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  • Hello guys, My name is Alex Katsaros and I am the Product manager of cTrader. In this

  • video series I am going to teach you the basic and advanced concepts of forex trading, so

  • after you watch the hole series, you will learn to trade and think like a professional

  • trader. Here at Spotware the company behind cTrader we get compensated from your volume.

  • That's the reason we made this educational series because we want to help you learn how

  • to trade more successfully so you can grow your accounts. In this first video I am going

  • to teach you everything you need to know about the basics of forex trading. You're going

  • to learn what foreign exchange is, what a "pip" is, how to go long, how to go short

  • and what you're supposed to do when you begin your forex journey. So let's get started,

  • Forex means foreign exchange. Foreign exchange means to change your currency for another

  • countries currency. For example if you want to visit a foreign country for vacation, you

  • go to your local bank and you're changing your currency for notes of the country that

  • you are visiting. When you are doing that you are actually doing a foreign exchange

  • transaction. The foreign exchange market is the greatest market in the world. It has a

  • daily volume of around 4 trillion dollars. The main participants of the foreign exchange

  • market are global banks and their customers. People exchange money for any reason, like

  • commercial companies exchange money for hedging or for commercial activities or people exchange

  • money if they want to travel or for any other reason. However when you are using cTrader

  • which is a trading platform you are obviously not using it to exchange money for vacation.

  • What we are doing when using a trading platform is, we are doing something called "speculation".

  • The trading platform shows us the exchange rate between two currencies and what we are

  • doing is we are trying to speculate if the exchange rate is going to rise, or it's going

  • to fall, and then we're trading - do the necessary trade and if our speculation is correct we

  • win money. If our speculation is wrong we lose money. Let's go to cTrader and I am going

  • to show you exactly what I mean. You see here on the left we show the market watch. 3. You

  • see on the left cTrader shows the "Market Watch". The market watch shows you all the

  • currency pairs available for trading. Let's look closely to the first and most famous

  • pair the EUR versus USD. Let's open the information window. forex pair displays two currencies.

  • EUR USD means euro versus dollars. The first currency is called the base currency and the

  • second currency is called the quote currency. The exchange rate shows how many units of

  • QUOTE currency you can buy with one unit of base currency. In this example the exchange

  • rate is 1.37735 so one EUR can buy 1.377 dollars. 4. However, for every currency pair we see

  • two exchange rates, as you can see here. Why is that? The reason for that is that is the

  • way banks and brokers make money from the customers who trade FOREX. They will buy a

  • currency from you at a slightly lower price and they will sell a currency to you in a

  • slightly higher price and thus make the difference between the rate to buy and the rate to sell.

  • The difference between the price to buy and sell a currency pair is called the "Spread".

  • We can see the spread here in MarketWatch for EURUSD it's 0.9 pips. I am going to explain

  • to you what "Pips" are in a bit. 5. Ok so you learned what forex is, and we learned

  • what the exchange rate is and what the spread is. What are you supposed to do now in order

  • to make money? In the middle of the screen here we see the EURUSD chart. . The chart

  • shows us the current exchange rate, and the past exchange rate of the symbol. The reason

  • we need the past exchange rates is because traders use a technique called "technical

  • analysis" which helps them speculate on the future exchange rate using the information

  • that we see from the past of the chart. We also use various tools like the tools we see

  • here in Line Studies Tool bar. In order to understand more about technical analysis you

  • can see see videos 2 and 8 of the series.6. The basics of forex trading are rather simple.

  • You see the exchange rate between two currencies on your chart. If you believe that the exchange

  • rate is going to go up, like here the chart is going to go up, then you buy the currency

  • pair. If you believe that the exchange rate is going to go down, if you believe that this

  • chart is going to continue going down, then you sell the currency pair. The chart goes

  • up if the base currency is gaining strength and the chart goes down if the quote currency

  • is gaining strength. There are two conveniently placed QuickTrade buttons in the top of the

  • chart that do exactly that. Pressing the buy button, after you select your volume, I am

  • going to show you how you select your volume in a bit, will buy the currency pair. So if

  • we click the button, see here? I have a position, I have bought the currency pair, you buy the

  • currency pair on the exchange rate above the buy button, which is called the ask price,

  • and it's represented on the chart by the blue line. If we believe that the exchange rate

  • is going to go down then you sell the currency pair by using the sell button, with the exchange

  • rate above the sell button and you sell on the red price that is called the "bid" price.

  • Those two prices together are called the "Spot Price". Those prices together are called the

  • spot price. IF you are correct in your speculation you will make a profit, if you are wrong you

  • will make a loss. Remember we said you need to select your trade volume? How exactly are

  • you going to do that? Why are the numbers in the drop down here so big even tho my account

  • balance is very small in comparison It's just 11.000? ? The reason is that Forex is a leveraged

  • financial product. That means that you control a bigger amount of money than the money in

  • your account balance in order to make profits faster. For more information on leverage you

  • should watch episode 6 of the series. If leverage didn't exist you would make money very slowly

  • unless your account balance was very big. So which one of these volumes should you choose?

