How forex works? (Session 8)

Fundamental

The key that affect the movement is news and the expectation of the demand and supply of money to the economy.

News is about confidence. When you buy a country currency, you buy into the confidence that the economy of that country will do well.

When a country do well- meaning that there is employment, low inflation, good consumer confidence, good export, good growth ...

There are economic indicator shat show whether the country is really doing well. Often it is compare quarter to quarter or monthly to monthly or yearly to yearly. A trend will be built and that gives projection into the future and indicate whether the country is doing well.

The key indicators for the above are:

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Employment Rate

The two main pillar of the economy is the equity market and the property market. As such the performance of these markets affect the movement of the country currency. The cost of commodities can affect the cost of doing business and may therefore affect the movement of currency.

Besides fiscal policy, which general measures by demand and supply of goods and services, e next key important news is Interest Rate and its monetary policy.

Political stability do affect the movement. For example, when Obama is confirmed the presidential candidate, it cause a good movement in favour of the USD. Of course, news of wars and coup are important.

Below are some economic news definition and each country name them differently.

US Unemployment claims: The number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time during the past week; The market impact of this indicator fluctuates from week to week. There tends to be more focus on the release when traders need to diagnose the effect of recent developments that relate to labor conditions;

US Nonfarm Employment Change: Job creation is an important leading indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for a majority of overall economic activity;

US The Institute of Supply Management (ISM) Non-Manufacturing Composite: measures activity level, new orders, empoyement and supplier deliveries of purchasing managers in the services sector, with a reading above 50 indicating expansion. A rising trend has a positive effect on the nation's currency. To produce the index, purchasing managers are surveyed on a number of subjects including employment, production, new orders, supplier deliveries, and inventories. Traders watch these surveys closely because purchasing managers, by virtue of their jobs, have early access to data about their company’s performance, which can be a leading indicator of overall economic performance.

US FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) and Federal Fund Rate: Interest rate announcement

US Housing Starts: Measures the annualized number of new residential buildings that began construction during the previous month. A rising trend has a positive effect on the nation's currency because the housing market is a leading gauge for the overall economy. A high level of housing activity signals that the construction industry is healthy and that consumers have the capital to make large investments. More importantly, new housing activity creates an economic ripple effect as home owners buy goods such as appliances and furniture for their homes, and builders buy raw materials and hire more workers to meet demand.

US Existing Home Sales: Measures the annualized number of existing residential buildings that were sold during the previous month. A rising trend has a positive effect on the nation's currency because large purchases tend to be made by consumers that are optimistic and confident in their financial position. The sale of a home also triggers commissions for real estate agents, and often home owners will purchase goods such as appliances and furniture shortly after purchasing a home. Traders watch this report closely as it's the month's first demand-side housing indicator to be released.

UK Bank of England, Monetary Policy Committee (MPC); It's one of the primary tools the MPC uses to communicate with investors about monetary policy. It contains commentary about the economic conditions that influenced their vote, projects the economic outlook, and offers clues on the outcome of future votes;

UK Bank of England Interest Rate Annoucment: When there is a change in rates the MPC will also issue a statement. The rate shift is often priced in the market so it tends to be overshadowed by the MPC Statement which is focused on the future; Short term interest rates are the paramount factor in currency valuation - traders look at most other indicators merely to predict how rates will change in the future;

UK Halifax House Price Index : Measures the monthly change in the average sale price of homes finances by the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). Halifax is the UK's largest mortgage lender uses internal mortgage lending figures to produce the index.

UK/EUR Services Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI): measures the activity level of purchasing managers in the services sector, with a reading above 50 indicating expansion. A rising trend has a positive effect on the nation's currency. To produce the index, purchasing managers are surveyed on a number of subjects including employment, production, new orders, supplier deliveries, and inventories. Traders watch these surveys closely because purchasing managers, by virtue of their jobs, have early access to data about their company’s performance, which can be a leading indicator of overall economic performance.

UK Nationwide House Prices: Measures the monthly change in the average price for a house in the UK. It serves as a leading inflation indicator for the housing market. Also The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) House Price Balance measures the price change of homes in the UK. This leading indicator represents the percentage of chartered surveyors reporting a price rise in their designated area.

