www.DAILYFX.com
In writing about the rise of foreign exchange trading among everyday retail traders, a frequent lament has been the lack of quality news, analysis, and information resources. Although the currency pages of publications like The Financial Times and, to a lesser degree, The Wall Street Journal have provided a great deal of what currency traders need in order to be up to date on the vagaries of forex trading, the fact is that there remain precious few online resources for forex traders compared to those trading other financial instruments such as stocks or futures.
Where, for example, is the "TheStreet" or the "TradingMarkets" for forex? Where is the "Financial Source" of currency trading?
Well, there's a good chance it might actually be at DailyFX.com.
DailyFX is in part the news, analysis, and information depot for one of the larger forex brokerages catering to retail forex traders, Fxcm. And it is likely that this relationship is and will remain key to the quality of information and analysis provided by the website. DailyFX provides not only news of interest to those trading international currencies, but it also offers an economic calendar, charting resources, specialized currency "rooms" and, joy of joys, a forum where forex traders can exchange ideas, ask questions of each other, and otherwise talk shop.
If you trade international currencies, or even if you have been thinking of it after seeing a web advertisement at Traders.com or an infomercial between the Sunday morning political talks shows and Sunday afternoon football, then DailyFX is a website worth visiting. For those new to trading forex, DailyFX helps provide a sense of how forex traders look at the world, how they interpret market events in ways that are both similar and different from their brothers and sisters in the retail equity trading world. And for those who are already trading forex but feeling somewhat "babe in the woods" when it comes to either getting deeper, long-term analysis of the currency markets, analysis of an interest rate policy, or even just getting a second opinion on a theory you've been mulling over for weeks, DailyFX likely offers you everything you need.
NEWS AND KNOWING WHAT'S NEXT
It should be pointed out that there are two DailyFXs. For many who visit the DailyFX.com website, DailyFX provides a wealth of free material such as news, economic and market analysis, an economic calendar, specialized currency focus rooms, and a message-board/forum. For those who are clients of Fxcm, however, there is a DailyFX Plus that includes all of the above plus additional features that leverage content from providers such as Thomson Ifr to bring streaming news and market commentary during the trading day, as well as real-time charting and live rates directly from Fxcm. DailyFX Plus also includes The Squawk Box for 24-hour streaming news and commentary from more than 70 different currency analysts. And perhaps most important, Fxcm clients who access DailyFX Plus also get trading signals from Thomson's team of forex trading specialists.
Again, DailyFX Plus is only available to clients of Fxcm, for whom the Plus version is free. Nonclients, nonetheless, can still use and benefit from the amount of free context available at DailyFX -- sans the Plus.
This free content begins with a solid news page that includes a feature, a headline article usually dealing with the most pressing forex-related issue of the day. Below that are featured columns from currency strategists and expert analysts such as Kathy Lien and Boris Schlossberg, as well as "Latest News" items from staff analysts. Latest News is a little misleading insofar as in addition to the basic news headlines you could get from virtually any financial news source, DailyFX provides commentary and analysis on topics such as "How to trade the Fomc rate decision" and "Forex sentiment shows strong likelihood of USD/CHF reversal."
News you can use, indeed! Other articles focusing on the daily technical situation in the various forex currency pairs, fundamental analysis of the forex markets, commentary on rollover, hedging and other forex-specific topics are also available in up-to-date articles. The front page also features a table of live forex rates (last, high, and low), a set of links to forex-related podcasts and videos, a table of cash rates for selected international currencies (NZD, GBP, CAD, CHF, AUD, USD, EUR, and JPY), and a "Charting Center," which consists of technically oriented articles on specific technical developments in the various forex markets.
