It is safe to say that trading on the foreign exchange market has undergone some drastic changes over the last few decades. When looking at the history of Forex in its entirety, we only witnessed the birth of digital trading platforms in the '90s. For many people, terminal trading was an introduction to the foreign exchange market. Fast forward to today, there are numerous trading platforms offer numerous trading options. The age of computerization has led us to a point where 3/4 of all trades are executed by not traders, but specifically designed, automated trading algorithms.

Trading platforms allow traders to gather all the necessary information to execute profitable trades. MetaTrader4 (MT4) and MetaTrader5 (MT5) are extremely popular trading platforms created by MetaQuotes Software Corp. Both of these platforms are accessible for free and are constantly utilized by traders all around the world.

For beginner traders, choosing the right trading platform can be a very confusing process. MT4 is an older platform that proved to be stable and very reliable for 15 years. MT5 is a newer platform with many powerful features, and many traders label the platform as the future of Forex trading. If you want to learn more about trading on the foreign exchange market, or maybe you want to become a trader yourself, which software do you choose? MT4 or MT5: which one is better for Forex trading?

The mobility and comfort of using MT4 are hardly surpassed by other trading platforms. The software is accessible in three different formats - you can control and monitor your trades on a browser or install MT4 on your desktop and even mobile phone. MT4 offers many unique technologies that improve trading methods and analysis of the market. The biggest advantage of MT4 is the possibility of automated trading. This platform allows you to utilize Expert Advisors (EA), which follow an algorithm designed following your trading strategy. This is an extremely powerful tool, allowing more advanced traders to automate even the most complex trading algorithms. Even the new traders which may not utilize these powerful improvements will find all the required tools for efficient trading.

MT5 is another extremely powerful trading software, often regarded as the future of all retail trading. The main benefit of this upgraded platform is MQL5 - a programming language that allows you to create unique, powerful indicators that improve the accuracy and success of your trades. You no longer have to restrict yourself to already implemented analytical tools. The freedom offered by MT5 is often preferred and loved by more advanced traders, who love to maintain greater control and gather all the necessary information for successful trading. The simplicity of MQL5 makes the creation of EA a far simpler and more rewarding task. With MT5, trading robots can utilize many trading strategies simultaneously, while accessing extremely accurate analytical data.

It is reasonable to assume that MT5 is a better trading platform because it takes a lesser toll on your trading setup and gives a wider variety of tools to the trader. That being said, the consistent popularity of MT4 should not be overlooked. This platform is often a starting point for many traders thanks to its mobility and simplicity. If you want to run your trading system on a Virtual Private Server (VPS), both platforms are supported by the VPS Forex trader. MT5 has a lot more to offer, but the comfort of MT4 makes it a fierce competitor to its successor. Choosing one platform over the other boils down to personal preference.

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For Forex traders, great internet connection is one of the most underrated assets. Internet speed is often underappreciated, mainly because for many people, it is hard to notice the power of great internet, for an average person.

Trading on the foreign exchange market can be a very delicate process, requiring unusual amounts of precision. Traders that like to travel often get frustrated when traveling to underdeveloped countries, because the dip in internet speed affects the accuracy of executed trades. Every trader should have some understanding of internet speeds. But what kind of internet is great or at least sufficient enough for Forex trading?

Understanding internet speed for Forex trading boils down to two concepts: upload speed and download speed. When using the internet, your computer or another digital device keeps uploading and downloading the necessary information. High download speed is important to retrieve accurate market data, while upload speed is directly responsible for the precise execution of your trades. The slower your download speed is, the more you will be misinformed before executing a trade. A great internet connection is very important for manual Forex trading, but it is crucial for automated trading.

When trading on the foreign exchange market, you are forced to make fast decisions daily. Slow upload speed causes a delay significant enough to sabotage the success of your trades. Besides, 75% of all trading around the world today is automated. When a trading software of your choice keeps trading as instructed by your specific algorithm, slow internet drastically decreases the success chance of your trades.

When trading on Forex, try to make sure your download internet speed is at least 1mb. It is extremely important to understand that the speed presented by your internet provider can be very misleading because it only displays the maximum speed your network can achieve. Expecting such download speed at all times is unreasonable. The average speed can be as low as half of the maximum speed or even lower, so it is crucial to take these fluctuations into considerations, and, if the need arises, upgrade your internet.

To ensure accurate execution of your trades, make sure your upload internet speed is at least 500 kb. You will still encounter some frustrating delay, but it is the minimum requirement to have bearable and successful trading experience.

If you want to ensure the success of your trades, a great internet connection is a very useful tool that reduces the chance of failure. Make sure your internet speed is not lower than 1mb upload speed and 2mb download speed.

