When trading forex, you need to take various aspects into the decision making process in order to be profitable. That is why trading at the right time frame is essentially important. When trading at the right time frame, you will find forex trading very enjoyable and rewarding at the same time. What you need is to pick the right time frame according to your trading style and personality.
Many new forex traders make the mistake of trading at smaller time frames such as 1-minute or 5-minute. Although this might seem like a good idea at first – since market movements are reflected instantly and you can make quick profits here and there – it may not be the best way to go.
Shorter time frames are only suitable if you plan on day trading or even scalping. Since you only need to capture a small momentum and bank profits immediately, you don’t need to trade at longer time frames. However, you also need to have superb skills in analyzing market movements and paying close attention to details if you want to stay ahead of the market.
Longer time frames, on the other hand, are more suitable for those of you who plan on riding trends and letting positions stay opened for an extended period of time. You will be able to bank more profits cumulatively but you also need to have the necessary skills to predict long-term market movements. Longer time frames such as 1-hour, 4-hour, even 1-day are certainly more suitable for this type of forex trader.
There are lots of literatures about trading strategies used by forex traders. Perhaps you’ve read a few if you’re regular reader. However, what makes the different between a successful trader and a loser is how they put these strategies to practice. Again, it is not just the use statistical analyses that will make you successful. It’s by using a mix of well examined forex trading strategies that work which will enables you make profits and not loses. Particularly, these types of methods are extremely helpful to newbie in the currency exchange market. Here are some strategies that you can easily follow.
Scalping Technique
Scalping trading strategy requires a trader to make several trades within a single day. There is no limit to the number of trades to make. Sometimes it can reach hundreds in any single day. When doing scalping trading, you do not hold to the trades for long. You may also exit a trade whenever you feel the marketplace is actually reacting unfavourably. To make profits with scalping strategy, you should sell a currency pair when it makes slight gains above the bid price. Nevertheless, you have to measure the market scenario continuously to achieve success along with scalp trading strategy.
Invest In Correct Currency Pairs
Foreign currency set is actually an additional essential factor to think about when creating forex trading strategies that work. It is important to invest in currency pairs that move in two different directions at any single trading time. To find the proper currency pair, you need to research a number of market data. This will consist of charts of previous many years. Choosing two currency pairs that moves in opposite direction is help because if one goes down and makes loses, the other pair will cover it up by going up and making profits. This helps minimize risks to a great extent.
Margin Account
Understanding how you can use money carefully is actually an effective forex trading strategy that works specifically to newbie. Regardless whether you are a newbie to the forex market or not, you have to safeguard the fund available in your accounts from being squandered. The best way to do this is to maintain a margin account. This really is an account which your broker lends you money to trade. Nevertheless, you will pay interest for the amount lent to you. Maintaining a margin account helps you get some additional cash if you have limited capital.
The 1-2-3 pattern is very common in the trading world and frankly speaking I love spotting those distinctive trades. As the name suggests, they form a 1-2-3 cycle and once you get used to spotting them you will be amazed by the accuracy of this method. Whether it is at the beginning of a new trend or the end of an actual trend, with this system you will be able to pick a highly profitable trade when it comes along your way.
I personally find that this system works best on the bigger timeframes, daily and above. However, if you are a bit of a thrill seeker, you may also use it on the smaller timeframes with some extra indicators to catch some quick profit.
This pattern in commonly known as a 1-2-3 buy pattern and as you can see from the above graph, price bottomed, did a correction, then a retest and finally broke through the correction line marked as the red-line.
It seems a lot to grasp just by saying it but believe me it’s as simple as 1-2-3.
Point 1 – Price bottoms. Point 2 – Price does a correction Point 3 – Price retest and bang goes back to correction point and above.
This is a perfect set-up of the 123 system at work. There’s no tedious analysis, just spot the pattern and place your buy order 10pips above point 2.
(Note: some experienced traders usually jump in the market before the crowd and buy just below point 2)
It is crucial that the retest, which is labeled point 3, does not go beyond point 1. If price does go all the way down to point 1, it is not a valid pattern to take a trade. Abort mission and move to the next one.
Point 1 – Price tops Point 2 – Price correctionPoint 3 – Price retests and breaks red line to continue downward movement.
Now for you to get some practice and become familiar with those trades simply open a daily, weekly or even a monthly chart and spot those 1-2-3 patterns. Write it down on a piece of paper and count the number of wins you picked to the number of losses you incurred. Now calculate the accuracy on the system. I found that the system was accurate around 70% of the time and noticed that the higher the timeframe the more accurate the signals were and bigger were the moves.
I hope that this helps shed some light on the way to profit from the market and catch some big moves. These trades usually last anywhere from weeks to months and are great for traders who do not have time to sit in front of their computer all day long. If you are one of those traders I genuinely believe that this strategy will greatly help you in your trading.
Note: Usually the stop loss with such a system is anywhere between 100-300 pips depending on the timeframe you are trading. The bigger the time frames the bigger the stop-loss.
Remember only risk 3% of your tradable account. The path to success lies greatly on a sound money management system. Stick to this rule and you will prosper in your trading career.
The breakout method is a simple and easy to follow trading strategy using basic indicators. Best part is this system can work on any currency pair of your choice. The rules of this system are very easy and clear to follow. Remember the KISS principle when applying the strategy, do not try to over complicate it as it just defeats the purpose of having a system in the first place. I cannot stress this enough…the simpler it is the better you will trade.
I can tell you that if executed properly with minimum psychological conflicts, this stratehy will let you enjoy big gains in your trading cashflow.
NOTE: This system is best suited for trending currencies.
Step 1
Open a daily chart.
Step 2
Add a 50 Simple Moving Average (SMA) on the chart as shown above. The observation made from the graph above is that price is trading below the 50SMA. That is the most important part of this trading system, to define the market trend.
The daily chart will provide you with an insight of the type of trades to take. If price was above 50SMA and 50SMA was pointing up with a positive gradient, you will take only long trades (buy). In the above case, price is clearly trading under 50SMA, which is pointing downwards. This gives you an overall idea to take short trades only (sell).
Step 3
Once the type of trade is determined, head to a 30-mins chart. That is where your entire trade signal is going to be triggered.
Step 4
Draw a trend-line from the lowest point where price last broke the 50SMA from downwards and connect line to the next highest lows which are trading above the 50SMA as shown in 30-mins chart above. This line will act as a support for price to bounce off.
Step-5
Remember that you are taking only short trades for this setup. Trade will be triggered only when price breaks through support line (Blue Line) as shown in graph below.
Now, there are two ways that you may enter the market:
1. If you are an aggressive trader, you may jump in the market at the open of the candlestick that follows the break of the blue trend-line. (You may need the confirmation of another indicator to support your claim)

2. If you are a conservative trader, you might draw a support line on the last price low shown on graph above as the gray line. Break of this support line provides extra confirmation for the trade, which is also trading under the 50SMA. The next step is for price too clearly open under the 50 SMA (Red Line) as shown above to take the trade.
If trend is strong, you can potentially make huge profit. In that instance you could potentially have made just over 300pips where risk was 70pips. This is on a standard account, means risking $700 to make $3000. Great risk to reward ratio of nearly 1:4.
With this strategy my stop-loss is usually between 50-70 pips and my profit target is between 150-300+pips depending on the volatility of the pair am trading.
Note: An indicator acting as a filter may be used for false breakout to minimize risk of taking a bad trade.
1. Avoid overtrading
Overtrading is regarded as a curse in the world of Forex trade. Overtrading affects those people that have higher amounts of greed. Every trader must tame the internal desires that may drive him or her to trade more when he or she should be quitting. This is a tricky situation that can make you plough all the profits that you have made and in the process, you may lose everything depending on how you approach the trade. This calls for high levels of caution since this is the only way that you will know when to stop and when to continue trading in Forex.
2. Get rid of emotions
When trading Forex, emotions can affect your trade by a huge margin. You must not be under emotions when trading at any given time. When you are sober emotionally, you will not spend your money trading unnecessarily. This is because your decisions will not be based on emotions but on facts.
3. Avoid speculation
Speculation is fine when used to gain competitive advantage in long term Forex trading. You will note that speculation may be very destructive when used to make short term predictions in Forex trading. When you want to use speculation for the short run, you will need to bring on board the use of other proven techniques that when combined with other methods can offer dependable results.
4. Making use of stop loss
This is very necessary for those people who would like to have their investments protected. The technique will limit the amount of risk that you may incur hence in the process, you will be at a position to consolidate your trading gains and achieve their best.
5. Continue learning
Every Forex trader must keep on learning new trading techniques because there is nothing that can be taken to substitute it. Learn as many things as possible especially that have something to do with what professional Forex traders do to guarantee successful trading.
6. Put in place effective risk management models
This is very necessary for every Forex trader that is interested in accumulating wealth through Forex trade in the long run. As a trader, you can invest in procedures that will reduce the risk levels that you get exposed to. There are many models that can be used to manage trading risks in the Forex market successfully. Choose the one that suits you trading needs.
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John Harun Mwau Facebook: How To Trade FOREX Wisely?!

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Forex Trading Mentors = the key to your forex success?

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Forex Trading Mentors = the key to your forex success?

Forex Trading Mentors = the key to your forex success?
Dictionary.com defines a mentor as a “wise and trusted counselor or teacher”. Do you NEED forex trading mentor to make consistent money in the forex market? In a word, no. Will it significantly reduce your learning curve, enhance your overall trading experience, and result in much less lost time and money? Almost definitely.
So why is it that many forex traders spend thousands of dollars for forex trading software “robots” or spend countless hours trying to figure out how to trade on their own when they could just enlist the help of someone that has been in their shoes and found success? There are many different answers to this question but most of them probably have something to do with the fact that forex is so popular on the internet these days and there are so many different options for people to learn from and strategies to trade with. Unfortunately most of these trading strategies and systems and learning options are not very useful because they are not written or designed by actual professional traders, but by people looking to profit off the exploding interest of forex trading.
Just as with any other profession in the world, the best way to learn to trade forexis from an experienced and professional trader. Any job you have worked at has very likely required you to “shadow” someone with experience so that you learn the correct and most efficient way to perform this job. This type of “shadowing” or mentorship is actually probably more important for the aspiring forex trader than it is for any other job or profession. The reason why is because in any other profession once you get hired you can’t really lose a lot of money really fast, you can with forex trading. Probably the biggest advantage to getting yourself an experienced and profitable forex mentor is that they will save you a boatload of lost money, lost time, and much frustration and confusion. Any money you have to pay to enlist the services of a forex mentor are likely to pale in comparison to the amount of money most beginning forex traders lose in the markets as a result of not fully understanding what it takes to become a successful trader.
So now that you know why you are likely to benefit greatly from a forex mentor, what are some of the characteristics you should look for in a genuine and effectiveforex mentor? Well, the obvious one is that they should be a professional trader themselves, ideally for at least 5 years or more, anyone can have a fluke year and make money by risking too much and getting lucky and then call themselves a pro trader. However, it takes real skill and discipline to make money consistently in the forex market over a number of years. A true professional forex trader and mentor will not hide behind big promises or fancy trading software, they have a strong web presence and make it known that they are a mentor and professional trader, to put it simply, you won’t have to guess. Also, they should have a natural flair for explaining the intricacies of what it takes to find success in the forex market in an easy to understand and effective manner.

Forex demo trading; why is it necessary and how long should you do it?
• WHY is forex demo trading necessary?
Many beginning forex traders feel the urge to jump head first into the market with real money. While this is a very tempting thing to do, it is never the best route to take for a variety of reasons. First off, you need to get familiar with the functionality of your particular brokers trading system. Many traders end up committing sillyforex trading mistakes as a result of not fully understanding how the particular broker’s entry system they are using works. Some of these trading mistakes include things like not entering the correct position size or trading the currency pair, it sounds silly, but it happens. The last thing you need when starting off your forex trading career is to commit these types of silly error as a result of not having enough patience to learn how your trading platform works via a demo account.
Another big reason to trade on a demo account before switching to a live account is the fact that you need to practice your forex trading strategy and make sure it actually gives you a high probability edge before you try it out with real money. It is important that you know what are you looking for before you dive head first into the market with your hard earned money. If you don’t know what the market must look like before you enter than you are essentially just gambling. So, it is important you define this information on a demo account and make sure it actually works before committing any real money.
• How long should you demo trade?
Many traders are unsure how long they should demo trade before switching to a live trading account. This is a very good question but unfortunately does not have any definitive answer. The minimum you should demo trade your forex strategy is probably about 2 months, ideally 3. But the bottom line is that you need to demo trade until your particular forex trading strategy is bringing you consistently weekly profits. There is some truth to the notion that if you can’t profit on a demo account, you will not be able to profit on a live account. In fact, many traders find success while demo trading and then switch to a live account and find out that it is an entirely different ball game. So, you need to be careful that you do not become over confident as you demo trade because demo trading is quite different from live trading. The reason it is different is because there is literally NO emotion involved while demo trading due to the simple fact that there is no real money on the line. So, while demo trading is a necessary and effective tool for your trading success, it should not be used as a crutch, because ultimately you will need to switch over to a live trading account to really prove yourself.

Technical Analysis Discounts Everything; Especially in Forex
Minimal Rate Inconsistency
There are many large players in the forex market, such as hedge funds and large banks, that all have advanced computer systems to constantly monitor any inconsistencies between the different currency pairs. Given these programs, it is rare to see any major inconsistency last longer than a matter of seconds. Many traders turn to forex technical analysis because it presumes that all the factors that influence a price – economic, political, social and psychological – have already been factored into the current exchange rate by the market. With so many investors and so much money exchanging hands each day, the trend and flow of capital is what becomes important, rather than attempting to identify a mispriced rate.

Trend or Range
One of the greatest goals of technical traders in the FX market is to determine whether a given pair will trend in a certain direction, or if it will travel sideways and remain range-bound. The most common method to determine these characteristics is to draw trend lines that connect historical levels that have prevented a rate from heading higher or lower. These levels of support and resistance are used by technical traders to determine whether or not the given trend, or lack of trend, will continue.

Generally, the major currency pairs – such as the EUR/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF and GBP/USD – have shown the greatest characteristics of trend, while the currency pairs that have historically shown a higher probability of becoming range-bound have been the currency crosses (pairs not involving the U.S. dollar). The two charts below show the strong trending nature of USD/JPY in contrast to the range-bound nature of EUR/CHF. It is important for every trader to be aware of the characteristics of trend and range, because they will not only affect what pairs are traded, but also what type of strategy should be used

Common Indicators
Technical traders use many different indicators in combination with support and resistance to aid them in predicting the future direction of exchange rates. Again, learning how to interpret various forex technical indicators is a study unto itself and goes beyond the scope of this forex tutorial. If you wish to learn more about this subject, we suggest you read our technical analysis tutorial.

A few indicators that we feel we should mention, due to their popularity, are: Bollinger bands, Fibonacci retracement, moving averages, moving average convergence divergence (MACD) and stochastics. These technical tools are rarely used by themselves to generate signals, but rather in conjunction with other indicators and chart patterns.

So, you think you are ready to trade? Make sure you read this section to learn how you can go about setting up a forex account so that you can start trading currencies. We’ll also mention other factors that you should be aware of before you take this step. We will then discuss how to trade forex and the different types of orders that can be placed.

Opening A Forex Brokerage Account
Trading forex is similar to the equity market because individuals interested in trading need to open up a trading account. Like the equity market, each forex account and the services it provides differ, so it is important that you find the right one. Below we will talk about some of the factors that should be considered when selecting a forex account.

Leverage
Leverage is basically the ability to control large amounts of capital, using very little of your own capital; the higher the leverage, the higher the level of risk. The amount of leverage on an account differs depending on the account itself, but most use a factor of at least 50:1, with some being as high as 250:1. A leverage factor of 50:1 means that for every dollar you have in your account you control up to $50. For example, if a trader has $1,000 in his or her account, the broker will lend that person $50,000 to trade in the market. This leverage also makes your margin, or the amount you have to have in the account to trade a certain amount, very low. In equities, margin is usually at least 50%, while the leverage of 50:1 is equivalent to 2%.

Leverage is seen as a major benefit of forex trading, as it allows you to make large gains with a small investment. However, leverage can also be an extreme negative if a trade moves against you because your losses also are amplified by the leverage. With this kind of leverage, there is the real possibility that you can lose more than you invested – although most firms have protective stops preventing an account from going negative. For this reason, it is vital that you remember this when opening an account and that when you determine your desired leverage you understand the risks involved.

Commissions and Fees
Another major benefit of forex accounts is that trading within them is done on a commission-free basis. This is unlike equity accounts, in which you pay the broker a fee for each trade. The reason for this is that you are dealing directly with market makers and do not have to go through other parties like brokers.

This may sound too good to be true, but rest assured that market makers are still making money each time you trade. Remember the bid and ask from the previous section? Each time a trade is made, it is the market makers that capture the spread between these two. Therefore, if the bid/ask for a foreign currency is 1.5200/50, the market maker captures the difference (50 basis points).

If you are planning on opening a forex account, it is important to know that each firm has different spreads on foreign currency pairs traded through them. While they will often differ by only a few pips (0.0001), this can be meaningful if you trade a lot over time. So when opening an account make sure to find out the pip spread that it has on foreign currency pairs you are looking to trade.

