Forex trading robot is a special set of rules that is programmed into the Forex trading plaftorm that is activated on your trading account. The robot is programmed and knows what to do - when to open and close the trading positions. Most of the Forex brokers have the trading platforms that can be programmed to execute the actions of the trading robot.

Auto trading is different. A trader or group of traders are trading in real time. When they open or close a position, the special signal is automatically sent to your trading account and the special type of trading platform executes the order.

Now you see, this is about having special type of trading platform that has to be setup by the Forex broker. That is why only few Forex brokers can be called an automated Forex broker.

When you register with this type of broker, they open a trading account with this special platform. Then you can choose from the list of traders or groups of traders and plug your account to their work. Plus you decide how much money from your trading account to give to the trading under the signals of this or that trader. The money does not leave your account, it is virtually getting into the hands of the traders that you have chosen. Then you can even switch off your PC - they will do the job.

More tips about autotrading and automated trading broker to be published shortly.

Maybe, this is not very correct this a catch, but there is much beyond the choice between dealing desk Forex broker vs no dealing desk Forex broker.

Usually, you will notice that dealing desk brokers are a lot more "friendly" and give you more great perks and bonuses. For example, there dealing desk brokers allow you trading with mini and even micro lots, unlike brokers who require a standard lot of $10,000. This is where you already start thinking "Hmm, why is all that good attitude from dealing desk brokers, compared no dealing desk."

I would not like to tell this about all Forex brokers, but business is business. Usually when they are ready to give away a lot, this means they are sure they will compensate it from some source of income. And for brokers with dealing desk the dealing desk in itself is the source of profits.

When you are trading with dealing desk, this can result in:

• position being closed later then you need (and this gap between actual closing and execution can cost you money)
• during this gap before closing it is possible that some kind of software shows you the "adjusted" rate, with some pips being in the favor of the broker, instead of being in the favor of the Forex trader

Not that much disadvantages, but this is enough to open a huge doorway for the Forex broker for making extra profit and playing against the trader.

Of course, a lot depends upon the reputation of the company. But you saw that a while ago, reputable insurance companies secured absolutely junk value papers from real estate bubble. Come on, it's all about the money in this world. If you have plenty of money and mass media support, you can make most of the people forget about any bad reputation.

That is why in the choice between dealing desk vs non dealing desk, the later is much more fair when it comes down to you - the Forex trader.

If you are one of the people - be aware that you are one of the most hunted for people on the Forex market for Forex traders, Forex brokers (who often have Forex money managing as their affiliate business), and companies that lurk on the market.

Without getting into much details, because we have been mentioning this many times before in these Forex tips about choosing trading signals and these best Forex investment scam proof tips, we just want to say in general - do not trust things like testimonials, recommendations on forums, trade records (unless in the version specified further in this post), because there is a probability they are just marketing and affiliate stuff.

What is a much better thing to check is the so-called trading history WITH entry and exit points indicated. This is crucial - with entry and exit points on any single trade.

I can write in 5 minutes a list of my trades that seem to go up and down, but finally give me 10% per day. But this can be a fake. When you see entry and exit points, you can see if that was really happening on the market. In other words, you can follow the potential manager of your Forex money step by step. This lowers the chances to cheat you.

The best example can be a daily update with entry and exit points and trade results - you see what happens in real life.

We are not going to dispute in this post whether Forex trading by signals is the best way to trade on the market. We will focus on how to choose the best Forex signal provider.

You understand that the quality of the signals is EVERYTHING for you, when you trade with signals. Quality signals, you have profits; bad signals, you look into the big wholes in your pockets. So the question comes down to…

How to Choose Quality Forex Trading Signals?

The DON'Ts

• Don't trust testimonials

Everybody can find 1-10 folks online and ask them for a favor to tell good stuff. No one is going to sue them, that is why - no big brainer that testimonials (text, video, audio) cannot be the source of ultimate truth.

• Don't trust trade record

First of all, previous trading success in NO way can guarantee future success - this is one of the basic trading facts and many traders write this phrase in their disclaimers. Of course, the strategy that has been providing successful signals for years has a lot more credibility than the strategy that has been a failure for the last 24 months. But in any case - previous history does not give you any guarantees for success.

Number two, previous trade record can be "amended a little" to look that entry and exit positions give you the best effect. Surely this is cheating, but it is not easy to prove it as all brokers have different picture of the market.

