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http://www.sarrafx.com/en/view-blog-article/74/Is-the-UK-emerging-from-the-dark?

Basically, I think it is impossible to make money trading FX (or any other market) by using technical analysis alone. No matter what indicators, time frame or system you use it cannot work in isolation. These markets work on so many levels with so many influences, inputs and indicators that to limit oneself to one seems to me a little naïve. Read more: http://www.sarrafx.com/en/view-blog-article/46/Why-wear-blinkers?

Is the situation in Europe out of control? It seems that more and more issues are piling up on the already unsolved problems that have been in existence virtually since the crisis began in 2008! Greece has apparently met only 22% of its responsibilities to cut spending under the latest bailout and has asked for a two year extension to its obligations. It is hard to imagine that Greece can survive within the Eurozone given its lack of ability driven by social unrest to meet the agreements it has signed. Want to Read more? http://www.sarrafx.com/en/view-blog-article/49/Out-of-Control

The market is now well and truly over the euphoria which greeted the EBC’s bond purchase scheme. It also didn’t murder the dollar when QE3 was announced. The global economy is struggling and there are fewer and fewer bright-spots for the market to focus upon. The Aud, the darling of the risk on brigade has given way to the JPY, the darling of the risk off brigade! We can’t consider the Chf anymore as it is heavily shackled by the SNB. Now it appears as though the Euro (the darling of no one it seems) has topped out as the market continues to digest the European leader’s ability to pass up every opportunity they manufacture to set their joint economy on the right track. Read More: http://www.sarrafx.com/en/view-blog-article/48/Has-the-downtrend-resumed?

What makes a market? Yesterday’s blog and subsequent discussion reminded me a lot of how things used to be. It is important that we share ideas. If it takes someone to be provocative or controversial to get people talking then that is a good thing for us all. For me it is to understand the mentality and thinking of the participants in these markets but I am also trying to help to broaden the horizons of those who are new to FX or trading in general. Want to read more? Go to http://www.sarrafx.com/en/view-blog-article/47/What-makes-a-market?

I have been involved in FX markets in one form or another for 25 years and believe myself to have seen most things that can occur. For example I was in charge of the overnight desk at a major trading bank the night that sterling left the ERM! That is the single most incredible market move I have ever seen. I have executed billion dollar orders manually and seen stop losses get chased by traders because they see that as a legitimate market practice. In this business you are always learning and as such the retail business is something I have been studying and coming to terms with for a couple of years now. Read More at http://www.sarrafx.c.../38/Be-yourself

http://www.sarrafx.com/en/view-blog-article/43/FOMC-&-Beyond The Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement was as dovish as it could possibly get. But then, surely it was acting in accordance with its mandate. The Committee explained that, "without further policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions." They outlined their new bond purchase program, pledged to do more if the labor market doesn't improve and emphasized that a highly accommodative monetary policy stance would be appropriate "for a considerable time" after the economic recovery strengthens. What the central bank is trying to tell us is that even if the recovery gains momentum, they won't be hurrying to unwind the stimulus until they are certain that the recovery is here to stay. As has been the case with QE1 and QE2 the Fed has swung into action in a massive way. The open-ended nature of QE3 came as a major surprise for the market and even before the news was properly digested; it was assumed that QE3 is bad for the dollar. While currency traders may be confused, the rally in equities and the drop in bond yields confirm that investors are pleased that Bernanke was able to shrug off politics and rev up the printing presses. At the end of the day, this will be bearish for the dollar when viewed in isolation. However (there is always a however!) this has been a monumental week for the markets yet we have seen the dollar fall by less than 1% since the package of measures was announced. We have to remember that the U.S. is not alone in having problems with its economy and currency markets trade on relative value of one currency to another. Japan, U.K. and, of course, Europe are all battling to regain traction in their economies and it is only history that will show how well Bernanke, Geither, Noda, Cameron, Osborne, Merkel, Dragi etc. have done in first containing, then growing out of the global economic slowdown. It should be noted that Japans’ Finance Minister killed himself a few days ago although the economic situation in Japan does not appear to have been the reason. Japan has a track record of intervening in currency markets to weaken the Yen when its strength threatens Japanese exports. They seemed to be coming to terms with its currency trading at much higher levels. Indeed 80 had become the new 100. Now we see the dollar as unable to sustain a rally above 80 and Japan will not want to see a gradual rise in the value of the Yen so intervention is clearly on the cards. Japan is not Switzerland however and the markets will gladly take on Japan if they intervene alone. It is unlikely in the extreme that the Federal Reserve or the ECB will join in concerted intervention so with a lack of policy options to weaken the currency, Japan will continue to suffer. The U.K. is, to a certain extent, becoming sidelined globally as its influence wanes. Being apart from the EU allows it to make its own policy mistakes although given where Europe is headed that is maybe no bad thing. Enough has been written about the woes of the EU and it is sure there will be more strong headwinds in the coming weeks/months. The major currencies will continue to move according to that days or weeks news but this week was extremely significant in that not only were events Euro positive, they were also dollar negative. There have only been two QE’s to compare to so it is very difficult to use them statistically to say what will happen to currencies following the third but the only certainty is that there will be volatility

