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.