• Don't trust reviews

We do not mean to say that all reviews are written for the purpose of cheating you. But today big businesses know the rules of the game and they know how to manipulate with publicity opinion. With an average price for review to range from $25 to $50, a simple investment of $1,000 will flood with the market with the reviews. If 8 of 10 reviews are the "purchased" ones - you see the point.

• Don't trust forums

Though niche forums are a more fair place to get different points of view, but you might be surprised to find out that Forex brands, strategy sellers, brokers and other profit yielders in this industry pay money for the people to do forum marketing, hiding behind 10, 20 or more forum nicks.

The DOs

• Trust trials

This is not a big brainer to understand that if during the 14 day trial of the Forex signal system your trading results in profits - this is the best proof.

No Free Trial? Simple Secret!

Definitely it is better if the option to test the signals is given for free. But even if there is no free trial - no problems. Buy it and, in case you are not satisfied, do a refund. Surely if you see the profit from signals, you will never refund, as this will instantly cut you off from getting new signals and making more money.

As you can see the suggested tip will work even for signal system without free trial. This is legal and effective and give you a real chance to test the quality of the signals.

We would like to focus your attention on the things which are crucial to know when you are making a choice about automated Forex strategy. That is why make sure you get detailed answers to these questions before you make a purchase:

• What is the package?

By the package we mean elements and services needed to make the given automated Forex strategy work. It can require some special trading platform - and this platform can be working only with a specific Forex broker. Or the rules of the strategy may need very specific conditions of the trade (like, not more than 1 pip spread, etc.)

Knowing the full package you will see hidden costs. Because if the strategy itself costs $29 per month, but you will also need to trade on it with another broker who can have its own fees - you understand that a $29/month automated Forex strategy turns into a much bigger expenses.

• Automated does not mean it needs no help from human being.

Yes, it is automated and can trade without your babysitting on it. But Forex market is a "thing" that is open to changes. It means that what used to work ok for 2 years in a row does not necessarily work fine the next couple of months. Every professional trader will prove that previous trading activity cannot be extrapolated to the future trading activity.

So, it means you need to check the pulse of your trading even when you use automated Forex strategy. Either you need to do that or hire someone to do that. Extra expenses involved, but this is for the sake of your safety.

• Demo, demo, demo.

It is very sad if the automated Forex strategy does not have any demo account where you can see (for some trial period of 14 days) how it works in real life. Witout a demo offered the chances of this strategy to be some kind of scam are very high. By the way, we have published a post with Best Forex Investment Scam Tips and you need to read it, because the scam level in this niche is very high.

More tips to be published here shortly.

There is no need to make the situation look worse than it is. It is like it is - Forex became a magnet for the investors. Wow, what can be better than the market where your investment can get 50% or even 100% up!! Big profits can make even smart people lose the focus. And this is where the scammers are patienly waiting to fool you.

Let's think reasonably, if they can make 100% a day - would they need your money? And though today online Forex investment scam programs shows smaller % (to look more real), this should not fool you.

On the other hands, there are professional traders and trading companies that care about reputation and give profits. To help you in sorting out the jewel from the rubbish, read this…

Scam Proof Plan to Ever See
Your Forex Investment Profits

• Never trust profit charts or historical data - all this can be manipulated and/or falsified

You would never like to do investment in Forex trading team that is not successful. But there is a catch that investment Forex online scam gurus are using. They can show you the so called "data based on trading history" which is basically some Forex trading strategy re-interpreted back in time on the historical chart info.

The worst part of it is that this historic data can get "slightly optimized" and even if you are testing their trading strategy and see that it was giving great results - this can be wrong.

Never trust some charts of profits and historical records. They can be true, but they can be falsified. Are you ready to test your luck?

• Don't get fooled by their "kitchen"

Kitchen is the term which describes the interesting tactics. The way money is traded in reality does not correspond to the way real trades take place. For example, a trader can lose a nice portion of money and show in the kitched that the portion lost was much smaller, and with profits they can show higher profits when real profits have been smaller.

If you have not invested real money (for which sooner or later they need to report) and they have opened "demo" account for you, then scammers can lure you into the game of charts going up and down, where you see nice profits. In reality this can be just a dummy software that shows some action to catch investors who prefer to get foolded in an elegant, technically wise way.

• Do not trust testimonials on the site

Anyone can write testimonials. Unless the testomonial is written by real company that has a phone number, REAL address and has good standing status for a long time - any testimonial can be a fake. Scammers can open 3-4 fake companies with addresses and people on the hot lines - this is not expenisve and as scammers win millions the investment into fake companies is worth the money.

