The most active traded crosses focus on the three non USD currencies (EUR, JPY and GBP). These crosses are known as the euro crosses, yen crosses and the sterling crosses. The most actively traded cross currency pairs are: EUR/CHF, EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY and NZD/JPY. Crosses enable currency traders to directly target trades to specific individual currencies to take advantage of news or events.

When you look up at the currency pairs, you may notice that the currencies are combined in a seemingly strange way. For instance, if sterling-yen (GBP/JPY) is a yen cross, why it is not being also referred to as yen-sterling (JPY/GBP)? The answer is that those quoting conventions were evolved over the years to reflect traditionally strong currencies versus traditionally weak currencies with the strong currency coming first.

The first currency in the pair is known as the base currency. It is the base currency that you are buying or selling when you buy or sell a currency pair. The second currency in the pair is known as the counter currency. So if you buy 100,000 EUR/JPY. You have just bought 100,000 Euros and sold the equivalent amount in Japanese Yen.

So currency trading involves simultaneously buying and selling. Going long in currency trading means having bough a currency pair! When you are long, you are looking for the prices to go higher. So you can sell at a higher price that where you bought.

Going short in currency trading means selling a currency pair! It means that you have sold the currency pair, meaning you have sold the base currency and bought the counter currency. In currency trading going short is as common as going long.

If you have an open position and you want to close it, its called squaring up. If you are short, you need to buy to square up. If you are long, you need to sell to go flat. Selling high and buying low is the standard currency trading strategy. Having no position in the market is known as being square or flat.

Profit and Loss is how traders measure success and failure. A clear understanding of how P&L works is especially critical to online margin trading. When you open an online currency trading account, you will need to pony up cash as collateral to support the margin requirements established by your broker.

Profit and Loss (P&L) calculations are pretty straight forward. P&L calculations are based on position size and the number of pips you make or lose. Most of the currency pairs are quoted up to four decimal places except those involving JPY. Currency pairs involving JPY on one side are only quoted up to 2 decimal places. A pip is the smallest increment of price fluctuation in currency pairs. Suppose CHF/USD quote is 1.2233. It has gone up by 20 pips if the price moves from 1.2233 to 1.2253. Pip is the increase or decrease in the fourth decimal digit. Pips are also referred to as points. It is an abbreviation of Percentage in Points.

Processing a life insurance claim properly is very important as it can determine the amount of time that it takes for the life insurance company to give you the funds. It can be hard to secure the funds for a proper funeral and burial without the money. If you understand how to properly process a life insurance claim then you will be able to receive the funds in a timely manner. You may also be able to work with the life insurance company to get more of the money that you need up front.

The first step is to contact the insurance company and inform them of the death of the individual. This doesn’t have to be done right away but if you don’t contact the company you won’t be able to get the process started and you will just delay receiving the funds. Within the first 24 hours of death is when you should try to contact the agent at the life insurance company. You may be unsure if the person has a life insurance policy. If this is the case then you should as other family members and the person that is in charge of the affair. In some cases no one may know if the person had a life insurance policy. If this is the case then you will have to try to call local life insurance companies and ask if they have that person on file.

Once the agent has been notified that the person has passed and the agent has confirmed the person’s life insurance policy they will then send you paperwork that must be filled out. The beneficiary doesn’t have to fill out the paperwork directly however he or she will have to be on hand to be able to validate the claim and receive the payment from the company. If you run across any questions while filling out the paperwork you should call the agent at the life insurance company and ask them.

The next step is for you to collect the certificate of death. You may be able to get this directly from the funeral director. If you are unable to get it from the funeral director then you will have to go to the coroner’s office to get it. The first thing you should do upon getting the death certificate is to make copies of it. You will need to send these copies out to the insurance company. Be sure to create enough copies of the death certificate in case the person had multiple life insurance plans. Each company will need to have at least one copy of the certificate. Be sure not to send out the original document to the insurance company unless they need it for a special situation. In most cases your copy will be acceptable for the insurance policy.

You should then contact the life insurance agent and discuss how the payment is supposed to be paid out. The policy may give you one lump sum or it may require payments over time. It’s best to try to get a large sum up front and then have the rest paid in payments if possible. The life insurance company should pay the money quickly as most funerals are held within the first week after a person has passed away. If you feel there is any delay in the process then you should contact the life insurance company and find out where the account stands.

