Successful Forex Trading Using Forex Fundamental Analysis

forex | Forex Analysis | Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Planning a FOREX trading strategy requires analysis. FOREX analysis comes in two basic “flavors”: fundamental and technical. This article examines the fundamental type of analysis, and how it can be used for more successful FOREX trading.

Political and economic conditions may affect currency prices; FOREX traders rely on news reports regarding various economic factors, such as the unemployment rate, the current administration’s policies, and inflation or growth rates. Examination of these factors is what is known as “fundamental analysis”.

This type of analysis is primarily used to get the “large picture” view of currency market movement, and to determine the economic conditions that affect a particular currency. It is usually considered supplemental to “technical analysis”, which is relied on for establishing specific points of market entry and exit.

Economic conditions affect supply and demand; these forces in turn affect currency prices on the market. The strength of the current economy and the current interest rates are the two most important factors for examination. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), our nation’s trade balance, and the amount of foreign investment all affect economic strength.

Both government and educational institutions release various “indicators” – generally reliable ways to measure economic vitality – on a weekly or, more often, monthly basis. These are followed by all segments of the market. In the United States, 28 key indicators are used, of which interest rates and international trade balances are two of the most important. Other primary factors include: retail sales numbers, the Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), Durable Goods Orders, the Producer Price Index (PPI), and, of course, the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The CPI weighs the cost of living. The PPI measures production costs. The GDP is a means of determining the value of goods and services produced within the country. Also, the total amount of all currency is measured by the M2 Money Supply.

Currencies can be both strengthened and weakened by rising and falling interest rates. High rates can strengthen a local currency by attracting foreign investment; however, investors may sell holdings in reaction to a rise in rates on the theory that a higher cost of borrowing capital will have a negative impact on many corporations, causing a downturn in both the stock market and national economy. Many factors go into determining whether foreign investment increases or local stock market downturns will predominate; however, observers usually come to a shared understanding of the ways in which the economy as a whole. The price of a specific currency in particular, will be affected by a change in interest rates.

A trade deficit (more imports than exports) is generally considered an unfavorable indicator, because the country is spending more money to buy foreign-made goods than it’s bringing in through sales of its own products. This may have the effect of devaluing the nation’s currency. Market expectations have a say in determining whether or not a particular deficit trade balance will be considered unfavorable – if it’s normal for a country to operate with a trade deficit, that’s already factored into the currency price.

A trade deficit only affects currency price negatively when it exceeds the normal deficit level expected by the market. It is important for FOREX traders to be aware of the leading indicators in preparation of trading strategies. Thus, many websites and FOREX brokers provide continually updated information to traders as part of the services they offer.

Get your copy of our free Forex buy and sell indicator report at http://www.EffectiveForexTrading.com

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FOREX Fundamental Analysis November 14, 2007

forex | Forex Video | Tuesday, July 27th, 2010




An over view of the upcoming PPI and Retail Sales release, including expected pip results as well as which currency pair to trade. Live FOREX Training | Everyday! www.fxbootcamp.com

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Fundamental Forex Analysis Explained in Plain English

forex | Forex Analysis | Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

If you’ve been trading for a while, no doubt you know that as a smart trader, you have to be able to analyze the market and predict price movements. This is true whether you trade in commodities, stocks, bonds, currency or any other type of security.


You can do analysis in two different ways. You can utilize fundamental analysis and technical analysis.


Technical analysis studies prices. Here, you want to analyze price movement history so that you can try to predict future prices.


Fundamental analysis studies a nation’s overall economic health. This can otherwise be termed as “big picture” analysis. You focus on the strength of a nation’s economy and how it will affect the supply and demand of its currency. This, in turn, will affect the currency’s price.


As an example, let’s say that the US economy is in a major positive trend. The economy is strong, so the dollar is expected to rise, and currency traders will invest great amounts in the dollar. This can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, so that the dollar increases in value.


As a concept, that’s pretty simple, but it’s not so easy to judge the health of the nation’s economy. In fact, you need to consider many things. Two traders may look at the same figures and come up with entirely different interpretations of the data.


Those who focus on fundamental analysis look at a variety of economic indicators to determine how strong a particular economy is. Some of the indicators they may analyze include the unemployment rate, the interest rate, gross domestic product, and the Consumer Price Index.