UK Claimant Count Change: It's the first indication of the employment situation, the number of unemployed people is an important signal of overall economic health because consumer spending is highly correlated with labor conditions

European Central Bank (ECB) Press Conference: It's the primary method the ECB uses to communicate with investors regarding monetary policy. It covers in detail the factors that affected the most recent interest rate decision, the overall economic outlook, inflation, and most importantly, clues regarding future monetary policy;

EUR German Ifo Business Climate Index: The Information and Forschung (Ifo) Business Climate Index measures the mood of firms in manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail. The index is derived from a monthly survey of over 7,000 firms where respondents are asked to give their assessments of the current business situation and their expectations for the next six months.

GDP: It's the broadest measure of economic activity and the primary gauge of the economy's health

JPY Overnight Call Rate: Interest rate at which the BOJ rediscounts bills or extends loans to financial institutions.

Where to get the news?

www.forexfactory.com (when and what news is going to be announced); www.yahoo.finance.com (equity market, headlines news)

I am not teaching how to play by news, but it is good to know what is really happening around you. Reading and getting in touch with the news, make you a more rounded person and to be factual, you can make use of your understanding of the global and individual country economy for your own advantage. 

The next sessions I will zoom into technicals analysis.

How Forex Works (Session 7)

Spread
It is the difference between the bid and the ask price of a security or asset.

The larger the spread, the more difficult for you to break even. For example, if the spread is 2 pips as compare to a spread of 10 pips, you will have already make 8 pips when the later just manage to break even.

Forex is a de-centralized trading. It means that there is no such thing as the SGX or the NYSE or the CBOT, where securities has to go through the house through its brokers for a transaction to occur. Forex uses individaul brokerage house and therefore the rates differ from house to house at the same instant of time. That is at 1500hrs GMT, two differnt house can have different rate, different spread.

Spread is where the forex brokerage house make their money. The bigger the spread, the bigger their earnings. In addition, taking advantage of the rates and spread difference from other house, that brokerage firm can make more money.

Spread vary throughout the day. There is no constant spread throughout the whole day. Spread can widen during a hot news release and when the market is quiet.

For example, the spread is 20 pips for GBP/JPY for Oanda during weekend when the market is close. The spread close up to 10 pips when the Australian markets open. It close further to 7-8 pips when th Asian market open. The best spread happens during the European market at around 4-5 pips. But when ther is a news breakout, say BoE interest rate announcement at 1530hrs SGT, the spread suddenly widen at 1528 to 1532hrs to 10-20pips.

Of course, if you are trading by news and definitely not by the minute, the effect of widening spread will not affect you.

But the key note is that when chosing a brokeage house, chose one that give you a tight spread in the general trading time for the market you are trading.

Different currency pairs have different spread. At the same timing, EUR/USD has a spread of 0.9 pips for Oanda, while GBP/JPY has 4.5pips.

The reasons for this is voltality. The more volatile the pair, the more people play, the tighter the spread. The other reason is the price movement the pair can go per day. For example, EUR/USD can vary 100-150 pips on average a day, while GBP/JPY can go by as much as 200-300 pips a day. The term use is call range.

Assuming you did a buy GBP/JPY at 199.0 and set take profit (TP) at 200.0. The price climb to 200.0 and reverse. Your TP may not be reached. The reason - spread. At that moment, the bid and ask price may be 200.05/199.95 a 10 pip spread. Your 200.0 was not triggered, because the ask price failed to reach above 200.0. You will feel very very lousy, just miss by 5 pips and there goes a 100pips profit.

By experience, you may learn at times not to set the TP at 200.0. but 199.90. Earning less 10 pips but win the whole trade. Likewise, the price may swing above 200.0 and you earn 10 less pips - angry!

This are all part of trade - and spread is a tricky part. My advise is if you miss it, let it be so. The market will always be open the next day. Don't let emotions rule over you. By this, you have to experience it yourself. There are numberous occassions I miss the trade by less than a pip! Nothing to be too angry about.