Other Factors
There are a lot of differences between each forex firm and the accounts they offer, so it is important to review each before making a commitment. Each company will offer different levels of services and programs along with fees above and beyond actual trading costs. Also, due to the less regulated nature of the forex market, it is important to go with a reputable company.

This might in fact be the most important part of this mini-course for you to read multiple times and fully understand. If you wish to achieve long-term success as a forex trader you really need to view the process as a marathon and not a sprint. There is paradox in forex trading that revolves around the notion of the harder you try to make money the less money you will make. This might seem a bit strange to the newbie trader, but to the more experienced trader it very likely resonates all too well.
Many beginning traders are initially attracted to forex strategies because they have read somewhere on the internet or perhaps heard on TV that it is perhaps a great way to make some fast money. While it is true that you can make extra money as a forex trader, you should understand the fact and accept that unless you have a relatively large amount of money to fund your trading account with, you simply will not be able to make large consistent profits. What ends up happening to many traders is they begin risking too much money after a series of winning trades as a result of their confidence being high. This then inevitably results in them losing a larger portion of their trading account than they normally would if they had been following proper money management rules. Once you get stuck in this cycle of risking too much, getting lucky and making some significant fast cash, and then giving it all back, it is very hard to stop or even recognize what you are doing.
All of these actions are a result of trader’s not viewing forex trading as a marathon to success but instead as a sprint. People approach the markets with all sorts of desires and wishes; they want to pay off a loan, they want to buy a car, they want to make enough money to quit their job, there are all sorts of reasons why people get involved in the markets. The problems arise when traders feel like they “need” to make money from their trading, if you feel like you “need” to make money in the forex market to be happy or to live your dream life, but you don’t have very much money to start trading with, you are approaching the market from the entirely wrong perspective and setting yourself up for a huge financial disaster.
You must learn to trade in harmony with the market, you cannot control the market; you can only pre-define your own actions if XYZ occur in the market. Many traders do not pre-define their trading behavior though; instead they unknowingly try to control the market by reacting to its movement impulsively and emotionally. Unfortunately what these traders don’t realize is that the market does not care if you get emotional, the market does not care if you lose your entire life savings, and ultimately you are the only one to blame for your forex trading mistakes and no one else. So, in order to avoid such disasters we need to view forex trading as a marathon, it is not a sprint. The more you try to sprint and “force” money out of the market, the more elusive it will become. Patience and discipline are the fastest routes to consistently profiting in the forex market.

What are the best forex trading strategies?
While the best forex trading strategy is the one that works the best with your personality, amount of disposable trading income, and daily schedule, there some things you can look for in a forex strategy if you are new to the world of forex that will make you hunt for the best forex trading strategy easier.
1. Is it adaptable?
Meaning does it work in all market conditions? Or does it only work in strongly trend markets? Unfortunately, many of the forex trading software programs and lagging indicator based trading strategies and systems out there have been optimized to show performance in strongly trend markets. Any experienced trader knows that markets spend just as much, if not more time consolidating in trading ranges than they do in strong trends. Therefore, it is imperative to your long-term trading success that you employ a forex trading strategy that that gives you the potential to profit in both sideways and trending markets. Otherwise you will be sitting on the sidelines much more than you will probably want to.
2. Is it easy to implement?

The best forex strategy, regardless what it is, will be relatively easy to begin using. There is simply no need to use a trading strategy that is difficult to understand or that requires you to spent thousands of dollars on fancy software. While it is true that you will have to practice any trading strategy on a demo account before getting good enough with it to trade real money, it should not be difficult to understand or implement. If you find yourself trying to learn a forex strategy that is nothing more than a combination of complicated lagging indicators which make your charts painful to look at, then move on to a different strategy. There are many simple yet very effective forex strategies available for you to use, so there is simply not point in settling for a complicated one or one that is ineffective.
3. Is it proven to be effective?
There is really no need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to forex trading strategies. There are many very effective and simple strategies that have been used for years in the forex market. All you need to do is find one such strategy that you enjoy using and then makes sense to you and master it. Many traders get caught up in the analysis-paralysis cycle of trying to figure out how every imaginable market variable might affect price movement. This is simply an exercise in futility because there is no way you can ever know how every variable will affect price movement simply do to the fact that price movement is a result of human interpretation of economic forces. Therefore, unless you know what every single market participant thinks about every single market variable, you cannot possibly figure out how any given market variable will affect price movement. So, stick to basic forex trading strategies that have been proven to be effective throughout time, and you will be will on your way to achieving your forex trading goals.

Now that you know some important factors to be aware of when opening a forex account, we will take a look at what exactly you can trade within that account. The two main ways to trade in the foreign currency market is the simple buying and selling of currency pairs, where you go long one currency and short another. The second way is through the purchasing of derivatives that track the movements of a specific currency pair. Both of these techniques are highly similar to techniques in the equities market.The most common way is to simply buy and sell currency pairs, much in the same way most individuals buy and sell stocks. In this case, you are hoping the value of the pair itself changes in a favorable manner. If you go long a currency pair, you are hoping that the value of the pair increases. For example, let’s say that you took a long position in the USD/CAD pair – you will make money if the value of this pair goes up, and lose money if it falls. This pair rises when the U.S. dollar increases in value against the Canadian dollar, so it is a bet on the U.S. dollar.

The other option is to use derivative products, such as options and futures, to profit from changes in the value of currencies. If you buy an option on a currency pair, you are gaining the right to purchase a currency pair at a set rate before a set point in time. A futures contract, on the other hand, creates the obligation to buy the currency at a set point in time. Both of these trading techniques are usually only used by more advanced traders, but it is important to at least be familiar with them. (For more on this, try Getting Started in Forex Options and our tutorials, Option Spread Strategies and Options Basics Tutorial.)

Types of Orders
A trader looking to open a new position will likely use either a market order or a limit order. The incorporation of these order types remains the same as when they are used in the equity markets. A market order gives a forex trader the ability to obtain the currency at whatever exchange rate it is currently trading at in the market, while a limit order allows the trader to specify a certain entry price. (For a brief refresher of these orders, see The Basics of Order Entry.)

Forex traders who already hold an open position may want to consider using a take-profit order to lock in a profit. Say, for example, that a trader is confident that the GBP/USD rate will reach 1.7800, but is not as sure that the rate could climb any higher. A trader could use a take-profit order, which would automatically close his or her position when the rate reaches 1.7800, locking in their profits.

Another tool that can be used when traders hold open positions is the stop-loss order. This order allows traders to determine how much the rate can decline before the position is closed and further losses are accumulated. Therefore, if the GBP/USD rate begins to drop, an investor can place a stop-loss that will close the position (for example at 1.7787), in order to prevent any further losses.

As you can see, the type of orders that you can enter in your forex trading account are similar to those found in equity accounts. Having a good understanding of these orders is critical before placing your first trade.

Forex Terms
In order to be successful trader, certain basics is needed :
Ask: Price at which broker/dealer is willing to sell. Same as
“Offer”.
Bid: Price at which broker/dealer is willing to buy.
Bid/Ask Spread (or “Spread”): The distance, usually in pips,
between the Bid and Ask price. A tighter spread is better for
the trader.
Cost of Carry (also “Interest” or “Premium”): The cost, often
quoted in terms of dollars or pips per day, of holding an open
position.
Currency Futures: Futures contracts traded on an exchange,
most typically the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (“CME”).
Always quoted in terms of the currency value with respect to
the US Dollar. Parameters of the futures contract are
standardized by the exchange.
Drawdown: The magnitude of a decline in account value,
either in percentage or dollar terms, as measured from peak
to subsequent trough. For example, if a trader’s account
increased in value from $10,000 to $20,000, then dropped to
$15,000, then increased again to $25,000, that trader would
have had a maximum drawdown of $5,000 (incurred when
the account declined from $20,000 to $15,000) even though
that trader’s account was never in a loss position from
inception.
Fundamental Analysis: Macro or strategic assessments of
where a currency should be trading based on any criteria but
the price action itself. These criteria often include the
economic condition of the country that the currency
represents, monetary policy, and other “fundamental”
elements.
Leverage: The amount, expressed as a multiple, by which
the notional amount traded exceeds the margin required to
trade. For example, if the notional amount traded (also
referred to as “lot size” or “contract value”) is $100,000
dollars and the required margin is $2,000, the trader can
trade with 50 times leverage ($100,000/$2,000).
Limit: An order to buy at a specified price when the market
moves down to that price, or to sell at a specified price when
the market moves up to that price.
Liquidity: A function of volume and activity in a market. It
is the efficiency and cost effectiveness with which positions
can be traded and orders executed. A more liquid market
will provide more frequent price quotes at a smaller bid/ask
spread.
Margin: The amount of funds required in a clients account in
order to open a position or to maintain an open position. For
example, 1% margin means that $1,000 of funds on deposit
are required for a $100,000 position.
Margin Call: A requirement by the broker to deposit more
funds in order to maintain an open position. Sometimes a
“margin call” means that the position which does not have
sufficient funds on deposit will simply be closed out by the broker. This procedure allows the client to avoid further
losses or a debit account balance.
Market Order: An order to buy at the current Ask price.
Offer: Price at which broker/dealer is willing to sell. Same as
“Ask”.
Pip: The smallest price increment in a currency. Often
referred to as “ticks” in the futures markets. For example, in
EUR/USD, a move from .9015 to .9016 is one pip. In
USD/JPY, a move from 128.51 to 128.52 is one pip.
Premium (also “Interest” or “Cost of Carry”): The cost, often
quoted in terms of dollars or pips per day, of holding an open
position.
Spot Foreign Exchange: Often referred to as the “interbank”
market. Refers to currencies traded between two
counterparties, often major banks. Spot Foreign Exchange is
generally traded on margin and is the primary market that
this website is focused on. Generally more liquid and widely
traded than currency futures, particularly by institutions and
professional money managers.
Stop: An order to buy at the market only when the market
moves up to a specific price, or to sell at the market only
when the market moves down to a specific price.
Technical Analysis: Analysis applied to the price action of
the market to develop trading decisions, irrespective of
fundamental factors. Below are the most common technical
studies
Currency Pairs :
Symbol Currency Pair Trading Terminology
GBPUSD British Pound / US Dollar “Cable”
EURUSD Euro / US Dollar “Euro”
USDJPY US Dollar / Japanese Yen “Dollar Yen”
USDCHF US Dollar / Swiss Franc “Dollar Swiss”
USDCAD US Dollar / Canadian Dollar “Dollar Canada”
AUDUSD Australian Dollar / US Dollar “Aussie Dollar”
EURGBP Euro / British Pound “Euro Sterling”
EURJPY Euro / Japanese Yen “Euro Yen”
EURCHF Euro / Swiss Franc “Euro Swiss”
GBPCHF British Pound / Swiss Franc “Sterling Swiss”
GBPJPY British Pound / Japanese Yen “Sterling Yen”
CHFJPY Swiss Franc / Japanese Yen “Swiss Yen”
USDZAR US Dollar / South African Rand “Dollar Zar”

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John Harun Mwau Facebook : Forex Direct Currency Quote

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Forex Direct Currency Quote
Direct Currency Quote vs. Indirect Currency Quote
There are two ways to quote a currency pair, either directly or indirectly. A direct currencyquote is simply a currency pair in which the domestic currency is the base currency; while an indirect quote, is a currency pair where the domestic currency is the quoted currency. So if you were looking at the Canadian dollar as the domestic currency and U.S. dollar as the foreign currency, a direct quote would be CAD/USD, while an indirect quote would be USD/CAD. The direct quote varies the foreign currency, and the quoted, or domestic currency, remains fixed at one unit. In the indirect quote, on the other hand, the domestic currency is variable and the foreign currency is fixed at one unit.

For example, if Canada is the domestic currency, a direct quote would be 0.85 CAD/USD, which means with C$1, you can purchase US$0.85. The indirect quote for this would be the inverse (1/0.85), which is 1.18 USD/CAD and means that USD$1 will purchase C$1.18.

In the forex spot market, most currencies are traded against the U.S. dollar, and the U.S. dollar is frequently the base currency in the currency pair. In these cases, it is called a direct quote. This would apply to the above USD/JPY currency pair, which indicates that US$1 is equal to 119.50 Japanese yen.

However, not all currencies have the U.S. dollar as the base. The Queen’s currencies – those currencies that historically have had a tie with Britain, such as the British pound, Australian Dollar and New Zealand dollar – are all quoted as the base currency against the U.S. dollar. The euro, which is relatively new, is quoted the same way as well. In these cases, the U.S. dollar is the counter currency, and the exchange rate is referred to as an indirect quote. This is why the EUR/USD quote is given as 1.25, for example, because it means that one euro is the equivalent of 1.25 U.S. dollars.

Most currency exchange rates are quoted out to four digits after the decimal place, with the exception of the Japanese yen (JPY), which is quoted out to two decimal places.

Cross Currency
When a currency quote is given without the U.S. dollar as one of its components, this is called a cross currency. The most common cross currency pairs are the EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF and EUR/JPY. These currency pairs expand the trading possibilities in the forex market, but it is important to note that they do not have as much of a following (for example, not as actively traded) as pairs that include the U.S. dollar, which also are called the majors. (For more on cross currency, see Make The Currency Cross Your Boss.)

Bid and Ask
As with most trading in the financial markets, when you are trading a currency pair there is a bid price (buy) and an ask price (sell). Again, these are in relation to the base currency. When buying a currency pair (going long), the ask price refers to the amount of quoted currency that has to be paid in order to buy one unit of the base currency, or how much the market will sell one unit of the base currency for in relation to the quoted currency.

The bid price is used when selling a currency pair (going short) and reflects how much of the quoted currency will be obtained when selling one unit of the base currency, or how much the market will pay for the quoted currency in relation to the base currency.

The quote before the slash is the bid price, and the two digits after the slash represent the ask price (only the last two digits of the full price are typically quoted). Note that the bid price is always smaller than the ask price. Let’s look at an example:
USD/CAD = 1.2000/05
Bid = 1.2000
Ask= 1.2005

If you want to buy this currency pair, this means that you intend to buy the base currency and are therefore looking at the ask price to see how much (in Canadian dollars) the market will charge for U.S. dollars. According to the ask price, you can buy one U.S. dollar with 1.2005 Canadian dollars.

However, in order to sell this currency pair, or sell the base currency in exchange for the quoted currency, you would look at the bid price. It tells you that the market will buy US$1 base currency (you will be selling the market the base currency) for a price equivalent to 1.2000 Canadian dollars, which is the quoted currency.

Whichever currency is quoted first (the base currency) is always the one in which the transaction is being conducted. You either buy or sell the base currency. Depending on what currency you want to use to buy or sell the base with, you refer to the corresponding currency pair spot exchange rate to determine the price.

Spreads and Pips
The difference between the bid price and the ask price is called a spread. If we were to look at the following quote: EUR/USD = 1.2500/03, the spread would be 0.0003 or 3 pips, also known as points. Although these movements may seem insignificant, even the smallest point change can result in thousands of dollars being made or lost due to leverage. Again, this is one of the reasons thatspeculators are so attracted to the forex market; even the tiniest price movement can result in huge profit.

The pip is the smallest amount a price can move in any currency quote. In the case of the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound or Swiss franc, one pip would be 0.0001. With the Japanese yen, one pip would be 0.01, because this currency is quoted to two decimal places. So, in a forex quote of USD/CHF, the pip would be 0.0001 Swiss francs. Most currencies trade within a range of 100 to 150 pips a day.
Currency Quote Overview
USD/CAD = 1.2232/37
Base Currency Currency to the left (USD)
Quote/Counter Currency Currency to the right (CAD)
Bid Price 1.2232 Price for which the market maker will buy the base currency. Bid is always smaller than ask.
Ask Price 1.2237 Price for which the market maker will sell the base currency.
Pip One point move, in USD/CAD it is .0001 and 1 point change would be from 1.2231 to 1.2232 The pip/point is the smallest movement a price can make.
Spread Spread in this case is 5 pips/points; difference between bid and ask price (1.2237-1.2232).

Currency Pairs in the Forwards and Futures Markets
One of the key technical differences between the forex markets is the way currencies are quoted. In the forwards or futures markets, foreign exchange always is quoted against the U.S. dollar. This means that pricing is done in terms of how many U.S. dollars are needed to buy one unit of the other currency. Remember that in the spot market some currencies are quoted against the U.S. dollar, while for others, the U.S. dollar is being quoted against them. As such, the forwards/futures market and the spot market quotes will not always be parallel one another.

For example, in the spot market, the British pound is quoted against the U.S. dollar as GBP/USD. This is the same way it would be quoted in the forwards and futures markets. Thus, when the British pound strengthens against the U.S. dollar in the spot market, it will also rise in the forwards and futures markets.

On the other hand, when looking at the exchange rate for the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen, the former is quoted against the latter. In the spot market, the quote would be 115 for example, which means that one U.S. dollar would buy 115 Japanese yen. In the futures market, it would be quoted as (1/115) or .0087, which means that 1 Japanese yen would buy .0087 U.S. dollars. As such, a rise in the USD/JPY spot rate would equate to a decline in the JPY futures rate because the U.S. dollar would have strengthened against the Japanese yen and therefore one Japanese yen would buy less U.S. dollars.

