How To Simple with Metatrader 4

In today's lesson we are going to look at the advantages and disadvantages of the second most popular style of trading, swing trading. Swing trading is generally defined as a style of trading where positions are held for larger gains over multiple days and up to several weeks.

• Traders who promote this style of trading normally feel that it combines the best of both day trading and position trading. What this means is that these traders feel swing trading gives you a similar ability to amplify gains as day trading does, with the slow pace and lower transaction costs of position trading.
• A second advantage that many traders would site about swing trading, is that good swing traders plan their entries and exits in advance and since positions are held for longer than one day this method of trading does not have the same intensity that day trading does.

While some traders prefer the intensity of day trading, traders who want a less stressful trading career often opt for swing trading as a result. I think most traders would agree that the biggest disadvantage to swing trading is the increased risk per trade. Because swing traders hold positions for longer periods of time, their average risk per trade is generally higher than day traders in order to give the position enough breathing room to work.

• As swing traders hold positions overnight they are also exposed to the overnight risk which we learned about in our lesson on day trading.
• Secondly, although swing trading does not require as much work as day trading, it still generally requires more work and resources than position trading, as good swing traders normally follow the markets very closely even when not entering or exiting a trade.

This video explores the Central Bank Gold Agreement, and its role in current international monetary policy.

Forex trading strategy (EUR/USD simple system)
show the following video and know more

Hi Igor / ND

I have a few questions that maybe you can assist with. If these questions have already been answered I apologize, can you then please direct me to a thread then.

First of all, I am not sure if this is the correct thread to post my questions, but here goes :

* I have a massive amount of offline charts (Renko/Tick/Range) and for the life of me I cannot see where these are stored. I want to do some cleanup of my MT4 offline charts and
I have been looking at the obvious places but I fail to find where they are stored.

* I have been reading up on Volume indicators in MT4 and from what I can see is that they are not reliable. Is my assumption correct in saying that volume indicators are more reliable
if you are using a ECN/STP broker instead of through a market maker ? Reason I am asking is that if you trade via market maker then you only "see" the volumes for the broker that you are trading with, whereas
if you trade via ECN broker then you "see" real volumes for the market as a whole ?

That's all for now

Thanks

- offline charts?
no idea sorry.
- about volume in MT4 ... yes, there are some articles about the volume (that it is not real volume). I have no idea about volume in ecn/stp ... may be - same case with MT4 volume (not reliable as well).
Some traders are using volume just to catch the movement on the way as 'trade with everybody' - means: 'if everybody is openning buy trade so I will open buy trade too'.

If I am wrong so sorry.

A negative interest rate means the central bank and perhaps private banks will charge negative interest: instead of receiving money on deposits, depositors must pay regularly to keep their money with the bank. This is intended to incentivize banks to lend money more freely and businesses and individuals to invest, lend, and spend money rather than pay a fee to keep it safe.

Think about what interest is. The lender gets paid interest for allowing someone else to use their money. But when the rate goes below zero the relationship is turned on its head. The lender is now paying the borrower. Why would anyone do that?

Of course, this situation only applies to a limited number of financial relationships. No-one will pay you to spend on your credit card. But this unusual state of affairs does exist.

These negative rates are the policy decisions taken by a handful of central banks. But the phenomenon has also affected the bond market, where investors buy and sell the bonds or debts of governments and large companies.

The cost of borrowing is set when the bonds are issued. It depends on how much the financial firms who buy the bonds pay for them - what they are buying is a promise to make a series of payments in the future. If the price is high enough, the borrowing cost, in effect the interest rate, can be zero or even negative.

What is a Market Maker

A broker-dealer who is prepared to buy or sell a specific security — such as a bond or at least one round lot of a stock — at a publicly quoted price, is called a market maker in that security. Other brokers buy or sell specific securities through market makers, who may maintain inventories of those securities. There is often more than one market maker in a particular security, and they bid against each other, helping to keep the marketplace liquid. The Stock Market and the corporate and municipal bond markets are market maker markets. In contrast, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange there's a single specialist to handle transactions in each security.

Market Makers must be compensated for the risk they take; what if he buys your shares in IBM then IBM's stock price begins to fall before a willing buyer has purchased the shares? To prevent this, the market maker maintains a spread on each stock he covers. The market maker may purchase your shares of IBM from you for $100 each the ask price and then offer to sell them to a buyer at $100.05 the bid price. The difference between the ask and bid price is only $.05, but by trading millions of shares a day, he's managed to pocket a significant chunk of change to offset his risk.