The up move is overdone and ditto in most of the spaces thus one can expect corrective move. More or less the pair achieved the closer to the max range of 1.6100-1.6130. Further gains would be tough to negotiate and thus would prefer a dollar rally. This is despite the fact that the dollar has broken the trend line in weekly and thus posted one of the bear pictures in the recent months. However most of the pairs are in critical junctures like Euro near the monthly trend line, Sterling near the channel high drawn and also near the weekly trend line. This ideally suggest corrective rally for the dollar before next move. Thus a) the influence of Sterling and Sterling alone b) influence of EURGBP c) the broad dollar action in that order is what is one should look into. The fulcrum has substantially moved from 1.5880 to 1.5960 and the upside focus is towards the 1.6100-50 area. Only break and close below 1.5960 can potentially threaten the up move. Intra-day shorts recommended as the RR favours within the ongoing dollar bearish bias. Strategy : Sell here and 40 Stop Loss:- 1.6208 Take Profit:- 1.5980

With the event risk ahead and the market slightly in over bought zone and the monthly trend line acting as resistance further gains on close basis would be difficult. Now that the ongoing momentum took the pair towards the 1.2900 plus zone, one can expect a failure. Dollar bulls lost the plot across the board. Presently Euro price action is near 34 WMA and the Ichimoku has not thrown any change in the trend. As we have been indicating in the big picture 1.2780 is the conversion point for bulls and bears and the longer the euro bulls stay around these levels the bigger is the threat for the dollar bulls. Intra-day supports around 1.2870 resistance around the 1.2940 area are the two focal points. Bias is bullish. Near term however we would attempt on the short side as the rally is overdone. Strategy : Sell here and 1.2945 Stop Loss:- 1.3022 Profit:- 1.2780

By early 2007, it was estimated that some US$1 trillion may have been staked on the yen carry trade. The risk in carry trading is that foreign exchange rates may change to the effect that the investor would have to pay back more expensive currency with less valuable currency. In theory, according to uncovered interest rate parity, carry trades should not yield a predictable profit because the difference in interest rates between two countries should equal the rate at which investors expect the low-interest-rate currency to rise against the high-interest-rate one. However, carry trades weaken the currency that is borrowed, because investors sell the borrowed money by converting it to other currencies. By early year 2007, it was estimated that some US$1 trillion may have been staked on the yen carry trade. Since the mid-90's, the Bank of Japan has set Japanese interest rates at very low levels making it profitable to borrow Japanese yen to fund activities in other currencies. These activities include subprime lending in the USA, and funding of emerging markets, especially BRIC countries and resource rich countries. The trade largely collapsed in 2008 particularly in regards to the yen. The 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis has among its origins the undisciplined use of the carry trade. Particular attention has been focused on the use of Euro denominated loans to purchase homes and other assets within Iceland. Most of these loans defaulted when the relative value of the Icelandic currency depreciated dramatically, causing loan payment to be unaffordable. This was also true in a number of Eastern European countries. The US dollar and the yen have been the currencies most heavily used in carry trade transactions since the 1990s. There is some substantial mathematical evidence in macroeconomics that larger economies have more immunity to the disruptive aspects of the carry trade mainly due to the sheer quantity of their existing currency compared to the limited amount used for FOREX carry trades, but the collapse of the carry trade in 2008 is often blamed within Japan for a rapid appreciation of the yen. As a currency appreciates there is pressure to cover any debts in that currency by converting foreign assets into that currency, so this can be an accelerating effect in currency valuation changes. When a large swing occurs, this can cause a carry reversal. The timing of the carry reversal in 2008 contributed substantially to the credit crunch which caused the 2008 global financial crisis, though relative size of impact of the carry trade with other factors is debatable. A similar rapid appreciation of the US dollar occurred at the same time, and the carry trade is rarely discussed as a factor for this appreciation.