As a forex trader, you should learn technical analysis. You need to understand the various terms that are frequently used in Technical Analysis. Technical Analysis is the study of historical and ongoing price data through charts, price patterns and chart indicators. Charts display price moves in time intervals using bars and candlesticks.

Technical Analysis is based on a number of assumptions. The most important is that all available information is immediately impounded into the market prices of the currencies. The second assumption made is that prices always move in trends or patterns. The third assumption that is made is that history repeats itself. This means you can predict the future price action by studying the past prices.

Historical studies have shown that once a trend is in motion, it is most likely to continue rather than reverse it. Only a bigger force in the opposite direction can reverse a trend once set in motion. The more one studies chart patterns, the clearer it becomes that reading and interpreting chart patterns are more an art form than a skill in technical analysis.

Two charts are important in technical analysis. Bar charts and Candlesticks charts. Bar charts display price data in vertical lines that represents price action during a given time period. The tip at the bottom of a bar chart is the low for the period. The tip at the top is the high for the period. The open and close are represented by small horizontal dashes called tics. The tic to the left of the vertical line is the open. The tic to the right of the line is the close.

Candlestick charts are similar to bar charts. Like the bar charts, the top of the vertical line represent the high and the bottom of the vertical line represents the low. However, the price action between the open and the close is represented differently by the use of candlestick bodies. A shaded body represents a lower closing below a higher opening. A hollow body represents a higher closing above a lower opening.

The price action that takes place above and below the body is referred to as tails or wicks. As a forex day trader, you may use any one of the 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 and 180 minutes charts for technical analysis. As a swing and position trader, you may use a daily, weekly or a monthly chart. These charts all use the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or the Eastern Standard Time (EST) depending on the software that your broker platform uses. But you can always adjust these times according to your local time.

While doing technical analysis, you need to understand markets patterns? You need to understand what are Uptrends? You should also know what downtrends are and what are sideway trends? Forex markets expand and retrace constantly. Currency prices may continue to expand for sometimes either upward or downward. It is the nature of the currency markets to surge then pause and retrace.

Trends make a series of peaks and troughs as they move. An uptrend consists of a series of ascending peaks and troughs. A downtrend consists of a series of descending peaks and troughs. A sidways trend consists of a series of horizontal peaks and troughs.

Life insurance has two very nice benefits. First, it protects loved ones against the financial burden of the insured’s death. Secondly, it provides some nice living benefits.

The financial effects of death can be devastating. When you lose a spouse, parent, child, sibling or grandparent, the emotional turmoil can be extremely severe. Yet, the financial repercussions can be even more overwhelming than the loss itself. With no life insurance, surviving family members are often thrust into a position of acute financial hardship. Not only are they are left dealing with the loss of a future income, but they must also handle the immediate outlay of finances demanded by the death and burial expenses that have been unexpectedly generated.

If you look at the mortality statistics, you will see that a significant number of people die each year, long before they achieve their normal life expectancy. If the deceased is a breadwinner in a family, that premature death can have tragic consequences, on many levels. Not only are survivors trying to deal with deep personal grief and loss, but they are also facing grave financial concerns. They can no longer rely on that breadwinner’s salary to meet the daily living expenses.

Of course, the cost of a funeral can be heavy, but there are other expenses to consider, as well. An executor’s fees and expenditures involved with estate administration, for one. Outstanding debts such as car loans, mortgages, credit card balances, promissory notes, medical expenses, death taxes, and federal taxes, must still be paid.

The future security of your loved ones is another factor in a premature death. Just basic living expenses, the mortgage, and raising and educating children are some of those concerns. Actually, it doesn’t matter what financial obligations are left behind, the only option your survivors have is to pay them, and that takes money. If you want to assure yourself that your family is not forced to deal with the financial devastation a premature death can cause, then a life insurance policy is the perfect answer.

There could well be a time during which it may be difficult for the surviving spouse to work. Survivor’s blackout period is also a consideration. This is the time during which social security stops paying the surviving spouse, because dependent children are no longer a factor. The surviving spouse’s retirement is also something that needs to be factored into the equation. Actually, life insurance is a way of estate building, because it can generate an immediate estate at a time when it is most needed.