• Do not trust recommendations

Even your best friend can be fooled. Scammers have a reserve of money to pay of for 6-12 months. Your friend can try the chance, get paid the percentage for a year (only the promised interest, of course) will recruit you and - bang, the bubble is out.

Recommendations are worth the trust if this company or team of Forex traders are giving profits for 2+ years. Plus if this is said by the person you do not know, this can be a fake guy or gal.

These are not all tips, we prepared more tips about what documents to check and where to do the due diligence on the company you are going to invest into. This info will be published in the next post on this blog. Check our Free Forex Trading Info RSS feed for updates or subscribe to it to get all info automatically.

Due to this the importance of competent foreign exchange rate tools cannot be overestimated.

We've been already discussing the issue of currency converters in this post - Yahoo Currency Converters. But this Yahoo instrument is more for the people who are not using any trading platform provided by some broker.

This can raise the question - then why using tools like this. One of the criteria was mentioned in the quoted post - your brokers are showing you THEIR currency exchange rates, not the ones that exist on the real internbank. Which means you are looking on the market with their eyes. Whereas it would be better to do that with your own eyes.

Another issue is that when choosing your trading platform now you can be more aware of what surprised to expect and what to ask from the platform provider - what type of data exactly they are showing and what is the gap. Because in some trading strategies when you need to match different sources of financial info the gap between all currencies foreign exchange rates that you get from the broker and another source (that can be another broker) can create the dangers to the success of your trading.

Read more about Forex trading platforms and Best time to trade with Forex trading signals.

You can practice through simulated trading before using real money. Here you can incorporate all your trading techniques and see if they actually work. Don’t be a scared to lose a certain amount of money. But it doesn’t mean that you should not limit your losses. Most importantly, you should learn from your past losses.

A good trader should be disciplined. Make discipline a habit, and act in accord with trading systems/strategies. You can do your trade in a consistent and reliable manner this way. Certain situations require an individual to make decisions based on their pre-set criteria and parameters.

You should make it a point to habitually follow your trading system/plan. When you're making trading decisions, don’t let your emotions rule you. A day trader should always be disciplined, and once you attain your objective, leave the market first. Oftentimes people plunge in deeper because they are influenced by greed and fear.

There are also day traders who are quite reluctant to lose money. For instance your stock goes down, and you're still hoping that after some time it will rise again. And to your surprise, the share price goes further down. If only you were not reluctant to lose money, you could have sold it the first time its price went down, and prevent further loss.

A day trader should leave no room for fear and greed to take over; otherwise, this will be the key to your losses.

You can also do it at home if you're serious with your day trading. You would need hardware and software requirements to put a sufficient platform at home for online trading.

For your hardware requirement, you would need a computer with a Windows XP operating system or the like. The monitor should not be less than nineteen inches.

Day traders need to make fast executions and confirmations of the trade, so you must have a fast internet connection. They also need to receive and deliver quotes, news, and other pertinent market data. A fast internet connection allows you to make your day trading in a timely fashion.

Execution services are available online, and it comes in two types: the internet-based discount brokers and the online systems or the EDAT. The first type varies on how customer orders are executed, and confirmed. This causes delay in completing a trade. The EDAT enables the trader to contact specialists directly. This results to a much faster execution and confirmation of the orders.

Software platforms often used by the more serious ones because real time data are usually provided like stock ticker and quotes, market indices and averages, charting, market stories, and price alerts. Anyway you would need to make monthly payments.

Becoming a day trader is a simple thing. But in any case it requires dedication, time and effort. You will reap profits that you've never imagined, if you are able to put all of these things together.

We recommend you to use the following URLs with information about currencies, symbols, countries of circulation and abbreviations:

• http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/currencies.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217
• http://www.xe.com/iso4217.php

For more information about Forex trading please read about Forex trading platform, best time to trade with Forex trading signals, about Forex trading strategies.

After having done the post on this blog about Yahoo Currency Converters we have received feedback with suggestions from our blog readers about additional information that they would like to see published here. One of the most frequently asked things was to publish here the list of currencies of the world.

We are always glad to provide our blog readers with more information and have started the research to publish here the list of quality resources with the mentioned information.

We suggest you subscribing to RSS feed of the site to make sure that when the post with list of currencies of the world is published here you get notified about it.

Meanwhile feel welcome to read about Best Time to Trade with Forex Trading Signals and Learning Forex Trading Strategies.