Charting for Forex

One thing about Forex is that you can get real-time free streaming charts online for free:

DailyFx Charts - This is one of the most popular charting sites for Forex. It offers 5 different types of basic charts in addition of premium charting.

FxStreet Charts - Four to choose from

Charting Sites for Stocks

Every trader and investor need to use charts. Well, these days they do if they want to ahead of the game. With charts, you can see support and resistance levels, trends, and price action.

There are thousands of free online charting sites out there. It could be millions. I don't know but below I'm listing some that I've used for both stocks and forex. Some which are very popular.

At the top of the list is:
StockCharts.com - Very popular site. Free areas include charting with indicators, charting school, news letter, stock scans and more. There is a public chart list that user posts there charts and investment ideas.

Bigcharts.com - Another popular one. Bigcharts has basic and java based charts. If you don't have charting software you can use Bigcharts Interactive chart to draw your support and resistance lines.

Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com) - Many features on this site in addition to charting. Even free streaming quotes. -->

Prophet.Net - Another popular site that also has free interactive java charts.

StockFetcher.com - Offers a stock scanning service based on formulas but there charting is free and interactive. It's perfect for those without software on the computer.

StockScores.com - This site gives a little more than charts. It rates
stocks according to their proprietary system.

Trading Markets - Has what they call powerratings chart with their proprietary stock rating.

Other places:
MSN Money Central
Zacks
Nasdaq.com

I probably have much more but thats all for now.
Happy Charting.

Some Investment Glossaries I Use

1. Investorwords.com

2. Investopedia Dictionary

How To Draw Trendlines Video

There are lots of great videos explaining anything from the basics to complicated strategies on youtube. Here is one on drawing trend lines.

Definition: Time frame is the period in which something occurs or is expected to occur. See thefreedictionary.com definition
The most popular time frames in trading are Monthly, Weekly, Daily, Hourly, 15 minutes and 5 minutes.

VIDEO: Option Addict Analysis: Drawing Trendlines

Ranging and Channeling

If a market is not trending then it is probably in a congestion phase where price is ranging or channeling. Price could be consolidating in a congestion phase. Consolidation is a period in which price doesn't change much. Think of it this way, congestion is wide and consolidation is very narrow.

Below are some links about Ranging and Channeling:

1. Investopedia's definition

2. Channeling

3. Article on identifing range

4. Using the right tools when you trade

Videos on Trend Trading FX

Trend Trading Part I by Don Wilcox

http://transcripts.fxstreet.com/2008/04/trend-trading-.html

Trend Trading Part II by Don Wilcox

http://transcripts.fxstreet.com/2008/04/trend-trading-1.html

Forex Education for Beginners

This site one of the number one sites for beginners to learn the basics of Forex trading online. It's free. No signing up. And some good commentary.

Babypips.com

Practice Investing in Stocks for Free

Free Online Stock Simulators:


Investopedia Simulator - Trade stocks and options with virtual money.

StocksQuest - Trade stocks with virtual money.

The next site is a simulator that allows investing on the world markets.

Investment Game '08

"Trend is your friend"

A trend is the general direction price follows whether it be up or down. Usually there is an incline when you have an uptrend and a decline whe you have a downtown. Sounds trivial but most times traders don't get it. We usually hear "the trend is your friend", meaning if you trade in the direction of the trend it can make you profitable.

click for Investopedia's definition

Traders should learn how to identify a trend. Traders should know when a trend do not exist and that there is ranging or channeling (price moving sideways). The easiest way to identify trends is to draw trend lines. You need at least 3 price points to draw a trend line (2 to draw the line and the 3rd to confirm the trend line).

I've practiced drawing trend lines with the book "Stikky Stock Charts" by Laurence Holt. A pretty cheap book and good in my opinion. But you can print charts from yahoo finance or stockcharts.com and practice. Most charting software allows you to draw lines right on the chart. Remember you need 3 points.

Draw your trend lines and observe if price follow the trend. You will be amazed.

See Stockchart.com on Trend lines

.....
Stockcharts.com is a great place to learn about technical analysis.

Keep up with the News

There are many news resources online. MSNBC, Bloomberg, etc. but I like to watch Nightly Business Report which airs on PBS in NYC everyday at 6:30 PM. They give a recap of the market, report on anything they deem was the big news for the day, have commentaries by market professionals, and some picks by others. You can watch the same program online at http://www.pbs.org/nbr/. In addition, they offer some other tools to help with investing and articles that you can learn from.

Nightly Business Report

Free Investing Education Online Videos

There are a few places that offer free courses online and webinars so that you can learn to invest and trade the markets.

You will have to sign up to most of them to gain access but it's free.

Moneyshow.com - Aside from their tradeshow webinars, they offer free video courses.

FXSTREET.com - For those interested in trading currencies. Free to sign up and watch free webcasts or their archives.

TDAmeritrade Webcast Archive - Some good stuff on technical analysis, fundamental analysis and investing.

Option Industry Council - For those interested in learning about options, this is the free site to do it.

ForexTV.com - You can learn a few things about FOREX from here.

Nightly Business Report - A great place to learn some fundamentals and keep on top of the news. Has daily online video of the PBS daily broadcast.

Fundamental vs Technical Analysis - For Beginners

Fundamental analysis is the study of a company, market or economy to evaluate it's history, current standing, and value. This may include studing financial reports, earnings, sales, assets, etc.. Most investors will say that they are fundamental analysts.

Technical analysis is the study of market data from charts to evaluate a markets standing and potential direction. This may include studing trends, patterns, indicators, price, volume, etc.. Most traders will tell you they are technical analysts.

Visit this link to get a more concise definition of the two:

What is the difference between fundamental and technical analysis?

As a trader, I major on technical analysis being that most trades are short term (1 day, 1 week, 1 month). Investors are usually in for the long haul (years). But don't get me wrong, for a professional trader need to consider the fundamentals of whatever market he/she trades, i.e. not to trade around an earnings report or knowing which stocks were upgraded or downgraded. Fundamentals can affect results.

A successful investor still need to consider some technical analysis. For instance, he/she would want to buy a company of good value or undervalued at a strong support level.

So to conclude, both are important whether you are going to be a trader or investor or both.


Technical analysis basics

Fundamental analysis basics

Also see
Investing Basics on Nasdaq.com

Free Trading Videos

Here is another site that offers free videos daily by analyst covering stocks and options.

http://www.freetradingvideos.com