Foreign Exchange Risk and Benefits
The Good and the Bad
We already have mentioned that factors such as the size, volatility and global structure of the foreign exchange market have all contributed to its rapid success. Given the highly liquid nature of this market, investors are able to place extremely large trades without affecting any given exchange rate. These large positions are made available to forex traders because of the low margin requirements used by the majority of the industry’s brokers. For example, it is possible for a trader to control a position of US$100,000 by putting down as little as US$1,000 up front and borrowing the remainder from his or her forex broker. This amount of leverage acts as a double-edged sword because investors can realize large gains when rates make a small favorable change, but they also run the risk of a massive loss when the rates move against them. Despite the foreign exchange risks, the amount of leverage available in the forex market is what makes it attractive for many speculators.

The currency market is also the only market that is truly open 24 hours a day with decent liquidity throughout the day. For traders who may have a day job or just a busy schedule, it is an optimal market to trade in. As you can see from the chart below, the major trading hubs are spread throughout many different time zones, eliminating the need to wait for an opening or closing bell. As theU.S. trading closes, other markets in the East are opening, making it possible to trade at any time during the day.
Time Zone Time (ET)
Tokyo Open 7:00 pm
Tokyo Close 4:00 am
London Open 3:00 am
London Close 12:00 pm
New York Open 8:00 am
New York Close 5:00 pm

While the forex market may offer more excitement to the investor, the risks are also higher in comparison to trading equities. The ultra-high leverage of the forex market means that huge gains can quickly turn to damaging losses and can wipe out the majority of your account in a matter of minutes. This is important for all new traders to understand, because in the forex market – due to the large amount of money involved and the number of players – traders will react quickly to information released into the market, leading to sharp moves in the price of the currency pair.

Though currencies don’t tend to move as sharply as equities on a percentage basis (where a company’s stock can lose a large portion of its value in a matter of minutes after a bad announcement), it is the leverage in the spot market that creates the volatility. For example, if you are using 100:1 leverage on $1,000 invested, you control $100,000 in capital. If you put $100,000 into a currency and the currency’s price moves 1% against you, the value of the capital will have decreased to $99,000 – a loss of $1,000, or all of your invested capital, representing a 100% loss. In the equities market, most traders do not use leverage, therefore a 1% loss in the stock’s value on a $1,000 investment, would only mean a loss of $10. Therefore, it is important to take into account the risks involved in the forex market before diving in.

Differences Between Forex and Equities
A major difference between the forex and equities markets is the number of traded instruments: the forex market has very few compared to the thousands found in the equities market. The majority of forex traders focus their efforts on seven different currency pairs: the four majors, which include (EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF); and the three commodity pairs (USD/CAD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD). All other pairs are just different combinations of the same currencies, otherwise known as cross currencies. This makes currency trading easier to follow because rather than having to cherry-pick between 10,000 stocks to find the best value, all that FX traders need to do is “keep up” on the economic and political news of eight countries.

The equity markets often can hit a lull, resulting in shrinking volumes and activity. As a result, it may be hard to open and close positions when desired. Furthermore, in a declining market, it is only with extreme ingenuity that an equities investor can make a profit. It is difficult to short-sell in the U.S. equities market because of strict rules and regulations regarding the process. On the other hand, forex offers the opportunity to profit in both rising and declining markets because with each trade, you are buying and selling simultaneously, and short-selling is, therefore, inherent in every transaction. In addition, since the forex market is so liquid, traders are not required to wait for an uptick before they are allowed to enter into a short position – as they are in the equities market.

Due to the extreme liquidity of the forex market, margins are low and leverage is high. It just is not possible to find such low margin rates in the equities markets; most margin traders in the equities markets need at least 50% of the value of the investment available as margin, whereas forex traders need as little as 1%. Furthermore, commissions in the equities market are much higher than in the forex market. Traditional brokers ask for commission fees on top of the spread, plus the fees that have to be paid to the exchange.
Fundamental Analysis & Fundamentals Trading Strategies
A Breakdown of the Forex Carry Trade
The currency carry trade is a strategy in which a trader sells a currency that is offering lower interest rates and purchases a currency that offers a higher interest rate. In other words, you borrow at a low rate, and then lend at a higher rate. The trader using the strategy captures the difference between the two rates. When highly leveraging the trade, even a small difference between two rates can make the trade highly profitable. Along with capturing the rate difference, investors also will often see the value of the higher currency rise as money flows into the higher-yielding currency, which bids up its value.

Real-life examples of a yen carry trade can be found starting in 1999, when Japan decreased its interest rates to almost zero. Investors would capitalize upon these lower interest rates and borrow a large sum of Japanese yen. The borrowed yen is then converted into U.S. dollars, which are used to buy U.S. Treasury bonds with yields and coupons at around 4.5-5%. Since the Japanese interest rate was essentially zero, the investor would be paying next to nothing to borrow the Japanese yen and earn almost all the yield on his or her U.S. Treasury bonds. But with leverage, you can greatly increase the return.

For example, 10 times leverage would create a return of 30% on a 3% yield. If you have $1,000 in your account and have access to 10 times leverage, you will control $10,000. If you implement the currency carry trade from the example above, you will earn 3% per year. At the end of the year, your $10,000 investment would equal $10,300, or a $300 gain. Because you only invested $1,000 of your own money, your real return would be 30% ($300/$1,000). However this strategy only works if the currency pair’s value remains unchanged or appreciates. Therefore, most forex carry traders look not only to earn the interest rate differential, but also capital appreciation. While we’ve greatly simplified this transaction, the key thing to remember here is that a small difference in interest rates can result in huge gains when leverage is applied. Most currency brokers require a minimum margin to earn interest for carry trades.

However, this transaction is complicated by changes to the exchange rate between the two countries. If the lower-yielding currency appreciates against the higher-yielding currency, the gain earned between the two yields could be eliminated. The major reason that this can happen is that the risks of the higher-yielding currency are too much for investors, so they choose to invest in the lower-yielding, safer currency. Because carry trades are longer term in nature, they are susceptible to a variety of changes over time, such as rising rates in the lower-yielding currency, which attracts more investors and can lead to currency appreciation, diminishing the returns of the carry trade. This makes the future direction of the currency pair just as important as the interest rate differential itself. (To read more about currency pairs, see Using Currency Correlations To Your Advantage, Making Sense Of The Euro/Swiss Franc Relationship and Forces Behind Exchange Rates.)

To clarify this further, imagine that the interest rate in the U.S. was 5%, while the same interest rate in Russia was 10%, providing a carry trade opportunity for traders to short the U.S. dollar and to long the Russian ruble. Assume the trader borrows $1,000 US at 5% for a year and converts it into Russian rubles at a rate of 25 USD/RUB (25,000 rubles), investing the proceeds for a year. Assuming no currency changes, the 25,000 rubles grows to 27,500 and, if converted back to U.S. dollars, will be worth $1,100 US. But because the trader borrowed $1,000 US at 5%, he or she owes $1,050 US, making the net proceeds of the trade only $50.

However, imagine that there was another crisis in Russia, such as the one that was seen in 1998 when the Russian government defaulted on its debt and there was large currency devaluation in Russia as market participants sold off their Russian currency positions. If, at the end of the year the exchange rate was 50 USD/RUB, your 27,500 rubles would now convert into only $550 US (27,500 RUB x 0.02 RUB/USD). Because the trader owes $1,050 US, he or she will have lost a significant percentage of the original investment on this carry trade because of the currency’s fluctuation – even though the interest rates in Russia were higher than the U.S.

Another good example of forex fundamental analysis is based on commodity prices. (To read more about this, see Commodity Prices And Currency Movements.)

You should now have an idea of some of the basic economic and fundamental ideas that underlie the forex and impact the movement of currencies. The most important thing that should be taken away from this section is that currencies and countries, like companies, are constantly changing in value based on fundamental factors such as economic growth and interest rates. You should also, based on the economic theories mentioned above, have an idea how certain economic factors impact a country’s currency. We will now move on to technical analysis, the other school of analysis that can be used to pick trades in the forex market.

It is important to note that, in general, the interpretation of technical analysis remains the same regardless of the asset being monitored. There are literally hundreds of books dedicated to this field of study, but in this tutorial we will only touch on the basics of why technical analysis is such a popular tool in the forex market.

Two of the Best Forex Tips no one will tell you.
Learn how to take profits early – If you don’t get good at taking profits you are going to end up a hoper. A forex “hoper” is someone that can’t ever take a decent profit because they are too busy finding reasons why the trade will keep going in the favor and thus hoping for more money. This is one of the many ugly ways that greed can express itself as you trade the forex market, you must learn to recognize this emotional trading mistake and overcome it, conquer it because if you don’t it WILL conquer you. Many traders set unrealistically large profit targets on their trades or simply fail to set any targets before entering a trade. This behavior leads to indecision and emotional trading, which lead to large profits vanishing quicker than you can imagine. The way to learn how to take profits is to pre-define your profit target or your exit strategy BEFORE you enter the trade. This way you are thinking objectively because you aren’t in the market and thus give yourself the best shot at coming up with a logical profit taking plan.
However, if you do not set realistic profit targets or have a realistic exit strategy, you are also setting yourself up for disaster even IF you do pre-define your exit strategy prior to enter the trade. As most traders reading this are smaller retail traders, you must realize that the forex market ebbs and flows on a daily basis and thus plan your exits accordingly. We all have heard the old saying “let your profits run”, while this is very true, but unless you have a $50,000 trading account, it is going to be very difficult to just leave your trades open for weeks on end as they move in your favor and then dramatically against you. As smaller retail traders we must learn to take profits at regular logical intervals as they present themselves. This means taking a profit of at least 2 times your risk or greater. Taking a profit of 2 times your risk means you only need to win 50% of your trades to make money, profits of 3 times your risk mean you can lost the majority of your trades and STILL make money. This is the way to effectively build your trading account by “letting your profits run”, as long as your profits are at least doubling your risk, you are letting them run.
Trading Plans – Having a pre-defined trading plan is extremely important if you want to cultivate the proper forex trading mindset. The problem that many traders face when getting involved with forex trading is that they do not treat it like a business, and so it becomes more like a trip to the casino each time they interact with the markets. If you really want to succeed at forex trading you must pre-define all of your interactions with the market. You must know what you will do if X happens and what you will do if Y happens; this is called having a plan. Businesses have business plans, this acts as guide to help them deal with all circumstances as they arise, in a way that will best benefit the business. Similarly, with forex trading you need to have a trading business plan so that you know what you will do in any given market circumstance. If you do not do design and implement a forex trading business plan, you will end up trading off of emotion because you will have no other way to react to changing market circumstances, you will have no pre-defined guide, so you will act on your impulses as you interact with the market. This is also the fastest way to blow out your trading account.

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Forex Robots have been center of discussion and controversy

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Forex Robots have been center of discussion and controversy
With the FX bot, trading has become easier and more profitable for traders and managers alike. With a minimum investment of $10,000, you can begin automated Forex trading, sit back and literally watch your money grow.
Nowadays, Forex Robots have been center of discussion and controversy, people are always stuck in the same questions: Do they really work? How can a robot make a man’s job? Will a robot be able to do a human job as well as we do?. In most areas the answer could be, no, robots can’t run a company, robots can’t interact well with people, can’t sing, cook, act or take decisions, among other things, but what robots can do, and probably even better than humans, is statistics and mathematics, and that’s what Forex market is all about.
The movements on this market are represented in charts and digits, and that’s what people analyze in order to make a good trade, they base their judgment, about buying or selling, on what happened and what could happen. This is also called trend following. This is more or less what an investor does when trading on Forex market: he chooses a chart to analyze, for example USD/EUR currency exchange chart, follows its trend, draw conclusions from it and based on his judgment makes a trade at an specific time in which he thinks he could buy that currency on its lowest price, then he redo the process, but this time, trying to sell the currency he just bought at a higher price at which he bought it to generate a profit.
That’s what a Forex market investor would basically do when trading, but obviously, influenced by his experience. Now, the question is: What would a robot do?, a robot would do the same analysis that the Forex market investor did, it would gather all the chart information and all the numbers, it would follow the trends and it would do the trade, but with some really important differences: it would do it faster, it would do it more accurately, but most important, it would do it based merely on numbers, not on emotions or guesses of what could happen, just numbers.
People get so frustrated when they buy a robot just because they see a loss in their accounts, let me tell you something, if you’re one of these persons, you are just looking it in a wrong way, if you think Forex market can be beaten you couldn’t be more wrong. Forex market along with the Stock market are the most volatile and unpredictable markets in the whole world, there’s no mathematic function nor theory that defines their behavior, this is because these markets behavior is based on what people think, and nobody could ever predict what somebody will think or do, and so no one can ever predict Forex and Stock market behaviors.
The principal rule to know about this market is that you’ll lose money, you can win a lot of money but there will always be a loss attached to it, it may not be as high as the profit but it will exist, and thats what you have to bear in mind.
Returning to the first idea, not even the most successful Forex market investor can trade in this market without losing, and nor robots can. So, considering robots as a way of trading and investing on this market isn’t a bad idea, on the contrary, it may be very helpful, as robots can be trading all they long and we can’t, they can also be configured to our needs, and maybe robots can’t do the job as well as we can but they can certainly bring us some decent and constant profits, and obviously some losses.
To conclude this review, I would like to make a last note and recommendation: FX robots can be used in so many ways, they can be used as a guide, as an income generator and also as a teacher, there are lots of things that people can learn from these robots. My personal recommendation is:
Get a Forex Robot, not just any robot, a really good one.
Don’t buy any Forex Robot unless it meets these 4 criteria…
There are 4 main criteria that make the robot a good robot:
1. Backtested
Most vendors will sell you their Forex robot based on successful backtesting. Backtesting is important as it shows us that the robot can potentially profit on live trading. However, you shouldn’t just focus on backtested result and it does not guarantee a successful forward trading.
Why? Because the backtester can ignore market conditions. In live trading, you might see the gap in price during a news announcement and market spikes. You may also see the big spread between bid and ask prices of the currency pairs which may affect your trade due to excess slippage.
2. Forward Live Trading
The obsolute best proof is live trading. Not many robot vendor use live trading to support their claim that their robot is the real thing. By looking at the live trading account, you can see how accurately is the backtested report of that robot.
3. Money Management
No matter how well a Forex robot seems to be live trading or backtesting, we can never know what the future result will be. Hence, we must employ adequate safeguards – sound money management rules. This is the KEY to successful LONG TERM wealth building via Forex trading.
4. Low Drawdown
Drawdown represents the total percentage loss experienced by a strategy before it starts winning again… and drives the investment balance back up.
Taking drawdown into consideration, you can judge just how risky these automated strategies are. You will see some out there that have a 40% or even higher drawdown in their reports. With those kinds of odds, you better have one heck of a strategy to back up that high of a risk level.
A good robot should be below 15% drawdown, which means you have an expert advisor backed by a rock solid strategy that would take an absolute miracle to bankrupt an account.
These are the 4 important criteria you should focus on when making your decision for the Forex robot.
It is very important that you understand what a pip is in the Forex trading because you will be using pips in calculating your profits and losses. A “pip” stands for “Percentage in Point”. A pip is the smallest price movement of a traded currency. It is also referred to as a “point”.
For most currencies a pip is 0.0001 or 1/100 of a cent. You may think it is a ridiculously low value. However, take into account that most currencies are traded in lots of $100 000. For that amount a pip is $10.
When a currency moves from a value of 1.4511 to 1.4514, it moved 3 pips. When a pip has a value of $10, you have gained $30.
There is an exception for quotations for Japanese Yen against other currencies. For currencies in relation to Japanese Yen a pip is 0.01 or 1 cent. Then if you are trading USD/JPY in $100 000 lots, one pip will be equivalent to $1000.
Understanding “Lots”
A lot is the minimal traded amount for each currency transaction. For the Regular Accounts one lot equals 100 000 units of the base currency. You can also open a Mini Account and trade in mini lot sizes that are 10 000 units of the base currency.
Understanding the Pip Spread
The spread is closely associated with the pip and has a major importance for you as a trader. It is the difference between the selling and the buying price of a currency pair. It is the difference in the bid and ask price. The ask is the price at which you buy and the bid is the price at which you sell.
Suppose the EUR/USD is quoted at 1.4502 bid and 1.4505 ask. In this case the spread is 3 pips.
The pip spread is your cost of doing business here. In the case above it means you sustain a paper loss equal to 3 pips at the moment you enter the trade. Your contract has to appreciate by 3 pips before you break even. The lower the pip spread the easier is it for you to profit.
Generally the more active and bigger the market, the lower the pip spread. The smaller and exotic markets tend to have a higher spread. Most brokers will be offering different spreads for different currencies. Smaller accounts will generally have higher spreads than bigger regular accounts.
From the profitability point of view it is important to find a broker offering a lower pip spread, however the low spread is not everything. Be sure you choose a reputable broker.
FOREX Trading Advantages
High Liquidity
The Forex market is the most liquid market in the world. The daily trading volume is US$ 3.2 trillion. That gives the trader an unparalleled freedom to buy or sell a position. You can exit your position at will any time you wish without barriers or limitations.
24 Hour Trading
You can trade the Forex market effectively 24 hours a day. Compare it to the stock market! At any moment during the 24 hours there will be Forex traders somewhere in the world actively selling or buying. You can respond to any breaking news immediately.
Small Margin / High Leverage
You can control a position with a 1% margin or less. It means you can buy or sell US$10 000 worth of currencies with only a US$ 100 margin deposit using leverage 1:100. It gives you the possibility to make extraordinary profits. Depending on the agreement with your broker you can get even a higher leverage, typically up to 1:400.
Commission Free Trading
The Forex brokers have no commission charges. They compensate for their services through the bid/ask spread that is typically less than 0.1% (10 points or pips)
Unrestricted Short Selling
Since you are always selling one currency and buying another one simultaneously, there is no bias to the market. It is equally easy to buy a currency pair as it is to short sell it.
Nobody Can Manipulate the Market
The immense volume of the daily Forex trade makes it practically impossible for anybody, including any central bank, to effectively manipulate the market prices.
Easy Access
Investors at all levels can easily access the Forex market through the Internet. You can execute your trades instantaneously off the real time streaming prices seen on your monitor.
Forex Tutorial: Reading a Forex Quote and Understanding the Jargon

One of the biggest sources of confusion for those new to the currency market is the standard for quoting currencies. In this section, we’ll go over currency quotations and how they work in currency pair trades.

