Learning How to Execute Proper Forex Risk Management

By Paul Bryan 

The foreign exchange or forex market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world with a daily transaction of almost 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars. Banks, financial institutions and individual investors, therefore, have huge potential of economic gain as well as losses.

Foreign exchange risk is a potential gain or loss that occurs as a result of a change in exchange rate. In order to minimize the possibility of financial loss, every investor needs to adopt some forex risk management measures.


For minimizing forex risk, one must remember few basic points:

 (1) value of a currency changes frequently affecting firms and individuals engaged in international transactions;
(2) assets, liabilities, and cash flows are affected through changes in the exchange rates.

So the forex market presents risks involving accounting and translation exposure, economic exposure, transaction exposure and real operating exposure.

Transactional exposures involve quite high risk for foreign exchange. Impact of exchange rate fluctuations on present cash flows, export and import, borrowing and lending in foreign currency, all can cause fluctuation in currency rates which should be considered while developing risk management features.

In most currencies there are futures or forward exchange contracts whose prices give indication on expected market prices of the currencies. These contracts can lock in the anticipated change. So the foreign exchange risk arises due to unanticipated exchange rate changes.

Foreign currency risk management involves managing two types of risk: systematic and unsystematic risk. Systematic risk affects all investments, such as the market risk, inflation risk and interest rate risk. Unsystematic risk relates to individual events that affect a particular investment, such as the business risk and financial risk. Unsystematic risk can be hedged.

If you are a trader or an investor engaged in day or intra-day trading, you must have a trading strategy at place. Your online broker or trading platform should incorporate risk management features in their trading strategies.

The signals and indicator to be generated must be based on risk analysis. You can join some professional workshop or course on foreign exchange risk management where you can learn the basics. The course should be interactive and customized where you can get your specific queries answered.
It is important that foreign currency risk management begins before the risk exposures and not after it has developed. The risk management course should include practical examples from real life incidents on basis of which you can learn the techniques of decision-making.

For calculating foreign exchange risk factors, you can find many advanced project management software that has integrated risk analysis. You can seek help from financial advisers who monitor, assess and hedge the risk in particular investments and in overall portfolios, depending on the investment objectives of the investor.
The foreign exchange risk management should use market indexes and averages in market analysis. It should consider theories of forex market behavior, including technical fundamental analysis. The risk management methods should periodically review investment objectives like safety, growth, speculation, and should always inform the investor about his or her investments.

Learn how to reduce your Forex trading losses by visiting Foreign Exchange Risk Management.

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Forex Trading Exits Strategies.

By Danielle Franklin 

In forex trading making correct entries seems to be an easier task than making exits. Most traders suffer from exiting-too-early syndrome and therefore missing out the extra points. In most cases bad exit taking causes you to miss out on more than half the profit you could have. What are the key factors when it comes to staying in or exiting?

Is it more profitable, for example, to just set the stop and the limit, and wait until either of them gets reached? Does the understanding of exits available help minimize losses and lock in profits?

How many times has the market missed your target by just a small fracture, and then continued moving in the direction you have predicted without you "on board"?! Or, on another unfortunate trading day, forex market simply misses your profit target and leaves you with nothing, or even worse - loss! Obviously making profits is the hardest part in forex trading. It can take years to figure out how to enter but not how to exit.

No matter how complicated, if you want to make money you will have to find a point to exit. Optimizing the trading strategy is the key to forex success. To track and understand decisions better, some traders create a trade log and write down the reasons each time they exit a trade. It is time consuming and may take weeks, months or even years to understand the flaw in the current strategy. However, usually after the first month the trading pattern emerges and traders can mortify the flaws to maximize returns.

Figuring out exits is similar to predicting the future. It is extremely difficult if not impossible. Knowing for sure where to exit requires aiming for a specific target. However, keep in mind that setting a target restricts the profits from running.

Before you enter a trade, consider the following factors. Firstly, you should plan out the length of the trade. Secondly, try to figure out the risk you are willing to take. Last but not least, ask yourself when a good time to get out is.

Every trader is different and you need to find what suits you best and stick to the plan. Also keep in mind that it is impossible to always be in a win-win situation, so you need to calculate your risk/reward ratio and whether the trade is worth taking before you actually place a trade.
This is quite general, but here are some things to consider:

1. Fractals.
Using fractals allows you to know when to change the stop and to follow the market down as it goes.

2. Resistance/Support. You can decide on an exit on some resistance/support area targeted on a higher timeframe.

3. Fibs. Fib extensions are your magic wand. Use it for your own good.

4. Moving average. Set a stop right behind the moving average.

5. Last but not least, consider scaling. Consider closing half at the original target, run balance and see how things progress. If the market pulls back to the original target, then you can simply close the balance. In other case, run a trailing stop.

Most importantly, when you decide on a strategy, stick to it. You cannot control the market, but you can get a hold of your forex trading behavior.

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