Finding the right forex trading strategy is really important so investors have a plan for how they’ll approach the markets. Trading currency pairs can be challenging, though having a solid strategy in place can help you recognize trading opportunities, and leverage technical and fundamental analysis to your advantage in the forex markets. 

Whether you are trading over the short or long term, and want to focus on the broader market picture or sell signals as a day trader, having a good forex trading strategy is necessary to help yourself be successful. 

What Are Forex Trading Strategies?

Forex trading strategies are the ways of thinking and approach that forex traders take when forex trading. There are strategies to cover the long or short term and are designed to help you use your strengths and the tools available to build a successful forex trading strategy. 

Overall, the forex trading strategy defines how you will approach the markets, and eventually, dictate the entry and exit points you take based on the market environment.  

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Type Of Forex Trading Strategies

While there isn’t necessarily a ‘best forex trading strategy’ out there, there are many different approaches you can take when trading forex. 

Scalping

A scalping strategy is for the very short term. Investors aim for small profits on a number of different positions in a very short trading session. A scalping strategy helps you take advantage of minor market fluctuations, though you need to be very quick in order to implement this successfully. 

Position Trading

This is one of the more long-term trading opportunities for forex traders. Rather than set entry and exit points based on price breaks or market fundamentals, traders choose a winning security that they are confident in over the long term, and buy it to hold for months or even years. Position trading is one of the simpler strategies to implement and is very straightforward even for newcomers. 

Day Trading

With a day trading forex strategy, traders work within one trading day, closing out positions at the end of each day as a sort of risk management. Thus, this can protect traders from price movements that may occur overnight when they’re not monitoring price action and trends. 

Many day traders will use technical analysis and short-term lenses to come up with their trading ideas. A breakout trading strategy is one of the more common types of day trading, where trades get triggered if an asset’s price moves above a predetermined level.

Swing trading 

A swing trading strategy sometimes referred to as momentum trading, is when investors look to the mid-term to take advantage of market swings. This combines both short-term and long-term trends, so it will require investors to have overnight positions. 

Traders utilizing this strategy often rely on momentum indicators, support and resistance levels, and buy and sell signals. This helps them find overvalued or undervalued assets in the forex market that may have large swings coming. 

How To Create Forex Trading Strategies?

You need to assess your goals, your own personal skills, and the current markets in order to choose which forex strategy you’d like to utilize. There isn’t necessarily a strategy that is best, though each person needs to find the one that is best for them. This can range from a trend trading strategy for those who like to stay up-to-date with the markets, all the way to price action trading for others. 

As you could tell from the above guide, you can combine the elements from strategies you like to make your own. These are only guidelines to help you find a good way to approach the markets, though you need to find what is best for you. 

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Top 5 Best Forex Trading Strategies January 2023

Daily Chart

Daily chart forex strategies allow day traders to get all the relevant information they need to run a successful trading strategy. This can work for those who are swing trading over the intermediate-term, or those who are simply working on a day-to-day basis. 

The forex daily charts are some of the most looked-at financial charts in the industry. So, referencing these at the beginning of each day, even for position traders, those doing breakout trading, trend, trading, or others should be a staple, but especially for those using day trading strategies.  You can get invaluable information from these charts, all in one location. From this data, they can see recent price movements of a currency pair,  and other helpful information to help you make good investment decisions.

50-Pips a Day

For those who don’t want to implement advanced forex trading strategies, the 50-pips a day strategy could be a good fit for you. It is very simple, doesn’t require you to monitor price action or momentum indicators all day, and can help you build a good passive income.

The 50-pips a day forex strategy is an effective forex trading strategy for those who want to have exposure to the forex market, but maybe don’t have a ton of time for other forex strategies that are more hands-on.  Trading currencies can be complex, though this forex strategy has traders opening up one trade at a time, which can prevent them from overreaching and being exposed to a lot of risks. However, their gains are capped at 50 pips a day, so the trading opportunities for the upside may be better with another particular strategy that relies on price movements and market trends.

1-Hour Trading Strategy

This strategy is a good way to approach the forex market for those who need to be quick with limited time. This is an intraday strategy that has largely grown in popularity, and is quite versatile with all the different ways you can analyze a currency pair during a given one-hour timeframe. 

The 1-hour strategy requires traders to have a good way to analyze currency pairs and set their entry and exit points accurately. Though the markets are very quick-paced and see a lot of price action all day long, honing in on just one hour can be a good way for beginners to get introduced to the field and better their skills.  This acts as a sort of risk management tactic because investors are only exposed to one hour of trading per day, which should minimize their losses.

Counter-Trend

A countertrend forex strategy is where investors aim to make small gains by trading against what the broader market is doing. They do take more frequent losses, though they tend to be smaller in size, making it a better fit for risk-averse traders. 

Countertrend trading is a good fit for investors who like to follow the markets, have a keen sense of what’s going on, and can make profits while the broader market is taking losses. This is a more short-term strategy that occurs over days or weeks, as the positions need to be closed out once a market correction occurs and the trends change.

Trend-Following

Trend trading is a good long-term strategy that investors can take with forex trading. This will require a good amount of analysis and monitoring of the markets, though it’s a solid trading style that many like to use to trade forex. 

Trend trading is a popular trading style that investors do over the long run. This means they follow the trends of a particular currency pair and will require investors to purchase during corrections on the upward trends, and sell on rallies while trending down. Most of the time, this isn’t a day trading strategy that people will enter, and is more focused on the long run. This will require forex traders to enter a position and follow the financial markets until the trade of the currency pairs has met your goal.

When Should You Change A Forex Trading Strategy?

Just because you choose a strategy to trade forex with at the start, this does not mean you have to stick with this strategy forever. You should monitor your performance, and make a personal decision when it’s time to change strategies. 

Forex trading can be risky, so only set aside the amount of money you can afford to lose. However, you should be open to changing strategies if you are never seeing a return from your chosen approach. Don’t just give up after one session, because the markets can be volatile and you may have a slight learning curve. However, it may be wise to set a limit for yourself about how much you want to lose before trying something else. 

The Top 2 Forex Trading Platforms

eToro

eToro is a comprehensive yet simple-to-use platform that has over 3,000 different assets that you can trade. These include CFDs, currency pairs, and ETFs. Many like the educational side of their platform for beginners, though some of their research tools aren’t as advanced as what you can find with other trading platforms. However, it’s still one of the more affordable options on the market and continues to be widely used across the industry.

CMC Markets

CMC Markets is an excellent trading platform, especially for novice traders given their affordable pricing. Even though they are low cost, they still have a large product catalog that allows customers wide access to the financial markets and forex pairs they could want, including EUR/USD, the most common. 

The platform has great educational resources, though this may not be very valuable to experienced forex traders. However, as an online broker, it is a great option if you’re just getting started in the global foreign exchange market.

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Final Thoughts

Finding the right forex strategy for trading is a big deal for most investors. There are many different approaches out there, like the trend trading strategy, breakout strategy, and more. So, you should do the proper research to see what each strategy offers, what it requires to be successful, and how those factors line up with your own personal resources and skills. 

Likely, beginners will utilize different strategies from what expert investors do, so be realistic with your goals and skills, and choose accordingly. After all, forex trading is risky, so you shouldn’t go into it with more money than you are willing to lose, no matter what strategy you choose to implement.

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