What’s The Difference Between Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis in Forex Trading
- December 18th, 2009
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Technical forces and fundamental forces are the two main drivers of the forex markets. They both give you valuable information but is one superior than the other?
Technical forces are a reflection of fundamental analysis at the current market price. While fundamental forces include things such as money supply, interest rates, economic and financial reports, equilibrise of trade data, and things of that nature.
Traditionally, fundamental analysis has been the default suggested method of trading. However this type of analysis takes a tremendous amount of time to do properly. Unless you have a few hours a day to devote to watching the markets, and know precisely what you are looking for, then it can be very difficult to do profitably.
The main problem with fundamental analysis is that because you need precise timing to move with the markets, you must always be “on”. Successful fundamental traders have usually prefabricated trading an integral part of their lives and they are never far from their trading platform — when a news story hits they are ready to trade.
Everyone else who doesn’t have the time to spend watching the markets is too far behind the action and ends up getting taken for a ride. To be successful you must be ready to react in an instant.
What you need to realize about fundamental analysis is that the underlying data doesn’t matter — all your are concerned with is how the market reacts to that data.
It’s important to note that most fundamental data is projected, meaning that the projections change based on the release of news or reports, rather than being created by them. What this means to fundamental traders is the timing of analysis is the most important thing and you profit due to the swing in market reaction.
However, trading on technical analysis requires much less time involvement and gives you flexibility, maneuverability and agility in the markets. Because technical analysis reflects the fundamental analysis at the current market price, that means the market has done the fundamental work for you. You literally skip ahead and let everyone else do the hard work. You then ride a trend based on your trading conditions.
The key to technical analysis is trend spotting — to be successful you need to identify, confirm and enter a trend while giving yourself enough time in the trend to realize your profit targets. At the other end of the trade, your technical analysis must also identify, confirm and tell you when to exit a trend when the trend is coming to an end.
This is why I advise new traders (and pro’s alike) to trade based on technical analysis. You leverage all the hard work done by the fundamental traders without exposing yourself to the time, energy and effort required to do all the work. Because of this you can trade in just a few minutes apiece day and still make more money on a consistent basis.
If you want the ideal chances of success in forex, you should look for a forex training course that uses technical analysis, such as the Forex Profit Accelerator.
Grant Grady enjoys the work-at-home lifestyle and invests his spare time trading, golfing, and shares his profitable trading strategy in his Simple Forex Trading Strategies Newsletter. Make sure you check out his suggested Forex Training Course.