  • The volume of your trade depends on how much of your account balance you want to risk with

  • your trade, how much money you want to make, in combination with how much you expect the

  • exchange rate to move in order for you win or lose those amounts. This sounds a bit complicated

  • but it really isn't. Let me show you an example by using two different volumes. First you

  • select 100k volume and we buy at this rate. We believe that the exchange rate is going

  • to go up, so we move that little TP or "Take Profit" box to the place that we believe that

  • the exchange rate is going to go. So what is that box? This is called a take profit,

  • and it means that when the price reaches that rate, your position will close and you will

  • get the money. You must remember that in order to make money when trading you need two trades,

  • one that opens the position and one trade that closes the position and gives you the

  • money. Of course things don't always go your way so there is the opposite box and order

  • called a stop loss. You move this box to the exchange rate that is the lowest you can afford

  • to lose. Here we are using a volume of 100.000. Let's look at the numbers more closely now.

  • Let's move our stop loss here and our take profit here. We're using a volume of 100k

  • and we see that we are going to lose 222 EUR and we're going to win 224 EUR. Now let's

  • close this position, and let's open the same position, with one million volume. Let's put

  • our stop loss and take profit on exactly the same places. Now you see that we are going

  • to lose 2236 EUR and we're going to win 2214 EUR. That's because the volume now is a lot

  • bigger, because it's one million and the previous volume was 100.000. That's the effect of trade

  • volume in your trading and that's why it's important to select correct volume when creating

  • an order. In Risk Management which is the episode 6 we explain exactly how much you

  • must be risking with each one of your trades. 10. Ok so how do we calculate the volume that

  • you are supposed to be trading with? Let's close this position here. In order to calculate

  • the volume you need to understand the concept of a "Pip". So what is a "Pip"? The concept

  • of the pip confuses many novice traders. The pip digit is the fourth decimal digit (0.0001)

  • in all symbols besides Yen symbols, and the second decimal digit (0.01) in all symbols

  • that have Yen as their quote currency. So why do traders use pip? Why don't they talk

  • about money? As I talked about before you see that every trade has a different stop

  • loss a different take profit and different volume so if one trader will say to another

  • that he made 1000 euros from a trade, that doesn't mean that the trade was a good trade

  • or a bad trade or a mediocre trade. However if the trader will say to another trader that

  • he made 50 pips from a trade, the other trader can understand exactly how much of the exchange

  • rate he got for his own benefit. So let's go to cTrader where I am going to show you

  • using an example how - what exactly I meant with a pip. So let's create a new order here

  • with 100.000. It's a buy order, we see that the exchange rate that we have entered, the

  • "Entry Rate" is 1.37703. Let's put our take profit at exactly 1.37803. If we subtract

  • the entry price from our take profit we're going to see the difference is 0.0010 so that

  • means that the difference is 10 pips. You see here it says "Pips 10". The reason is

  • that like we said before the pip is the fourth decimal digit and that means that one pip

  • equals to 0.0001. So 0.0010 means 10 pips (0.0001 x 10). We said before that the spread

  • between the EURUSD here is, now it's one pip. So that's what one pip means, it means that

  • the difference between the ask and the bid price is going to be one in the fourth decimal

  • digit. Great! Now we know what a pip is, how does this help us calculate our order's

  • volume? In forex the volume you select depends on how much money you want to make or risk,

  • and how many pips you expect to win or lose. So by knowing or calculating the profit per

  • pip for each volume, you know how much volume to choose. The profit per pip for one pip

  • of EUR USD with a trade volume of 10.000 as we see here on the combobox, is standard and

  • it's 1 USD, by knowing that you can understand how much profit per pip you can make with

  • any volume. If you trade 20.000 EUR USD the profit per pip is 2 USD, if you trade 100.000

  • it's 10USD if you trade 1 million EURUSD it's 100 USD and so on. When trading forex

  • the volume you select is always the volume of base currency and your profit or loss per

  • pip is always expressed in quote currency. Let's use another example let's use, USDCHF

  • let's open a new chart here, so if we trade 10 000 here, we trade 10 000 USD and our profit

  • per 10 000 USD is 1 CHF. In cTrader your profit and loss here is conveniently expressed always

  • in your account's currency so the profits are converted and you understand exactly how

  • much you win or lose. Now that we have this information let's try again. My account is

  • My account is USD 10.000 and I want to risk 100 usd. However I want to make a profit of

  • 200 USD. I believe the exchange rate is going to go 100 pips low and I want to risk 100

  • pips. Based on the information I have given you already you know that if I want to risk

  • 100 USD with 100 pips, I want to risk 1 USD per pip! We already know that the trade volume

  • that risks 1 USD per pip is 10.000, because I explained that before. So let's select 10 000

  • Let's put first, let's create the order, so we have our entry rate here, so now we're

  • going to put our risk, our stop loss is at 100 pips because remember we wanted to risk

  • 100 pips, so I am going to move here this Stop Loss until I see the pips here say 100.