Reading a Quote
When a currency is quoted, it is done in relation to another currency, so that the value of one is reflected through the value of another. Therefore, if you are trying to determine the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar (USD) and the Japanese yen (JPY), the forex quote would look like this:
USD/JPY = 119.50

This is referred to as a currency pair. The currency to the left of the slash is the base currency, while the currency on the right is called the quote or counter currency. The base currency (in this case, the U.S. dollar) is always equal to one unit (in this case, US$1), and the quoted currency (in this case, the Japanese yen) is what that one base unit is equivalent to in the other currency. The quote means that US$1 = 119.50 Japanese yen. In other words, US$1 can buy 119.50 Japanese yen. The forex quote includes the currency abbreviations for the currencies in question.

John Harun Mwau Facebook

For a more hybrid approach to simple forex trading strategies you may want to check out Nial Fuller. Mr. Fuller’s take on trading the markets is known as price action setup trading. He combines elements of simple price patterns that Martin Pring teaches along with candlestick strategies. Nial Fuller’s trading strategies are taught in a very effective system of videos, articles, and a comprehensive trading instructional course. His simple price action trading strategies are a unique take on a time-tested method that even includes some proprietary price action setups and ideas.

John Harun Mwau Facebook :simple forex trading strategies

For a more hybrid approach to simple forex trading strategies you may want to check out Nial Fuller. Mr. Fuller’s take on trading the markets is known as price action setup trading. He combines elements of simple price patterns that Martin Pring teaches along with candlestick strategies. Nial Fuller’s trading strategies are taught in a very effective system of videos, articles, and a comprehensive trading instructional course. His simple price action trading strategies are a unique take on a time-tested method that even includes some proprietary price action setups and ideas.
Forex education, demo trading, and how to know when you are ready to trade with real money.

• Get smart.
If you are really serious about becoming a professional forex trader or about making consistent money in the forex market than it is imperative that you obtain an education on the forex market and how to effectively trade it. There are many great resources to learn from on the internet and elsewhere about forex and how to trade. A few of the more trusted forex educational resources on the web include the following:
There are also some great forex trading mentors that are willing to educate you on how they successfully trade the forex market. These typically are subscription based services or educational packages that you have to pay for, however if you find one from a genuine and trusted source it will likely save you tons of money and time over trying to teach yourself and committing all the usual emotional trading mistakes.
• Demo trade.
Demo trading is a necessary stepping stone for all forex traders. Even if you have spent 6 months studying forex and how to trade it, you still should trade on a demo account until your forex strategy begins returning consistent results for you. Furthermore, many beginning traders erroneously jump head first into trading with real money and often commit many “stupid” mistakes as a result of not being familiar with their trading platform functionality. Successful demo trading of a minimum of 1 month, preferably 3 should be viewed as a requirement to long-term trading success.
• Plan your trades and trade your plan.
Having a defined and tangible trading plan is critical to long-term trading success. If you do not have a trading plan you will make emotional trading mistakes, plain and simple. And this is the same reason why most traders fail, because most traders are too lazy to spend the time and effort on making an effective trading plan or they simply think they don’t need one. Trading plans can be rather subjective and as a result many traders do not know where to begin when writing one and sometimes give up as a result of this. A good way to kick off your trading plan is simply to make an excel spreadsheet that includes all the trading parameters from each trade you enter, you can then form this trading journal into a complete trading plan. This will work to keep you accountable to yourself and give you a concrete way to track your progress and learn from your mistakes. Some of the parameters you will want to include in your trading journal include the following:
Entry date, Security (forex pair) being traded, Entry price, Exit price, Possible risk, Possible reward, Position size, Total profit / loss, Risk to reward ratio, Exit date.
This not an all inclusive list, but the above parameters should all be included in your trading journal, you should of course add to it as you see fit.
• Going live.
Finally, how do you really know if you are ready to start trading with real money in the forex market? Well, there is not concrete answer to this question unfortunately, but typically there are a number of factors that are present when you are truly ready to go live.
Success on a demo account is typically a sign that you at least have an effective trading strategy that gives you a truly competitive edge in the market. If you can maintain relatively consist profits for a period of 3 months on a demo account than you likely are ready to try your hand at live forex trading. However, keep in mind that demo trading involves almost no emotion because there is no real money on the line. Very often traders experience success as demo traders but then fail to find the same success once they begin trading with real money. This is because trading success is all about managing your emotions and your risk effectively every single day, and there simply is no risk or emotion when you are not trading with real money. Demo trading is still very critical and useful for getting down your forex trading strategy and trading plan and making sure all the kinks are worked out before you go live, just don’t use it as a crutch.

 What is Forex Robot?
A forex robot is a piece of software that will automatically handle the currency trading process for you, it enters and exits trades with the goal of making a profit. A lot of traders eventually switch to a piece of software like this because they are tired of entering in all these trades manually. When you’re trading manually you have to spend a lot of time each day keeping up with the market, and you have to spend a huge amount of time staying current with the trades you have active. A Forex robot can take the pain out of this process for you, eliminating the need to enter this information manually.
The majority of Forex robots will only come prepackaged with one specific way to trade. They only have one set of rules they follow, no matter what the market conditions could be, they’re built to trade strictly currency pair. Because the market is constantly changing hour by hour this can be a big problem, as each currency pair will need to be treated differently. This is why the very best Forex robot is quite different from the others, Forex experts are constantly updating the software, these people monitor the market 24 hours a day.

Below are the list of popular forex trading robots that are widely circulated around the Forex trading community.
You will find a list of news updates , reviews and opinions regarding these forex robots.
All news and reviews are extracted from major forex reviewers, vendors and bloggers. We do occasionally do a short review definition found on top of their respective review pages.

Latest Arrival
1. Forex Blue Box (2 Aug)
2. StraddleTrader Pro (11 Jul)
3. Million Dollar Pips (15 Jun)
4. Quantum FX Bot (14 Jun)
5. 1ClickPips (15 Apr)
6. Currency Strength Robot (28 Mar)
7. Pips Geek (14 Mar)
8. Pro Trade Copycat (4 Mar)

Top 5 Forex Robots
1. The RoboMiner
2. Forex Megadroid
3. Fap Turbo

Other Forex Trading Robots
1. Push Button Pips (17 Feb)
2. Auto Pip Bot (12 Feb)
3. Forex Megabot (27 Jan)
4. Leo Trader Pro (16 Dec)
5. Pips4Idiots (7 Dec)
6. Forex Geyser (18 Oct)
7. Forex Crescendo (Sep)
8. Forex Bullet Proof (24 Aug)
9. Forex Geek (Aug)
10. Pips Dominator (Aug)
11. Forex SAS (23 Aug)
12. Forex Onslaught (Aug)
13. Forex Cyborg Robot (Aug)
14. Forex Shockwave (17 Aug)
15. Forex Jackhammer (12 Aug)
16. Forex Outbreak (10 Aug)
17. Forex Supersonic (3 Aug)
18. AI Forex Robot
19. Reservoir pips
20. Forex Hippo (Aug)
21. Forex Turbo Drive (Aug)
22. Supreme Complexity
23. Forex Legend (27 Jul)
24. Xtreme Pip Poacher (26 Jul)
25. Fam Drone (20July)
26. Supreme Complexity (20July)
27. Forex Automator Pro (6 July)
28. Forex Trading Scalper (12 July)
29. FX Cruise Control (6 July)
30. Forex Illusion (27 June)
31. Forex NoNameBot (29 June)
32. Forex STF (23 June)
33. Forex Galactico (15 June)
34. Forex Trading Buddy (15 June)
35. Forex Pip Bot (3 June)
36. Pro Forex Robot (25 May)
37. Forex Secret Agent (4 May)
38. Forex Kinetics
39. Forex Massacre
40. Forex Ironman
41. 4X Cash Compounder
42. The Forex Revolution
43. Forex Maximizer
44. The RoboMiner
45. Forex Over Drive
46. Zone 99 Forex
47. Forex Secret Agent (4 May)
48. Forex Wealth Robot
49. Forex Pip Stack
50. Forex Robot World Cup
51. Forex Invincible
52. Reservoir pips
53. Forex Brilliance
54. Forex Dynasty
55. Forex Cash Rocket
56. Forex Invincible
57. StealPips
58. Forex Spectrum
59. Forex Black Panther
60. Forex Quake
61. Forex Torpedo
62. GBPBot
63. Forex Ripper
64. Caliber FX Pro
65. Ivybot
66. Forex Cash Evolution
67. Pip Android
68. USDBot
69. Forex Mercenary
70. Forex Juggernaut
71. Forex Transporter
72. Forex Knight Rider
73. Forex Empire S.B
74. Forex Twister
75. Forex GForce
76. Forex Nuke
77. Forex Enforcer
78. Forex Warlord
79. Forex Godfather
80. Forex Trend Scalper
81. Forex Infinity Pro
82. Forex Annihilator
83. Forex Invader
84. Forex Nemesis
85. Forex Apocalypse
86. Pips Miner
87. Forex Humanoid
88. Forex Slasher
89. Forex Decimator
90. Forex Typhoon
91. Forex Supernatural
92. Forex Cypher
93. Forex Accumulator
94. Fap Turbo Evolution
95. Forex Revolver
96. Forex Monster

A Forex Trading Robot or FX bot is an automated trading program that helps traders seeks out short term opportunities in the Forex market. This program manages your account 24 hours a day so you do not have to worry about lost income while you sleep. Because it uses advanced algorithms designed by highly skilled professional traders and money managers, the performance of the program is increased based on the experience and expertise of the designers. The Forex Trading Robot is unaffected by a person’s mental, physical and emotional condition, thus the trading process is speedier and more diversified. This system causes minimal problems which can be easily remedied by testing Forex systems.
For those traders who are uncomfortable trading their own accounts, the program is helpful as it does all the work. Although you need to run and test the parameters or rules to see if the program complies with your standards; as soon as it is set up, all you have to do is monitor your profits. Unsuccessful traders now have a better chance at making money with this automated system. For managed Forex accounts, money managers closely watch accounts but the trading process doesn’t require a human team to execute trades. These managers receive a percentage of the generated profits, so there is no need for you to pay for commissions and other charges.
With the FX bot, trading has become easier and more profitable for traders and managers alike. With a minimum investment of $10,000, you can begin automated Forex trading, sit back and literally watch your money grow.

For a more hybrid approach to simple forex trading strategies you may want to check out Nial Fuller. Mr. Fuller’s take on trading the markets is known as price action setup trading. He combines elements of simple price patterns that Martin Pring teaches along with candlestick strategies. Nial Fuller’s trading strategies are taught in a very effective system of videos, articles, and a comprehensive trading instructional course. His simple price action trading strategies are a unique take on a time-tested method that even includes some proprietary price action setups and ideas.
Forex education, demo trading, and how to know when you are ready to trade with real money.

• Get smart.
If you are really serious about becoming a professional forex trader or about making consistent money in the forex market than it is imperative that you obtain an education on the forex market and how to effectively trade it. There are many great resources to learn from on the internet and elsewhere about forex and how to trade. A few of the more trusted forex educational resources on the web include the following:
There are also some great forex trading mentors that are willing to educate you on how they successfully trade the forex market. These typically are subscription based services or educational packages that you have to pay for, however if you find one from a genuine and trusted source it will likely save you tons of money and time over trying to teach yourself and committing all the usual emotional trading mistakes.
• Demo trade.
Demo trading is a necessary stepping stone for all forex traders. Even if you have spent 6 months studying forex and how to trade it, you still should trade on a demo account until your forex strategy begins returning consistent results for you. Furthermore, many beginning traders erroneously jump head first into trading with real money and often commit many “stupid” mistakes as a result of not being familiar with their trading platform functionality. Successful demo trading of a minimum of 1 month, preferably 3 should be viewed as a requirement to long-term trading success.
• Plan your trades and trade your plan.
Having a defined and tangible trading plan is critical to long-term trading success. If you do not have a trading plan you will make emotional trading mistakes, plain and simple. And this is the same reason why most traders fail, because most traders are too lazy to spend the time and effort on making an effective trading plan or they simply think they don’t need one. Trading plans can be rather subjective and as a result many traders do not know where to begin when writing one and sometimes give up as a result of this. A good way to kick off your trading plan is simply to make an excel spreadsheet that includes all the trading parameters from each trade you enter, you can then form this trading journal into a complete trading plan. This will work to keep you accountable to yourself and give you a concrete way to track your progress and learn from your mistakes. Some of the parameters you will want to include in your trading journal include the following:
Entry date, Security (forex pair) being traded, Entry price, Exit price, Possible risk, Possible reward, Position size, Total profit / loss, Risk to reward ratio, Exit date.
This not an all inclusive list, but the above parameters should all be included in your trading journal, you should of course add to it as you see fit.
• Going live.
Finally, how do you really know if you are ready to start trading with real money in the forex market? Well, there is not concrete answer to this question unfortunately, but typically there are a number of factors that are present when you are truly ready to go live.
Success on a demo account is typically a sign that you at least have an effective trading strategy that gives you a truly competitive edge in the market. If you can maintain relatively consist profits for a period of 3 months on a demo account than you likely are ready to try your hand at live forex trading. However, keep in mind that demo trading involves almost no emotion because there is no real money on the line. Very often traders experience success as demo traders but then fail to find the same success once they begin trading with real money. This is because trading success is all about managing your emotions and your risk effectively every single day, and there simply is no risk or emotion when you are not trading with real money. Demo trading is still very critical and useful for getting down your forex trading strategy and trading plan and making sure all the kinks are worked out before you go live, just don’t use it as a crutch.

 What is Forex Robot?
A forex robot is a piece of software that will automatically handle the currency trading process for you, it enters and exits trades with the goal of making a profit. A lot of traders eventually switch to a piece of software like this because they are tired of entering in all these trades manually. When you’re trading manually you have to spend a lot of time each day keeping up with the market, and you have to spend a huge amount of time staying current with the trades you have active. A Forex robot can take the pain out of this process for you, eliminating the need to enter this information manually.
The majority of Forex robots will only come prepackaged with one specific way to trade. They only have one set of rules they follow, no matter what the market conditions could be, they’re built to trade strictly currency pair. Because the market is constantly changing hour by hour this can be a big problem, as each currency pair will need to be treated differently. This is why the very best Forex robot is quite different from the others, Forex experts are constantly updating the software, these people monitor the market 24 hours a day.

Below are the list of popular forex trading robots that are widely circulated around the Forex trading community.
You will find a list of news updates , reviews and opinions regarding these forex robots.
All news and reviews are extracted from major forex reviewers, vendors and bloggers. We do occasionally do a short review definition found on top of their respective review pages.

