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When searching for Forex information on the internet you are likely to find articles relating to trendlines and trendline analysis.

Tom DeMark is a specialist in the field of technical market analysis and his best-selling book “The New Science of Technical Analysis” released in 1994 spells out some innovative techniques when it comes to the use of trendlines.

Much Forex information on the internet is of a general nature, and many articles are written about Forex by individuals who are not traders themselves. Tom DeMark on the other hand has had a long career with institutions trading stocks, futures, currencies and options.

His guidelines on the use of trendlines are very specific and they can be helpful to the newer trader who is searching for reliable Forex information on how to use standard indicators.

Here is a brief step-by-step description of how to draw DeMark trendlines:

Note: The term swing high and swing low (also called cycle high and cycle low) refers to the following:

In An Uptrend: A swing high is the wick of a candle that is higher than the wick of the candle to the left and right.

In A Downtrend: A swing low is the wick of a candle that is lower than the wick of the candle to the left and right.

Obviously the more candles to the left and right that are higher in a swing low or lower in a swing high makes the swing or cycle more significant.

An uptrend is where price is making higher highs and higher lows. A downtrend is where price is making lower highs and lower lows.

Drawing DeMark Trendlines

Drawing Trendlines In An Uptrend

Examine the bottoms of the candles on your chart and identify the most recent candle wick that is lower than the candle wicks to the immediate right and left of it. Look left on the chart, and identify the previous low candle that has candle wicks higher to the immediate right and left of it which is lower than the current low candle. Now draw a line from the current lowest candle to the previous lowest candle (drawing from right to left). Now take the end of the newly drawn line which stops at the current low candle and extend it forward some distance (drawing from the present position to the right).

Drawing Trendlines In A Downtrend

Examine the tops of the candles on your chart and identify the most recent candle wick that is higher than the candle wicks to the immediate right and left of it. Look left on the chart, and identify the previous high candle that has candle wicks lower to the immediate right and left of it which is higher than the current high candle. Now draw a line from the current highest candle to the previous highest candle (drawing from right to left). Now take the end of the newly drawn line which stops at the current high candle and extend it forward some distance (drawing from the present position to the right).

You have now drawn a Tom DeMark trendline.

This can now be a reference point for future price action. It will often be observed that price will come and check this level. If it breaks through, it can mean a change in direction, the significance of which will depend on the time frame being used.

Trendlines drawn on 5 minute or 15 minute charts have much lesser significance than trendlines drawn on higher time frames such as the 1 hour, 4 hour, or daily.

Caution Required

Much Forex information extols the virtues of trendlines as an indicator of possible future price action.

Mr. DeMark certainly has made this a science and his detailed approach to drawing trendlines is certainly more accurate than just drawing general trendlines along the bottoms and tops of trends according to the way the eye sees.

However, trendlines in themselves do not indicate where high probability trades can be taken.

It is important to use a variety of indicators before pulling the trigger. Examining previous levels of support and resistance is probably far more significant in determining where price is likely to hesitate that watching trendlines.

However, they can be useful. If you find a key support or resistance level also coincides with a Fibonacci retracement or extension level which is also at an intersection with a trendline, then you have built a reasonably solid case for a trade.

Use this Forex information on DeMark trendlines wisely, with caution, and it can be another useful addition to the Forex day trader’s toolkit!

Today, forex trading news is more plentiful than ever. There are numerous sources to choose from and there all delivered at the click of a mouse, so you can get breaking news whenever you wish.

Here we will look at how to use Forex trading news and mistakes to avoid.

First let’s start with a rather startling fact:

100 years ago 90% of traders lost and today the ratio still remains the same.

This is despite better more frequent Forex news, better computers, more powerful software and more information than ever on the markets.

The fact is knowing the news won’t help you win – in fact, it generally helps traders lose! There are 3 main reasons for this:

News is discounted in a split second.

In today’s world of instant communications news is discounted immediately, so by the time you have seen it and had a chance to act upon it, the moment has gone and the market is looking toward the future.

News is Stories

Those analysts are so convincing with their arguments! Their normally great at explaining what has happened – but you can’t trade off what they say, as they have no idea what will happen – there simply stories and opinions.

Will Rodgers once said.

“I only believe what I Read in the papers”

Now he was joking, but its surprising how many traders take what they hear on the news as a recommendation to trade.

News Gets Your Emotions Involved

Humans don’t like to stand alone and the news reflects what the majority want to hear but that is completely different from what you have to do, to trade to win.

The bulk of traders lose and the bulk listen to the news, so if you avoid it, you can step aside and not let your emotions get involved.

If you do this, you can trade in a disciplined fashion and join the elite minority of winners.

If you use forex charts and simply follow price action, you are far more likely to be successful than you would be by following news stories.

WHERE THE NEWS CAN HELP YOU!

There is one great way to use the news:

If you see a very bullish or bearish market and the news supports the prevailing view but the market does not react the way it should – then its time to look for a contrary trade and time your entry points via your forex charts.

It’s a fact that:

Bullish markets collapse when the fundamentals are most bullish and bearish markets rally when the news is at its most bearish.

If you can look for these turning points on your charts and find the news suddenly stops pushing the market the way it should, a contrary trade is developing and a big profitable trade is shaping up.

Finally

The way to use forex news outlined above, is a very powerful profit tool but completely different to the way most forex traders use it!

If you are serious about trading forex for a living, there is one thing you must learn which is how to identify price reversals. There are 2 main benefits if you are able to know when exactly the price is reversing.

* You can exit your profiting position and collect the profit before it is taken back by the market.
* You can take a position in the direction of the reverse to make some profit.

Therefore you have to pay extra attention to what I am going to reveal below and here are how you can identify a reversal.