If you are trading by news, you have to observe for yourself the widening of spread and know the spread by which your broker widen it. You can easily get yourself caught. For example, you set your buy at 210.0 and TP just 20 pips at 230.0 During the news, the spread widen and the price at 209.90/209.85 suddening become 210.0/209.80 a 5 to 20 pips spread. Your 210.0 will be triggered and even if the price goes up to 230.10, your TP may not be triggered, because the actual bid/ask is 230.15/229.95, still a 20pip spread. If the price reverse, you are really caught.

The worst is that if you set stop loss, you may trigger it! When the spread widen, say 210.0/209.8, it may trigger your buy at 210.0 and if your stop loss is at 209.8, it will also be triggered! Therefore if you need to know how spread behave during news announcement, in particularly if you are setting stop loss. (SL).

When will then the spread close up after widening? I termed it the rate of change of spread. And this again vary from broker to broker. The faster it close up the better.

Therefore understand how spread can affect your trade - especially TP and SL. The best way to understand spread is by observing and observing the broker using trading platform. Make sure you know this important working principle of spread.

In the next session I will teach on the fundamentals that affect forex movement.

How Forex Works? (Session 6)

Basic Forex working mechanism
Forex which stands for foreign currency exchange.

It is about changing your currency (say Singapore Dollars SGD) to another currency (say Malaysian Ringgit MYR).

Why change? Because you need to buy Malaysian goods and services.

Like wise when you have excess MYR and you are coming back to Singapore, you may want to exchange them back. Why change back? Because MYR cannot be use to buy Singapore goods and services.

Can you observed the term "buy" for both occassions?

I am trying to remove the misconception and the fear people have when they "sell" stocks and shares

In forex, you always need a pair and you are always buying one, which means you are selling the other.

The RATES determine how much you can get MYR for each SGD and likewise how much SGD you can get for each MYR.

Bid and Ask Price

The difference between the bid and ask price is call the spread.

When you go to the money changer with a SGD100 and ask to exchange for MYR, the uncle will say to you 2.20. That is with SGD100 you can get MYR220.

One minute later, after you get your MYR220, you go back to the same money changer and say sorry and ask for SGD100 back, he will refuse you. Instead, he will say that using MYR to get back SGD is using a different rate at, say MYR230. That is he will need MYR230 to give you SGD100. Oops, that means with MYR220, you can only get SGD95.65. The uncle will earn SGD4.35 and profit from your silliness!

MYR220 is termed the bid price and MYR230 is termed as the ask price. In forex, it will be shown as SGD/MYR = 220/230

The difference in bid and ask price is call the spread.

Confuse about bid and ask? You always buy low sell high.

So how do you make money?

Now instead of changing back you MYR220 to SGD, you hold. Say after a week, the rates is now at SGD/MYR = 200/210

You went back to the money changer and say I want my SGD and this time the uncle will give you MYR210 for SDG100, and because you have MYR220, you get back more SGD! So this time you profited SGD4.76

The converse is true, when you started off with MYR100 and the rates is at SGD/MYR = 220/230, which you will get SGD43.48 (using 230 to calculate because you are buying SGD).

After one week, the rates now become SGD/MYR = 240/250. You change back to MYR and you will get MYR104.35, profit MYR4.35

Stop for a while and read again to understand the above principle.

I hope you can see that it always take a pair of currency and you are always buying one while selling the other. As such there is always a buying.

To put it simply, using a graph or a chart to help you.

From the chart, you can see a up trend. This means SGD/MYR is going up.

If you think that the trend will contiune, you do a buy (or using the term "long") SGD/MYR, which in actual, buying SGD (the first pair) and selling MYR.

If the graph shows the reverse as shown

To profit, you sell SGD/MYR (or the term "short"), which in fact you are buying MYR (the second pair) and seling SGD.

So up -> buy and down ->sell. In both way you can profit.

Of course you must first make sure you cover the spread. You cannot buy and sell immediately or you will lose money.

When you do a buy (using ask price), you must wait until the bid price (sell price) go pass your ask price, then you have break even.

When you do a sell (using bid price), you must wait until the ask price (buy price) go pass you bid price, then you have break even.

Confuse - start a demo account and practice. You must get this principle correct and you must internalize it, so much so that in the heat of a battle, you know when is buy and when is sell and when you have break even.