Latest Arrival
1. Forex Blue Box (2 Aug)
2. StraddleTrader Pro (11 Jul)
3. Million Dollar Pips (15 Jun)
4. Quantum FX Bot (14 Jun)
5. 1ClickPips (15 Apr)
6. Currency Strength Robot (28 Mar)
7. Pips Geek (14 Mar)
8. Pro Trade Copycat (4 Mar)

Top 5 Forex Robots
1. The RoboMiner
2. Forex Megadroid
3. Fap Turbo

Other Forex Trading Robots
1. Push Button Pips (17 Feb)
2. Auto Pip Bot (12 Feb)
3. Forex Megabot (27 Jan)
4. Leo Trader Pro (16 Dec)
5. Pips4Idiots (7 Dec)
6. Forex Geyser (18 Oct)
7. Forex Crescendo (Sep)
8. Forex Bullet Proof (24 Aug)
9. Forex Geek (Aug)
10. Pips Dominator (Aug)
11. Forex SAS (23 Aug)
12. Forex Onslaught (Aug)
13. Forex Cyborg Robot (Aug)
14. Forex Shockwave (17 Aug)
15. Forex Jackhammer (12 Aug)
16. Forex Outbreak (10 Aug)
17. Forex Supersonic (3 Aug)
18. AI Forex Robot
19. Reservoir pips
20. Forex Hippo (Aug)
21. Forex Turbo Drive (Aug)
22. Supreme Complexity
23. Forex Legend (27 Jul)
24. Xtreme Pip Poacher (26 Jul)
25. Fam Drone (20July)
26. Supreme Complexity (20July)
27. Forex Automator Pro (6 July)
28. Forex Trading Scalper (12 July)
29. FX Cruise Control (6 July)
30. Forex Illusion (27 June)
31. Forex NoNameBot (29 June)
32. Forex STF (23 June)
33. Forex Galactico (15 June)
34. Forex Trading Buddy (15 June)
35. Forex Pip Bot (3 June)
36. Pro Forex Robot (25 May)
37. Forex Secret Agent (4 May)
38. Forex Kinetics
39. Forex Massacre
40. Forex Ironman
41. 4X Cash Compounder
42. The Forex Revolution
43. Forex Maximizer
44. The RoboMiner
45. Forex Over Drive
46. Zone 99 Forex
47. Forex Secret Agent (4 May)
48. Forex Wealth Robot
49. Forex Pip Stack
50. Forex Robot World Cup
51. Forex Invincible
52. Reservoir pips
53. Forex Brilliance
54. Forex Dynasty
55. Forex Cash Rocket
56. Forex Invincible
57. StealPips
58. Forex Spectrum
59. Forex Black Panther
60. Forex Quake
61. Forex Torpedo
62. GBPBot
63. Forex Ripper
64. Caliber FX Pro
65. Ivybot
66. Forex Cash Evolution
67. Pip Android
68. USDBot
69. Forex Mercenary
70. Forex Juggernaut
71. Forex Transporter
72. Forex Knight Rider
73. Forex Empire S.B
74. Forex Twister
75. Forex GForce
76. Forex Nuke
77. Forex Enforcer
78. Forex Warlord
79. Forex Godfather
80. Forex Trend Scalper
81. Forex Infinity Pro
82. Forex Annihilator
83. Forex Invader
84. Forex Nemesis
85. Forex Apocalypse
86. Pips Miner
87. Forex Humanoid
88. Forex Slasher
89. Forex Decimator
90. Forex Typhoon
91. Forex Supernatural
92. Forex Cypher
93. Forex Accumulator
94. Fap Turbo Evolution
95. Forex Revolver
96. Forex Monster

A Forex Trading Robot or FX bot is an automated trading program that helps traders seeks out short term opportunities in the Forex market. This program manages your account 24 hours a day so you do not have to worry about lost income while you sleep. Because it uses advanced algorithms designed by highly skilled professional traders and money managers, the performance of the program is increased based on the experience and expertise of the designers. The Forex Trading Robot is unaffected by a person’s mental, physical and emotional condition, thus the trading process is speedier and more diversified. This system causes minimal problems which can be easily remedied by testing Forex systems.
For those traders who are uncomfortable trading their own accounts, the program is helpful as it does all the work. Although you need to run and test the parameters or rules to see if the program complies with your standards; as soon as it is set up, all you have to do is monitor your profits. Unsuccessful traders now have a better chance at making money with this automated system. For managed Forex accounts, money managers closely watch accounts but the trading process doesn’t require a human team to execute trades. These managers receive a percentage of the generated profits, so there is no need for you to pay for commissions and other charges.
With the FX bot, trading has become easier and more profitable for traders and managers alike. With a minimum investment of $10,000, you can begin automated Forex trading, sit back and literally watch your money grow.

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Developing a profitable forex trading strategy

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Developing a profitable forex trading strategy
Developing a profitable forex trading strategy requires passion, persistence, and discipline, but most of all it requires that you obtain a genuine and effective forex trading education. There are many forex strategies floating around the internet that you can learn from, some of these are effective, many of them are more trouble than they are worth however.
The forex market provides some of the best opportunities for financial market speculation for retail traders today. It is the most widely traded market in the world, contains the deepest liquidity (this means you can get in and out of trades very easily), and is open 24 hours a day from Sunday afternoon until Friday evening. The combination of these factors means that forex traders have more opportunities, greater flexibility, and lower transaction costs than traders in any other financial market. However, these facts alone will not make you a profitable forex currency trader, you need to study and learn about which forex strategies work and which ones are probably not worth your time (there are many of the latter, and few of the former).
Unfortunately there is no “magic bullet” when it comes to a forex strategy, whether or not a particular forex trading strategy is profitable depends on not only the strategy itself but also on the trader trading that particular strategy. If a trader has very poor self-discipline and poor control of their emotions, they are probably going to lose money on even the most accurate of forex trading strategies. The intersection of self-discipline / emotional control and a truly effective forex trading strategy is where forex trading success is found. Until or unless you learn to master your own emotions you will simply never become a profitable and consistent forex trader. Many traders get lucky in the markets and hit some big winners only to give them all back soon after, far fewer traders find the discipline and self control that it takes to profit on a consistent basis in the forex market.
Some truths about forex trading strategies that you might not read on other websites:
• You won’t get rich overnight in the forex market, it takes time, effort, and discipline to become a consistently profitable trader. There is no “easy” way out.
• The particular forex trading strategy you use to navigate the market each day can have a profound affect on how you think about and view the market, in other words, on your trading psychology.
• Inflexible trading “systems” that provide for no flexibility or human discretion are inherently flawed and will break down over time as market conditions change.
• Forex strategies that teach traders how to “fish for themselves” are the genuine ones that have a higher probability of returning positive results in the long run.
• Even the best forex trading strategy on earth will not make money if you don’t practice proper restraint and money management.

What kind of strategies can be implemented to trade the forex market?

There are many different types of forex strategies that traders can use to successfully trade the market. However, before you learn about specific trading strategies it is crucial to have a solid back ground in the building blocks of ALL forex strategies. All forex strategies are either based upon technical analysis, fundamental analysis, or a combination of the two. In order to figure out which forex trading strategy is best for you, you must first make sure that you understand what technical analysis is and what fundamental analysis is and how they both can impact your forex trading results.
• Technical analysis
Technical analysis is the art and skill of using price charts to make forex trading entry and or exit decisions. True price chart technicians make all of their trading decisions off of price charts alone and do not combine any other factors when trading the market. The logic behind this behaviour is the belief amongst charting technicians that all relevant and pertinent information regarding a security’s possible direction is reflected through and included in its price movement. Traders and investors who trade solely on technical analysis make all of their trading decisions by using price charts either “naked” or with any number of indicators over-laid on top of a security’s “naked” price chart.
• What is “naked” trading?
The term trading “naked” refers to using a price chart without any indicators on it to trade the market with. This form of trading is often referred to as “price action trading”, because traders using this form of technical analysis make their trading decisions by learning to analyse pure price movement or action, rather than trying to analyse an indicator’s interpretation of that price movement. While some traders do have success correctly implementing certain lagging indicators into their trading, many traders swear by the simplicity and accuracy of learning to analyse a “naked” or indicator-free price chart. There is a certain amount of discretion involved with price action trading and it can take some time to master, this is why many traders are driven towards more robotic type trading systems that do not require any discretion or practice on their behalf. However, for interested parties, price action trading can be one of the most accurate, fun, and stress-free forex trading strategies when mastered and implemented correctly.
• Fundamental analysis
Fundamental analysis is the interpretation of changing economic policies, economic reports, and other national or international economic variables to make one’s forex trading decisions. It is a good idea to have a basic understanding of WHAT causes the forex market to move, so understanding what the various economic reports mean is important to the well-rounded trader. However, it might be MORE important to simply be aware of the possible volatility that could be induced by any given economic report as well as the specific time it is being released. Making all of one’s trading decisions purely on fundamental analysis is a near futile endeavour, this is because everyone trading the market might have a slightly different interpretation of HOW a certain economic report or policy change may or may not affect the forex market.
Furthermore, people’s reactions to economic reports sometimes do not correlate with what the economic report implies, therefore, it is best to have a basic awareness of what the various economic reports mean and when they come out, but any attempt to predict HOW a specific economic report will effect a certain forex currency pair is not going to do you much good unless you can somehow interview every other forex trader in the world and ask them what effect they think the report will have. This is where the saying “buy the rumour, sell the fact” came from, because often times the anticipation leading up to a certain economic news release will cause the majority of the price movement, then once the news is actually released there is nothing new to anticipate, so price will often then go the opposite direction.

The Foreign Exchange market, or Forex or FX Market is literally the largest most liquid market place in the world.

This is the playground of the Millionaire and even Billionaire trader.

In the Forex you can literally create millions for yourself, if you use proper professional trading strategies. This marketplace has both the leverage and the accuracy to transform your trading career.

At time of writing the Forex trades about $3 trillion dollars every single day. That’s more than the every single asset class combined (i.e. more than the bond, stock, equity markets together!).

The sheer size of this marketplace means that, unlike trading stocks, you can easily execute your trades at any time and get extremely tight spreads on your trading. This means the cost of dealing is low and the also the more you trade the cost stays fixed – so unlike stocks where you would expect the price to move the larger the order (as brokers have to source enough stock for you to trade).

For this reason alone, the Forex is the self-selected
marketplace of choice of the Millionaire trader, due to its
speed, efficiency, transparency and clarity of signal.

For trading signals and strategies to actually work out, we need lots of traders to be agreeing with the signal.

Therefore participation is key! Given the Forex is the most participated market in the world, you can be sure that the signals are the clearest of any marketplace. If you have
ever traded an ill-liquid stock in the past using technical analysis – you will know exactly what i
mean. Illiquid stocks only need one participant to ruin an otherwise perfect technical setup.

Due to magnitude of the Forex market, this noise from one or two individuals is smoothed out because of the sheer size – again. This translates into reliable signals. The power comes when your trading strategies are reliant on trading these clear signals.

What you are looking at below is a chart of the EURUSD. You are looking at Pivot lines below
(we’ll talk more about these later on), just for now notice how the price bounces ever so
accurately off these lines. Trading Strategies that work, are those which use these type of clear
undeniable trading signals.

First of all, time – your time! This is a 24 hour
marketplace, it never sleeps. This means that you can
trade when you want.

If you are an early bird, you will find setups on the major
currencies at 7am. If you are a night owl, you’ll find
setups in the evening.

The point is this, you will soon find the time frame and
the currencies to monitor and you place the trades when
you are available. On Ultimate Forex Profits™ programme you will discover which strategies to
trade and when. Most traders think that the big money is made trying to scalp the Forex –
nothing could be further from the truth. The big money is made in Forex by setting up end-ofday
trading strategies and letting these positions just run and run and bring you hundreds and
thousands of pips.

Unlike the Stock market – the Forex market does not gap.

A gap is a space on a chart where no trading takes place, leaving literally a physical white
space on the chart. This is dangerous.
If you have bought some shares in a company only to discover a week later that the company is having problems and releases a profit warning. The gap
could be 10%, and unless you are using a guaranteed stop loss you would take a whopping 10% loss on the trade.

The price at what you buy and sell is important. If there is a big difference between what is costs you to buy something and immediately sell it back to the
market – it only follows that this contributes to a high cost of dealing.

In stocks, the difference between what you can buy and sell your stocks (the spread) is controlled almost exclusively by market makers. The spread changes often, and is a reflection of the amount of stock available at any given time.

Unlike stocks and futures that trade through central
exchanges, most Forex trading takes place through the
interbank market and is facilitated by market makers that
include major banks as well as small to large brokerage
firms. It is difficult therefore to measure the volume traded on any currency at any time, as it is not registered through a central exchange – but most good data providers can give pretty good estimates.

Forex trading involves trading currency pairs such as the
EUR/USD pair (Eurodollar/US dollar pair) where a buyer of
this pair would actually be buying the Eurodollar and simultaneously selling short the USdollar.

What forex strategies tend to be the most effective and why?
While there can be large differences between effective forex trading strategies, let’s discuss a few common characteristics that all effective forex strategies share.
• Effective forex strategies do not need to be expensive to learn
Effective forex strategies can seem elusive to the beginning forex trader, however, it is common knowledge among professional traders that there are many different ways to successfully trade the market and the specific strategy you use is not nearly as important as learning to manage your risk correctly and maintain an objective mindset. So the very fact that so many websites are charging thousands of dollars for various trading strategies and systems means that traders who do not know any better are very likely to get scammed out of their hard earned money. There are certainly effective forex strategies that are priced fairly and more than worth the purchase price. However, be very weary of getting mixed up in any of the thousands of forex trading “robot” software or lagging indicator based systems that claim to make you rich over night if you just buy their super-expensive trading system. You can learn much information about successful trading for free on the internet and there are also many excellent forex mentors to learn the ropes from as well.
• Effective forex strategies do not need to be cutting-edge or new.
Humans have been speculating and investing in financial securities since the 1700’s when Japanese rice farmers used candlestick charts to record the price movement of rice and profit off its movement. While trading the financial markets has certainly come a long way since then, the basic concepts remain the same. Markets are driven on human belief about a security’s price, these beliefs are reflected on a price chart and able to be interpreted on them as well. From the Japanese rice traders of the 1700’s to famed traders like Jesse Livermore and George Soros, traders who understand that much money can be made by implementing simple price interpretation concepts and monitoring one’s emotions and risk, have been profiting for centuries. Most new or “cutting-edge” trading software programs or trading systems designed around lagging indicators and “rules” for how to use them, are nothing more than sales pitches by savvy internet marketers. Don’t look to re-invent the trading wheel, stick to strategies that have worked for other traders and learn the basics, concentrate the rest of your efforts on controlling your emotions and your risk.
• Effective forex strategies are produced by seasoned professional forex traders.
Professional forex traders are hard to find. This is because about 90-95% of all traders that attempt to find success in the markets fail at it. So this leaves a very small percentage of traders that actually figure out how to make trading the forex market their full-time career, and an even smaller percentage that are willing to take on the task of teaching other people how to trade, likely because most pro traders are too busy enjoying the spoils that accompany a successful career as a forex trader. However, there are indeed a handful of professional forex traders who also happen to be very gifted teachers. If you do decide to learn a forex strategyfrom someone or buy a trading course or system from a website, make sure the person you are learning from is the real-deal, meaning they walk their talk. If you can’t find any evidence on a website which is selling a forex educational product that its creator(s) is a professional trader, then don’t buy it or use it. Just as you must learn from a seasoned pro in ANY other profession, so you must do this in the world of forex, in fact it is probably more important that you learn forex strategies from a professional trader than it is for many other professions.

What time frames are best to trade?
Beginning forex traders often become inundated with technical and fundamental information over-load and often experience analysis-paralysis early on in their trading career as a result. One of the related problems of this analysis-paralysis involves not knowing what time frame(s) is the most effective too trade off of. Many traders get caught up looking at lower time frames because they believe they will spot more opportunities or somehow have more control over the forex market by doing so. The problem with going down to lower time frames such as 30 minute charts and below is that there is almost too much market “noise” to make an accurate trading decision. A general rule of thumb is that the higher the time frame the more accurate the trading signals become. For example, the same trading signal on a 1 hour chart and a weekly chart will have a higher probability on average of working out on the weekly chart over the 1 hour chart. So, with that being said, what are some factors to consider when deciding which time frame is best for you to trade?
• What’s your daily schedule like?
People with full-time jobs or that have very busy schedules are much more likely to find success trading longer time frames and simple forex trading strategies. Typically, people in this situation will want to concentrate on the daily chart time frames and above. This means you only need to look at your charts 1 time a day maximum. Trading in this manner can be very low-stress and more often than not traders find they are more profitable the less they interfere with their trades and stare at their charts. If you do not want to become a full-time forex trader but instead wish simply to diversify your investments or supplement your income, you will want to concentrate on daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly chart setups.
Those traders who are aspiring to become professional forex traders may wish to use the 4 hour, 1 hour charts or lower to time their entry and exit decisions more precisely. However, keep in mind that going down in time frame often brings with it a higher likely hood of inducing emotional trading mistakes such as those brought on by fear and greed. Do not attempt to day trade the forex market until you have become proficient at higher-time frame trading and have successfully built up the funds in your trading account.
K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid trading: why simple strategies work and who to trust.
• The search for the holy trading grail.
Ask any professional trader about their trading method and you might be very surprised to learn how simple it is to understand and implement. This is because traders who consistently make money in the forex market have figured out that overly complicated trading methods only work against them and make securing consistent forex profits all the more difficult. When you cloud your trading screen up with numerous different lagging indicators that all tell you something different, or rely solely on the signals from a piece of trading software, you are doing more work than is necessary to make money in the markets. When you enter into this zone of believing that “more is better” in regards to your forex trading strategy, you essentially enter the zone of cyclical trading failure. The reason for this is because traders who believe more is better in forex are always in a search for that next best trading system, because they gave up on the last one after becoming frustrated and confused. This notion of believing that if you JUST had that ONE great trading system you would make consistent money in the markets is what causes traders to drop thousands of dollars on different trading strategies that promise the world but deliver only frustration and losses.
• What to look for in a simple trading strategy and who to trust.
A simple trading strategy will not be heavy on lagging indicators. Certain lagging indicators can be very useful, these include moving averages and a couple others, but by and large most of them are simply a waste of time due to the fact that they lag price and make it more confusing to interpret. What you are looking at when you try to interpret price direction from a lagging indicator is simply what price did in the past in a format that is more difficult to decipher than simply looking at a raw price chart.
Simple trading strategies involve basic technical analysis chart reading skills like price pattern recognition. A good person to learn from on this topic is Martin Pring, his book “Pring on Price Patterns” is the virtual bible of price pattern education. Mr. Pring teaches all aspects of price pattern recognition in this book, everything from how to identify trends to correctly implementing a head and shoulders pattern. The concepts in this book make use of simple chart reading skills that have been used effectively in the markets for centuries.
If you wish to learn how to trade off of Japanese candlestick patterns than Steve Nison is your man. Mr. Nison introduced the concept of Japanese candlesticks to the Western world and has written many great books on how to interpret candlesticks and what the various candlestick patterns are. Forex candlestick trading strategiescan be a great tool to augment your other trading strategies or it can stand alone as its own simple yet effective trading strategy.

