Choose a Brokerage Services

Find a good brokerage services : Regulated vs Unregulated ones

To be honest, when i jumped to the forex forum, i'm tired with forum peoples that alwas give oppinion like

• You must find a brokerage services that regulated by 5 big regulator : UK, US,Canada,Japan, Australia, Swiss,or other good regulator, do not choose off shore brokerage services
• You must find ECN/STP/NDD broker, do not trade with market makers
• Do not use brokerage that offer under $1000 minimal deposit,thats stupid

When read this kind of comment, i just say. COME ON !!

Give me one prove/example, when i use a regulated brokerage services and they run away or bankrupt, regulator will return your money?and how regulator will paid your money?using their own money?do not make me laugh.
Regulator will sue this broker and they will return your money?if they declare bankrupt, how they can even pay you?

ECN/NDD/STP and do not trade with market maker?LOL ! Oanda is market maker, and lot of people still trade with them. not all ECN / STP/NDD broker are good, and not all market maker are bad.

Do not trade use broker that offer under $1000 min deposit?for certain country, $1000 is not too big amount, but for some country, $1000 is very very big amount to risk. Give me one reason why i must risk $1000 and not $1 or $10 in order only to learn forex trading?

What a cocky people.

Bear in your MIND ! Forex trading risk is not only from market fluctuation, but from broker side too.
Do NOT EVER BELIEVE any regulations. They do not have power to return your money.

If you want to choose a brokerage services, make some search, DO NOT LAZY!
of course we do not want investing our hard earned money in brokerage services that has low cashflow, do not have financial problem.

Do some research,ask other opinion.

For example : Instaforex, lot of people yelling this company is bad market maker,but the fact, they always people profit even your profit is too awesome.
Ask people that HAS EXPERIENCE trading there and never BELIEVE PEOPLE that never ever deposit even a single DOLLAR in a company, and said  scam coz some people say the same thing.

If a brokerage has IB programs, search and ask their IB,at least 10 IB. If you can find more than 10 IB's.that means this brokerage is good. Ask them,are they commision paid by the brokerage?

Do some deposit test and withdrawal test, i suggest you use MB or paypal,so if they refuse to pay you, just dispute them.LOL.

Make some search in popular forex forums, and if you find broker banner in a forum/blog/website, ask the admin bout advertising. We can find a good retail broker, pay huge amount only for advertising.This mean, this broker has money.

Do not rush into a new broker,just wait and see for 1 years

Look into their promotion and find out, are they terms to withdraw a withdrawable bonus is too complicated to reach/understand?if yes , Leave it.
If they offer creative promotion ,thats a good sign. Read the terms, if too complicated to understand, LEAVE IT

Read carefully the terms, some brokers offer huge bonus just for a lure, the bonus even its withdrawable,you can not maintain your trading position using bonus, if your deposit amount become zero, some of them will withdraw your bonus.Be carefull with this kind of broker.


Here is some of my suggestion based of my own experience.


 

Your Trading System, Your Character part 1

Out there, a lot of blogs, websites and forums that discuss trading system for forex trading. but we can easily divide the trading system into 3 style :

1.Scalping
2.Intraday
3.Swing

Trading style that I mentioned above, of course, selected based on the character of each individual / trader, because by recognizing the characters, you can determine what is the trading style that suits you, and for those of you who are just learning forex trading, trading style determines how much time (and money) you waste.
Before we go any further, it would be helpful to identify what the term means that I mentioned above.

1.Scalping as known as pipsing.

according wikipedia, scapling means :

traders who are willing to take market prices. It normally involves establishing and liquidating a position quickly, usually within minutes or even seconds.
The role of a scalper is actually the role of market makers or specialists who are to maintain the liquidity and order flow of a product of a market.

And according investopedia :

is a trading style specializing in taking profits on small price changes, generally soon after a trade has been entered and has become profitable. It requires a trader to have a strict exit strategy because one large loss could eliminate the many small gains that the trader has worked to obtain. 

So from 2 terms above, we can conclud scalping is a trading style when traders take advantage of small movements,even for them who are heavy scalper, they will take 1 or 2 pips profit. Scalping is a trading art and the most difficult to study because a scalper, you could say must be an expert. A heavy scalper could do  dozen even hudreds time going in and out of the market because they only looking for a small profit.

Scalping is not recommended for beginners, because an experienced scalper usually have a clear entry and exit rules, and they do not tolerate the risk. when their risk level hit by the price they will do cutloss with a cold heart. As well as if they take profit level they had hit by the market price, they will immediately cut their profit and no regrets if the price moves far  away from their take profit area.

although still debated whether scalping including very high-risk trading or not, because many of the scalper assign risk reward in quite risky level, such as how much risk level / cut loss level is not balanced with  profit level (eg 30 pips stoploss, take profit 10 pips which means 1:3 RR). But I also know some scalper traders who set a good risk reward (eg, 7 pips stoploss, take profit  7/10/14 pips)

Scalping is a trading style for two types traders.

1.Individuals who have a lot of spare time

2.Individuals who only have the free time to trade a few hours (eg, someone who focuses only 3-5 hours of time to trading and the rest for other activities).

And also scalping is a trading style for those who do not like too long in a state of floating profit or minus.

so get to know your character:
1.Are you type of person who does not like to linger in front of the chart or not?
2.What you have a lot of spare time or not
3.Are you can not stand too long in a state of floating profit / minus or not

And i almost forgot, for a scalper, a tight spreads and high leverage means everthing, usually a scalper looking for a  forex broker that offers tight spreads and high leverage to maximize their profits.

In the next article we will discuss about intraday trading style and swing trading style.