Forex Trading

YouWantWhat

Hi there,

just wondered if anyone on this forum has come across the ION pips forex trading platform, and know anything about it?

Gremlin

Hi,

I am also very interested to hear what people think of this. A family member is on the verge of investing his nest egg and I am worried sick about it. On the face of it it looks far too good to be true and you know the old saying 'if it looks too good to be true, it probably is'. OTOH he is so excited about it I don't want to rain on his parade. The other question I would ask is if this platform is as good as it claims why are ion giving it the hard sell. Surely their should be a waiting list for a platform which delivers what this claims?

Any advice is most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

RoadKillTs

Hi Gremlin,

I would strongly advise your friend not to "invest" his nest egg into this system.

This ION system seems to be prity new so I don't know much about it but I would be very skeptical.

ixus

It sounds good but, I'd have some reservations about it.

For starters, it claims to have a winning strategy built in! I can promise you that is not the case.

Then, the FAQ section is terrible. What is Forex, who is trading Forex, what is needed to trade Forex? That is it!! ALARM BELLS ARE RINGING

I would want to know the speed at which this software runs and other technical things. Details on how an account is managed etc.

They claim their customer support is a major part of it. Do they have traders on call 24/7? I sincerely doubt it. And, even if they did, how would that be of use to you?

FX moves at an unbelievable pace intraday and there are algo programs designed to sniff out stops. While you'll think you'll only be risking 1% each time you trade you will really be suffering death by a thousand cuts as your stops are triggered regularly. This is especially the case if you're a novice and are trading as per their ideas.

Statistically, you will get lucky a few times and have some decent winners. This will keep you in the game or encourage you to add to your account.

If you're playing the forex game in futures or spread betting, you have to have very wide stops and that means a high pain threshold.

Gone West

pips pips free money for all!

Go on, throw your money into forex.
Theres an old saying about a fool and his money...

YouWantWhat

Gremlin wrote: »

Hi,

I am also very interested to hear what people think of this. A family member is on the verge of investing his nest egg and I am worried sick about it. On the face of it it looks far too good to be true and you know the old saying 'if it looks too good to be true, it probably is'. OTOH he is so excited about it I don't want to rain on his parade. The other question I would ask is if this platform is as good as it claims why are ion giving it the hard sell. Surely their should be a waiting list for a platform which delivers what this claims?

Any advice is most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Gremlin,

I've researed and looked further into this. There are simply thousands of similar products online, one that keeps on cropping up is the FAB TURBO robot, which seems to get top reviews http://www.forexreviewlink.com/fap-turbo/, and costs a wopping $149, as opposed to €8500.

I'm also involved in the stock market and have a contact with a very experience trader in Australia, I put it passed him and here are his comments :

There are literally thousands of robots out there that will trade for you
and prior to buying them all show a good return. They range in price form
$97 and I haven’t seen one yet that goes the distance??

The web page is useless shows you nothing, the office photo gives you the
impression they own the building but probably rent a wee space.

There is no information on the page re any trade screens, mention of how it
works returns etc which makes me suspicious.

Forex is a hugeeeeeeeeeeee market very lucrative but very fast and dangerous
to the novice trader - fastest way of losing money??

Bottom line there is no shortcut to wealth. That’s why lotto's is so
successful. There is no shortcut to trading and that’s why these types of
things attract so many people, the lure of making a fortune and not doing
any work.

They probably sell a $5000 training package which you will find will be the
main part of their business, great idea for the idle rich or the desperate
but not for this young fella too wise for that now when I was younger maybe
would have got me??

Thanks for the reassurance Rob. Actually the training package is €8500!!! say no more.

Ok

For that price,

I will pay for you to come to Australia and spend a month with me, all expenses paid, baring cigarettes and alcohol and teach you the forex market, no bugger it, will supply alcohol.


Gremlin - I hope this helps your friend make up their mind, its certainly helped me.

Good luck

Gremlin

Thanks all for advice/comments. Very much appreciated.

This is exactly what I need to convince my dad to keep his money in his pocket. Perhaps if he wants to invest a small amount as a hobby interest I will direct him toward the $150 package. He can put in a couple of hundred and blow it all without breaking the bank.

I was half thinking about phoning the financial regulator in the morning and seeing what they have to say about this company giving the hard sell to a pensioner with zero FX experience. I'm sure there's no law against it but personally I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I'd encouraged someone to part with their savings like this.

digitally-yours

In my humble opinion


Forex is a very dangerous business.

If you don't know it then the best thing is to stay out.

You can find all sorts of garbage and some good systems(which work in some markets) to make money.

But at the end of the day if you cannot read the Price action on a naked chart then forget about forex trading.

The forex market is brutal and will Chew you if you have not done your home work and just taking trades just because you "feel" its going to go up or down.