In the next sessions I will talk more about spread.

Forex Advantage (Session 5)

In the Last sessions, I have explained why I choose forex. They are

1) Dual “Direction”

2) A 24-hour market

3) Leverage

4) High Liquidity

Another important aspect of forex is "No one can corner the market". This is because of the large transaction, its high votality, and its 24 hours operation. No bank or any insitution can buy up a sizable currencies and continue to do so for a long period of time. Compare this with the share market, and especially so for just a particular stock.

Added, if you choose your forex broker correctly, you can have additional advantages.

1) No commissions
2) No middlemen
3) No fixed lot size
4) Low transaction costs

Selection of a broker is a research by itself. I will do that in another sessions.

Forex is a very new financial instrument. You don't hear much of it 10 years ago. It is the internet that permit traders like you and me to enter the market with ease. Long ago, transactions in foreign exhange were done by banks and financial institution. They buy and sell in standard lots (or lag) and in dollars (or bucks), basically in large amount. Govenment also trade currencies for political and economic agenda.

Being so new, it is no wonder, people, normal uncle and retiree on the street don't talk about it or know how to go about trading it. The conventional way to trade shares is still via brokers. The internet and the permission for internet-leterate enabe saelf trading and thereby cutting down commissions, no brokers, lower transactions cost. It is the internet that cuts the trading costs, not toforex alone.

Forex, being new also strike fear. Because traditional the transactions is in big amount, the misconception (like shares) it was perceived that you need a large amount of capital. For example, you will probable need $100,000 to earn $10 if the exhange rate move by $0.0001. In actual fact, with margin (I will cover this in another session) and with some brokers offer non-standard size, the above has become a myth.

It was also because of the votality of the market, you will see your profits become losses very quickly. For the faint hearted, this is not good. But with good money management (I will cover this in another sessions), you will know that you can handle greed and fear much better.

This misconception can be corrected via proper education. I have been trading forex for almost 2 years and have learnt the mechanism and know well that the above are myths.

Like all business there are risk. What is yours? Will you get heart attack when you profit $1000 in a minute? What if you lose all your capital?

There are far more advantages in forex as compare to shares, options and commodities. As long as your know the mechanism, it will soon be a walk in the garden. You will be bored as you also stared at the same old currency pair everyday! By then, making a few hundreds dollars a day is just like earning coffee money.

I dared to say that I like forex better than shares and options is because I have tried them.

Forex Advantage (Session 4)

http://www.westcapfx.com/eng/forex-trading/about-forex-and-trading/
The International currency market FOREX is the youngest currency market developed from all segments of the financial markets.

The major principle of work in the currency market consists in an exchange of one currency for another with the purpose of receiving profit on a difference of rates. Exchange rates vary under the influence of a supply and demand on the currency of a stable country. A supply and demand, in turn, depend on macroeconomic news, political and other world events.

Transactions in FOREX market are carried out by a principle of margin trade which allows a trader to conclude transactions for amounts considerably greater than his starting capital. Credit transactions, with a leverage provides the basis on which the trader opens the trading account.

The appeal of investment in this market is also connected with the speed of the fulfillment of the transaction. The market works round the clock; transactions are made on the Internet, through a secured access, or by a telephone system.

My comments:
All financial instrument has the element of compounding.

1) Trading in Dual Direction
However, not all have the element of "economic robustness" - meaning that when you heard the news that the market has crashed, you heard that people jump and oops you cannot make money.

In particular, Singapore shares belong to this group. SGX does not encourage short sell. If you do so, you must recover the shares within a short time frame.

2) Time decaying factor
Time is a vital element, it can worked for you and against you. Take for example, you buy crude oil. You are actually buying into a future contract at say USD120 a barrel, that is to be deliever to you in July 2008. Supposedly, nearing June 2008, the price of crude goes up to USD130, you profited, but if by July 2008, the price of crude goes down to USD110, you must quickly sell away, else the contract will be worthless or you will expect to have the barrel delivered to your house!

3) Derivatives vs pure principal
Options also fall into this group. Moreover, options is a derivatives of stocks, properties .. The price depends on its principal. Nothing wrong with that, but you must understand the principal, in additional to the mechanism of the derivatives.