John Harun Mwau Facebook: successful treasure hunting

John Harun Mwau Facebook

Persistence and a positive attitude are the two main ingredients for
successful treasure hunting. Use your imagination. It’s your best source for ideas of places to search– possibly productive areas previously overlooked by other TH’ers, but . . . Also listen to the “pros” with many years of TH– ing experience. If they say that old church yards are good for old coins, or swimming areas are the best places to find lost jewelry, etc., you can bet
that they know what they are talking about.

Never ask permission to treasure hunt over the telephone. People tend to visualize you using a pick and shovel, making large holes. Join a local historical society or get acquainted with its members. Join or form a local treasure club. In many cases, clubs and organized, responsible groups can
gain access to areas that individuals could not.

AGAIN. . .Remember, in the modern metal detector, modern science has given us a valuable and exciting way to search the past for objects of historic and monetary value. Let us consider it a privilege to keep alive by careful and considerate hunting. In many countries of the world today, metal detection and the treasure hunting hobby have been drastically curtailed as a result of inconsiderate actions of treasure hunters who did
little more than vandalize!
PLEASE–Help protect our great hobby by respecting the rights of others.
Always obtain permission before searching on private property. Be
extremely careful with your probing, picking up and discarding trash, and ALWAYS COVER YOUR HOLES.

Approaches to Pinpointing

Patience, patience and more patience. Patience is a virtue; especially when it comes to metal detecting. This month’s topic is pinpointing.

We’re going to try to cover every facet and approach to pinpointing using your Bounty Hunter. Our objective is to narrow our detection field so that we can properly recover a small target without digging a crater.

Coin-Shooting becomes frustrating unless you learn how to pinpoint properly. No-Motion ALL METALS allows for easy pinpointing since no movement is required to isolate your target. The current models we carry
today that offer No-Motion All Metals include both the Land Star and the Time Ranger. The Quick Draw II and Tracker series still require movement in the ALL METALS mode to detect a target.

There are many effective techniques for pinpointing your detected targets.

By making an effort of pinpointing accurately before digging, you will save yourself the time and frustration.

Drawing an “X”

This is a simple but effective technique when attempting to pinpoint in aDiscriminate mode or with a motion-only detector–such as the Tracker series and Quick Draw II. After receiving a signal, swing the coil a couple of more times horizontally making sure it is a repeatable signal.

Now swing the coil vertically at the same point you have determined the target to be attempting to draw an “X”. When you have your signal centered on the “X”,
where the crosshatch meets, the target should lay within a 5-inch
circumference.

2. The Pendulum

Again, in the Discriminate mode or with a motion-only detector—

With this technique, you will raise your coil a few inches above the targeted area waving it more like a pendulum listening carefully where the signal seems to be the strongest. Try drawing an “X” at the same height over the target making sure you have centered where the target is located.

Now slowly lower your coil making sure you’re still getting your strongest signal at the center of the “X”.

“All Metals” Pinpointing
(As Applied to No-Motion ALL METALS offered by the Land Star or the Time Ranger)

By using your ALL METALS mode, you can determine the size of the target along with its location. It’s important that you do not tune your Ground Balance for its highest threshold when using this mode for pinpointing.

The reason you have the capability of determining a target’s size in ALL METALS is because no motion is required when you’re over the target.

A continuous tone will be emitted as long as the detector is over the target.

This makes it easy to delineate the size of a target while pinpointing at the same time.

Notes for Older Units with Manual Ground Balancing:

When coin-shooting, it’s important to adjust the Ground Balance so that it is over compensating for the mineral condition you’re hunting in.

In other words, adjust your Ground Balance another quarter-turn counterclockwise after adjusting for mineralization. You will lose depth, but it will be far easier to pinpoint small targets like coins, especially in heavily trashed areas.

If your detector is Ground Balanced for its maximum threshold, as is described in your operations manual, you will get too many signals in heavily trashed areas to determine the location of the target.

Land Star: With the Land Star, you’ll start off by placing your detector in the All Metals mode. Do not use the instruction offered by the manual for ground balancing.

The manual instructs how to ground balance properly
for the optimum depth. What we’re trying to accomplish is to desensitize your All Metals mode so that it’s easier to pinpoint small targets.

To do this, simply turn your Ground Balance control counterclockwise, usually around 12:00 on the dial, so that you’re overcompensating for the soil conditions.

This will desensitize your unit to where the target will now
emit a short tone as you sweep over it. You have now narrowed your detection field and can properly recover the target within a 4-inch circumference.

Time Ranger: In the All Metals mode, the Time Ranger offers a very unique feature unto itself. First, ground balance the unit as instructed in the manual.

The Time Ranger Sensitivity touch pads can now be used to
desensitize the All Metals so that there’s a narrow detection field for easier pinpointing.

Simply keep pushing your minus touchpad until you’re getting
a short beep as you sweep the coil over the target. Notice that the
Sensitivity dial on the readout has an arrow that jumps in the direction of which touchpad you’re pushing (plus or minus). The arrow will jump back and remain stationary at the “5” on the dial when operating the Sensitivity
touch pads in the All Metals mode.

This is one of the finest features offered by the Time Ranger.
A Note on the 4-Inch Gold Nugget Coil System
One of the most useful coils available from Bounty Hunter is the 4″ Gold Nugget Coil System.

Pinpointing is narrowed down to a 4-inch
circumference making coinshooting fast and easy in any mode of
operation. It also works effectively when hunting in highly trashed areas.

The 4-Inch coil can better isolate a good target amongst trash items without the masking problem that normally occurs

John Harun Mwau Facebook: relic hunting

John Harun Mwau Facebook
John Harun
Mwau Facebook
In its essence, relic hunting is more effort- and time-consuming than just general metal detecting because relic hunting usually takes place in the remote areas located in dense woods, swamps, mountains or abandoned fields overgrown with vegetation. Various types of relic hunting sites may range from the sites of ancient settlements to the sites of the WW2 battlefields and front lines.
A simple and inexpensive (in the price range of $600 – $800) conventional metal detector can be successfully used for relic hunting. A relic detector has to have two things: a true All Metal mode and capability of using a large search coil. A relic metal detector, for example, does not have to have Discrimination and Tone ID features, or even a display.
On the market today, there are four types of metal detectors used for detecting relics: Conventional Land detectors, Conventional Pulse Induction (PI) detectors, 2-Box detectors, and Deep Seekers(they are also PI units).
The Pulse Induction detectors has advantage over other types as they do not get affected by the ground mineral content (mineralization), but you have to dig up every target when using PI detectors as they can not have a Discrimination function!
However, if you are not up to lots of digging, you can choose a machine from a line of metal detectors especially designed for relic hunting. They do have Discrimination and “love” iron! For example, Tesoro Tejon and Troy Shadow X5 are the leading relic machines on the market today.
In any case, be prepared to dig up lots of iron targets, big and small. Of course, the ideal relic hunting site would be any spot where human activities had stopped before the modern times (medieval settlement sites), so everything you recover is old and valuable.
Another ideal case is when you search at the site which saw only one specific activity such as military action (battlefields), preparation for war (military camps and cantonments), trading and shipping of goods (trade routes, medieval markets and fair grounds), etc.
Unfortunately modern industrial, commercial and agricultural human activities have left their mark on many would-be-ideal relic hunting sites by littering them with junk.
WW2 Military Relic Hunting is about metal detecting all kinds of World War II artifacts – soldiers’ personal items, field gear items, trench art items, soldiers’ ID tags, uniform accessories and insignia, war decorations, weapons (machinery, firearms and cold steel) and their parts, unexploded ordnance (UXO), etc. World War II relic hunting is similar to searching for World War I military artifacts.
Non-metallic WW2 relic finds such as, for example, Red Army soldier ID medallions made of black textolite are also highly sought by military relic hunters.
Such medallions are extremely valuable because they are the only means to ID the remains of soldiers who have been MIA’s until now. A special technique is used to open each medallion and extract a small piece of paper – a soldier’s ID form.
Unfortunately even these medallions fail to help because most of the soldiers’ ID forms usually are not filled out due to a common superstitious belief – “if you fill it out, you will get killed!”
As World War II Military Relic Hunting has become very popular in Europe, there are many official and non-official civilian groups and organizations actively participating in the process. They mainly focus on recovery and ceremonial reburial of soldiers’ remains, identification of unknown soldiers killed in action (KIA), and notification of their relatives if they are still alive.
For instance, even a special WW2 relic hunting battalion has been recently formed in the Russian Army to carry out these tasks.
And of course, there are thousands of individuals who explore and search countless WW2 sites – numerous battlefields, endless trench lines, dug-outs, fox holes, pillboxes, underground bunkers and caches of weapons that have survived the time. Military relic hunters dig huge holes, sometimes excavating endless cubic yards of dirt, to get to the bottom of large dug-outs.
Some WW2 relic hunters are so addicted to recovering WW2 artifacts that they hunt all year around, even during freezing months of the winter. Besides metal detectors, their equipment includes especially designed steel probes, electric generators, water pumps, super powerful magnets that can hold iron pieces up to 300kg of weight, and various digging tools such as shovels, pickaxes, sleigh hammers and crowbars.
Searching the river beds, creeks and even small brooks for WW2 relics has been proved to be very productive over years. After the World War II was over, large amounts of small field weapons, firearms and ammunition were discarded into the water streams instead of being transported to the armories during the military cleanup operations. During the war, a lot of weaponry was also lost to the waterways while being transported or during the crossings. This is when the strong magnets come in handy for non-electronic search. For electronic underwater relic hunting, the underwater metal detectors are widely used.
WW2 Relic Hunting also includes searching for military machinery – tanks, armoured vehicles, jeeps, small planes and jet fighters, large cannons, etc. – all in their complete forms. This type of search takes place in the remote areas that are most difficult to access – large marshes and swamps, and also in lakes and rivers.
Coin Cache Hunting is searching for hidden caches of coins or coin hoards. Cache hunting includes a few sub-categories defined either by the methods of hiding coin hoards or by their placement locations. Cache hunting also defines searching for other types of amassed valuables buried in one spot (Cache Hunting Types II and III).
During the coin cache burial in the past, amassed coins would be initially put inside the metallic or non-metallic containers which could be:
1) buried in the fields or vegetable patches, and under the fence poles, 2) buried near static natural or cultural landmarks such as big trees, boulders, earth mounds, bridges, ramparts, etc., 3) hidden in caves, tunnels, and near mine entrances, 4) dumped or discarded during an emergency into the rivers, creeks, brooks, ponds, and lakes situated in close proximity to roads and pathways, 5) stashed inside the stone walls, wells, outhouses or privies, hen-coops, sheds, barns, or any other structures on the homestead property, 6) hidden inside the house: in the walls, under a porch or stoop, under staircases, under flooring, inside furniture, in root cellars, and many other places.

Major Categories of Coin Hoards and Coin/Relic Treasure Caches:

1) Expropriatory Cache – A cache of valuables that were taken away from the owner and hidden against the owner’s will.

2) Returnable Cache – A cache of valuables that were buried with intention of their retrieval in the future.

3) Nonreturnable Cache – A cache of cultic treasures that were buried to serve as a sacrifice to gods, therefore, were buried forever.

4) Short-Term-Cumulation Cache – A cache of valuables that had been amassed within a short period of time before being buried (small household and personal savings).

5) Long-Term-Cumulation Cache – A cache of valuables that had been amassed for a long while before being buried (large savings of prince or duke, monastery, merchant, outlaw, etc.).

6) Emergency Cache – A cache of valuables that were buried or hidden during an emergency, in a hurry, and under duress; usually placed into the ragged, casual or any other inappropriate container, or burried without it.
This type of cache hunting is about searching for coin hoards and caches of other valuables at the formerly populated locations that have NEVER BEEN PLOWED or disturbed by other means.
Such areas may include village sites situated on hill sides, steep river banks and rough terrain. If the cache was buried at shallow depths, it can be easily discovered with even a cheap metal detector.
If the coin hoard was buried deep and at the site that was inhabited for a long time, this type of cache hunting is considered to be the most difficult task for the following reasons:

1) Having been undisturbed, a coin cache would have remained intact since it was buried, and sometimes its depth may exceed the detecting depth of a regular metal detector.

2) A thick layer of junk (iron nails of all sizes, fragments of tools, scrap metal, etc.) that has accumulated on top of the coin hoard over many years may mask the hoard completely.

3) Being undisturbed by plowing, each iron junk target has built up a strong Halo Effect which makes this target sound like a silver coin despite the Discrimination feature being employed; excessive digging is unavoidable.

4) Utilizing All Metal mode to achieve a better detecting depth would cause appearance of zillions of audio signals which would make a detectorist begin getting a “hearing fatigue” earlier during the hunt.
You should begin searching such a hunt site with a conventional land metal detector first while using search coils of different sizes and following a grid pattern of detecting. And if you still have not found a coin cache, you should search the site with a 2-Box or Deep Seeking (a better choice) metal detector. These deep seeking units will ignore the small targets and detect only a large objects (metallic containers) or large clusters of coins situated at depths not detectable by regular metal detectors.
This type of cache hunting requires a lot of patience, time, and a good stamina for digging numerous junk targets. In the process, you might spend only 10% of the total time for research, but 90% of time will be spent for metal detecting.
Type II of cache hunting may include searching the old-time wells and digging old dumps and privies since the types of metal detecting activities often overlap. However, searching the old wells is extremly dangerous and requires both certain skills and training that are not easy to get. Even though the old wells may conceal lots of treasures, I would not advise you to attempt this type of treasure hunting if you do not possess the “know how” and not physically trained to face serious challenges.
This type of cache hunting evolves around doing a serious research to pinpoint an exact location of a large coin cache that was buried by either an individual (a hermit, miner, prospector, bootlegger, wealthy person, etc.) or a group of people (road gangsters, bank robbers, pirates, etc.) and then reported or mentioned in newspapers, books or personal diaries. These documented treasure caches are of special interest to professional cache hunters and could be hidden anywhere – their locations range from the old back yards to the remote spots situated away from populated areas.
In this type of cache hunting, 90% of the total time should be spent for research and only 10% of time should be spent for recovering the treasure. The research requires long visits to archives and libraries, endless browsing of internet and talking to local old-timers. The researcher must be good at being a detective, be objective, and use analytical way of thinking to separate a few good solid leads from fabled BS (treasure atlases, treasure guides and books on treasure legends, for instance).
These “Can-Make-You-Rich” books are written for the “arm-chair treasure hunters” who drool over treasure legends, fairy-tales and far-fetched assumptions that have been built up on incomplete or biased research done by the amateurs. The best thing these books can do is to bring many tourists to town (village, county, state) and boost the local economy.
When you come across any of these entertaining books, keep in mind that a number of professional treasure hunters conducted their research when the leads were still “hot” and successfully recovered these treasures long before they were publicized in every “treasure atlas.” The golden rule of successful cache hunting is to be the first to obtain a “hot” lead and follow it fast. Metal Detectors required for this and other types of Cache Hunting are described on next page.
First of all, regular land metal detectors are not the best means to locate metallic valuables and coin stashes hidden inside any house. Simply because the house is full of various sources of metal such as large and small iron nails in floor boards and wall frames, electric wiring and pipes running throughout the structure, etc.
If you plan to do electronic search of the house, your best choice are thehand-held scanners or low-sensitivity mini detectors. They are usually non-motion (they do not require a movement to get a signal), have no discrimination (operating in All Metal mode), utilize both audio and visual (LED) target response indicators, and their tuning threshold is automatically maintained.
These hand-held scanners are quite effective in detecting coin caches stashed inside the house walls or behind bricks or stones of cellar walls. Even if you hold a mini detector at predetermined distance from nail heads, its low sensitivity will ignore the nails and still provide ample detecting depth for larger hidden objects. Operation in All Metal mode insures that valuables placed in tin cans will not be ignored.
If you do not have a hand-held scanner or mini detector, you can use your regular detector with a small search coil – 7″ or less, for searching the house. Here is a trick: you do not use your detector fully assembled. Instead, you attach the search coil to your hand with a duct tape and connect it to the detector’s control box. This will give you comfort, increase your efficiency and speed up the process. Your detector should be operated with minimum discrimination settings.
Before you scan the cellar walls with a mini detector or if you conduct non-electronic search, use the “Black Light” (or “UV light”) lamp to locate those spots on the walls that have been repaired or tampered since after the walls were finished. These spots are not always visible to the naked eye and could indicate the possible hiding places for coin caches. Black Light lamp emits electromagnetic radiation that is almost exclusively in the soft near ultraviolet range. Always use the black light with caution as the powerful ultraviolet sources present a hazard to eyes and skin.
While searching the house, look for loose boards on the floors and walls, and loose ceiling panels. Knock on the hard surfaces and listen for difference in sounds which could indicate a hollow space that could contain anything but the original materials used for construction. And never ignore the old furniture which likely may have a few secret compartments.
And always inspect the obvious. Once I found a large tin can full of silver Half-Dollars in an abandoned house which had already been searched a few times before I got there. I discovered this coin cache in a plastic grocery bag that was hanging on the back of the magazine/newspaper rack! None of previous searchers even bothered to look at the cheap framework.
Coin-shooting is a true art form and is the most popular approach to applying a metal detector. It can take many years of practice to achieve mastery. There are many things to watch and listen for and to truly tune into your detector requires devoted persistence.

