EUR GBP 10 Minute Chart - 27th March 2009

This particular chart, which I have taken from this morning’s trading session on the euro pound currency pair, provides a classic example of how to make money scalping in short term currency pairs. The chart is based on ten minutes, and as we can see, at 9.30 this morning, three consecutive shooting star candles arrived, one after the other, indicating weakness in the market and a possible trading opportunity. I took a chance at this point and placed a wide stop loss above my short position, but had I been more patient I would have waited until 11 am for the confirming bearish engulfing candle to arrive, at which point I would have gone short, yielding a nice return. Now the key thing to note, is that it is very easy to take the first signal that arrives and to enter the market too early – in this case I waited for the third shooting star, a clear sign that the market is weak, before entering. The key to success in scalping is to be patient and to wait for the opportunities to come to you, and not to try to force the trades. Just be patient. Scalping is an excellent way to improve you technical analysis skills, and also forces you to be disciplined with your stop loss placement and management. Even if you only practice in a demo account, it is well worth the effort as these signals arrive every day across all the pairs, and if one is not providing anything of interest, simply change to another time frame or another currency pair, and it is an excellent way to ‘paper trade’ by honing your skills – yes I know it is always harder when real money is at stake, but practice, practice, and more practice will make you a better trader!

You can keep up to date with all the latest currency news, live currency charts, fundamental news, and ofcourse if you are looking for a good fx broker or ECN broker, please just follow the relevant link.

First we have added live currency charts, which cover a huge range of currency pairs, including all the majors, the crosses, the exotics and many that you may never have come across. In all there are over 70 pairs to choose from including many of the Arabian currencies. To change the timescale of the chart simply hover your mouse over the chart and in the right hand corner the options menu will appear, from which you can select the options required. Next we have added an economic calendar which provides all the daily economic and fundamental news for the day and the next few weeks. Major news announcements are highlighted with an explanation and link to the issuing authority. Checking which markets are closed can be an issue, so we have added a page which provides a list of all the national holidays for every country for the year, making it easy to check which markets are open and which are closed.

For the latest currency news we have added a TV video channel, which is updated twice a day, with a morning briefing session, followed by a lunchtime review. The morning session covers the main economic news of the day, and the later session reviews the markets with volume trends, bullish or bearish sentiment, and likely moves in the currency markets. For more general news we have added a live news page, which provides streaming news across a variety of markets. Finally if you need help in choosing your fx broker, we have added a new page to help you, and my own personal view is always to have your currency trading account with an ECN broker if possible, as this allows you to trade against the market, and not against the broker.