CALENDARS, CHARTS, AND CURRANCY ROOMS
Another especially interesting feature of DailyFX is the calendar page, which features a well-done financial calendar with links to separate calendars for US economic and central bank news and events. The main calendar lists events by date, time, and the relevant currency affected. The event is listed -- and as a link if there is a source for further information. This is followed by columns that note the relative importance of the event (high/medium/low), the actual figure (if relevant) from the economic/financial event, as well as the forecast and previous numbers (again, where applicable). Last in line is a column that notes whether there is commentary and/or analysis available of the given news event. The calendar can be sorted by date, currency affected, or importance, and it can be printed out as well.
DailyFX provides access to different types of charts for forex traders. There are five charting packages that are available directly and another few in their premium section (the difference being that the premium charting options tend to be third party and subscriber based, such as eSignal, Track ‘n' Trade Forex, Aspen Graphics, and a host of others).
The free charts come courtesy of PowerCharts, NetDania, FXTrek, MarketScope, and Stratagem and are more than sufficient for the forex trader who just needs to make a basic check on the positions and patterns developing in a given currency pair. Some of the free charts have more functionality than others and traders frequenting DailyFX should try out as many of the different types of charts as possible before becoming too attached to any one platform.
Another feature worth underscoring are DailyFX's currency rooms. Although a fairly basic concept, the currency rooms allow for analysis geared strictly to a single currency pair. This allows for more complexity and detail than might make sense in a page or section that had to deal with all six of the major currency pairs, to say nothing of the far larger number of available forex crosses and combinations that can be traded through most of the major foreign exchange brokers. Specifically, the currency page consists of a main news or analysis item, followed by technical notes on nearby support and resistance levels (S1-S4 and R1-R4). Interest rate levels, from the benchmark all the way up to one-year rates, are also listed.
Below this are columns with technical and fundamental observations about the currency in question. The bottom of each currency page features a Java one-hour chart of the given currency against the dollar. That chart does not include indicators, nor can the periodicity be changed. But the chart comes with a crosshair cursor and information box to make the chart more useful than the typical "quick" chart.
THE FORUM ON FOREX TRADING
I've said that message-boards are one of the signature achievements of human beings interacting with the Internet. And while there are many places where the value of message-boards shine, websites for discussing and exchanging information about the financial markets are near the top of the list. So it is a welcome sight when browsing DailyFX to come across a sizable, well-maintained daily FX Forum.
The FX Forum is available free to clients and nonclients of FXCM alike (free registration required). The home page of the forum includes a section titled "Hot Threads" to help both newcomers and veterans to the forum decide where they might want to go first. For newcomers, the "Beginner's Area" helps answer basic questions (to the relief, I suspect, of some of the veteran forum participants!), while other "Hot Threads" tackle topics ranging from the movements of specific currency pairs to general strategies for analyzing and trading.
As many as seven different moderators are participating in the forums at any given time, adding individual expertise in areas such as range and system trading, hedging, Elliott wave and sentiment analysis, carry trade strategies, and more.
There are a lot of odds and ends to DailyFX that traders of different interests and skill levels will likely find worth investigating. As part of FXCM, DailyFX offers access to practice trading accounts for new traders (or for traders interested in trying out different strategies with "virtual capital"). A variety of educational and training courses are also offered in the form of free webinars, trading training guides like the website's "Elliott wave guide" and "FX for beginners." DailyFX also keeps traders abreast of what's going on in the forex industry, from the availability of new products like managed currency accounts to events like the currency trading expo just held in Los Angeles.
Part of what inspires people to trade is most certainly the capacity to be self-directed and independent, truly the master of your own ship. But that does not mean that traders, especially those just starting out, should become enamored of going it alone. Like anything else in life that takes great effort to achieve, learning to trade also means learning to accept help and guidance along the way.
While most traders are not fortunate enough to find personal mentors
who can do this, websites like DailyFX provide perhaps the next best thing.
From the wealth of news and information to the thriving message-board community
of new and veteran foreign exchange traders to the valuable educational
and analysis tools, DailyFX is not just a great starting point for forex
traders but also a website you can come back to again and again as your
experience and talent as a trader grows.
David Penn can be reached at DPenn@Traders.com.
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