An added advantage of life insurance is its living benefits. Some permanent policies provide policyholders with a cash benefit, in addition to the death settlement. This cash value belongs to the policyholder. Insurance companies allow the policyholder to make withdrawals from the cash benefit, which can then be used by the policyholder for any reason. The policyholder can also take out loans from their insurance company, and they use the policy’s cash value as their collateral.

The simplest answer to that question is, no. However, there are definitely times when an insurance broker can be helpful. They can actually save you a considerable amount of money.

Regardless of which kind of insurance you wish to purchase, there are a large number of companies to choose from and an equally wide-ranging number of complicated plans available. Decoding those plans can be intimidating, especially if you have no experience in this area. Because of this, it is sometimes a very good idea to secure the services of an insurance broker.

A life insurance broker is, fundamentally, a go-between. They step between you and the insurance company. In fact, it’s their job to seek out the lowest insurance policy. Because an insurance broker does not work for any specific company, they are able to develop relationships with numerous insurance companies. This allows them to hunt for the best options, answer questions, and point you in the right direction, as far as your insurance needs are concerned.

Once you select your broker, you will simply give them the details and needs for your specific situation. At that point, the broker begins looking through the surplus of options available. They will search out the best deal for you. The broker will give you multiple quotes to choose from, or sometimes they simply offer you the lowest priced quote available. This then allows you to evaluate several insurance estimates from leading companies, and make an informed decision on which one works best for your exact situation.

They do not work for a specific company, so brokers must be familiar with all the leading insurance companies. They know the reputation of each. They know how the company operates. They can tell you how often a company increases premiums, and how they handle claims.

Insurance brokers are paid on a commission basis. They receive compensation from the insurance companies for each policy sold. Generally, if you were to go directly to the insurance company and purchase the same plan, it would cost the same amount. So quintessentially, using a broker to help you find the best policy costs nothing, and it relieves some of the stress. The broker does the work and bears the frustrations of sifting through the better polices. All you have to do is look through the options they come up with, and decide which one works the best for your situation.

The broker’s extensive knowledge of the marketplace is probably their greatest benefit. Not only can they find what you need, they find it quickly, and they usually get you exactly the kind of coverage you need. They do this at a price that would be difficult for you to match. Brokers understand the technical aspects of insurance contracts, and they can make sense of all the fine print. They can also answer your questions. Choosing to use a broker is a wise decision.

Perhaps the best advice that you will receive from someone is live to trade another day. Currency markets are brutal, volatile and ruthless. In minutes you can lose many pips. You should learn to survive in the markets in the long run. Do not lose all your money in a single day.

The most common factor that causes many currency traders and investors to blow up their accounts and lose all their money is greed. Once you start taking unnecessary risks you are in trouble. You want a secret formula that never loses a trade. You will start looking for the Holy Grail technical indictor or a forex robot that can make you rich. You will believe that by discovering one, you will become rich.

Unfortunately there is no such Holy Grail for anyone. No one has ever found such a secret. You cannot always win. You will win and you will lose. Learn not to risk more than 2% of your account on one single trade. Grow your account incrementally and slowly over time. Never ever get into the temptation to risk big trying to make one single winning trade that can make you rich.

The most important thing that you should know is how much you are willing to risk in a single trade. This is more important than your trading strategy. I said dont risk more than 2% in a single trade. But if you are a risk taker and want to be aggressive, you can go up to 5%. Dont exceed 5%, stay between 1-5%. If you are risk averse and are conservative, on the other hand, you should consider risking between 1-2% only.

Once you have decided on the risk you are willing to take, knowing the rest is simple. Suppose you have a $50,000 account and you decide on a risk of 2%. How much you can risk on a single trade? You can only risk (50,000) (0.02) =$1,000. This is the maximum you should risk on a single trade.

However, if you are trading more than one position at the same time, the amount may become higher. Lets suppose, you are in 3 trades! You risk only $1,000 per trade. So the total money at risk will be (3) (1000) =$3,000. When you have determined your risk, you are can determine the trade size.

Trade size is the number of contracts you purchase in any one trade. To determine the trade size, you need to first determine where you want to put your stop loss. Lets use an example to make it clear. Suppose you are willing to risk $1000 on trading EUR/USD pair. You decide on a stop loss of 50 pips. Each pip on EUR/USD pair is $10 worth. So the number of contracts that you need to trade are (1,000)/ (50) (10) =2.

