Forex trading takes place in a competitive arena. Every trader is looking for awesome forex trading tools to help them. Even better if they are free.
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The good news is that there are dozens of free forex trading tools. The bad news is that most free forex trading tools are unreliable and confusing.
In this bundle, you will find seven free forex trading tools that are slick, easy-to-use, and practical.
Jun 08, 2020 Tools to use in forex trading Forex trading can be overwhelming for beginners without the right knowledge and trading strategies. But with the use of trading tools, life would be easier, and you. Powerful Trading Tools Never miss an opportunity to minimize your risk! Improve your trading strategies and make better decisions with XtreamForex powerful Trading Tools such as currency converter, pip calculators and various other trading mechanisms that can be used in Forex Market.
1. Forex Volatility Calculator
Traders thrive on volatility. A stagnant forex pair offers little room for profit. Hence, forex traders need to know which currency pairs are volatile and their active trading hours.
There are dozens of currency pairs out there. Computing their volatility is not an easy task for the manual trader.
This is why you need the Forex Volatility Calculator at Investing.com. This essential forex trading tool calculates the volatility of 30 currency pairs using historical data (up to 54 weeks).
It shows the daily change in pips and percentage of each forex pair in a nice table. What makes this forex trading tool so useful are the complementary graphs shown below.
2. Currency Correlation
Currency pairs are permutations of different currencies. Hence, we expect them to correlate in their price changes. Understanding the correlations among currency pairs is critical if you intend to trade more than one pair.
- For hedging, look for negative correlation.
- For diversifying, look for near zero correlation.
- For increasing exposure, look for positive correlation.
If you don’t pay attention to currency correlation, you might just end up hedging your position without realising it. (Kathy Lien has an informative article on currency correlation at Investopedia.)
While you can calculate the correlation between currency pairs yourself using Excel, the forex broker Oanda offers a slick Currency Correlation tool that measures historical correlation up to 1 year.
This forex trading tool includes an impressive array of major currency pairs, exotics, and even metals. The Bubble and Heatmap offer friendly visuals. For the numerical values, choose to display in Table format.
Trading Tools Free
This Currency Correlation tool is part of the suite of tools at Oanda Forex Labs where you can test drive and give feedback on Oanda’s latest forex trading tools. You can use most of the forex trading tools for free even if you are not Oanda’s customer.
3. Forex Market Hours (Time Zone Converter)
The major forex trading centers are New York, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. Many traders do not stay in any of these cities and need to keep tabs on different time zones.
And even if you do, you will still need to keep track of the time in other major currency markets. This is because the opening range of each market sets the tone for each session, and the overlapping hours tend to have more trading setups.
There are forex trading tools that converts time zones. However, for managing time zones, I find that a graphical interface is the best. You only need a glance to know which markets are open. This is why I’m placing Oanda in the list again.
With Oanda’s Forex Market Hours tool, simply choose a time zone. The rest is self-explanatory.
(You can also choose to show an hourly volume graph to see when most traders are active.)
There is also a Chrome Extension for this time zone forex trading tool.
4. Forex Calendar
Some forex traders speculate on news and reports. Others avoid trading when important reports are flowing into the market. In any case, traders must keep an eye on scheduled reports that might impact the forex market.
Forexfactory has the best forex calendar. Before you start poking around, click on the underlined time to set your local timezone. Then, the calendar will comply with your local time.
This forex trading tool is really more than just a calendar. For each report item on the calendar, it shows the:
- Relevant currency;
- Expected level of impact;
- Actual, forecast, and previous report figures; and
- Detail tab explaining why forex traders care about the report.
This calendar is a must-have forex trading tool.
5. Position Size Calculator
To trade safely, you must know how much to risk per trade. Risking a fixed percentage (for e.g. 2%) of our trading account is a common strategy.
In forex trading, this seemingly simple fixed percentage position sizing decision becomes complicated. This is because you need to consider your forex trading account’s base currency and the current price of the currency pair you intend to trade.
Babypips Position Size Calculator offers a simple forex trading tool to handle the calculation for you. You just need to key in the following information:
- Account Currency
- Account Balance
- Risk Percentage (depending on your risk threshold – 2% is a common benchmark)
- Stop Loss in Pips (depending on your trading setup)
- Currency Pair (that you intend to trade)
If your Account Currency is different from the quote currency of the Currency Pair you intend to trade, you will need to give one more input as prompted by the calculator. (The quote currency is the one after the slash. For e.g. USD is the quote currency of EUR/USD.)