Before getting started with a live account using your own funds open a demo or practice account (with Sarrafx). Use that account first of all to navigate around the site and monitor how it functions. Get to know the platform as you aren't really ready to trade yet understand the functionality you can't do any harm. It is more than "kicking the tyres". Hopefully going forward this will be the engine that drives your profits. FX margin trading and indeed all FX trading is driven by two major factors; Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis. Forex trading technical analysis is the study of charts of past price movements to determine future price action. Please take a look at our Autochartist funtionality to learn more. Fundamental Analysis is the study of the effect of global activity on the market. Data releases, political activity, natural disasters etc. all have an effect on the movements of currencies. An active study of various news providers like Bloomberg or Reuters will provide number of links to relevant news stories. Access to a FX economic calendar is also important. Click the link to view ours. Once you feel comfortable it is time to consider a first trade in the demo account. As you have gone along certain things will have become clear and they should form the basis of your first trade. As you learn more about price action you will understand what moves markets. This is something that is impossible to teach or to put a time frame upon. However once you feel comfortable and that doesn't necessarily mean having a run of successful trades it is time to open a live account. Trading with your money is VERY different from a demo account. Discipline is everything! There are five rules which will help you to become successful in financial trading and currency exchange: 1) Only trade when you feel that its is right to take a position 2) be disciplined with your orders. 3) Make sure all the indicators in your strategy point to making a trade 4) Always stick to your profit taking levels 5) Understand why you lost money on any particular trade. 6) Accept when you are wrong. This article contains a very sensible idea.

more general explanation of this term can be found in the glossary section of education corner on our website www.sarrax.com. In the retail foreign exchange market, the term leverage determines the amount of risk an investor is able to take as a multiple of his margin. Clearly, the higher the leverage, the more at risk his capital (or margin) is at. For example, an investor places Eur 10,000 in his margin account. At his account opening, he has specified that he wished to trade with a leverage of 1:100. That is to say he can trade with an open position of Eur 1,000,000 (10,000x100). If he were to trade Eur/Usd in an amount of Eur 1,000,000, each pip of movement in the price is Usd 100 (Eur 77). Therefore his total capital would be at risk if the price moved approx. 130 points against him. Obviously it is not prudent to “put all your eggs in one basket” but this simply illustrates the way risk is magnified by leverage. Equally, were the markets to move in the investors favour, a move of 130 points would double his money. This is both the beauty and reality of the retail forex market. The key to making money is to be disciplined. Refer to the five golden rules to learn more about discipline

