Experience Your Own Forex Success

You can draw some useful parallels between running a business and Forex trading. For instance, most successful businesses keep statistics on everything from their conversion rate, to their average dollar sale, to the number of people that come in the door. Businesses do this to keep on top of how they are doing on a day-to-day basis and businesses must first take score before begining to improve on that score. Using a Forex back testing plan in your trading works exactly the same way.

Now that you`re looking at Forex trading as a business, you need to learn some valuable statistics about your system so you can improve it`s performance. You would use a Forex back testing method. You can`t improve your system unless you have something to measure it against. How could you expect to improve your trading unless you knew what it was you were looking to improve? You can discover these measurements and other valuable information about your trading system, by using a Forex back testing plan.

There are two ways that you can use a Forex back testing plan to back test a system. You can do it manually, which can be a drawn-out and labour-intensive process, or you can do it with the aid of some software packages. Unfortunately, I recommend you do it by hand when you first start out. You`ll get a much better feel for your system, and you`ll understand exactly how using a Forex back testing plan works in all its intricacies. Once you have the Forex back testing plan and the in-depth knowledge, you could look at finding a software package that does it for you.

There are a few major statistics on your Forex back testing plan that you need that you will uncover through back testing. The first statistic you need to become familiar with is the R multiple principal. R stands for risk, the risk you take on any trade when you enter the market. The R multiple of a trade is the ratio of the profit or loss compared to the amount of money risked to make the profit or loss.

Therefore, if you risk $200 dollars in your initial purchase, and you make a profit of $1,000, you have made five times the amount you risked in the trade. You have an R multiple of five. This statistic gives you a good idea of the relative size of your profits to your losses. You can compare the average size of your winning trades with the average size of your losing trades.

The next statistic you`ll find useful is your win to loss ratio. This is how many times you get a winning trade in proportion to how many times you get a losing trade. For example, if you had ten trades, four of those trades were winners, and six were losers, your win to loss ratio is simply four to six. This is your hit rate; you`ll get 40% of your trades correct.

With these two simple statistics, you can calculate the average size of your profits and of your losses, multiply these figures with your win to loss ratio, and calculate on average how much money you make with every dollar you risk.

For those of you who think this sounds like a too much work, particularly using a Forex back testing plan that you need to do to uncover these statistics, consider this scenario: Imagine yourself trading a system that you knew had a win to loss ratio of 60/40. You made profit on every six trades and lost one out of every four. How do you think you would feel, where would your confidence level be, after you traded the system for a little while and you received a string of 11 losses in a row?

Now, you know that this system has a win to loss ratio of six to four. Would you have the confidence to open another trade if your system brought up another buy signal after getting 11 trades wrong?

Unless you use Forex back testing plan to back tested your system, I doubt that your confidence level will remain high. That trading system may be a fantastic profitable system. However, since you didn`t use your Forex back testing plan to back test it, you don`t know that historically this system received up to 13 losses in a row, but was still profitable.

Here`s another point you may not have picked up unless you used your Forex back testing plan. Once you`ve set your money management rules and you begin to trade, you will likely experience a string of losses. Countless times, I`ve had clients who get disheartened by this fact because they don`t understand the nature of setting good management. If you`re adhering to the rules of cutting your losses short and letting your profits run, because you`re cutting your losses short, those trades are going to last for a shorter amount of time.

This means once you begin trading the odds of getting losses early in the game are much higher than getting a winning trade. This is particularly true when you consider that many successful trading systems run on a 40/60 win to loss ratio. However, you will never know the intricacies of your system unless you use a Forex back testing plan and back test it.

Using a Forex back testing plan, will help you to understand what works and what doesn`t. It will give you the statistics to gauge the effectiveness of your trades. It fills in your scorecard, and allows you to make improvements. But, you shouldn`t simply believe everything I`ve told you. Instead, you need to prove it to yourself by using some Forex back testing plans and back test your system.

Forex Using Your Broker's Tools

In recent years, FOREX trading has gained tremendous attention from the masses. In short, FOREX is the foreign exchange market where participants are able to buy and sell currencies when conditions are favorable. In doing so, they get a great return on their investments. As with stock, you would buy when it is low and sell when it is high.

FOREX Boom Of course, if it were that simple, everyone would join in on the FOREX boom. However, much time, research, and homework will go into understanding FOREX and its nature. To succeed as a FOREX trader, you have to know how to predict changes, analyze trends, and keep up with rising and falling currencies. It is plain to see that learning FOREX is a must if you intend on becoming a successful FOREX trader. If you have the time or money, you can attend classes or take online courses to better understand FOREX. However, even if your time or resources are limited, you can still learn about foreign exchange on your own time with little money.


There are books, tutorials, and software available to train you in the methods and techniques of FOREX trading. It is advisable that you pick up a how-to or beginners book to at least understand the basics. At the least, you should read a few articles and learn some trading techniques. Getting Started in FOREX With the presence of the internet, it is easy to get started in FOREX trading. There are many brokerage firms that offer online trading so you can go online from your home computer at any time of the day or night. All you need is software, which is available through the brokerage firm. It is best to get started with a demo. The demo will walk you through and teach you how to use the software. But the greater benefit here is that you will have a chance to test the software using play money.

Not only will this help you get a grasp of using the software, it can also help you test trading methods and put your research into practice. Learning FOREX It might take some time to learn the principles and logic behind FOREX trading. When should you buy currency? At what point should you sell? The unpredictability of the FOREX market keeps some individuals from becoming active traders. There are various trading methods involved with FOREX. No one method is perfect, but each method or technique can show you how to analyze trends and better predict changes in currency based on current market conditions.


You should look into understanding pips, or Price Interest Points. FOREX works in increments called pips, and some techniques will show you when it is best to sell, based on pips. By understanding everything there is to know about FOREX, your chances of success is good. However, it will take practice and time to perfect your trading techniques, so start with a small amount. Take full advantage of the demo software and use it until you feel comfortable with FOREX trading.