Engulfing Patterns in Forex Trading

By Tim Barnby

Few things are more satisfying to me that bare chart trading. Ive seen traders with so many indicators on their screen that I could not even see the price of the currency pair. What do any of these indicators tell you anyway? Do I need a MACD or a CCI? I can see which direction the trend is moving without them. How about a stochastic? I can see where candles are closing relative to the high or low. Other than some horizontal lines at key support and resistance levels, some Fibonacci retracements, and trend lines I often have nothing on my charts at all. All of these are topics for future articles.

A bullish engulfing pattern is characterized by having a real body which completely engulfs the real body of the preceding candle. A simpler way of describing this is that the bullish engulfing candle has a higher open and a lower close than the preceding candle. A bearish engulfing candle has a lower open and a higher close than the bar immediately preceding it.

The bullish and bearish engulfing patterns are powerful indicators of a trend reversal. Engulfing patterns must appear after a significant run up or down in price to be considered valid. When the engulfing pattern presents itself at a probable price reversal zone, or a confluence of support or resistance it is even more reliable. My experience has shown these patterns to be over 75% reliable, and normally offer at least a two to one reward to risk ratio when traded on the one hour or four hour charts. They are even more reliable on the daily and weekly charts.

There are a couple of valid methods for trading engulfing patterns. The first is pretty basic. You place a market order at the close of the candle. Your stop loss order goes a few pips past the opposite side of the engulfing candle, and the target goes somewhere at least twice the distance of the stop loss. Using this method, if the engulfing candle has a 50 pip range, your stop loss would be about 55 pips and your target would be about 110 pips away from your entry. The more advanced method involves pulling a Fibonacci retracement tool on the engulfing candle. Place your entry order at the 38.2%, 50% or 61.8% Fibonacci level of the candle, and place the stop loss in the same position as the first method. This method gives you a smaller stop loss, which offers you a much high per pip value, and a bigger target. It has a lower rate of successful fills, so youll have fewer trades using this entry method.

No matter what your method of entry is, you will profit from trading these powerful reversal indicators. Youll also save yourself the stress of conflicting technical indicators and cluttered screens. Trade this pattern for a week and see if I am wrong. - 23305

About the Author:

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Stock Trading Pros Talk About How Anyone Can Pick The Best Penny Stocks!

By Grant Dougan

Penny stocks are an exciting investment opportunity. Some investors stay away from these types of investments since they think they are full of risk. In reality, there is so much opportunity to make money with penny stocks if you know what you need to look for.

Any stock under two bucks is what I see as a penny stock. When I consider stocks to buy, I look for a business that is up and coming. You will see numerous organizations that are now trading under two dollars because they have had difficulties. Instead of investing in these businesses, I look for upcoming companies that are growing. By focusing on these organizations I can make tremendous money in the future when the business starts to be successful..

So how do you find the stocks to invest in? This, of course, is the most important question!

Examining the industry that the business is in is an important first stage. Think about if a new business into the industry can succeed based on the competition that exists. This involves a top-down view of the industry to ensure that the organization is involved in an area that allows them the potential to be successful.

Next, of course you want to examine the actual company. What about the management team? You should also look at what the business offers its customers and see if their product is different from what other companies are offering. You should try to locate companies that either offer a unique product or compete by changing some other factor such as their prices. If the business provides a product that isn't identical to what everyone else offers then it is extremely more likely to generate additional sales.

Look at the financials of the organization to see if there is anything that stands out to you, however don't automatically worry if they aren't making net income as of yet. Quite frequently this is the case with developing businesses. However, I do want to determine that the organization has money available to them or financing so that the business can continue to push forward.

Lastly, Keep in mind it's a great idea to have the ability to retrieve news on the organization. By being able to get periodic updates on the company, either on a web site or some type of communication, you can understand what's going on with the company.

When you begin searching for penny shares and making investments, you can make some tremendous profits. There is fabulous money to be earned once you know what to look for. - 23305

About the Author:

If you're curious about how to trade forex, you can find lots of information online. Click Here to get a free trial of the best forex trading programs which can make you money right away by picking out profitable trades.

Chicago Multi Family Real Estate

By Craign Pietramale

Chicago multi family real estate can make a great investment for anyone who is interested in earning an above average return on their money without facing the risks of today's stock market.

Once high flying stock market returns and super secure CD investments have lost their appeal to many investors. The stock market has become too uncertain and the CD rates barely keep up with inflation.

Chicago multi family real estate can be a good answer to the challenge of finding a safe and secure investment with large upside potential and lower than average risk.

Real estate investments that would be considered Chicago multi family real estate comprise:

1. Apartments

2. Duplexes, Triplexes and similar properties designed for more than one family to live in

3. Condo projects

As with any investment, you have to analyze the deals and do your due diligence to be certain that you are getting what you think you are getting. If you are not experienced in Chicago multi family real estate investing, you should consider partnering with or hiring the services of an experiences apartment investor or broker.

Once the numbers have been run and the property has been inspected to ensure that it is as represented by the owner, then all that is left is to negotiate your price and terms of purchase and add the property to your Chicago real estate portfolio.

