Forex trading signals and how to use them

With market movement happening on a daily basis and currencies affected by several different factors, even the most experienced trader cannot constantly monitor the rate of the forex market. This is where trading alerts and notifications come in. 

Traders can use these to be instantly notified about events or entering into a trade, depending on its value and/or time period. The alert can be sent via text, email or as a push notification, depending on the trading platform, and so then you can act accordingly and quickly. 

However, the first thing you’ll need to do is to research what is forex trading and how does it work, so that you have a full understanding of the market, before you begin adding forex trading signals to your account. Once you feel confident in your knowledge and trading strategies, then you can look at the different alerts that you can take advantage of. 

With trading signals, you can be exposed to potential opportunities to either enter or exit a trade on a currency pair, hedging your risks or resulting in profit, where you may not have been aware of the circumstances beforehand, if you weren’t monitoring the market. 

Automatic orders

Understandably, exchange rates are an important to consider when forex trading, and one signal that you can integrate into your strategy is an automatic order. This can be executed to automatically open a trade when the currency pair reaches a certain rate. Alternatively, you can set an automatic order to buy or sell when the asset reaches a certain price. 

If you prefer to have a more active role in the trade, then you could still receive the notification of when these events in the market occur, and open a new position manually as and when it occurs. 

Close at Profit (Stop Limit) and/or Close at Loss (Stop Loss)

Another set of orders that can be added to your forex trades, are Stop Limits and Stop Losses. This can be used when opening a new position, or even when editing and existing one. Both of these orders allow you to set a rate at which your position on the market will automatically close. 

For a Stop Limit order, this closes your position when you have reached a particular level of profit, in order to protect your gains. On the other hand, a Stop Loss order will close your position in order to minimise your loss. These aren’t always guaranteed to close the trade at the exact price level specified, but it just elevate some of the pressure of constantly monitor your trades and the market. 

Market event notifications

Depending on your chosen trading platform, you can also be sent forex trading notifications that reflect on the current market events, both fundamentally and technically. This do not execute or exit the trade for you, but can influence the next move in your trading decision, and allow you to effectively keep up to date with relevant events and data. 

For example, you can set up a trading signal for a change in a technical indicator, known as Trend Confirmation Technical Indicators. According to the data that they provide, you can then enter a buy or sell position on the relevant currency pair, or develop your trading strategy based on their behaviour. The most relevant and commonly used of these indicators are: 

• Simple Moving Average (SMA)
• Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
• Relative Strength Index (RSI)
• Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD)

Another type of market notification you can set, can be for the occurrence of any important events from an economic calendar, that could potentially influence the price value or movement of the currency pairs. These work particularly well in conjunction with fundamental analysis, and can make you aware of important and relevant economic data. For example, this could be on the occasion when employment reports are released, or a political statement is given, and therefore you can make a well-informed decision based on how these factors would affect your trade in forex.