Which Forex Trading Pair Should You Start With and Why?

Choose your trading pair

Entering the Forex market, a beginner faces the question: which currency pair to trade with? The most part of beginning Forex traders stop at EURUSD and GBPUSD and, for some reasons, neglect tens of other financial instruments! Focus on specific instruments is a right approach. However, beginners have to be familiar with the currency pairs they can trade with.

Currency pairs in MetaTrader 4 terminal

The “Market Watch” window of the MetaTrader 4 terminal usually shows at least 20 instruments and before you remove them from your portfolio, make sure that your decision is right. Let's consider major pairs by groups:

- Majors — main instruments;
- Crosses — cross rates;
- Exotics — rare currency pairs.

Major currency pairs are most often traded on the Forex market. Firstly, it is EUR/USD (euro - dollar), GBP/USD (English pound - dollar), USD/JPY ( dollar — Japanese Yen), USD/CHF ( dollar — Swiss Frank). Since these pairs are formed by the most substantial currencies, they are called majors. Australian, New Zelanian, Canadian dollars are also related to substantial currencies and AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD pairs are majors too.

EUR/USD and GBP/USD
Each of these instruments has its own features. For example, EUR/USD and GBP/USD better than others fit to trading with application of technical analysis intertwined with fundamental analysis. A high demand of EUR/USD is based on its active behavior, yet movements of this instrument are quite smooth, which brings good profit under intraday and short-term trading.

USD/CHF
As a rule, correlation between the pairs EUR/USD and USD/CHF is invert, whereas relation between EUR/USD and GBP/USD is direct. It means that if EUR/USD tends to grow, the most probably, chart of USD/CHF will go down. Intraday charts perfectly illustrate correlation between currency pairs. Open these charts and study the history of data. Using the data from EUR/USD, you can forecast the price of USD/CHF, but this pairs is less stable than euro/dollar and beginners are recommended to be more careful with it.

The strategies based on indicators do not fit USD/CAD well, so scalpers are better to trade with it in the night time.

USD/JPY
USD/JPY require a thorough analysis, because intervention of the Japanese Central bank may change its price sharply. Since Japanese economy is heavily dependent on export, the Japanese Central bank keeps national currency rate low against currencies of leading economies. Interventions of the Japanese Central bank were a well-known case and were made through exchange of JPY into USD and EUR to support national export-oriented industry.

When risks on financial markets grow, it tells about consolidation of Yen. Usually this consolidation is caused by Close trades made by investors. Operations with USD/JPY are more efficient within Asian session.

Cross rates 
Cross rates are the currency pairs which do not contain US dollar. In terms of their activity, they give a place to majors. Cross rates include AUD/CAD, AUD/CHF , AUD/JPY, AUD/NZD, CAD/JPY, CHF/JPY, EUR/AUD, EUR/CAD, EUR/CHF, EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, EUR/NZD, GBP/AUD, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY, NZD/JPY. Apart from the listed pairs, there are also other cross rates. The pairs with Japanese Yen - EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY – are good on trends. However, as in the case with USD/JPY, they are heavily subject to interference. Thus, it should not be a beginner's choice, who usually does not have enough skills to make a comprehensive analysis.

Exotic currency pairs like EUR/DDK, USD/MXN, USD/RUB have a poor liquidity. The reason is that currencies of certain countries are weakly notable in the Forex market. Besides, their spread is very high. It is a choice of a few traders who usually live in those countries.

Spot gold and silver
Gold and silver are also financial instruments (but not currency instruments). They form a standalone group and are tied to Euro and US dollar: XAU/USD, XAU/EUR — gold/dollar and gold/euro, XAG/USD, XAG/EUR - silver/dollar and silver/euro. XAU/USD is the most promising among them, whereas the pairs with euro are less liquid, silver trading is not rational, because cost of one point is rather high and risks are high as well.

The pair you should start your trading with 

The best trading instruments for beginners are EUR/USD, GBP/USD, NZD/USD, AUD/USD. Start your trading with one of them. Above we described benefits of each pair, so the final choice is up to you.

Beginners are recommended not to involve many pairs in their trades at the same time. Save your attention to carefully analyze each specific chart of a currency instrument. Specialization in 1 – 3 instruments will supply you with much better results. After you master your skills with majors, you can start to include new trading instruments.

[guest post from Yuriy]

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Selecting Banner Stands—the Basics You Need to Know

The most important thing to determine when shopping for a banner stand is what its ultimate use will be. Will you be taking it to trade shows? Will it be used for recruiting? Are you a retailer seeking to use a banner stand for point-of-sale transactions? Maybe you need a good all-around stand that will have to be a multi-purpose item. Keeping the end use in mind is a good idea when selecting banner stands.

Retractable Banner Stands

Consider a retractable stand first. They are versatile and travel much, much easier than fixed stands. A good quality example will prove to be quite capable and durable, though a fixed stand will always be the most rugged choice. Choose the style according to your needs and you can’t go wrong.

Sidewalk A-Frames

Some of the simplest banners are still the best. These are rugged, no-frills a-frames you can set up inside or outside your business, often on the sidewalk. The costs are low and the solid PVC material used in the most up-to-date examples is extremely durable.They are perfect for restaurants, shops, or gas stations. They also work great in your booth at the trade show, high up on a table for visibility or right down on the floor to direct traffic or funnel attention to whatever you desire.

Specialized Uses

Sometimes you need something a little more specialized. If you really want to grab their attention at the next trade show, consider a jumbo-sized banner stand. Some models that are readily available are eight feet long and still feature telescoping legs for easy transport. Or perhaps you need something on the other side of the spectrum. You can get little 8” x 10” desktop models that work perfectly in your booth at a trade show, or in an office setting for presentations. It really is all about defining your needs and choosing wisely to match them.

You can always find an excellent selection of banner stands and other trade show materials, all at great prices, simply by visiting The Display Outlet.

[Guest post from Vanessa]

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Let's start stock investment!

Stock is a long-term investment. As a stock holder person of a company, we can get a return in investment of the company's profit sharing based on number of shares we hold. We also potentially get profits from re-selling our stocks. We often call it ‘capital gain'.

Nevertheless, investing in stocks is not a risk-free investment. Investor who want to trade stocks, need to understand and know his investment goals, including measuring the risk of a company they buy the shares.

Before entering into the stock market, the important thing is, decide first your motivation to buy a stock. Are you plan to get short-term profits by selling and buying stocks a.k.a stock trading? Or, do you want to be a long-term investor? Long-term investors are not only targeting the advantage of rising stock prices. They also wanted to get a dividend or part of the company's profits.

Otherwise, for a stock trader, dividend is just an added value because the main goal is short-term capital gains.

However, in the context of financial planning, stock is a long-term investment tool. Therefore, the process of stock selection should be based on fundamental analysis of the company's performance. That means, you have to understand how to read financial statements and know the ins and outs of the company's business that you want to buy shares.

This is different from the trader. The technical analysis is made based on the share price fluctuates more dominate their investment decisions.

You should also pay attention to the liquidity factor. That is, how easy the shares to be traded. Typically, the more the stocks are traded, the easier it is to be traded.

There are two options for those who are just starting out stock investment. An investor can transact their own with the online service or use the services of a broker from trading securities. However, before doing an online transaction, investors should gather sufficient information about the world of stocks.

At this early stage, there is no harm for investors to use the services of securities to obtain assistance and related research of leading stock issuers. This is to make easier to investor for selecting stock to buy. In addition, the analysts will suggest to you to learn a trading plan. By having the trading plan, the investment can be measured, both risk and potential returns.

[image taken from: sendaiben.org]

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