By calculating your trade size, you have taken the guesswork out of your trading once you have determined your risk level. You can sleep well now. You know how much of your money is at risk. You are going to be able to trade tomorrow. No matter what happens today.

Using these common money management rules will help you avoid the pitfall of losing almost all the money in your account. Learning to survive the markets and trade another day is the essence of trading. This can help your trading take the next level of profitability.

Suppose you believe that the currency prices will not be able to follow through action in the direction of the breakout. Fading breakouts refers to trading against breakouts. When we believe that breakouts from support and resistance levels to be false and unsustainable we fade breakouts.

Fading breakouts tends to be more effective as a short term strategy. It is not meant to be a long term strategy. False breakouts are also known as fakeouts. False breakouts are a bane for breakout traders but boon for breakout faders.

Support and resistance are seen as the price floor and the price ceiling respectively. Support level attracts the buyers enthusiasm for higher bids and prevents the price from falling further. The resistance level attracts the sellers enthusiasm for shorting. It prevents the price action from advancing higher.

It is perfectly logical for the crowd to think that if the support level is penetrated, then the price action should move downward. The crowd is more likely to sell than to buy when the price action breaks the support level from above. The idea of trading breakouts appeals to many independent traders especially those new to currency trading. The crowd likes to trade the breakout.

The crowd is more likely to buy than to sell when the price action breaks the resistance level from below. The opposite is true of a price break above the resistance level. The crowd usually concludes that if the resistance is broken, then the prices are more likely to advance higher in the rally.

Now you can understand why there tends to be large number of entry stop orders placed just above a resistance level and also placed below a support level. You will also find clusters of stop loss orders placed by traders who have brought near the support level or have sold near the resistance level.

Short positions will be stopped out when the price action breaks out above the resistance level. Similarly, when the currency prices crosses below the support level, long positions will be stopped out.

Why most breakouts fail? One of the most important reasons why most breakouts fail is due to the fact that smart traders need to take the money from the novice and inexperience traders. The majority will cash out of the trading game broke. Always remember, it does not always pay to have the same mentality as the crowd.

The crowd holds the dumb money with the weak hands. Smart money belongs to the big players who have a couple of tricks to sabotage the crowd. Money has to be made from the majority. Not from the minority who got it right.

When the crowd scrambles to get out of their losing positions, it causes vertical rallies or declines. The most money is made when the crowd turns out to be wrong. Read Part II for more.

Knowing what type of a trader you are, can make or break your investment career. Take the analogy of a football team. All players are talented and super fit. Everyone can throw and catch the ball. Everyone is a hard hitter. However some are more skilled as receivers. Others are more skilled as kickers. If the receiver is going to do the job of the kicker, not many field goal points will be made.

Investing in the currency markets or stock markets is also the same. It depends on your personality makeup what type of trading is best suited to you. In general there are three type of trading styles: Position trading, swing trading and day trading. You need to know what type of trading style is best suited for you.

Position Trading is generally the buy and hold strategy of investing in stocks over a long haul. In currency trading, position trading means you are in a trade for many months. Usually positions traders are in a trade for a large long term move like when you carry trade. Options traders can also be position traders through covered calls.

Swing Trading means taking short term positions in anticipation of quick market movements over a series of days or weeks. Swing trading is possibly the most dynamic of the three types of trading as the swing trader is able to switch up holding times quickly as the market demands. Swing traders take advantage of technical and fundamental analysis.

Day trading is not easy and it is certainly not a hobby. Sometimes when the positions warrants holding for a longer period, day trading can become swing trading! In Day Trading, you attempt to capitalize on intraday movements with the markets often trading on momentum and news. Day traders are also known as Kings of Stress.

Day trading is ideal for those who are able to handle erratic market movements while actually also having time to monitor the positions throughout the day. You should note that if you dont have time to watch your trades every moment, you should not think of day trading. Day trading is the riskiest of the three trading styles.

You Should Know That Swing Trading Is a Better Alternative to Day Trading Day trading hardly ever ends up well! Only 10% of the day traders succeed. Many people are attracted to the glamour and excitement of day trading. Most day trader usually blow up their accounts and fade away soon especially if the trader has no previous professional trading experience.

