Author Bio

One of my personal issues with trading is how individual and solitary it can be. For a great many of us, trading the financial markets is something we do mainly by ourselves. There is no doubt in my mind that if traders had the ability to work more in cooperation with each other, they would accomplish so much better results.

I am reminded of a poster I saw in my coaching travels. It featured TEAM:

Together
Everyone
Achieves
More

I coached collegiate volleyball for nine years, mainly at the Division I level. The great part of being involved in a team is that not only does it create the opportunity for all members to develop and perform together much more than they ever could separately, but it also is a ready support group. When things go well, you can share that with teammates and everyone is lifted. When things are not going so well, teammates provide much needed consolation too keep the lows from being overly bad.

Traders have much to benefit from joining together and thinking of themselves more in team terms. They need not take on the markets by themselves. They can do it more effectively as a unified group. Those collectives are hard to find in trading, though. Taking part in the trading discussion forums is only a slight improvement. They give us a little sense if being part of a community, but the interaction is at arms-length and doesn’t really foster teamwork. Chat rooms can be a little better, but there’s still a lot left undone.

Currensee is a major step in the right direction. Being able to see each other’s trades is huge. It functions in much the same way having a sports team together that can see how each other is playing and thus provide support and encouragement. The next step from there is to actually make trading decisions together, not just follow.

Here’s an example. A number of years ago, myself and a fellow analyst used to come up with fantastic trade ideas together. Sometimes we disagreed, but when we were both on the same page the trade was almost always right. We were good sounding boards for each other.

That’s one idea of team trading. Another is to find someone who is strong where you are weak. For example, some people are really good market analysts, but struggle to actually trade their ideas, while others are good on the execution and position handling side of things, but aren’t as good coming up with strong ideas. Two people like that could potentially word together to good effect.

The question is this: In the virtual space of sites like Currensee, email, IM, and related on-line applications, how can you first identify a good partner or team and then collaborate with them to best effect. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.

Author Bio

Risk taking has outperformed risk aversion for the past 6 days.  EUR/JPY has traded higher each day and stocks have followed along.  One would have to wonder if that performance would not be even better if it were not for the Monday afternoon late-to-the-party downgrade from Moody’s on Greece. 

This downgrade just happened to come after a few well-regarded advisors over this past weekend said that the 1t Euro lifeline to Greece was not enough and that Greece will eventually be forced to default.  Now we know.  The roadmap for trading and investing successfully is not always very well laid out.  Luckily we have China to thank for their resolve, right? 

Or so I think.  In case you missed it on Tuesday morning, in China the Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told the US to stop politicizing the Yuan exchange rate and let China decide on the issue of its flexibility!  That is fairly strong stuff from China.  They are probably becoming a bit impatient with the US on the lack of an economic recovery.  The Wall Street Journal even mentioned on Tuesday that Fed members were quietly weighing options on what to do if the economy gets worse.  It looks as if we have gone from removing extraordinary accommodation to maybe even more extraordinary measures.

Still neither the Fed nor Moody’s nor China is the cause for the recent shift in risk-taking of late.  The real reason may be individual currency traders.  Yes, currency traders.  If you live in Japan you have had to endure through a zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) for quite a long time now.  Japan knows this all too well; China knows; Treasury Secretary Geithner knows this and surely doesn’t want it to happen here.  Yet the ZIRP has endured in Japan, forcing investors to seek yield in other countries, meaning selling the Yen and investing elsewhere.

Reports out of Japan show that Japanese investors sold off 10% of their euro holdings in May.  It is always hard to get exact volume figures in foreign exchange because it is primarily an interbank market and not traded via exchanges but locally they believe that retail investors account for 25% to maybe 50% of all Forex trade in Tokyo.  The 10% repatriation was in May but since those figures have been tallied EUR/JPY has risen by 4.5% off its multi-month lows of 108 and risk taking has benefitted globally.

If Japan had 20% interest rates would they be investing so much internationally?  Nope.  But they do not and it looks as if they have some smart currency traders.  Currensee is the place to meet currency traders from around the globe.  Listen to what others have to say, share ideas and follow the flows.  There is no better time to get started than the present.

This report is for your information only and does not constitute investment or business advice or an offer to buy or sell securities.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

Author Bio

As a Forex newbie looking to re-engage after my first substantial trading loss, I decided to rely more heavily on my Forex trading team for the last several weeks for good trade ideas. I noticed a particularly successful team member trading some of the pairs I trade, and decided to follow her into a few trades. While these were not all wins, my performance on a few trades pulled me out of ‘the hole.’ I am enjoying team trading, I feel like I am leveraging the hard work of others.

Another means of getting back in the swing of things – reading about the basic strategies of smart, experienced traders. I have been reading a few blogs lately, to try to find someone I can follow for a while. I investigated Kathy Lien’s blog, as I know she is well-respected in the Forex world. I spotted a few items on BabyPips that have been (in my newbie mind) actionable; there is always sure to be something on my USD/JPY. I found the Pick of the Day useful today, it validated my suspicion that I had better put a stop-loss on my trade – quickly.

I have settled into a comfortable trading pattern and have managed to add a little to my balance. My several months (!) experience has given me a feel for how quickly I should move on an open position, and now I am simply hungry for a real strategy that fits me for the medium term.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex.  Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

Currensee Investing Solutions:

• Alternative Investment Funds
• FOREX Investment
• Foreign Currency Investments
• Diversify Invest
• Investments With High Returns
• New Investment
• Currency Hedge
• The Best Investments

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.