Stocks, forex are principal commodities.

4) Trading time
The choice is yours.

If you trade SGX, your working time is SGT0930 to 1700hrs

If you trade US stock and US options, your working time is SGT2130 to 0400hrs

If you trade forex - its 24 hours, but of course there are certain hours of perference.

I placed my trade in the morning 0700 - 1000hrs.

For extra excitment I trade live during Euro hours (1500hrs - 1800hrs), US hours (2000 to 2300hrs).

5) Leverage
Leverage can work for you as well as against you.

If you buy $10,000 in stock you stand to lose at most all of them. But you may stand a chance to earn 10% or 20% in a month

If you buy an option, you don't need $10,000, you only use a fraction of it, say $2000. You stand a chance to lose at most all of it, but if the price of the stock move by 10-20%, you stand a chance to plough a handsome profit of more than 100% in that month

In forex, the leverage is in margin. You have a capital of $2000, you can buy say 50 times the amount or $100,000 worth of currency. Protected by margin calls and automatic clousure, you may lose at most all the $2000, but you too stand a chance to gain 1-5% in a day. The reason for so is voltality.

6) Voltality
If there is no movement, you cannot gain in stocks and in options, provide you did a spread (Bear call spread, or bull put spread) and anticipate no movement throughout that month, then you can gain.

But in general, no movement - very difficult to earn money.

Forex by far is the largest market - a trillion USD worth is transacted everyday. By this same reasons, I will teach you what I know, without fear that you snatch away my business! For GBP/JPY pair, except Saturday and Sunday, it will move by at least a 100-150 pips at least.

There are more reasons as to why forex, but the mentality why I choose forex as my finacial instrument for trading is:

Use little money - gain more more

Use little or convient time - so as to spend the best time for my family and God

Exponential Decaying Curve for per period of earnings.

I will introduce a concept and that will conclude why I finally choose forex as my prefered finanical instrument as a tool to setup a business, in order to and fulfil of a bigger purpose in life.

The curve suggest spending less time, but earning more money. Basically, using less and less effort, but not necessary means earn less.

I introduce a term call Earnings per $10,000 invested per 1 hour a day.

Of course if you work as an employee it will be Earnings per period of time.

In stocks and shares, per capital of $10,000, the average earning (for me) is 10-20% ROI per year. This work out to $0.31 / hour a day

For Options, I can get a 20% per month per $10,000, but use 4 hours a day (including stocks research and late hours (x2) of working) = $22 / hour

For forex I can get 10% per month per $10,000, but use 1 hour a day, = $45 / hour

The above assume a 22 days month.

The idea is to find the best stratedy using less time but not earn less. Yes by options I earn more per month, but I spend more time and worse still I need to trade in the wee hours.

Less Effort
Lastly, when I switch from options to forex, one main reasons why I can cut down to so little time is because I only look at one or at most two currencies pair. I did not to search the thousands of stocks and select the few tickers to play.

If everyday, I look a the same currency pair, I bet I will be very very good at it as time goes by. I will know what can cause the movement up or the movement down and even know how the pair is being played.

God Bless

Why Forex? How to create a business (Session 3)

If you continue to trade by yourself and continue to make good money out of it, you are still a SELF-EMPLOYED.


You are no difference from a high income minister, a general manager, or even a insurance broker.


Let's take a look at some numbers.

Using margin (which I will explain in later sessions what this is) of 50:1 and a carry trade (which I will also explain in what this is) interest of 4.5% (GBP and JPY) and 2% (EUR and USD) for calculation. http://www.fxstreet.com/fundamental/interest-rates-table/


Assuming you have a capital amountint to EUR500,000. That will earn you an annual interest of 4%, that will bring you EUR20000 or SGD40000.


Assuming you use 20% of the capital which is EUR100,000 for a carry trade using 50:1 margin buying GBP/JPY, this will permit you to buy some 3,500,000GBP/JPY (in fact much more). Giving you a 4.5% which is EUR157,000 (in fact more) on interst annually. Therefore plus the remaining 80%, which is EUR400,000 or EUR16,000, gives EUR170,000 or almost SGD350,000.


