I just want you all to know that I am putting further development of this Forex training site on hold for at least a few weeks. I am working on a project to help my local community financially so the Town vision can actually be attained.

Since Forex trading system management is very definitely not for everyone, I am taking responsibility for some of the economic development of my little town: Meredith, NY. Apparently, I am the only person in the town who can do so! It’s quite amazing, but my help is needed.

So, while you have this little break, please take the time to learn the basics of chart reading that I have put up here for Forex Traders to become more consistently profitable. You might even have time to create your trading system from the little bit that is here!

That would really be great. So, until I have a better idea of how long this town project will take me, I’ll just leave this trading material online for you to study and use how you want.

Have a truly phenomenal trading month! I believe that the 4th quarter of 2008 will be unbelievable in the potential (so I will be moving as quickly as I can while also doing as well as I can to help)! Trade well.

Parts 3 and 4 of the “on chart” lessons for reading the ADX. They go pretty quick and there’s some icky clicking, but I made them before I figured out how to really reduce the clicking. Anyway, it’s the PRINCIPLES of the ADX that matter here, and how to combine various patterns of strength and weakness. The ADX is one indicator that is great at showing strength and weakness.

This first video for today also has a little bit on the DMI/DI lines, in addition to showing the ADX principles on real charts. I don’t pay the directional movement indicator/index lines much attention because they really don’t deserve it, but there is a little bit. You could spend years studying those two lines and trying to figure out one significance after another. I don’t, however recommend that course of study.

This second video on the ADX is more of the same, but goes into some other aspects of ADX reading that aren’t covered in other videos. Again, these are from real time charts…

That’s about the extent of the information on the ADX that I’ll be giving out here on the blog. There will be more on the inside, coming in August.

The principles of the ADX and the conditions are given in previous posts.

So if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below. And while you’re at it, sign up for the email stuff above (and to the right). You give me your name and email address, and I’ll give you free silver membership into the “Inner Sanctum” when it opens up in August.

And let me know what kind of stuff you want to see in the Inner Sactum. I’ll do what I can to make it happen. Have a truly phenomenal trading day!

Before the Forex markets opened up today, I did a quick (and incomplete) run-through of more indicators than just the MACD. Included was also the ADX (Average Directional Index) and the ATR (Average True Range) and they were sort of covered a little quickly and with some wave stuff in there, too. Here’s the video (it’s about 9 minutes 29 seconds)…

So some quick stuff that was gone over in the video, however incomplete it is in the vid…

I’m changing gears here on this training. The Forex Challenge on Facebook, which ends October 31, 2008 for this match, and me being challenged, and starting off over $85K behind the leader, calls for a time efficiency step. Hence, this change.

What I’ll be doing is going over charts at least 3X per week for you. Maybe not in the same currency pair, but with the same indicators: MACD, ADX and ATR.

The MACD is there for spotting divergence patterns. The ADX is another strength/weakness tool, though not used like the MACD because it’s not an oscillating indicator. The ATR, which I’ll have to cover separately down the line, is not used at all in reading the charts, but for trade sizing.

The odd thing is here I won’t be using much trade sizing until I overtake the leader, assuming that I can.

ADX Basics

The Average Directional Index, ADX, shows strength in a move or trend, or weakness in the move or trend. When the market makes a move and the ADX decreases, that’s a weak move in that market on that chart.

When the market makes a move and ADX increases, that’s a strong move in that market on that chart. It’s a sign of strength on that chart only, and is basically useless unless accompanied by other signals.

It gets better later down the line, but really start understanding that little bit now. Ask your questions and I’ll answer those questions, or respond to comments, as I can.

ATR Basics

The Average True Range, or ATR, is only used by me to determine trade size. In other words, I divide my account, under actual trading circumstances with real money, into “units”. The “unit” represents, say, 1% of my trading account.

In the EUR/USD or the GBP/USD one pip is $10, so that makes it pretty easy. The ATR acts as a “volatility normalization” tool. The more volatile a market is, or the bigger the chart is, the higher the ATR will be. The smaller the volatility in the market, or the smaller the chart, the lower will be the ATR, developed by Wells Wilder, by the way.

So I basically divide my max risk for the trade by 10 and that gives me how many pips I can risk. I MUST risk that number of pips or less to be able to enter. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the basics.

AND of course, the MACD (and histogram) give me divergence patterns that I want to see so I know the market is talking to me.

In Summary…

So, quickly here, we have the GBP/USD appearing before the markets opened for the night (yes, this is Sunday) as if there was still strength in upward moves. While there was one divergence pattern saying the market could come down, that one pattern was poisoned by a very strong ADX (the double-high, to be covered another time) in the wrong place.

A little bit was covered on the waves, but those will really have to be covered over the course of a week or two down the road. The ATR did not show that the market wanted to relax much because the volatility was decreasing, rather than increasing on the chart discussed. And I’ve got to get this posted…

If you have any questions or comments or criticisms, I’m open. I’ll answer, respond, or belittle you as required. LOL

And don’t try using this stuff in your own forex trading until you have successfully managed a paper trading account with it over sufficient time to know if you CAN use it profitably. Got it? If you try, and you have not successfully managed your own paper trading account with the info on this site, guess what? Yep, I guarantee that you will lose money. (Okay, I could make that guarantee and be right for like 97% of Forex traders, right?)

Anyway, have a phenomenally fantastic week in trading. More tomorrow! See you then.