More advanced Forex traders often claim that trading at the comfort of your own home is too unreliable and risky. By utilizing a Virtual Private Server (VPS), many traders install their trading software on a remote server with an ultra-high-speed internet. By paying a monthly fee, you can utilize the VPS Forex trader for your trades. In addition, internet speed is not the only feature that will increase the success chance of your trades. Stability and security provided by the VPS Forex trader eliminate all the inconveniences related to both manual and automated trading. Your trading system will never be affected by power outages, security breaches, and unstable internet connection. If you are serious about Forex trading and want to take your career to another level, the VPS Forex trader is a great tool that will increase your chance of success.

A virtual private server (VPS) is a very powerful tool for trading on the foreign exchange market. The hardware and location of a VPS allow for faster, safer, more precise currency trading, which is crucial for both manual and automated trading systems. Setting up a VPS for your forex trades means setting yourself up for success. Eliminating the inconsistencies, delays, and safety issues ensures much smoother execution of trades. Here is how you set up an acquired VPS for forex trading.

When you order your partition of a powerful server, you will receive an email from the vpsforextrader.com Support team. This way you will get an IP address, username and password to connect to your forex VPS.

To get access to your VPS, use the remote desktop connection program in windows. It should be located in your Start Menu under Accessories, but can also be found by using a search bar. The program should look similar to the image below:

When connecting, enter your designated IP address into the computer window, as well as the username bellow. You will be prompted for your password right after you press connect.

If the connection to your VPS is successful, you should be presented with an empty windows desktop. Congratulations! Now what is left is an installment of your trading system. Downloading a Metatrader 4 platform from your broker is a popular choice among many traders, but everyone can have their unique, individual trading strategy and approach forex trading differently.

VPS creates a whole new world of opportunities for traders. The most successful clients love VPS providers for their safety, on both digital, and physical levels. High-speed internet and the location of the servers reduces the delay between operations. Precision is extremely valuable because it reduces the probability of error and maximizes profit. In addition, most of the forex trades today are automated. Although more experienced traders utilize semi-automation more, switching to manual monitoring on riskier trades, automated trading is extremely useful for earning a respectable profit. By running your automated trading system at home, you lose all the benefits mentioned above, but the most important factor is stability. A trading system on a home computer is extremely fragile, so hardware problems, power outages, and other inconveniences can ruin your profits and even sabotage your livelihood. The stability, proper maintenance, and security of facilities in which the server is located make your trading experience much more pleasant and successful.

VPS Forex Trader has been providing VPS Forex hosting since April 2011. High priority on proper customer support makes sure every client is satisfied. By offering useful and flexible upgrades, VPS Forex Trader allows the client to decide the parameters and functionality of a VPS without data loss. With servers located in the USA, New York, as well as Europe, where we are located in Lithuania and The Netherlands, VPS Forex Trader offers all clients a stable power supply, which can even be enhanced in a need of further expansion. Our data centers are very safe on both physical and digital levels. If you seek to ensure the safety, functionality, and efficiency of your trading system, VPS Forex Trader will help you achieve these goals.

There is no denying the fact that forex trading and market proficiency goes hand in hand. To become a successful forex trader, you have to keep yourself updated with recent market trends. Technical indicators are an integral element of technical analysis that can be used to predict future price changes and market fluctuations.

Luckily, there are many best mt4 and mt5 forex indicators available online that can help you get the better idea about the market changes. In this post, we’ll explain 3 widely used free forex indicators that can ensure great trading results if used correctly.

 

How it Works?

Let’s admit it, forex traders put in lots of hard work in hope to get some profitable returns. The general misconception about technical indicators is that they’re only beneficial for new traders, but the fact is that they can be used by both novice as well as professional traders to save time.

Forex indicators are based on numerical formulas that make quick computations of numerous price parameters. All you need to do is to visit MetaTrader platform, click on insert and add your preferred indicator to the chart.

The Best Forex Indicators for 2020

Forex indicators are classified into different types and you can pick one or more indicators depending on your particular trading style and requirements. Below you will find three most popular technical indicators that are used by the majority of traders due to their functionality.

Moving Average

Moving Average also known as MA is basically a trend indicator that shows a mean value of a price over a certain time period. In other words, MA helps traders identify and follow the trend by following price fluctuations.

Moving Average recognizes the trend direction, determine reversals and depict potential support as well as resistance levels. A trend is bullish if the price exceeds MA and bearish when the price is less than the moving average.

MACD

Simply put, MACD is a technical indicator that demonstrates the market phase. It indicates when the forex market needs correction or rest. Technically, MACD is somehow based on MA except for the fact that it is included in the oscillator’s category of technical indicators. Generally, MACD histogram is used to indicate turns in price by showing considerable ups and downs, divergence and crossover between the chart and the signal line. In addition to that, when MACD interweave the zero line, it represents the bullish or bearish trends.

Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands is another popular technical indicator which is used to measure market volatility. Technically, Bollinger Band comprises of 3 lines in which each line represents a Moving Average. The price is continuously encircling the middle band. Bollinger Bands can be a perfect choice for sideways market. There is a selling alert when price exceeds the upper band, while one should buy pairs when the price declines below the lower band.

Conclusion – Use These Three Indicators to Help Your Forex Trading

In conclusion, all the above enlisted technical indicators can do wonders if used at the right time and with right strategy. Make sure to invest some time in understanding what each line/signal/alert mean as it can help you better understand the results.

If you have been reading a lot about trading and the styles of trading, you have probably stumbled upon the swing trading strategy. You might have even read a few short lines about it.

Swing trading is a very popular trading strategy for traders who don’t mind holding their positions for several days at a time. This trading style is quite suitable for those who don’t have much time to spare to monitor the performance of their trades, though they spend maybe a couple of hours for that.

What does swing trading do?

Swing trading tries to spot “swings” within a medium-term trend. The swing trader will only enter when there seems to be a high chance of winning the trade. In general, if there’s an uptrend, your goal is to go long or buy at “swing lows.” Conversely, you want to go short or sell at “swing high” to use the countertrend to your advantage.

How to Swing Trade

You have to remember that your trades will last more than a day. This means that you will have to decide on how much stop loss you are going to place. Usually, swing traders use large stop loss orders in order to weather volatility.

A heads up: you will most like see your trades go against you during the holding time. There can—and there will—be many price fluctuations in the shorter time frames. It goes without saying that you should remain calm during these times. Stick to your analysis and try to have some confidence in your strategy.

Meanwhile, trades usually have larger targets. This means that spreads will not have much of an impact on your overall profits. In other words, you can trade pairs will larger spreads and lower liquidity is quite acceptable.

Top Qualities of a Swing Trader

If you want to be a swing trader, you must have the following qualities.

First, you should have the appetite to hold trades for several days, not being antsy to close it when sudden volatility hits.

Second, you need to be willing to take fewer trades. Such trades should be well-planned and carefully picked, and they should sport good setups.

Third, you should know how to place good and large stop loss orders. This is for you to survive the volatility that comes along with holding trades for more than a day.

Lastly, you should have tremendous amounts of patience. You got to keep a clear head if you want to come out of the trade alive, or you will probably exit the trade without ever gaining anything and in fact losing.

NOT the Qualities of a Swing Trader

On the other hand, you might want to consider another strategy and stay clear of swing trading if you have the following qualities.

First, you’re an action junkie, meaning you like fast-paced and thrilling trading. If you’re like this, swing trading will not satisfy your need for action.

Second, you easily get jittery when volatility hits.

Lastly, you’re not a swing trader if you easily run out of patience and you want to know right off the bat if you win or lose a trade.

How to get MetaTrader 4 on MAC

Metatrader4 Has been the most popular Forex trading platform for quite some time. Due to popular demand, MetaQuotes Software Corp. has released the mobile version of an application for an iPhone. However, many traders are still unsatisfied with the fact that there is no MetaTrader4 version for the Mac OS operating system. If you are a Mac user, it would be in your best interest to use a much more reliable VPS Forex trader. That does not mean it is not possible to get MetaTrader for this operating system, but it takes quite a few tedious steps to actually do it. Here we present you a way to get MetaTrader4 on Mac.

1. Install Wine on your Mac OS

Known for its clever acronym "Wine Is Not an Emulator", Wine is free software, which can be used by users of other operating systems to properly run an application created for Microsoft Windows. You can install Wine directly into your computer, but a more effective, user-friendly way would be to install PlayOnMac – a Wine-based software, which simplifies and installation of Windows applications on your MAC.

2. Installing PlayOnMac

You can install PlayOnMac by visiting the official website and downloading the latest version of the application. It is easy to install, free to use, and most importantly – does not require a Windows license.

After downloading this DMG package, you'll be able to launch the bundle from the Downloads section of your Mac OS. Your first launcher window will be the installer. When you proceed with your installation, you'll be required to install XQuartz if you haven’t already done that. XQuartz allows proper usage of the X Window System on your OS. This way you'll have all the needed tools to create the proper user interface on Mac OS. After following all the instructions of the installation, you'll be asked to reboot your PC to activate the changes. You can avoid this step if you already have Xquartz.

When you launch the PlayonMac setup file again, you’ll be offered to install Microsoft fonts, which are necessary for MetaTrader4 to work properly. When the installation is complete, your main window should look like this:

3. Update your Wine (optional)

Although there is a version of Wine on your computer, unless you downloaded it from the main website, you might need to update your version. You can do it on PlayOnMac by choosing to select Manage Wine Versions on your upper menu.

Seek out the most stable version of the software containing as many improvements and bugfixes. To make sure your system is stable. After a quick installation, the new version of Wine will be visible on the left part of the PlayonMac window.