Just my 2 pips

for those who want to learn how to trade forex they have to invest time and gain knowledge. Unfortunately in this trade the skills are non transferable. You got to develop your own pace and understand your own mentality and the way you are programmed to function


some time being human and acting in a neutral way is the most hardest thing.



no action for me today. Too choppy for my liking

reverenddave

i'm just about to start trading i opened a demo account with deltaindex.com
they start you off with €20000 imaginary money and in the first week i was up €8000 then week 2 down to €21000 i'm in week 3 now and i'm being a little more cautious right now i've got €20098
but it was because of a few human errors (me) not taking enough notice of what i was betting on and doing little research

but any way
they're based in dublin and i've got really good customer service with them so far

give the demo account a go and see what happens

ixus

Rev, a small bit of advice. Think about how much money you would actually put into an account if you were starting off spread betting. We'll say 500. Practice on the demo as if it was a real 500 and that was all you had to trade with. If you lose it, you stop trading.

The imaginary 20K gets you used to taking big hits and thinking you can make huge amounts of money in real life because you could on the simulator. Also, take into account the actual spread on the trades you make.

You should see a real difference to your trading or a least get more from it.

reverenddave

ixus wrote: »

Rev, a small bit of advice. Think about how much money you would actually put into an account if you were starting off spread betting. We'll say 500. Practice on the demo as if it was a real 500 and that was all you had to trade with. If you lose it, you stop trading.

The imaginary 20K gets you used to taking big hits and thinking you can make huge amounts of money in real life because you could on the simulator. Also, take into account the actual spread on the trades you make.

You should see a real difference to your trading or a least get more from it.

i totally agree
i have only been ''spending'' small amounts
the max i bet so far was €25 on a single bet
which is pretty much what i'll be spending in real life
and making use of stop limit distances too
current account balance €22450 up 1400 in 2 ish hours
markets closed for the night tho

digitally-yours

reverenddave wrote: »

i'm just about to start trading i opened a demo account with deltaindex.com
they start you off with €20000 imaginary money and in the first week i was up €8000 then week 2 down to €21000 i'm in week 3 now and i'm being a little more cautious right now i've got €20098
but it was because of a few human errors (me) not taking enough notice of what i was betting on and doing little research

but any way
they're based in dublin and i've got really good customer service with them so far

give the demo account a go and see what happens

Welcome to the world of forex

are you taking trades based on any system ?
have you worked out the Risk = reward ratio
what pairs you are trading ?

its a long journey but there is light at the end of the tunnel if you are prepared to evaluate your failures and learn from them....

also for a point and that's from personal experience DEMO can never ever give you a feel 100% like a real trade. Its good to demo but real trading is just different ... the emotions and the physiology involved ... its easy to take 5 losses in a row on demo but on real account when you have 5 losses you will loose your sleep (from experience).

Plan a trade and then trade you plan that's the best advise I can give you ..

reverenddave

digitally-yours wrote: »

Welcome to the world of forex
thanks


are you taking trades based on any system ?
just keeping an eye on the business and finance sites mainly yahoo and bbc for now i' haven't done enough searching yet

have you worked out the Risk = reward ratio
not yet but i will be betting small to begin with in order to understand the ''sytem'' properly, maybe €1 or €2

what pairs you are trading ?
i dont know what you mean by pairs

its a long journey but there is light at the end of the tunnel if you are prepared to evaluate your failures and learn from them.... too right there's light at the end of the tunnel did you see google and apple yesterday (friday)
apple up 1266 points
google up 6162 points
and i was looking at apple on wednesday and thursday but didnt do anything about it on friday
my first big mistake


also for a point and that's from personal experience DEMO can never ever give you a feel 100% like a real trade. Its good to demo but real trading is just different ... the emotions and the physiology involved ... its easy to take 5 losses in a row on demo but on real account when you have 5 losses you will loose your sleep (from experience).
my father said something similar to me recently he lost about €1200 a year ago and didnt sleep for a couple of days
this is something i'm definately not looking forward to
but like i said ill be betting small to begin with



Plan a trade and then trade you plan that's the best advise I can give you ..

good advise thanks

.

mono627

reverenddave wrote: »

what pairs you are trading ?
i dont know what you mean by pairs

He's referring to a currency pair.
A currency pair is the quotation of the relative value of a currency unit against the unit of another currency. Eg EUR/USD

reverenddave wrote: »

also for a point and that's from personal experience DEMO can never ever give you a feel 100% like a real trade. Its good to demo but real trading is just different ... the emotions and the physiology involved ... its easy to take 5 losses in a row on demo but on real account when you have 5 losses you will loose your sleep (from experience).
my father said something similar to me recently he lost about €1200 a year ago and didnt sleep for a couple of days
this is something i'm definately not looking forward to
but like i said ill be betting small to begin with

As much as I fully agree with the point that a demo account is no substitute for actually trading, I would strongly recommend you read as much as you can on trading before you go diving into spending your hard earned cash (or someone else's hard earned cash). There's a full list of recommended reading material in the stickys above.