1) Use Candlestick Pattern: There are a few candlestick patterns that are showing sign of reversal in action. They are Railway track sometime also known as Tweezer, Morning or Evening Star, Hammer and 123 Top and Bottom. These are patterns that are formed when the traders knew that they are in the wrong side of the position and then quickly exit and place a trade in the opposite direction.

2) Use Moving Averages: You can also made use of a short term moving average and a long term moving average to help you identify reversal. When the short term EMA cuts above or below the long term EMA, it is a sign of reversal. You can use the moving averages crossover together with candlestick patterns to have a better analysis on whether there is a reversal coming or not.

3) Use Oscillating Indicators: You can make use of oscillating indicator like RSI or Stochastic to help you to confirm reversal. These are indicators that you can use to confirm the reversal that you identify with the above 2 methods. When you identify a reversal in an uptrend, you should look at your oscillator to check if it is overbought or not. If it is indeed overbought, you can wait for the oscillator to point down before you enter a trade. If you are in a downtrend, all you have to do is the exact opposite.

These are the steps that I take to identify a reversal in price and I find them pretty effective. It is better for you to identify reversal in the higher time frame so that you can predict the trend in the lower time frame. With the trend identify, you can confidently ride the trend in the lower time frames. So you can now spend some time to go through the methods stated above and check them out with your charts to see their effectiveness.

With bartering gaining in popularity as the economy continues its downturn, it’s entirely possible that you’ve decided that you’d like to give barter a try. Perhaps you have a skill that you know is worth something in trade. Alternatively, maybe you’ve just had a baby graduate to toddler-hood, and you’re dying to clean out the nursery and rid yourself of the extra clutter. The only problem is, you’ve never engaged in barter before and you have no idea where to begin in terms of pricing your goods or services. As with all new things, they seem difficult and intimidating until you know what you’re doing. After that, you’re in for smooth sailing. After learning a few basic rules about barter pricing, you’ll be ready to jump on the barter bandwagon and find out what all of your friends already know: barter is not only fun, it’s profitable!

The golden rule of barter pricing is that you must put a barter price on your good or service that is equivalent to its cash value. In other words, if you are bartering your services as a web designer, you may not ask for a car in exchange. Clearly, that would be overvaluing and overinflating your service. The safest and easiest thing to do is to set a cash value price in your mind for that which you want to barter, and then figure out what a reasonable trade would be.

If you find yourself involved in a situation in which someone in your barter club is clearly overinflating prices or values, it is obviously best to avoid engaging that person as a barter partner. It might also be appropriate to contact the broker or arbitrator of your barter club in order to apprise them of the situation.

If you truly do have a good or service that you think might be worth more than fair market value, many barter clubs have an auction site. This site would be the correct venue for you to list that particular good or service. Always remember that what you are offering for barter is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it, barter-wise. As with all things, the market will let you know what it will bear.

Once you’ve been bartering for a short while, the pricing aspect of barter will become second nature to you. So what are you waiting for? Go clean out a room! Assess your skill set! Begin to put a barter value to the things you have and the things you can do and go out and barter!

In one of my office buildings, I now use an accountant from our building to do all my returns, the title company to do all my settlements, a Web site designer who does our Web sites as well as my business cards, a marketing guy who does brochures for me and also helps me make wise business decisions, an insurance broker who handles my liability policies, an attorney who helps me with evictions, my real estate broker where I hang my license, and a staffing company that helps fill my temporary needs. I think you get the idea about doing business with the people who do business with your business. Not only does it make your life very efficient when the people you need to talk to every day are only forty feet down the hallway, but it also solidifies the business relationship on both sides of the table. After doing this for several years, I decided to take it to the next level.

I got the idea when a computer company who did repairs and replacements of computer equipment in our building decided to move into retail operation. He owed me $2500 when he left Executec Suites, but we decided just to work it off since I was spending about $4000 a year for them to maintain my computers. I started thinking about offering a deal to vendors who did business with me when I would answer their phones, for example, in exchange for some of their services or allow them to use conference room time in exchange for their services. Today I have barter deals with my HVAC guy, a sign designer, and my roofer. None of these gentlemen are tenants in my building, but by them using some of the services in my building, I guarantee them all the work that comes up in their industry. I often kid around with my roofer that if he did not use my answering service may be one of his competitors would. So the point being, you can get some of the contractors you are already doing business with to do additional business with you in exchange for you promising them exclusive rights to business. Let’s take that idea to the next level.

What about calling a cleaning company that is local to my building and offering them 50 percent of the rent back in cleaning services? What if a stockbroker comes in my building to look at renting office space, and I promise to do a certain amount of investing with him that I’m probably going to do somewhere else anyway? What if a dress designer was to rent an office from me to do her design work, and I promised to purchase a beautiful gown from her that fit me perfectly? I just put that in a see if you were paying attention. Sounds like an interesting concept to me. Let’s take a dress designer as an example. Her rent is $9000 a year, and I promise to give back one third in dress designing services. What the hell would I do with $3000 worth of dress designs? I have no idea what I would do with them, but maybe my wife could think of a few things. After the first year is up and she’s paid $9000, I would then give her a $3000 credit toward the first third of the second year. That means this dress designer will have been in my building for sixteen months before this deal runs out. I’d like to think there’s a good chance that she has become comfortable in my building and has decided to stay for year to come.

“Do business with the businesses that do business with your business.”

I realize these ideas are outside the box, but when you have vacancies it takes a crazy idea or two to fill the joint. Even if your building was 100 percent filled, with so many offices you’re always going to have people leaving, so to keep it 100 percent filled is almost impossible. With my barter idea of offering a credit for services from the individual, you have a system that may help you close more deals and keep warm bodies coming in the building.