If you can combine support and resistance levels with something called “market clusters” when you are performing your forex chart analysis, it can yield reliable trading signals that can tell you where you should enter the market and where you should set your stop-loss order and take-profit order. Many times if you read about forex autotrading systems or developing any type of trading system for this market you will hear about using historical price data to backtest a trading system. You can locate a price level for a certain currency pair that is a market cluster if you look at historical support and resistance levels and see that when the market hits a certain price over a given number of months or years that this price level reverses its role of being a support or resistance line as the actual price moves up or down.

Support and resistance lines are very useful for a savvy trader, and one of the main principles of this strategy is that once the market breaks through an established support or resistance line, that line has a role reversal where it will act as a support line if it used to be resistance and vice versa. A support line is below the active price level and acts like a floor, and a resistance line is above the price level and acts like a ceiling. Knowing these levels is useful because if you buy the currency pair then you can set your take-profit level a few pips below the nearest resistance level and set your stop-loss a few pips below the nearest support level in order to maximize the probability that it will be a winning trade.

When you are looking at your price chart (let’s say a 15-minute chart) then you will probably see a few weeks worth of the most current price action depending on how far you zoom in. If you want to find out whether or not the current support and resistance levels are market cluster levels (meaning that the signals they relay can be more reliable) then you will want to scroll back in your chart over the past months and years to when the market was at the same price it is now, and see if the support and resistance levels that you have identified were also applicable in the past. If you see that every time the exchange rate is around a given price that the same levels act as support and resistance levels, you will know that these are market clusters and that the trading decisions you make based on the relationship of the current price to these levels will be reliable.

Ask any new or aspiring trader about their preconception of a professional Forex trader and most answers conjure up images of men in pinstripe suits, sat in front of uncountable screens filled with charts buying and selling every minute. It is understandable why so many feel inadequate and at a disadvantage when sat in front of their 15 inch laptop trying to trade every set-up on every market at the same time. First things first, it must said that it is the Forex trader behind the screen that matters, his/her psychology, discipline and money management that determines the traders success and not whether or not the trader has the latest version of Dell monitors, high speed access to broker prices or an instant newsfeed. These things can contribute to the traders success but they are not perquisites for successful trading.

During your Forex trading course you could realize that there are benefits to trading from a single screen monitor or laptop and this can be used to the beginning traders advantage. It allows the trader to choose one single market to follow or one set-up to master on whichever timeframe they choose. With time and experience the Forex trader will build the necessary skills required to trade multiple markets or monitor for multiple trade entries. Once more advanced a Forex trader can start to create their own trading station and utilising technology in their trading. When using a handful of strategies on different timeframes in various markets, monitoring their correlations and watching how different timeframes relate to one another it can be imperative to have more screen space.

Having a multi-screen set-up during your Forex trading course is great way to keep an eye on various charts all at the same time. It also allows the Forex trader to access emails and newsfeeds which may be relative to their trading. Going beyond a four screen set-up is not normally a necessity and is more of a luxury rather than requirement. Having said so; for traders who also teach or act as a mentor to new traders; having extra 2 screens can be very useful as it allows traders to not only watch his/her positions but also provide training to trainees. The extra screens may be used as more of a command and control system whereby the main trader watches how trainees are progressing in order to correct mistakes and set trainees on the right path.

Some Forex trading course providers have many traders from around the world who trade from a laptop, anywhere with an internet connection. However, as time progresses it would not be surprising that their Forex training continues using a multi-screen set-up simply because the beginners to Forex can become more efficient and more productive.