I don't mean to sound patronising here but if you don't know what a currency pair is I strongly recommend you stay away from trading real money until you understand a little more about what you're doing as it is pretty fundamental to trading (no matter what products you trade).

reverenddave

mono627 wrote: »

He's referring to a currency pair.
A currency pair is the quotation of the relative value of a currency unit against the unit of another currency. Eg EUR/USD

ah i didnt know there was a specific term
well i am only a relative noob
i haven't looked properly at currencies yet they're a bit too risky for my likign
I'm still getting all the other stuff into my head first before i properly start trading



As much as I fully agree with the point that a demo account is no substitute for actually trading, I would strongly recommend you read as much as you can on trading before you go diving into spending your hard earned cash (or someone else's hard earned cash). There's a full list of recommended reading material in the stickys above.

which is why i'm on this site at almost midnight on a friday night reading as much stuff as i can without exploding still learnding
and as i said it'll only be a few quid to begin the most i have spent on a bet so far is €2.50 and probably wont be spending more then that, this side of christmas

I don't mean to sound patronising here but if you don't know what a currency pair is I strongly recommend you stay away from trading real money until you understand a little more about what you're doing as it is pretty fundamental to trading (no matter what products you trade).

not meaning to repeat myself but i am still learning about this like i said i haven't come across the term pairs
and wont be spending much money to begin with at least

.

mono627

No worries at all Rev, we all have to start off somewhere, I just thought I'd offer my 2c. You're entering into an extremely competitive environment and you deserve to know that. There are many people out there who dedicate their whole lives to the markets and are very good at what they do. Best of luck with the learning and happy trading!

EDIT: Oh and it's Saturday night by the way mate...hope you haven't lost a day!

reverenddave

mono627 wrote: »

No worries at all Rev, we all have to start off somewhere, I just thought I'd offer my 2c. You're entering into an extremely competitive environment and you deserve to know that. There are many people out there who dedicate their whole lives to the markets and are very good at what they do. Best of luck with the learning and happy trading!

cheers for the 2 cents
i'm a bit pissed i missed apple yesterday but hopefully i wont lose sleep

i'm at the end of page one on this thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055971737
and post number 2 the guy spends 16 hours a day at this it's a bit unnerving

but i'll give it a go for a few months and see what happens

i'm going to bed

mono627

reverenddave wrote: »

cheers for the 2 cents
i'm a bit pissed i missed apple yesterday but hopefully i wont lose sleep

i'm at the end of page one on this thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055971737
and post number 2 the guy spends 16 hours a day at this it's a bit unnerving

but i'll give it a go for a few months and see what happens

i'm going to bed

16 hours is quite excessive, but not unheard of. In general, traders work a lot of hours (although you could argue that if you like what you do it's not difficult to work these hours).

The Forex markets are open 24 hours a day, I've read articles about Forex traders that never sleep (properly) because they are either always in positions or are worried they will miss out on an opportunity.

digitally-yours

16 hours non stop trading :eek: (never done that in my life)

Most of the people I know trade 6 to 8 hours a day and then pack-up..

Keep in mind that, when you are trading. you are trading (your Positions) with or against these guys. The closest I can think of is like swimming with sharks...



A trader most importantly needs discipline and patience.

and never trade without a stop loss.


Happy Pips

mono627

digitally-yours wrote: »

16 hours non stop trading :eek: (never done that in my life)

Most of the people I know trade 6 to 8 hours a day and then pack-up..

Keep in mind that, when you are trading. you are trading (your Positions) with or against these guys. The closest I can think of is like swimming with sharks...



A trader most importantly needs discipline and patience.

and never trade without a stop loss.


Happy Pips

I doubt it's 16 hours non-stop trading tbh, that's not really sustainable for any-one no matter how dedicated you are. Every-one needs a break.

Wouldn't necessarily agree with bold above, if you are disciplined enough you don't necessarily have to use stops. Different strokes for different folks.

reverenddave

for my relative noobness

stops are the difference between losing €50 and losing €5000

i'll personally always use stops

unless i manage to devise a super secret magical method and become money hungry beyond bill gates wildest dreams then i might not use them

but til then i will

digitally-yours

mono627 wrote: »

I doubt it's 16 hours non-stop trading tbh, that's not really sustainable for any-one no matter how dedicated you are. Every-one needs a break.

Wouldn't necessarily agree with bold above, if you are disciplined enough you don't necessarily have to use stops. Different strokes for different folks.

agreed.