Various government agencies regularly release reports on these factors, as do non-government agencies. Find the latest schedule of upcoming releases and make note of them. Keep an eye on them for a few months to see what effect if any they have on currency prices.


One thing you should keep in mind is that it’s often not the numbers in a report that carry the greatest impact, but the relation of the numbers to what was forecasted.


Put another way, if interest rates rise, this may not have a significant impact if forecasters were indeed expecting it. However, if they weren’t expecting it, and they expected interest rates to remain steady or fall, an unexpected increase may have a significant impact on currency prices.


Fundamental analysis does have a disadvantage in that it can be a little too general, a little too “big picture.” It’s wonderful to predict overall economic growth and price changes that result, but you can’t usually get enough detail from it to target specific exit and entry points. This is why technical analysis is just as important, so that it can help to further refine an estimate based on a “big picture” prediction with fundamental analysis.


In conclusion, successful forex traders usually develop a trading system that’s based on a mix of fundamental and technical “triggers” to instigate trading orders. Some, however, have been successful with using as few indicating sources as possible to determine trades – such as price-driven variables on a certain currency pair.

Ian Armstrong is an avid Forex enthusiast.

He suggests taking a close look at Avi Frister’s “Forex Trading Machine” for the simplest approach to predicting profitable trades, at Forex Trading Machine

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Introduction to Fundamental Forex Analysis – Part 1

forex | Forex Analysis | Thursday, May 6th, 2010

If you’re seriously interested in knowing about Fundamental Forex Analysis, you need to think beyond the basics. This informative article takes a closer look at things you need to know about Fundamental Forex Analysis.

FOREX traders almost always rely on analysis to make plan their trading strategies. There are two basic types of FOREX analysis – technical and fundamental. This article will look at fundamental analysis and how it used in FOREX trading.

Fundamental analysis refers to political and economic conditions that may affect currency prices. FOREX traders using fundamental analysis rely on news reports to gather information about unemployment rates, economic policies, inflation, and growth rates.

Fundamental analysis is often used to get an overview of currency movements and to provide a broad picture of economic conditions affecting a specific currency. Most traders rely on technical analysis for plotting entry and exit points into the market and supplement their findings with fundamental analysis.

Currency prices on the FOREX are affected by the forces of supply and demand, which in turn are affected by economic conditions. The two most important economic factors affecting supply and demand are interest rates and the strength of the economy. The strength of the economy is affected by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), foreign investment and trade balance.

Indicators

Various indicators are released by government and academic sources. They are reliable measures of economic health and are followed by all sectors of the investment market. Indicators are usually released on a monthly basis but some are released weekly.

Most of this information comes straight from the Fundamental Forex Analysis pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you’ll know what they know.

Two of the most important fundamental indicators are interest rates and international trade. Other indicators include the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Durable Goods Orders, Producer Price Index (PPI), Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), and retail sales.

Interest Rates – can have either a strengthening or weakening effect on a particular currency. On the one hand, high interest rates attract foreign investment which will strengthen the local currency. On the other hand, stock market investors often react to interest rate increases by selling off their holdings in the belief that higher borrowing costs will adversely affect many companies. Stock investors may sell off their holdings causing a downturn in the stock market and the national economy.

Determining which of these two effects will predominate depends on many complex factors, but there is usually a consensus amongst economic observers of how particular interest rate changes will affect the economy and the price of a currency.

International Trade – Trade balance which shows a deficit (more imports than exports) is usually an unfavourable indicator. Deficit trade balances means that money is flowing out of the country to purchase foreign-made goods and this may have a devaluing effect on the currency. Usually, however, market expectations dictate whether a deficit trade balance is unfavourable or not. If a county habitually operates with a deficit trade balance this has already been factored into the price of its currency. Trade deficits will only affect currency prices when they are more than market expectations.

Other indicators include the CPI – a measurement of the cost of living, and the PPI – a measurement of the cost of producing goods. The GDP measures the value of all goods and services within a country, while the M2 Money Supply measures the total amount of all currency.

There are 28 major indicators used in the United States. Indicators have strong effects on financial markets so FOREX traders should be aware of them when preparing strategies. Up-to-date information is available on many websites and many FOREX brokers supply this information as part of their trading service.

This article’s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.

Matthew Bass is the webmaster of Forex-Resource-Pro.com
- He provides a plethora of information
fundamental analysis
that you can research from the comfort of your home of
office.

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