Swing trading can be on the other hand a much more effective trading style especially if you are a newer trader. By holding positions overnight and even for a few weeks, you can expose less money for larger moves. If you are a new trader, think about it for a moment.

The most common financing service of banks in America is a home loan or mortgage. Mortgage lenders and brokers may not always be clear on what they’ll do for you, so the best decision financially is to go to your bank and talk to an adjuster there. Most banks provide plenty of helpful information for people looking to finance a new home or refinance their existing mortgage.

A great idea would be to look at mortgage choices from a bank you trust in order to decide on one that fits your plans, one that’s right for you. When you’re deciding to purchase your first home, it is beneficial to be qualified online ahead of time. You can get custom rates and pricing, advice from experts to help complete your online application through a quick and simple online process.

Regardless of the kind of mortgage you’re looking for, the expert home buying advice provided by banks online will help you find the right mortgage in just a few quick and easy steps. A fixed rate mortgage allows for a set interest rate that lasts throughout the term of the loan. The advantage of having a fixed rate mortgage is that it provides a predictable housing cost for the life of the loan, which can last fifteen, thirty, or forty years. The shorter the loan term, the less interest will be charged allowing equity to be built faster. Monthly payments will be higher, however, for a shorter-term loan.

Interest only loans allow a preliminary time period during which only the interest payment is required. After the interest-only period of an adjustable rate interest only mortgage, the loan requires principal and interest payments. A borrower would still owe the original amount that was borrowed, but the amount necessary to be paid will increase after the interest only period because the principal must be paid as well as the interest. Making interest-only payments does not build home equity, which could make it quite difficult to refinance a mortgage or make money by selling or refinancing a home.

Adjustable rate mortgages offer lower initial rates, which can create a valuable financing choice depending on specific factors like the increase of income expectations and short-term ownership. Because the interest rates and payments can increase, however, buyers of new homes should be financially ready for a possible hike in payments or rates. An adjustable rate interest only mortgage starts out with an interest only period, just like you’ll find in a fixed rate interest only mortgage. Once again, the loan will be converted to principal as well as interest payments after the termination of the interest only period. The amount you need to pay will go up, and the payment will increase by even more. A ‘reduced documentation’ or ‘stated income’ loan normally tends to have higher interest rates and additional costs when compared to other loans that might require you to authenticate your income and other assets.

Smart financing makes it easier to plan your long-term growth. Any bank offers you financing solutions designed to match your company’s needs, with flexible repayment plans tied to your profits and cash flow.

When you open a currency trading account, you are told by your forex broker that there are no commissions involved in forex trading. New traders take their brokers word as true. Most think that the cost of trading is minimal.

Forex brokers are also known as FCMs (Futures Commission Merchants). They make profits through the bid/ask spread they charge their clients for each currency pairs. This bid/ask spread is your trading cost and profit for your broker.

Lets take a practical example to make it clear how trading costs can effect your trading. Bid/offer spreads are usually overlooked by retail traders as the price they have to pay for trading. So lets calculate what your cost of trading can be annually.

Suppose you are a day trader. You trade 5 times a day. Taking away the weekends, when you cant trade, there are 250 trading days.

As a day trader, you will open and close each trading position before the end of each trading day. That means each position is being traded 2 times, once when you open the trade and once when you close the trade.

Suppose; your account size is $ 50,000. You are using a leverage of only 4. So this $50,000 will control (50,000) (4) = $200,000.

Your Annual Turnover will be; (5) (250)(2)(200,000)= $500 M. Huge! Now lets calculate how much your broker will make and what your spread cost is. Spread Cost= (Annual Turnover) (spread)/2.

Suppose the spread offered by the broker is 3 pips. 3 Pips Spread Cost= (500M) (0.0003)/2= $75,000.

Suppose the bid/ask spread offered by the broker is only 2 pips. 2 Pips Spread Cost= (500M) (0.0002)/2= $50,000.

You can see now, the cost of trading with a 3 pips spread versus a 2 pips is $25,000. Huge for you, this is 50% of your account equity. You see now that a 1 pip difference can result in $25,000 more as trading cost for you.

You will need to make a profit of $75,000 simply to break even with a 3 pips spread. Trading costs are one of the primary reasons most active traders fail in the long run.