If you want to become a good investor in forex, then you need to learn that the currency markets evolve and change with time. As the forex markets evolve and change, your trading strategies should also evolve and adjust. You will need to make a little tweak here and a little tweak there sometimes in your trading strategies in order to continue making profit.
There will be periods of low returns or losses. But once you have made the changes and adjusted your trading strategies, you will start making profits again. Dont get stuck with only one currency pair and one trading strategy. Start looking at macroeconomic events and how different currency pairs react to them.
Oil drives the global economy. High oil prices put recessionary pressures on the global economy. Lets discuss a currency trading strategy that depends on following oil prices in the global markets. There are many sources of oil. Some countries export oil. Most of the countries in the world import oil. So oil prices tend to affect almost all the currencies. Some currency pairs react more strongly. Others less so when oil prices change. When oil prices rise, they continue to rise for several months. Fortunately for you, oil prices trend for extended periods.
Similarly when oil prices decline, they tend to continue declining for several months. Some of the currencies that react strongly to oil price changes are GBP and CAD. Lets focus on USD/CAD.
United States is the major importer of Canadian oil. The value of CAD increases with increase in oil prices in relationship to US Dollar (USD). Increase in oil prices means that the pair USD/CAD should start trending downward. This is a good example of a trend trading strategy.
Do you watch CNBC daily? You should watch for times when the oil prices are rising and the exchange rate USD/CAD is decreasing. Similarly, on CNBC look for times when oil prices decline and the exchange rate USD/CAD increases.
We will use CCI, Commodity Channel Index, to trigger the trade. Watch the 14 period CCI (Commodity Channel Index) chart. It should cross above 100 and then cross back below 100. This will tell you that the buyers made a temporary upward push on the currency pair USD/CAD but were unable to turn the trend around and it is still downward. This is time to open the trade.
Enter the trade and set a limit order of 300 pips and a stop loss order of 75 pips by going short on USD and long on CAD. This setup will give you a risk to reward ratio of 1:4. This risk to reward is very good and it allows you to be wrong a few times without ruining your chances of being profitable. 300 pips mean $3000 and usually such a trade will continue for 4-5 weeks.
You can also look to trade the USD/CAD pair in the opposite direction if the oil prices start to decline. However, prolonged downtrend in the oil prices is usually unlikely. This trading strategy just depends on knowing which way the oil prices are moving right now so that you can take advantage of it. Oil prices have again started to climb and reached above $68. You can take advantage of the rising oil prices by trading USD/CAD pair as described above.
