Thursday, 5 January 2012

Are Forex Signals Fool Proof?

Monitoring the market for good entrance and exit points is by far the most time consuming part of trading on the Forex exchange. You could easily spend the better part of your life sitting in front of a computer screen monitoring the price changes.

You can use automated orders like stop loss and limit orders to help alleviate some of this problem. They will at least allow you to get a way from you computer for a while knowing that any losses will be limited. The downside is that you could easily miss out on some potential profits by not being there to monitor your limits.

If you really do not want to spend the rest of your life in front of your computer but you still want to make a profit trading Forex then you should consider signing up with a service that provides Forex signals. A signal service monitors and analyzes the market and then notifies you of the results. This information can be sent to your email, pager or even directly to your cell phone.

A Forex signal service is a paid subscription service. You will have to sign up and pay either a monthly or annual subscription fee to receive this information. In some cases you will find that your broker provides this as an add on to their basic software system, in this case you can also receive notices as a pop up inside of the main software as well as the other notification options.

Most services will only offer signals on a certain number of currency pairs. The most common pairs that are provided are: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF. You may find that some services though will offer signals on less mainstream combinations.

Most companies mainly utilize technical analysis to generate their signal information. They frequently use a combination of indicators to determine trends and identify entry and exit points. This information is then forwarded to the subscribers that can choose to act on it if they wish. Some companies even offer the option of having the trades automatically executed.

A variety of signals can be generated from currency charts by using multiple technical studies. The Simple Moving Average will generate buy signals when a currency moves above the average line and sell signals when it moves below the average price line. Moving Average Convergence Divergence is also used to generate a buy signal when it moves above the line or a sell signal if it moves below. Volume indicators are also used to monitor the market. High volume, especially if it is near the bottom of the market can indicate the beginning of a new trend; where as low volume shows a lack of trader confidence.

Another indicator of changes in the in the market are Bollinger Bands. When the bands tighten you will usually see sharp price changes with prices that touch one band moving all the way to the other band. Volatility and momentum are taken in consideration as well to confirm the information provided by other signals. All of these factors taken together will provide a fairly reliable indicator of how the market is behaving.

Signals are in no way guaranteed to be accurate. If they were completely accurate then every trader would become a millionaire. Signals can provide good recommendations as to what trades to make but now some signal services will guarantee their information. Reputable firms though will show you their history and track record so you can make an informed decision about using them.

The price of a good signal service will run anywhere from $50 t $200 a month. Signals will never replace trader education and common sense. They are merely another tool in the arsenal of an educated trader.