4. Install your MetaTrader4

To finally install your MetaTrader4, download the “mt4setup.exe” installer. After you launch it, PlayOnMac will be automatically open your installation. Follow the standard installation process for a MetaTrader4 terminal. After you complete your installation, you’ll be allowed to create shortcuts for your terminal components.

Create the shortcuts you need and the work is done! Your MetaTrader4 terminal will be available for launch through your PlayOnMac window.

Disadvantages and potential issues

Although versions are constantly getting updated, Wine still cannot be called a fully stable software. Some functions of the terminal can be unavailable or won't execute their task properly. Installing and using MetaTrader4 on Mac OS can be difficult, so you might want to go for a VPS Forex trader.

For absolute beginners, Forex trading can be easy to learn, but if you want to make a profit, it is pretty hard to master. More experienced traders achieve their success mostly by ignoring their emotions and using their advanced knowledge. Trading without these traits can still be successful, but it is unlikely that your career will be sustainable.

For successful trading in the foreign exchange market, it is very important to understand the concept of margin. To open and maintain a new position in Forex, you are not required to put up the full amount of money. You can use a small amount of capital for it. The amount we're talking about is known as the margin. If you want to buy $50,000 worth of EUR/USD, you do not have to worry about the whole amount. You only need to pay a small portion of it, for example, $1000. The margin can differ depending on the requirement.

To understand the concept better, you can look at it as a good faith deposit which is required to maintain your new position. It should not be considered as a transaction cost or some sort of fee. This small portion of your capital is set aside from your account by your Forex broker, to make sure that you are capable of covering the loss of the trade.

After you close the trade, this specific margin will return to your account and you’ll be able to use it again for other trades.

The margin requirement is a specific percentage of the whole amount, also regarded as the "notional value” of your position. Margin depends on the forex broker and your currency pair. Margin Requirements can be as low as 0.25%, but some go as high as 10% or even higher. For example, EUR/USD (The currency pair we mentioned before), has a Margin Requirement of 2%.

Required margin is the exact amount of money, expressed in your currency. Let's keep using the same currency pair as an example. If you want to either buy or sell a 50,000 of EUR/USD with a Margin Requirement of 2%, your Required Margin will be $1,000. This amount of money will be used to open and maintain your desired position.

If you decide to trade with margin, the Required Margin, which will be used to open your trading position, will be calculated as a Margin Requirement, which is a percentage of your Notional Value. If you multiply your Notional Value by the Margin Requirement, the result will be your required margin.

There is an undeniable influx of people who are interested in Forex trading. Every inexperienced trader is determined to earn some easy money on the foreign exchange market, but this is only achievable with the right strategy and a reasonable amount of knowledge.

Earning money on Forex revolves around buying a specific currency when its price is low, and selling it after its value has grown. Understanding these concepts is enough to dip your toes in the water, but to achieve bigger success, you have to get familiar with more advanced terminology.

Drawdown is the difference between the current high point of money on your account and the next low point. This difference shows the capital you lost due to unfortunate trades. Losing money on trades is called a drawdown. If you decide to start trading with a $5000, but after some bad trades you end up with $4000, your account balance has suffered a $1000 drawdown. Although this experience is very unpleasant, it is a great way to get the feel of trading on Forex and learn from your mistakes.

Experiencing a drawdown allows you to evaluate the durability of your trading system. A big drawdown can put your trading system into jeopardy. Suffering a huge 50% drawdown puts you into serious danger. You'll have to be very smart about your next trades because you'll need a 100% return just to recover your account balance.

Big investors on Wall Street are very joyful with a 1/5 of profit a year. Experienced investors love to implement aggressive, high risk, high reward strategies, which often can result in a serious drawdown. When it happens, it is advised to utilize a safer, more consistent trading strategy, which will readjust your trading system. Less experienced traders get emotional and feel compelled to over-trade just to get even, which more than often results in even a bigger drawdown.

Over-trading and using too much leverage will most likely lead to a bad trade with serious consequences. Instead of making peace with their bad trade, traders get too confident and aggressive. To avoid even bigger drawdowns, cut your unreasonable trades and try to implement risk-management strategies to stabilize your situation. One good trade is definitely not the way to make a great career, but one disastrous trade will definitely cut it short.

Huge drawdowns can take a toll on your physical and mental health. Big trades have ruined the lives of many traders, so the best way to avoid such disasters is to utilize a trading plan, based on a specific algorithm and a high level of risk management, instead of relying on your emotions.

The best way to avoid big drawdowns is to implement a specific limit of any drawdown you’ll be willing to take. In the world of investors, it is called a stop-loss point. Utilizing automated trading systems with proper supervision will help you avoid trading decisions entirely based on your emotional state. Focus on your strategy, manage your risks, and know when to get out.