The rules

Warren Buffett, George Soros, Jesse Livermore, Edwin Lefevre, John J. Murphy, Lewis Allen, Peter Lynch, Adam Smith. There men have only one thing in common – they are the greatest market players.

If you want to be like them, you must keep in mind the following rules:

1. Education, training, education.
2. Think about yourself.
3. Adaptation or failure.
4. The lack of a plan is a prior condition for failure. 
5. "Be like a machine".
6. Know your tools better.
7. Know yourself.
8. Profit & Loss.

These men had worked very hard to achieve their targets and be what they are known to be. So you have to work very hard in order to move forward. The experience, training and the constant adaptation to the market movements are sure conditions for success. Patience, persistence and willpower are the key factors.

The importance of trading discipline

As elsewhere, discipline plays an important role in forex trading. Successful forex traders have strong discipline. They plan each deal and then simply trade their plans. If you do not develop a clear plan for trade and follow it consistently, you will find difficulty in continuing earning money as a trader.

Doing random profitable deal, even throw away any plan you made, this may only give you some pleasure for short time, but in general making occasional deals may adversely affect the ability to maintain discipline in the long run. When you stop following your plan and be rewarded for lack of discipline, you may then believe that following the plan is not such a big deal. Unwarranted profits increased the tendency to follow any plan in the future. Positive results from this are for short and the lack of discipline always ends with a loss. 

So be disciplined, because the discipline is the key for successful trading!

Trading US Indices - An ActivTrades Webinar

The indices are considered to be a key indicator of the market in each country. They are often discussed in the media and this allows traders and investors to know more about them . Most major indices are based on baskets of securities of leading companies and therefore are considered good indicators of current market mood. A large part of traders who prefer to invest short-term, are focused on the major stock indices like NASDAQ, Dow Jones and S & P and the reason is that they allow  better technical analysis and react more favorably to price changes. 

Speaking about US indices, yesterday was held quite interesting and educative webinar, led by the professional trader Paul Wallace and organized by the competitive online broker ActivTrades. 

Some tips share by Paul Wallace about trading indices are:

- Be aware of upcoming news items;

- If there is a change in one index, follow that for the session;

- Follow any particular static or dynamic levels of support;

- Look at using correlations to your advantage!

If you have missed this amazing opportunity, the record is stored at ActivTrades’ webinars archive and to know more, follow this link!

International US trade deficit shrank by nearly 12%

The international US trade deficit shrank by nearly 12 % in July thanks to rising exports. This is a signal of strengthening global demand for goods and services.

The trade deficit of the world's leading economy fell in July by 11.6% to 39.47 billion dollars from a deficit of 44.66 bln dollars in June, reflecting the large increases in exports and the decrease in imports. The average forecast of the financial markets were for a larger deficit amounting to about 41.1 bln dollars.

Imports fell 0.8% to 225.81 bln dollars, but at the same time, exports rose 1.9% to 186.33 bln dollars. This represents the largest increase in US exports for two and a half years and it is a fact despite the sharp appreciation of the dollar at the end of June and most of July in reaction to the surprising Brexit vote.

GBP/USD is pushing higher

GBP/USD  continued its bullish momentum yesterday and reached an intraday high at 1.3317. As it is seen on the hourly chart, the pair formed triple bottom, which confirmed the trend reversal. During today’s  session the pair is pushing higher and bulls might conquer 1.3400 level, as US dollar is pressured by the weak NFP data, that was released today in the afternoon. Strong resistance is located at 1.3370 and if breaking above, next bulls target seems to be 1.3423. Support is seen at 1.3235 and a break below this level would drag the pair lower to 1.3224.

EUR/USD testing the 200-day EMA

EUR/USD had a slight downward movement yesterday and marked intrday low at 1.1127. But later on the single currency pushed higher to closing price of 1.1195 after the release of the ISM manufacturing data, that showed unsatisfactory results. As it is seen on the hourly chart, the price is now testing the 200-day exponential moving average located around 1.1205. Currently the bias is bullish for testing 1.1250. A clear break above that area could trigger further bullish pressure for testing 1.1350. First support is located at 1.1165 and a possible break could lead the price to neutral zone but should keep the bearish signals strong for testing 1.1100 before targeting the 1.1000 area. Still the main technical outlook remains neutral.

Gold dropped to support zone at $1307

In early August gold was affected by the appreciation of the US dollar. The resistance zone around $1364.30 coincided with the fundamentals and proved necessary pressure on the price. But afterwards followed correction and gold now reached the support zone around $1308.93.

The intraday resistance is now located at $1321.88 (38.2% Fibonacci retracement) and the major support is seen at $1307.52.

During yesterday’s session gold dropped to $1308.80, but currently is trading around $1314.

Should the price push above the intraday resistance, the commodity might be seen at $1329.52 (200-day moving average and 61.8% Fibonacci retracement). If pushing downwards below the support located at $1309.10, next bears target is $1300-$1295 zone.