In contrast to conventional brokers, marker makers assume a high level of risk because of the high number of units they hold their inventory. Market makers are entrusted with promoting market efficiency by keeping markets liquid. To ensure impartiality for the benefit of their clients, brokerage houses who act as market makers are legally required to separate their market making activities from their brokerage sales operations.

This video provides an introduction to electronic communications networks (ECNs), systems that allow buyers and sellers of stocks to trade directly without an intermediary.
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Most forex traders participate in the forex market with forex brokers. There are mainly two types of forex brokers: market makers and electronic communications networks (ECNs). In this article we want to introduce the latter type of brokers, the ecn forex broker.

What is an ECN forex broker?

ECN forex broker is a financial expert that provides the clients with direct access to other forex participants in the currency market by using electronic communications networks (ECNs). Unlike market makers, which always trade against their clients to make profit, an ECN forex broker only creates opportunities of trading between forex traders.

How does an ECN forex broker work?

The ECN forex brokers provide a medium by passing on the prices for different market participants such as banks, market makers and other traders in the market. Then the best bid/ask quotes will be displayed on the trading platforms based on these prices. ECN forex brokers also serve as counterparties to forex transactions, but it is a settlement that they operate on instead of pricing basis. While fixed spreads are offered by some market makers, spreads of currency pairs can be very different, determined by the trading activities of the currency pair. In active trading periods, sometimes you cannot get ECN spread at all, especially in those very liquid currency pairs such as the majors (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF) and some currency crosses.

Pros and cons of the ECN forex broker

The ECN forex broker has both advantages and disadvantages. The pros and cons of the ECN forex broker are as follows.
The pros of the ECN forex broker can be presented in following aspects.
Traders can usually get better bid/ask prices for they are derived from multiple sources.
At certain time traders may trade on prices with no spread or with only very little spread.
Genuine ECN forex broker will pass on the orders to a bank or other trading participants on the opposite side of the transaction instead of trading against the traders.
It is very likely that the prices on the ECN forex broker are more volatile.
Traders can take on the role of market traders to other traders on the ECNs since they can offer a price between bid and ask.
The cons of the ECN forex broker can be presented in following aspects.
Many ECN forex brokers do not provide integrated charting or new feeds.
Some trading platforms are not so easy for traders to use or operate.
Since there are variable spreads between the bid and the ask prices, it may be difficult to calculate stop-loss and breakeven points in pips in advance.

Forex traders are obligated to pay commissions for each transaction.


It is obvious that there are both pros and cons of an ECN forex broker. Traders have to take many factors into consideration when choosing a forex broker.

This is the 1st video in a series on economic reports created for all markets, or for those who simply have an interest in economics. In this and the next lesson, we cover the Employment Situation Report, also known as Non Farm Payroll.
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Non-farm Payrolls (metatrader5.com)

Non-farm Payrolls is the assessment of the total number of employees recorded in payrolls.
This is a very strong indicator that shows the change in employment in the country. The growth of this indicator characterizes the increase in employment and leads to the growth of the dollar. It is considered an indicator tending to move the market. There is a rule of thumb that an increase in its value by 200,000 per month equates to an increase in GDP by 3.0%.

• Release Frequency: monthly.
• Release Schedule: 08:30 EST, the first Friday of the month.
• Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.

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FF forum economic calendar :

• Source : Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Measures : Change in the number of employed people during the previous month, excluding the farming industry
• Usual Effect : Actual > Forecast = Good for currency
• Frequency : Released monthly, usually on the first Friday after the month ends
• Why Traders Care : Job creation is an important leading indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for a majority of overall economic activity
• Also Called : Non-Farm Payrolls, NFP, Employment Change

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AUDUSD M5 with 45 pips in profit (by equity) for NFP :

EURUSD M5 : 87 pips price movement by NFP news event :

Trading EURUSD during NFP :

Data Structure in MetaTrader 4 Build 600 and Higher

MetaTarder 4 build 600 features the new structure and location of the client terminal files. Now, MQL4 applications are placed in separate directories according to the program type (Expert Advisors, indicators or scripts). In most cases, the terminal data is now stored in a special data folder separated from the terminal installation location. In this article, we will describe in details how data is transferred, as well as the reasons for introducing the new storage system.