In the not so distant past before communication reached the level it is now, pricing FX transactions was extremely slow and complicated. For example, slang for the Gbp/Usd rate is "cable. This is because each price was made by cable (or telegraph) and as markets didn't move like they do today it could take the best part of a day to receive a request, make a price and confirm a deal. Contrast that with todays FX markets where trades take place in milliseconds. In the City of London, still the worlds largest financial market, there were over 350 banks all with trading rooms. The smallest had one or two traders trading major currencies and a money market dealer handling funding. The largest had a trader for each currency pair and one for each cross (e.g. Usd/Jpy, Eur/Usd & Eur Jpy). The correlation between what happens in the majors and crosses makes this essential in major institutions. A corporate desk handles all client business and there is often a separate, smaller, trading desk to handle clearing their business. Now there is also a desk which handles electronic business but a lot of this is covered by the two sided nature of the business. When you trade fx, it eventually comes to the electronic desk and is aggregated along with every other deal the banks clients are transacting. The market was structured in a reasonably flat manner in the past with all market practitioners having access to brokers who had live prices from banks who would "support the market". Voice brokers would relay the prices via a microphone which would be heard via loudspeakers on the traders desk. Voice broking gave dealers a better "feel"for the market as the movement in the market and the volume of business being transacted was often portrayed in the voice of the broker. Interbank dealers dealt far more on instinct that they do now. When the first screen based brokers were introduced, the market became more clinical and less emotional. As banks started to introduce their own platforms which they gave to tier two banks (non market-makers) and their clients the pyramid effect was born. Now the markets are driven by liquidity and they have lost in emotion is more than made up by efficiency. The pyramid structure is controlled at the top by maybe ten banks who have the ability to clear large trades amongst themselves. They in turn price markets very aggressively and second tier banks use that pricing for their own business and clients. Further down the pyramid come the retail clients who still achieve tighter spreads than banks were able to command five years ago. Liquidity and spread are the main drivers of the forex factory now but it is a more controlled market now.

Suppose for a moment you are given the opportunity to drive a two seat saloon car around Brands Hatch or Hockenheim race tracks. Would you opt to do it either alone or with another novice driver or would you opt to have Michael Schumacher sitting next to you? Of course most of us would choose Michael Schumacher. More of this later! The interbank market is the driving force of the price action in FX markets yet to all but a handful of retail or margin trade its workings are a mystery. The statistics for success in FX markets are well known. It is likely that those who are able to trade successfully are those who have a good knowledge of how interbank markets operate; How false breaks are created, how a trader can “spoof” the market. These are the “tricks of the trade” that have been used by traders since long before retail trading existed yet there are very few day traders who know they even exist. Some market moves are a mystery to a number of day traders yet they are “all in a day’s work” to an experienced interbank trader. Gaining an understanding of technical analysis requires some mathematical knowledge and fundamental analysis requires the trader to follow basic economics. These skills can be taught and frequently are in a number of quite expensive training modules. Even having spent a fairly large sum of money learning the basics of FX trading, the success rate among traders is still not that high. You can now follow other traders who are, in essence, similar to you. Getting back to Michael Schumacher for a moment, that is like following another novice driver like yourself as Michael stands in the pits no doubt giggling to himself! Just about every retail, margin or day trader lacks the one ingredient that will make them successful. That ingredient is interbank experience. Trading with Sarrafx is like having Michael Schumacher in the car with you. Our trading experience is second to none. Our team have been successful interbank dealers in some of the largest trading banks in the world. We can interpret price action and order flows and pass on useable, tradable knowledge to our clients to give them the advantage that no amount of study can give them. To trade with Sarrafx is to Trade with Awareness! We are Sarrafx. We ARE Different.

Today's Risk/Reward trade Today we see the decision of the German Constitutional Court on the legality of the ESM. Markets are on the starting blocks to buy Euro assets of every type and see the 1.30 level against the USD as ready to be broken in an instant. Being contrarian for a moment and looking at the possibilities that the court either finds the ESM illegal (unlikely) or attaches some quite major conditions (possible) where will the Euro trade then. Technically the Euro looks overbought and even in the case that the court finds unconditionally in favour of the ESM how far can the Euro go? Then what? We still have Greece, Spanish banks, unpopular austerity in a number of countries, today’s Dutch elections and many other hurdles to pass. Overnight, Moodys stated that the newly announced bond purchase scheme buys more time but is not the cure for what ails peripheral countries. So, is not the risk reward trade to be short Euros today? Albeit with a very tight stop loss! An upside of 1.3000 vs. a downside of at least 1.2480 seems to favour just such a trade. It remains to be seem what the market actually aspires to but when something seems too good to be true it usually is and there are no one way streets in these markets