Happy trading

Francis Galvin

http://forums.babypips.com/newbie-island/
http://www.babypips.com/school/

very basic information about forex, it's school of pipsology is a good starting place for a foundation in forex and also somewhat entertaining. far from advanced stuff though. after awhile u can move onto forex factory which is for more serious traders but i wouldn't advise u start there without some basic knowledge.
http://www.forexfactory.com/forum.php


download mt4 which is the most popular forex charting software and learn how to use it. and demo demo demo until u find a system that suits ur personality. are u a scalper, swing trader, intra day, long term, only u can decide that.


log all ur demo trades, why u took them, ur win/loss ratio, stop losses, %increase/ decrease on demo account, include charts wit ur logs, if u broke any rules of ur system, analyse all failed trades inside out, ur max drawdown etc. never risk more than 1% of ur account, maybe 2% if u are really confident and have ur system down to a fine art. no system will be 100% profitable ever, a profit of about 10% per month or 2% per week on ur demo account is a very good goal to aim for. anything higher is unrealistic. 10% compounding on ur account monthly makes for very large gains but is not as easy as it sounds.


after u have been consistently profitable for 3 months or more at demo trading u can then try real trading. u will find it vastly different from demo trading due to real money being involved. u will have to master ur emotions, fear and greed will be ur biggest enemies and u must become an expert in money management. always use a pci stop loss, pci=power computer or internet failure, if any fail u want a stop loss already in place in case u can't manually shut down ur trade if it goes against u. this can and will happen where u will not be able to terminate ur trade because one of the above has failed.

trading forex is a very serious business, do not take it lightly, treat it as a business if u want to be successful.

95% of people who trade in forex lose their money, don't be one of them, educate urself, read, read, read and read some more. it's all free on the net if u know where to look. don't pay for any sites promising u unbeatable systems, they don't exist. don't try to buy a robot with an excellent equity curve, it won't work in the long run. figure out what type of trader u are and develop ur own system, u can look to other people for systems and ideas but tweak them with a demo account to suit ur style. a system that works well for someone else may not work for u at all. let ur profits run and cut ur losses short.

also forex and the stock market are very different things, the price of apple going up or down has nothing to do with forex.


the above is only the very tip of the iceberg, make google ur best friend and learn everything u can, don't spend money on things u can learn for free by doing a bit of research urself. it is an exciting and lucrative world but not for the uninitiated or faint of heart. be prepared to work extremely hard if u want to be successful, u will be up against some of the sharpest financial and mathematical minds in the world.


hope this helps and happy trading

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Hi Frances,

Thanks for the above, very detailed and helpful. I downloaded MT4 last night and just got a feel for the platform.

Can i ask how long you've been trading forex?

Could you reccomend your top 3 brokers?

arrowloopboy

Here comes the lambs :D:D

Mr_Roger_Bongos

arrowloopboy wrote: »

Here comes the lambs :D:D

Demo's only..;)

arrowloopboy

Mr_Roger_Bongos wrote: »

Demo's only..;)

Pointless exercise,you wont experience fear or greed playing with toy money.

Mr_Roger_Bongos

arrowloopboy wrote: »

Pointless exercise,you wont experience fear or greed playing with toy money.

If i don't know what im doing, fear and greed aren't going to be what's ruining my trading!

Also surely it's better to analyse my trading from a technical perspective so that i can improve my trading method/style, prior to battling my own emotions with the added financial risk?

Bullish

Great attitude Roger

Dilynnio

You can set up demos, discover the most amazing strategies, implement them, change them but all this goes out the window when it comes to a LIVE account!

When it comes to real money and your money......it is a totally different kettle of fish!

Once you hit that button and its your money your using.......everything goes out the window.....the psychological impact it will have on you is unreal!

The fear you will have watching as your money grows or decreases....the thoughts in your head.....will I pull it now or leave it in.......its very stressful!

Even the slightest bit of economic news can change the motion of a trade!The bulls and bears take over!

It is highly stressful and highly addictive!

You may win one day and loss all that the next day. Make a trading plan and do not change from it.

E.G

Today if you say I am going to Trade Eur/USD and I only want to make 20 pips and I am only prepared to loss 30 pips if the trade goes against me. Then just make that trade and close down your system. Don't get greedy...get out like you planned!

Hope this makes some sense and helps!

rugbyman

Can anybody explain to me what significant factors would have caused the Euro/GB £ rate to have altered so much over the last week.

A week ago it was just short of 1.143 this morning it was in or around 1.123 and this afternoon above 1.14. this represents a fall during the week of 200 euro on 10kSterling. this fall has now almost been reversed today.

At a time when the spending review, indicated harsh measures were being taken, I would have thought that that would have helped sterling.

Re todays rise I have read nothing to suggest a reason.

Any ideas/suggestions

Rugbyman