  • And you see where it says 100 pips I am risking exactly 100 dollars, like I wanted to. Now

  • we say that we want to make 200 dollars, so let's move the take profit, to 200 pips, where

  • this number says 200, and we're going to make exactly 200 dollars. So now you know exactly

  • how to create an order and how much volume you are supposed to choose and you also know

  • what a stop loss and a take profit is. You can create an order from the QuickTrade buttons,

  • or you can create an order using the order screens, which the icon is found here and

  • in the symbol you want to trade. After your order is filled a position appears in the

  • TradeWatch as we have seen before, you also see your position in the chart. In the end

  • of your position you see in your account currency, how much your position is winning or losing

  • in any given time. Remember that you will not add this number, or subtract this number

  • from your balance until your position is closed, either by a stop loss or a take profit, but

  • if you want to close your position at any time before it reaches those levels you can

  • close it using the close button. So If I click the close button now it's going to close this

  • position. And that position had a loss of three euros so I took the loss in my balance.

  • The QuickTrade button creates a Market Order, a Market order means that you request to buy

  • or sell a specific volume, but you will not send to the server a specific rate. You want

  • to request this volume, to the best possible price. The exchange rate that you're going

  • to get that is shown above your buy or sell button is not guaranteed when creating a market

  • order. You will get the best exchange rate at the moment the order reaches your server.

  • If you want a guaranteed exchange rate you can use a "Limit" order. Let's go to cTrader

  • where I am going to show you exactly how to create a Limit Order. You can create a

  • limit order by right clicking on the rate you want in the chart, so If I want to create

  • a limit order on this rate, I can right click and select "Sell Limit". So If I want to do

  • a sell limit on this level I am going to press sell and you can also pre-set your stop loss

  • and take profit, like we have shown before with a market order. If you want to trade

  • a market order, where the exchange rate reaches a specific price that you have chosen in the

  • future, you use a stop order. You can right click and select sell stop, do the same thing,

  • sell, now we are using a stop order. We can again pre-set stop loss and take profit, you

  • can also create a limit and stop order using an order screen. Just select limit or stop

  • order. You can create a limit order on the best prices, better prices than the current

  • market price so if I buy here I can create a limit order from here which is the spot

  • price as we explained before, and below. If I want to create an order that's going to

  • be a worse price, then I'm going to use a stop order and it's going to be from the exchange

  • rate, the spot price and above. The reason why this happens is because we want to protect

  • you. If you want to create a Limit order, so you request this specific rate which is

  • a worse rate, than the current spot price, so you are buying higher, we want to protect

  • you because someone might give you this rate and you will lose money for no reason. So

  • let's quickly go through the platform so you understand the rest of the tools. In the right

  • here you see the Line Studies Toolbar and this helps you trade using, lines, trend lines,

  • support and resistance lines, and other tools. You can check out the video support, resistance

  • and trend line trading for more information. It's a very popular trading method. On the

  • top right you see your cTrader settings where you can set a lot of things, like your application

  • layout and your QuickTrade settings and other stuff. Inside the chart you see the chart

  • controls where you add your technical indicators or you can select your timeframe for your

  • chart. You can check episode 11 multi time frame trading to understand what a time-frames

  • is. In this video I explained to you the basics of forex trading so by now what the spread

  • is, what a pip is you know how to go long, how to go short, you also know how , what

  • to do in order to make money, how to enter an order, and how to choose your volume. This

  • may be the basics of Forex trading but this is what you are actually will be doing all

  • the time, you buy and you sell, and you create orders, and then you close your positions.

  • However in order to be successful in your trading and in order to make money you need

  • to be correct when you're speculating, that's the reason why the series does not end here.

  • In the rest of the videos you're going to learn how to have a correct trading system,

  • how to use technical analysis in order to speculate the market correctly, you're also

  • going to know correct, forex risk management, how much you're supposed to risk and how much

  • you are supposed to win with each trade. In the next video we're going to talk about Technical

  • and Fundamental analysis , in the following videos we're going to talk about Risk Management,

  • Trading Psychology, specific technical analysis tools, multiple time frame trading and a lot

  • of advanced concepts. So if you liked this video don't forget to subscribe and if you

  • want share it with your friends, thanks for watching.

Hello guys, My name is Alex Katsaros and I am the Product manager of cTrader. In this

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