SDG350,000 is very good for you to work when you like and even though without any work, money will still flow in.


OF course the questions is how to get EUR500,000.


The nature of this business as mention in Session 1 is that it has an element of compounding!.


Assume, you started off with only EUR1000, taking a profit of 10% per month, you will take 65 months to reach more than EUR500,000, or less than 5.5 years.


Of course, if you have more capital, you shorten your time.


BUT how to get 10% per month? I will teach the method in the later and coming sessions.
First get your maths right and believe that Forex can be better paid, use less time and ultimately become a business and a passive income generator.


Before I end this sessions, I will like to ask - why do you want so much money for?

Ecc 5:10He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.

Mat 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Heb 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”


It is not money, but the love for money.

Beware and I am cautioning all of you who thinks that money is the end, and worse still the weath or the monthly income that you get is used as a means of comapring with your neighbour. Your approval and your identity must not be in man, but God.

Set yourself a purpose, a bibical purpose in God. Achieving your purpose, brings about a sucess feeling and the meaning of this should be found in God. Sucess without meaning is life without purpose. Seek God for your purposes.

Use the talents God gave you and the money for the extension of His kingdom. Money buys dreams and dreams are unlimited. Money can never be an end, the fulfilment of your dream is.

Therefore, set yourself an end - when to end, what and how much to have in your final account before you call it quit.

Luke 9:25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

In the next session, I will bring out the advantages forex over other commodities.

God Bless.

Why Forex? ESBI and pipelines (Session 2)

Is your job a business?

If you work for someone or some organization, you are a EMPLOYEE.
If you work for yourself or is the key person that drive your business, you are a SELF-EMPLOYED
If you earn a living from dividends from a business, that will only to make money, even though you are not working, you are a BUSINESS OWNER
If you earn a living from interest from your investment, by not doing anything, you are an INTEREST earner.

The first two, you have to work, the latter two you do not necessary need to work.

So then is trading in commodities, such as forex, a business? NO

To be a business owner, you need to have a business and you own it, meaning you should be the main shareholder and the running of the business must have a system, that it does not need to depend on any key personal to conduct a proper business transactions. Take for example, Singapore Airlines (SIA), if you are one of the CEO, the SIA will still make money even if the CEO is sick. There is a system in place. Is it not better that you own SIA, a major shareholder? Well you can buy SIA shares, but you need capital and that is money.

Can you see that if you have money, you can use the money to invest and buy SIA shares or do other money making investment? Very automatically, your money will make money for you even if you are not working!

Therefore, my purpose in teaching you trading in forex is about weath or capital creation.

Unless you are a high appointment holder and therefore assume that you earn a fat salary and you can therfore save more and accumulate wealth faster.

Otherwise, unless you have a rich parent.

Weath can be created, but it also depends very much on how you accumulate. Someone who has a fat salary may not necessary be someone who know how to save or to invest. As a result, he/she will have to continue working in order to maintain that current standard of living - always working and failed to permit money to make money.

A story was told about two persons, who was offered a good paying job, ferrying water using pails from the river to the reservoir in the town. One of them was very statisfied because he knew that it is by far a good paying job, though stressful, but water is always needed.

The other person, however, knew that this labourous job though good, there was no light. the day he stop work, the flow of money stop. As a result, each day as he walked to the river, he took some time off to build a small section of a pipe. Many years later, a pipeline was formed and now he did not to ferry water. Even when he was sleeping, water would flow from the river to the reservious and thus he would collect his money.

Therefore to achieve financial independence needs wealth and weath need to be accumulated. The capital need to be invested either in businesses or in the form of a interest earning instrument. In doing so, it will come a time, even when you are not working, income will still be steadily flowing in.

Financial independence is not about not working. It is about the choice of not working when you choose not to or worse you are not able to. Financial freedom, permits you to therefore do the work you like such as running a cafe business, spend holidaying with your love ones .. It is about choice.

Trading in forex is not the only way, but it is a way that I have discovered and it can help me to accumulate wealth at a good speed and at the same time not taking too much time from work a day.

In the next session, I will continue to share how forex can be a business.

God Bless

About the Trainer (Session 1)

I am Ernest.