Why would coin-shooting be the most popular application of a metal detector? If a coin is old enough, it’s usually worth much more than the effort it takes to dig it. There are many other reasons to coin-shoot besides finding pieces of metal authorized by a government as being money.

Money defines the age it was minted in revealing interesting historical knowledge.

Coin collecting, as a hobby, is enjoyable in itself. The challenge of hitting the field with a metal detector to find collectible coins, is more interesting and less costly than having to buy your coins for your collection from a coin dealer.

Where do you find coins? Anywhere that there is dirt or grass and people had dwelled there in some manner. Everyday people are losing coins.

There probably are more coins lost or hidden that exceed the value of all the coins in the banks of the world than anyone will ever be able to attest to–mainly because older coins exceed their face value.

Imagine the possibilities! Just about every yard in the world has coins in it. If the home was recently built, you’ll find more recent coins called “clad” coins.

Now if the home is older, you may find older more valuable collectible coins.
Every ball field that has been used is guaranteed to have coins in it.

Many school yards can have thousands of coins strewn all over campus. Beaches are also considered “hot spots” for coin-shooting.
It is good practice to map out your coin-shooting area while being careful to properly excavate the area. While hunting parks and sport event areas, always be careful to use a small digging trowel and to cover your holes properly.

Try to run your detector’s searchcoil as close to the ground as you can without actually touching or scuffing the ground.

In order to thoroughly cover an area, always search in both directions.

Many deeper coins on edge might be missed going North and South, but detected going East and West. After you have dug up a coin, always recheckthe hole. It is not unusual to find several coins in one hole.

If a strong signal is received but then lost after cutting a divot, check the loose dirt at the bottom of the hole for a coin on edge. In order to do the very best in a particular area, try searching immediately following a good rain while the
soil is damp. Coins, jewelry, and relics oxidize.

This oxidation causes a “halo” effect surrounding the item. The long er an item is buried, the larger it appears to the detector. This halo effect is more pronounced when the
soil is damp.

Not only are the signals stronger at this time, but probing is
also easier when the ground is soft.

When beachcombing, look for the concession stands. Around these stands and the surrounding beach area is excellent for coinshooting.

Don’t forget to check the shallow water in swimming areas. Many rings and coins are lost when people enter the water. When beachcombing on ocean beaches, check history records to locate sunken ships.

Rare old coins, gold pieces, and artifacts will sometimes wash ashore after a storm.

When ghosttowning, try to get a picture or a layout of that old town in order to determine where the church, post office, saloon, general store, etc. were located.

This will also show you where mon

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Successful treasure hunting

John Harun Mwau Facebook : Successful treasure hunting
Successful treasure hunting is an equation with a few variables such as 1) your detector that must “tell” you nothing but truth, 2) diligent and dedicated research, 3) correct metal detecting techniques and methods, 4) your ability to do hard work and maintain proper mental attitude and 5) your knowledge and understanding of your metal detector.
The latter is essential. A metal detector can do amazing things, but it can also confuse and disillusion you if you do not understand its “language.” You MUST know how to operate your detector to the best advantage and make proper adjustments under all search conditions as encountered. Start with thoroughly reading (several times) the instruction manual of your detector. As you begin detecting, and understanding of your detector grows, the quantity of recoveries will increase.
You might have difficulties in understanding all “ins” and “outs” of the operational procedures. Those difficulties might be overcome easily if you visit the metal detecting forums on Internet and read those threads, saved in the forum’s archives, that might contain answers to your questions. You also should join a local metal detecting club and talk to the experienced users of detectors similar to yours. The club members will provide you with lots of useful information and practical tips
At the club meetings, you will meet people who are active in the field and willing to share their success stories. In the club you perhaps will find yourself a good partner. That is also very important as two friends attuned to working well with each other are less apt to overlook something.
Working with a trusted partner is safer. You may need help, I can name many situations, and if you are alone under extreme circumstances and getting no assistance, you could be in serious trouble. Two good treasure hunters will find at least twice as much as one would.
Teamwork is especially important for cache hunting which includes certain searching techniques and strategies that differ from the basic coin shooting techniques, and require more participants for higher efficiency. For example, when just two cache hunters use different metal detectors, search the area in strict gridding patterns, and then swap their areas of detecting between themselves, they recover three times more coin hoards than a single treasure hunter in one season.
Even if you live in different geographic zones where the cellar holes are not present, do not be easily discouraged or disheartened by the title of my article! Of course, other areas require different search methods and detecting techniques due to their geographic and historic specifics, nevertheless, some of the practical approaches to site searching described in this article may be effectively applied to those areas as well!
Also, there are as many different metal detecting styles as there are many metaldetectorists in this hobby. Nevertheless, sharing my search techniques with you might give you new ideas on how to improve your own detecting style.
As most of the abandoned homestead sites are situated in the remote wooded areas and can be easily located through the detailed 19th century maps such as Beer’s Maps, they have been searched many times over many years. Nowadays, it is hard to find a “virgin” site, therefore, you will be dealing with the hunted out sites most of the time.
But sometimes, depending on your level of experience, abilities and level of research, you might come across a desirable “virgin” site. That is why I included both cases – searching the “virgin” and “hunted out” sites, into this article full of metal detecting tips.
But first, I would like to explain a few things about your metal detector’s Sensitivity and Discrimination settings and the search coils to select for metal detecting around cellar holes.
Sensitivity Settings
Always remember that too much sensitivity can do more harm than good. All detectorists have been after more depth from their metal detectors to get the deeply buried coins or to rehunt the same areas and find deeper coins. So we all crank up the sensitivity to the maximum, but only a few of us get the desirable results.
Only the Full Brand Spectrum (FBS) or multi-frequency ground reject detectors (such asMinelab Explorers, Minelab Safari and Minelab E-Trac for example) are able to separate the effects of external interference from weak target signals.
The single-frequency and dual-frequency detectors get jammed when their sensitivity levels are too high because the interferences are also intensified. It could be compared to the effect of driving your car in the fog with high beams on.
Just as the millions of tiny water droplets suspended in the air shorten the distance the headlight’s high beam can travel through the fog, the millions of oxidized iron particles in the “negative” nonconductive ground matrix “cloud” the weak signal of a deep coin when the Sensitivity setting is high.
Turning down the sensitivity level enables you to hear weak signals as the audio distraction caused by false signals, ground mineral effect and partially rejected junk targets is reduced.
Instead of trying to determine the ground conditions and trash density, start your search using maximum sensitivity settings and then gradually reduce them to the level of detector’s stability. This technique will save you time and allow you to easily tune your detector for maximum performance in current conditions.
One of the first things many beginners do is burying a few coins to see how deeply they can be detected. The usual result is disappointment because people do not know that newly buried coins are quite difficult to detect. The reason for that is absence of so called “Halo Effect” which has been developed as the time passes: coins become electrically more associated with surrounding earth materials and the molecules of metal begin to “leak” into the surrounding soil.
That is why the “halo effect” is responsible for one type of “elusive” signals. Such form of signal disappearance usually takes place during the recovery of an iron target, or any target that your detector is adjusted to reject. For example, after having been buried in the ground for years, an iron object that is larger than a square nail tends to develop a strong halo around it – an aura of both nonconductive and conductive properties that make the motion discriminate mode create the positive response.
When the search coil passes over this iron object, you hear a “good” signal even if the Discrimination is set up on “reject iron.” Sometimes the signal does not repeat with each sweep of the search coil. You decide to dig it anyway. During the recovery, you disturb the ground around the object, thus removing the halo which has been created around the iron target by oxidation. Once this happens, the motion discriminate mode does not create the positive target response anymore as it rejects the iron target thoroughly – you get no signal.
You should construct your Test Garden (Test Plot) to help you learn the capabilities of your detector and educate yourself about what you intend to find. A test garden cannot completely prepare you for what you may encounter in a real hunt situation. However, it can help you better understand the effects of ground minerals, moisture content, target angle, oxidation/rust, trash proximity, target defects, surface textures and provide practice in target pinpointing.
You should create your test plot as soon as you purchase your detector. After a while, your test garden will be ready for experimentation, and your detector will be able to pick up signals from the coins buried by you at different depths. First of all, select the area and scan it with no discrimination so you can remove all metal from the ground. Select targets such as various coins, a bottle cap, a pull tab, other objects of different metals and a few nails. Also select a pint jar filled with scrap copper and a gallon can.
Bury all these objects in rows about three feet apart and make a map showing where and at what depth each item is buried. Bury coins at varying depths, beginning at two inches. Continue, with the deepest buried about 10 inches deep. Bury a coin at about two inches but stand it on edge, another coin at about three inches with a nail nearby, and so forth. Be creative! Bury the jar at twelve inches to the top of its lid. Bury the gallon can with the lid two feet below the surface. The target locations should be marked with colored nonmetallic objects such as golf teeth for instance.
The purpose of the buried coins is to familiarize you with their characteristic sound. The jar and gallon can will help you learn to recognize “dull” sounds of large, deeply buried objects. Experiment with different sizes of search coils as well as different program settings of your detector. Your test garden is important because your success in scanning over it will be a measure of how well you are progressing and how well you have learned your equipment. Remember that you must make an accurate map and keep it up to date when you change and/or add to your test garden.
Before you go metal-detecting
1. Not trespassing; before you start detecting obtain permission to search from the
landowner/occupier, regardless of the status, or perceived status, of the land. Remember
that all land has an owner. To avoid subsequent disputes it is always advisable to get permission
and agreement in writing first regarding the ownership of any finds subsequently
discovered
2. Adhering to the laws concerning protected sites (e.g. those defined as Scheduled
Monuments or Sites of Special Scientific Interest: you can obtain details of these from
the landowner/occupier, Finds Liaison Officer, Historic Environment. Take extra care when detecting near protected sites: for example, it is not
always clear where the boundaries lie on the ground.
3. You are strongly recommended to join a metal detecting club or association that encourages
co-operation and responsive exchanges with other responsible heritage groups.
4. Familiarising yourself with and following current conservation advice on the handling,care and storage of archaeological objects.
While you are metal-detecting
5. Wherever possible working on ground that has already been disturbed (such as
ploughed land or that which has formerly been ploughed), and only within the depth of
ploughing. If detecting takes place on undisturbed pasture, be careful to ensure that no
damage is done to the archaeological value of the land, including earthworks.
6. Minimising any ground disturbance through the use of suitable tools and by reinstating
any excavated material as neatly as possible. Endeavour not to damage stratified
archaeological deposits.
7. Recording findspots as accurately as possible for all finds (i.e. to at least a one hundred
metre square, using an Ordnance Survey map or hand-held Global Positioning Systems
(GPS) device) whilst in the field. Bag finds individually and record the National Grid Reference
(NGR) on the bag. Findspot information should not be passed on to other partieswithout the agreement of the landowner/occupier
8. Respecting the Country Code (leave gates and property as you find them and do not
damage crops, frighten animals, or disturb ground nesting birds, and dispose properly of
litter:).

9. Seeking expert help if you discover something large below the ploughsoil, or a concentration of finds or unusual material, or wreck remains, and ensuring that the landowner/ occupier’s permission is obtained to do so. Your local Finds Liaison Officer may be able to help or will be able to advise of an appropriate person. Reporting the find does not
change your rights of discovery, but will result in far more archaeological evidence being
discovered.

10. Calling the Police, and notifying the landowner/occupier, if you find any traces of human
remains.

11. Calling the Police or HM Coastguard, and notifying the landowner/occupier, if you
find anything that may be a live explosive: do not use a metal-detector or mobile phone
nearby as this might trigger an explosion. Do not attempt to move or interfere with anysuch explosives.

In general, Probing, (as we shall call it), is used for shallow objects not more than 4”- (10cm) or perhaps a little deeper for the Pros. Probing is good for turf and soil that has little or no rocks or pebbles. These types of conditions are usually encountered in well kept places like Parks, Public Centers, Schools, Athletic Fields, Golf Courses, Private Homes, etc. One of the best uses for Probing is when your object has fallen into a grassy turf or has worked itself to just below it. It is not unusual to see pieces of grassy or other types of turf torn up from the ground in some ones attempt to find a shallow object embedded in it (Usually done by Plug Diggers), but more about this later. This problem is minimized or eliminated altogether using the Probe Technique.
If your detector has pinpointing and depth reading abilities, X in the object then read the depth. Many folks don’t know how to properly pinpoint or read depth with their detector and/or use the type of coil they’re using. Keep in mind that pinpointing with a concentric coil is different than a double “D” type. Knowledge and practice is the key to proper use. If the object is in grassy turf or shallow clean soil, 4”- 10cm, proceed to the next step.
While keeping your eyes on the X spot, stoop down and probe the center of it down to the object like shown in illustration 2. Note: Do keep the shank of your Probe vertical to the ground when probing for the object. If you have pinpointed the object properly with your Probe, move on to the next step.
Take your screwdriver and drive it into the ground at a 45-degree angle so that the flat side of the tip comes just under the object.
Now put your other hand that is not holding the screwdriver onto the shank and with both hands bring pressure to bear under the object driving it up towards the surface as shown in illustration 4. Do not back off on the pressure put onto the object; otherwise you can lose the grip on it, which makes recovery more difficult. Now put back any excess soil that came up from the hole that the object left, squeeze the turf together, then standup and stamp on it with your shoe.
If you have preformed the above instructions properly you should have recovered the object with no damage as well as the turf and ground it came from.

When pinpointing, sometimes the object isn’t where the signal indicates. This can be caused by incorrect use of the detector as mentioned above and/or the object is not lying flat in the ground, but rather being on end or at an angle to the horizontal. Dual objects may also cause a similar problem. These situations can cause the return signal to report the object in the wrong position. Many times in these citied situations, folks will dig many holes chasing the signal everywhere. This becomes very messy indeed and can cause the object to shift from its original position creating even more problems. One technique to get around this is to probe the suspected spot then work out from there in a spiral pattern to around a few inches or about 5cm.