In Chicago, one great resource is Chicago Multi Family Real Estate. The site has extensive resources and information for anyone interested in getting involved with Chicago multi family real estate deals. - 23305

About the Author:

Chicago Multi Family Real Estate is a great resource for real estate investors and anyone interested in learning how to invest in apartments and multi-family real estate in the greater Chicago area.

All There Is To Know About IRA Investment

By Mr Christopher Latter

When you think of retirement planning, you have to think of all the available tools. A highly effective and basic tool is the IRA (Individual Retirement Account). IRA Investment has overwhelmingly replaced the traditional scheme of pension as the social security supplement with most people's financial planning today. There are many different types of IRA's, the rules and limits of each IRA Investment plan are different from the other, like the maximum investment that can be made in each account and the withdrawal penalties.

The basic idea behind the IRA investment is you should begin with depositing the money in to the account opened. The custodians who are appointed by the IRA account managing organization would use the deposited money to make investments. When you reach a suitable age you can withdraw your accumulated money from the account and use it for expenses after retirement. You might know the fact that senior citizen i.e. the people who have retired would have lesser tax rates when compared to the people who are still working. This loop hole is effectively used by the IRA system. The accumulated money in the IRA is not taxable until the time it is withdrawn. So this would be a very good benefit. Instead of paying taxes you can use the money for yourself.

Which IRA should I choose? Which IRA investment is more profitable? These questions would be bothering your mind now. The suggestion is to make a choice depending on your needs. The IRA's can be basically divided in to three categories. Education IRA or simply the ESA (Education Savings Account) is for he education purposes of kids. The parents or the beneficiaries have to deposit money in to the account so that the future of their children gets secure. This applies only to children whose age is less than 18. The traditional type of IRA allows you to deposit money in which you can get some amount as deductions each time you deposit. If the deposits are made with after tax paid amounts then the amount thus accumulated would free from tax. The Roth IRA has a slightly different policy. It is very simple. You would not have advantage of deductions on your deposits but the growth amount is not taxable.

If you want to get better rates through IRA Investment, diversification of your investments is the key. You have to diversify your investments with the mixture of traditional and non traditional types. Try traditional ones like mutual funds and also the less traditional ones like real estate and stocks.

Directing your accumulate money in IRA's is actually possible. There is a special type of IRA account known as the Self Directed IRA. It is less traditional in its very sense. It is very effective. The money in Self Directed IRA investment accounts can be used to make investments of your choice. You might be interested to invest in land, a new house, apartments etc.

Do you want to be left with an empty account after you retire? I think the obvious answer is no. So get started by opening an IRA Investment account. - 23305

About the Author:

Read more on the subject of IRA investment by visiting an archive of articles on this topic and other sources knitted closely to IRA investment.

Money Management in Forex Trading (Part III)

By Ahmad Hassam

Live to trade another day is perhaps the best advice that you will receive in your trading career. Forex markets are brutal and unforgiving. You need to learn to survive in the markets.

The most common factor that causes many currency traders and investors to blow up their accounts and lose all their money is greed. Once you start taking unnecessary risks you are in trouble. You want a secret formula that never loses a trade. You will start looking for the Holy Grail technical indictor or a forex robot that can make you rich. You will believe that by discovering one, you will become rich.

Unfortunately there is no Holy Grail in trading. You must learn not to risk more than 2% of your account on a single trade. Incrementally grow your account over time and never ever be tempted to risk big making one single winning trade that can make you rich.

You should know how much you are willing to risk in a single trade. I said 2%. But if you want to be aggressive you can go up to 5% but stay between 2-5%. Dont exceed it. If you are conservative, on the other hand, you should consider risking between 1-2% only.

Once you have decided on the amount of risk you are willing to take, the rest is simple. Suppose you have a $50,000 account. You decide on a risk of 2% only. How much you can risk on a single trade? (50,000)(0.02)=$1,000. This is the maximum amount you should risk on a single trade.

However, if you are trading more than one position at the same time, the amount may become higher. Lets suppose, you are in 3 trades! You risk only $1,000 per trade. So the total money at risk will be (3) (1000) =$3,000. When you have determined your risk, you are can determine the trade size.

Trade size is the number of contracts you purchase in any one single trade. You need to first determine where you want to put your stop loss in order to determine the trade size. Lets use a simple example to make it clear. Suppose you are willing to risk $1000 on trading EUR/USD pair and you decide on a stop loss of 50 pips. Each pip on EUR/USD pair is equal to $10. So the number of contracts that you can trade are 2= (1,000)/ (50) (10).

You have taken the guesswork out of your trading once you have determined your risk level and calculated the trade size. You can sleep well now knowing how much of your money is at risk. You are going to be able to trade tomorrow, no matter what happens today.

Using these common money management rules will help you avoid the pitfall of losing almost all the money in your account. Learning to survive the markets and trade another day is the essence of trading. This can help your trading take the next level of profitability. - 23305

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading and swing trading stocks and currencies. Trade Dow Futures. Learn Forex Trading.