I graduated in 1994 with a Honours Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. I went on to obtain a a Master in Science in Engineering with The National University of Singapore in 1999. Currently work in a reputated engineering company in Singapore, developing pioneering work on unmanned ground vehicles.

My interest in financial instrument started in 1996, when I started trading actively in Singapore shares. But because of the capital needed, the earnings was only good enough for some extra cash in the pocket. Things got a bit worse when then CLOB pulled out of Singapore, followed by 1997 when the stock market was affected by Asian Financial Crisis. I realised that stocks cannot be a business that bring you a regular and steady income.

I started my first conventional business, registering a company in 2003. The company main business was IT related. But it never lasted for more than 2 years, before we called it quit. The company was winded up. The main cause for the failure was due to unfamilar with the trade and the dependence of certain key personnel for delivering the business.

Nevertheless, the failures brought about a moment of ponder. I evaluated and determined that the next business I am going to embark on will have the following model:
a) Economic robustness - regardless of the economic outlook, I must be able to make transactions and make money
b) Mobility- regardless of where am I, I must be able to make transactions and make money. This was added when I remembered the vision God gave me in 1998.
c) Compounded - regardless of the effect I put into the transactions, the business must be self growing, meaning that I will earn more money using lesser and lesser effort

I began searching for such businesses and found 3. I tried all of them, but finally landed myself trading commodities on-line.

But this time round, I did not trade stocks, because it is uni-direction. I started in 2005 in US stock options. Nothing wrong with US stocks options, but I realised that the business I want should generate more and more income for you while you spend less and less time. The philosophy of building pipelines that permit continuous flow of water even when you are not working.

As an enginering, I were at a good advantage. I applied what I know in mathematics in my options trading. I cut the time to earn the ususal same amount of money to less than 1-2 hours a day, with actual trading time at half an hour, the rest of the time was spent researching for which stocks to play.

Was there something better? How could I jump to the next S-curve?

In 2006, while still doing options, by divine appointment, someone introduced me forex. The rest were history. I began making my first dollar in forex after 6 months of familarization and researching into a trading methods that worked well.

I started with 5-10 mins trading strategies, to 15 mins, to 30 mins, to 1 hour and finally to become day trading strategies. By using a longer time chart, I spend less and less time gluing my eyes on the screen but yet the strategies that was employed ensure that the pips that was made per day is not much lesser.

I am sharing what I have gone through with you - The research results, that have confidently put to a back test and forward test, together with the experiences I have been through.,

To give you an encouragement, my income was $2000 when I started work as an engineer in 1994. It took me 6-7 years before I doubled it. But now, I am able to double my income every 6-7 months if I choose not to take out the profits. Of course, with the capital I have now, I am drawing a very good and stable income.

The next session (Session 2), I will be sharing with you why I choose on-line trading above the rest of the business I have tried and of course why I choose forex above the rest of the commodities I have tried trading.

Lastly, before I end - God's vision for me has played an important role to shape the direction I have taken. God has blessed the works of my hand. All glory must go to Him.

Mat 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Psa 127:1 Unless the Lord build the house, those who build it labor in vain.

God Bless.

Forex as an Alternate Income

I have started a business - doing training in forex and wealth creation using forex

I have attached two ppt file for download.

http://www.2shared.com/file/3230114/fdc610e/Foreign_Currency_Exchange.html

The above is about why Forex is such a powerful finacial instrument for an alternate income.

The next one is on My trading method, which so far has been able to generate >4000 pips a month, approximately 10-20% return on capital per month.

http://www.2shared.com/file/3230138/345c4fa7/My_Trading_Method.html

The method has serve me well and I am now 'recuiting', basically training people who are interested in this trade.

But I do know that there are also people who do not want to trade or not good at it. I have also attached a agreement letter to trade for these poeple. You must know what you are in for, the risk involve, before I am willing to trade for you.

http://www.2shared.com/file/3230206/fa8f8f3a/risk_disclosure.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/3230209/6a3092ab/Transaction_Records.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/3230210/af71b4e/About_OANDA.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/3230211/7df02bd8/FORIEGN_CURRENT_TRADING_AGREEMENT.html