If the object has not been located stand up and pinpoint again, but only from a different angle of approach this time to see if your object is detected in the same place again. If it is still in the same place you may be encountering an object that is thin or ringed shaped so its form can sometimes be more difficult to pinpoint and/or probe. In some areas where I go detecting, I have a rule that if I can’t locate an object in a minute or so, I will pass on it rather than create any possible mess. Those of you that have detected those kinds of spots will understand my rule and perhaps adopt it as well. In parting I must say that the probing techniques introduced here, in my region, is the law of the county parks system. In some districts you aren’t even allowed to detect at all because of the damage caused by bad recovery methods. The damage has already been done there – don’t let it happen to your area as well.
This second recovery procedure is the most controversial in as much as it challenges the most used and abused recovery system of all – outside of using posthole and shovel diggers to recover objects in delicate areas. (See Introduction.) The recovery system, which is being challenged, is commonly known as the “Plug Method.” Almost everyone who has swung a detector has, and/or still does, use the plug technique to recover most, if not all, objects one is seeking. The technique is fairly straight forward – pinpoint the object then cut a circular or hatched plug into the turf and soil, retrieve the object, then replace soil and turf to its original position. (Some folks even carry water to use when replacing plugs in delicate areas.) The plug is so common that even detector manuals show it as the way to retrieve objects. How then can this technique be so abusive as to upset so many people and officials? Because it doesn’t work in most conditions, it’s just that simple.
I know that a lot of you are going to disagree with that statement, but the bottom line is the minus out weights the plus. Some folks have realized this and have tried various ways to minimize the problem including cutting very large plugs in an attempt to not localize the root damage. Most of these attempts have all failed to be consistent enough for good results. Another problem with the plug method and probably the largest offender of complaints is cutting a plug to retrieve an object, which is in the turf and not in the soil. So then, what is a person to do? Fortunately there is another technique, which has been around for many years, but was never, outside of a few articles, put before people who needed a better and cleaner method of recovery. In this case it’s “better late than never.” So enters the “Slit Technique.”
With the Slit Technique many of the problems that are encountered with Plugs are overcome and are easy and fast to learn. The Slit Technique is good for recovering objects that are below the turf line and into the soil. It is also handy for recovering objects that are in rocky soils and in sensitive places where making a mess of any kind is forbidden. The Slit Technique of recovery calls for a knife, (preferably a Japanese Garden Knife), as the only tool needed and a cloth, (Like a mechanic cloth etc), will do, to get the job done.
If your detector has pinpointing and depth reading abilities, X in the object then read the depth. If your object is in the grassy turf or shallow clean soil 4” – (10cm) proceed back above to the Probe Technique of this discussion. If your object is in the soil, rocky or otherwise, proceed to the next step.
While keeping your eye on the X spot stoop down and draw a line with your knife over the top of the object center as shown in Illustration 2. This line will be 3”- (7.5cm) to each side of the object center for normal coin size articles or more for larger size objects.
Push the knife blade into the turf and soil making a cut along the line at a 45-degree angle from vertical as shown in the dashed line illustration of 3. The knife blade should go down past the turf roots into the soil when making your cut.
Now make the same 45-degree cut along the opposite side of your line the same way you did the first, as shown in illustration 4, push your hands into the cut of the open slit and spread the two sides of the turf outward exposing the soil under the turf.
Spread your cloth on the ground next to your opened slit then take your knife and dig a plug around the outside of your object. Now remove the plug and put it on your cloth if you haven’t found your object already. Break up the plug, find the object, and then remove it.
Pat down the soil into the hole, close the opened turf sides together now stand up and press down on the slit with your foot.
Relic hunting is about metal detecting all kinds of mostly iron artifacts and relics that may have a high historical, archaeological, collectible or even decorative/practical value; Colonial iron door hinges exemplifying the latter. Non-metallic relic finds, which get unearthed as the “by-products” during the process of target recovery and range from Neolithic axe heads to the 18th century clay pipes (mostly incomplete), are also highly sought by relic hunters.
Relic hunting is very popular around the world and consists of many subcategories such as “Bronze Age,” “Medieval Period,” “Medieval Animal Style,” “Early American Iron,” “US Revolutionary War,” “US War of 1812,” “US Civil War,” “World War I” and “World War II” just to name the major ones.

John Harun Mwau Facebook: Pro Metal Detecting

John Harun Mwau Facebook: Pro Metal Detecting

GRIDDING – Rigid and disciplined search routes along predetermined boundaries used to thoroughly cover a metal detecting site in several directions. Markers or boundaries may be real or imaginary.

GROUND BALANCE – A condition or mode of operation in which the detector is adjusted to optimally reduce the interference that ground mineralization has on metal targets.

GROUND BALANCE (Manual) – A ground balance feature requiring manual adjustment by the operator.

GROUND BALANCE (Factory Preset) – A feature eliminating the ground control and operator manipulation. The metal detector is preset at the factory to an average range of non-conductive soils.

GROUND BALANCE (Self-adjusting) – A true automated ground balancing feature. The detector circuitry senses change in mineralization and compensates to sustain balance.

GROUND COMPENSATION – The ability of the detector to compensate for the effects of ground mineralization.

GROUND FILTER – Specialized sections of metal detector circuitry which separates the ground mineral effect from metal responses in the motion discriminate mode. Quality of design dictates the level of efficiency, sweep rate, depth penetration, and recovery time related to target separation.
H
HALO EFFECT – A conductive increase in target size as seen by the metal detector’s electromagnetic field. The effect is caused by excessive target oxidation permeating the soil directly surrounding the target. Associated with long term burial or highly acidic soils. You can read more details on my Halo Effect page.

HAMMERED SITE – A slang term for a metal detecting site that has been searched by metaldetectorists many times. Also called SEARCHED OUT, HUNTED OUT and POUNDED SITE.

HEADPHONES – Remote loudspeakers worn over the ears to enhance the operator’s hearing ability and block ambient noise such as automobile traffic and ocean waves. A highly recommended alternative to the detector’s speaker. The batteries last longer when headphones are used.

HEARING FATIGUE – A temporary condition of the detectorist’s brain when its ability in processing the incoming audio signals begins to decrease. As a result, the detectorist begins to 1) hear less difference between various audio tones (when the Tone ID feature is used), and/or 2) fail discerning the solid signals from the broken ones (this happens in both Tone ID and Single Tone ID cases of usage), therefore, missing some desirable targets. Hearing Fatigue takes place when either a lot of various audio signals are incoming in a non-stop manner for a long period of time (while metal detecting at the junk littered site) or the detectorist has been metal detecting for hours without taking a break. This condition is not noticeable unless one starts feeling a headache caused by numerous cacophonous signals. That is why it is important for any detectorist to take as many breaks as possible during the search. While taking a break, one should take the headphones off and rest mentally and physically for 15 minutes. That would reset detectorist’s brain to its “default condition.” It is important to remember that physical fatigue dulls one’s visual and hearing senses as well.

HEEL – The southern section of search coil behind the control shaft attachment point as viewed from above by the operator.

HERTZ (Hz) – Cycles per second (see FREQUENCY).

HOT ROCK – Any rock containing more non-conductive mineralization than the surrounding matrix to which the detector is ground balanced. Positive or false metallic responses can be heard from these rocks in the motion discriminate mode and a negative or null in audio threshold in the non-motion, all-metal ground balanced mode. You can read more details on my Hot Rocks page
I
IB – An abbreviation which stands for Induction Balance. IB is a condition of zero current flow between transmit and receive windings prior to metal detection. Basically the search coil of the induction balance detector consists of two wire loops: one is a transmitter, another one is a receiver. The most common detectors used nowadays are the detectors that utilize the inductive balance principle of metal detection.

INDUCTANCE – The electrical property of a metal target to oppose variations of the magnetic field. This characteristic is referred to as Ferrous Content.

ISOLATOR – also Lower Shaft – the lower most section of non-metallic control shaft which attaches to the search coil and separates the metallic portion of the control shaft from the electromagnetic field.
K
KEEPER – A slang word for a good metal detecting find.

kHZ (Kilohertz) – One thousand cycles per second, (see FREQUENCY).
L
LCD – Abbreviation for Liquid Crystal Display. The basis for metal detector visual graphic display technology.

LED – Abbreviation for Light Emitting Diode. A lamp-like semiconductor used for visually indicating circuit functions such as target response and battery condition.
M
MATRIX – The total volume of ground penetrated by the electromagnetic transmit field containing minerals, metals, salts, rocks, moisture and organic matter.

MINERALIZED GROUND – Soil containing non-conductive and/or conductive properties which directly influence metal detector tuning and depth penetration.

MODE – A state of metal detector operation selected by the operator to accomplish a specific task.

MODULAR – A metal detector configuration in which the circuit board(s) can be easily removed and/or replaced for the purpose of repair or upgrade without replacing the entire metal detector.

MONOLOOP COIL – A search coil in which the multiple strands of wire are wound in a single loop around the circumference of the coil. Monoloop coil provides greater depth and sensitivity compared to a Double D coil of equivalent size in in soils with low-medium mineral content.

MOTION DISCRIMINATOR – A detector requiring constant search coil motion to reduce the effect ground mineral interference has on its discriminate function. In short words: search coil requires movement for discrimination to be achieved.

MOTION GROUND CONTROL – movement of a search coil is required for controlling the ground mineralization.

MULTI-FREQUENCY – Metal detector circuitry employing multiple transmit frequencies to enhance the separation of ground mineral effect from target response to increase target identification accuracy. Examples: BROAD BAND SPECTRUM (BBS) and FULL BAND SPECTRUM (FBS) technologies used by the Minelab detectors. Their circuits automatically transmit 17 or 28 frequencies simultaneously. This provides the advantage in both good depth and high sensitivity over the single- and dual-frequency metal detectors.

MULTI PERIOD SENSING (MPS) – Minelab’s patented pulse induction technology. Standard pulse induction metal detectors are limited because they use a single pulse width. MPS uses varying pulse widths that extract more information from targets, achieve better ground balance and detect to greater depths.

N
NARROW RESPONSE – An audio target signal which is not wider than the physical size of the search coil.

NEGATIVE GROUND – Non-conductive soil matrix which has a negative or nulling effect on an air tuned audio threshold.

NEUTRAL GROUND – Soil with little or no non-conductive or conductive properties.

NICAD – A class of rechargeable battery having a nickel-cadmium composition.

NiMH – A class of rechargeable batteries having a nickel-metal-hydrate composition. NiMH batteries have a longer life-span and are not affected by memory to the same degree.

NON-FERROUS – Metal types not containing iron such as gold, silver, copper, aluminum, etc. If a metal object is attracted to a magnet, it is called ferrous.

NON-MOTION – Any mode of operation which sustains target response without search coil motion.

NON-MOTION ALL-METAL – movement of search coil is not required to get an audio response from any metallic target. This mode is used for pinpointing targets.

NOTCH ACCEPT – A basic notch filter discrimination mode which eliminates all responses except those whose conductive properties fall within the range of the notch width.

NOTCH DISCRIMINATION – it allows to select which of the conductivity segments in the discrimination scale are active or disabled. If a segment is “notched out,” then metals within that range of conductivity will be masked and will not produce a signal.

NOTCH FILTER DISCRIMINATION – Specialized discrimination circuitry which selectively accepts or rejects a narrow conductive range of targets inside or outside normal discrimination settings, i.e. accepting nickel coins while rejecting targets higher in conductivity such as pull-tabs.

NOTCH LEVEL – The control used to position the notch width or “window” within the range of metallic conductivities.

NOTCH REJECT – A basic notch filter discrimination mode which rejects only those targets whose conductivities fall within the range of the notch width.

NOTCH WIDTH – A preset or adjustable range of conductivity positioned by the notch level setting – also known as NOTCH WINDOW.

NULL – A momentary disappearance of threshold audio as the search coil passes over a rejected target or a hot rock located with a ground balanced mode.

NUMISMATIST – A person specializing in the study and collection of coins, tokens, and currency.
O
ONE TOUCH – see TURN-ON-AND-GO

OSCILLATOR – A metal detector circuit component which sends a specific current frequency generation to the transmit windings of the search coil to produce an electromagnetic field.

OVERLAP – The amount of scan advance not greater than the physical size of the search coil.

OVERSHOOT – False signals produced by an auto-tuned non-motion discriminate mode as the search coil passes too quickly past a rejected target. Excessive audio restoration by automatic re-tuning produces these false signals outside the target response periphery.
P
PHASE RESPONSE – The duration of time between target surface eddy current generation and resultant secondary electromagnetic field effect on the search coil’s receive windings. Also called phase lag or phase angle and is directly related to target conductivity.

PINPOINTING – The act of aligning the center of target response width to the designated search coil center for accurate location and careful recovery.

PLUGGING – A method of target recovery by which a plug of soil is carefully cut and folded back to expose deeper targets which cannot be successfully recovered with other methods.

POSITIVE GROUND – Soil containing conductive minerals or wet salts that affect an air tuned audio threshold.

POUNDED SITE – A slang term for a metal detecting site that has been searched by metaldetectorists many times. Also called HAMMERED, SEARCHED OUT and HUNTED OUT SITE.

PRESET MARKINGS – Metal detector control panel markings which have been highlighted by the manufacturer as a guide to setting up the detector for average operating conditions.

PI – An abbreviation for Pulse Induction circuit technology. This type detector ignores both non-conductive and conductive minerals simultaneously by pulsing the receiver amplifier off before the response from wetted salts and iron oxides can reach the search coil winding. The search coil of the PI detector consists of only one wire loop which is both transmitter and receiver at the same time. PI detectors are capable of extreme depth but are currently inept at rejecting undesired targets, i.e. they can not operate in Discrimination mode.
Q
QUICK RESPONSE – The measure of time it takes between metal sensing and full audio/visual response. Generally associated with all frequencies of TR detectors.
R
RECEIVE WINDING – The coil(s) of wire inside the search coil housing whose function is to accept the secondary electromagnetic field generated on a target’s surface by eddy currents.

RECOVERY TIME – The duration of time it takes a metal detector to respond to the next target after responding to the previous. Detectors with slow recovery speeds often are unable to respond to all targets in close proximity when discrimination is used.

REJECTION – Non-acceptance of a target when operating in the discriminate mode indicated by a null in threshold audio or no change in silent operation.

RETUNING – The act of manually restoring threshold audio by means of an external switch, (see AUTO-TUNE).

Rx (Receive) refers to the response, or electromagnetic field, which is received back by the coil and is used by the control box circuitry to process it accordingly.
S
“S” HANDLE – A metal detector control shaft designed with offsets which increase operator comfort by reducing arm and wrist fatigue.

SCAN – To complete a detection path of search coil travel or sweep.

SEARCH COIL – The search head or housing which holds both transmitter and receiver windings (loops) aligned in a specific configuration, (see COAXIAL; CO-PLANAR; CONCENTRIC; DOUBLE D) Also known as a search loop or coil.

SEARCH COIL CABLE – A cable of electrostatically shielded wires which carries circuit board oscillator current frequency to the search coil and phase related target information back to the control housing.

SENSITIVITY – The measure of a metal detector’s capacity to sense changes in conductivity throughout the pattern of detection set forth by the search coil configuration, (see AIR TEST).

SIGNAL – A visual and/or audio response which alerts the operator to the presence of a metal object (see FALSE SIGNAL).

SIGNAL WIDTH – The ground distance measure of search coil travel in which target audio is sustained. Signal width is directly proportional to target size and ferrous content when operating in a non-motion all-metal mode.

SILENT OPERATION – A search mode which does not use constant threshold audio tuning to maintain sensitivity. Also called SILENT SEARCH.

SINGLE-FREQUENCY (see also FREQUENCY) – This is when a metal detector is designed to operate on one frequency of alternating current which is generated by the transmit oscillator and passed through the transmitter coil. Most detectors on the market operate on a single frequency, ranging from 1 to 70 kilohertz (kHz). Although this technology has served the industry well for years, the scientists found that a frequency that worked well in one area would often offer only marginal performance when used in another location. Ground mineralization, trash content, and target size all have an effect on how effective a detector transmitting a single frequency would operate.

SKID PLATE (Coil Cover) – A non-metallic cover placed on the search coil bottom for protection against abrasion.

SLOW MOTION – The rate or class of search coil sweep speed necessary to efficiently operate the motion discriminate mode.

SLOW RESPONSE – The measure of time associated with metal sensing and peak audio/ visual response. Generally associated with PI type detectors.

STABILITY – The quality of a metal detector circuit to resist external sources of thermal and electrical interference, (see DRIFT).

SURFACE BLANKING – A feature designed to eliminate the response from non discriminated targets lying within a predetermined depth. Based on signal intensities usually associated with shallow depths.

SWEEP – The width and/or speed rate of search coil scan.
T
TARGET – Any buried or hidden object to which a metal detector responds.

TARGET MASKING – The overriding or interfering effects large or numerous rejected targets have over desirable targets in close proximity.

TARGET SEPARATION – The ability of a metal detector to respond to individual targets within a closely spaced group.

TEN-TURN – Any control requiring ten revolutions of the indicator knob to cover the adjustment range of its function, (i.e. ground balance).

TEST GARDEN – A plot of targets intentionally buried by the detectorist. Arranged by size, depth, and composition for learning characteristic responses and comparing metal detector performances in a controlled environment.

THRESHOLD – The minimum audio level of tuning adjusted for optimum sensitivity. If your metal detector is not operated in Silent Search mode, the Threshold is heard as constant background “humming” during detecting. Threshold should be adjusted to a minimum audible level, so you can hear very small and deep targets. When a rejected target is detected, the Threshold sounds “blanks” or “null” (becomes silent) indicating that an undesired target is underneath the search coil. Threshold can be set anywhere between “no sound” (silent) and loud.

TH’er – An abbreviation for Treasure Hunter, an enthusiast in a hobby of metal detecting and treasure hunting. Also called a Metaldetectorist or Detectorist.

TOE – The northern section of search coil above the control shaft attachment point as viewed from above by the operator.

TONE CONTROL – An adjustment used to regulate the audio frequency or sound pitch to operator preference. Also used to contrast target response with external ambience.

TONE ID – Audio identification of a target based on a principle of relationship between the target’s conductivity and the tone’s pitch: the higher the conductivity, the higher the tone, i.e. the lowest pitch tone for iron, the highest pitch tone for silver.

TRANSMIT WINDING – The coil of wire which generates and transmits the primary electromagnetic field from within the search coil housing into the soil matrix.

TR (Transmitter/Receiver) – A class of metal detectors operating in a broad range of radio frequencies (i.e. VLF/TR; VF/TR) utilizing the inductive balance principle of metal detection. TR detectors are able to tell the difference between a ferrous and nonferrous object, but do not have enough depth in highly mineralized ground. TR detectors are obsolete now.

TURN-ON-AND-GO – A type of metal detectors that automatically eliminate the ground mineralization while in operation. This is achieved by the Automatic Ground Balance feature also called Automatic Ground Compensation, Auto Tune, etc., depending on a metal detector. Using a metal detector of this type, an operator does not have to manually adjust the detector’s ground balance before or during the detecting process.