This forex trading tool will compute the corresponding position size and display it in terms of micro, mini, and standard lots.
6. Pivot Point Calculator
Pivot Points are calculated values that serve as support and resistance areas. Forex traders keep these numbers in mind to assess the tone of each trading session.
The Forex Pivot Point Calculator at FXStreet calculates the Pivot Points for up to four currency pairs.
Simply key in the High, Low, and Close values of the previous session and you will get the Pivot Point values. As the forex market trades 24-hours, most traders use 00:00 GMT as the start and end of each forex trading day.
There is also some confusion over the Pivot Point formula due to its variants. This is where the FXStreet forex trading tool comes in handy. You can choose among four variants (Classic, Woodies, Camarilla, Fibonacci). The chosen formula is also detailed at the bottom for your review.
7. MetaTrader4 (MT4)
MetaTrader4 is one of the most popular trading platform among forex traders. There are compelling reasons for it.
- You can trade with most forex brokers using MT4.
- There is a wide community of forex traders that can help you. (Find them in forums.)
- MT4 offer automated trading (Expert Advisors).
- You write your own technical indicators.
- You can trade on mobile.
- With a demo account, you can simulate trades with it.
- It’s free.
For a free forex trading tool, its features are impressive.
Tip: If you use MT4, you can integrate the ForexFactory calendar mentioned using this indicator.
Forex Trading Tools
Time to bookmark these free forex trading tools!
If you don’t mind paying for quality forex trading tools, you should take a look at our affiliate – Forex Smart Tools. It has three effective forex trading tools that you should have if you are serious about forex trading.
- Trade Log (keep comprehensive records including screenshots)
- Calculator (test different position sizing and trade management methods)
- Forex Tester (gain screen-time and trading experience without risking your previous trading capital)
They have advanced features that you won’t find in free tools.
I like that fact that they are solid trading tools that help you track and improve your trading, and not fanciful forex signals that promise ridiculous returns. If you want to invest in your forex trading career, I definitely recommend these tools over a trading signal service.
What’s your favourite forex tool? Share with us.
Beginners generally need a lot of help in trading. This help will come from an assortment of tools and software which we shall call the best forex trading software for beginners. What are these software and what can they do for traders in the market? Here is the list of trading software that beginners can deploy to make their trading venture worthwhile.
- Charting Software
There are several charting software out there. Even the favourite trading platforms that are used by retail traders contain charts. However, there is a need to go the extra mile and get hold of standalone charting packages that enable a trader do a lot in terms of chart analysis. One of such charting software which is free to use is TradingView. TradingView does have a premium package, but these are not necessary for a beginner to use.
TradingView Chart for EUR/USD
Beginners can simply go to the trading view website, and select the assets that they want to view on the charts. TradingView arranges charts according to asset classes and has a wide array of tools which can be applied to the charts. Another benefit that comes from using TradingView is the delivery of news updates in the bottom right corner of the page, allowing users to get some information on the latest news regarding their chosen assets.
- VPS
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) with virtualization technology have become an indispensable tool for traders who use forex robots to trade. The use of forex VPS handles extrinsic issues that affect trade performances. Issues such as network failures, trading server downtimes, slow platforms, slow internet speeds and latency in trading, can all be taken care of by the use of sound VPS systems.
Some brokers have incorporated the VPS into their trade offerings, allowing them to be used for free when traders are able to generate a certain level of trade volume on live accounts. There are also third-party providers that allow traders subscribe to various categories of VPS services for a fee. Whatever pathway a trader decides to choose, a VPS is an indispensable tool and beginners need to incorporate this tool into their trading as soon as they can.
- Social Trading/Copy Trading Software
Social trading and copy trading are passive investment methods that have been designed with the beginner forex trader at heart. These tools give beginners the opportunity to copy trades of other successful traders on the platform (manually or automatically), and hence replicate the same trading results of these traders on your account. Copy trade software may arguably be the most treasured beginner trader software yet developed, as they significantly reduce the learning curve for the trader and get the beginner up and running as if they had been trading for years.
It takes a little of skill to choose the right trader to follow. But once a good choice has been made, the copy trading software handles the rest.
List Of Forex Trading Tools
- Trading Central
Trading Central is a source for user-friendly technical analysis and trade calls. Trading Central is run by licensed independent investment advisors, and the team provides robust coverage of more than 75,000 assets across several markets as well as a patented chart pattern recognition tool. I say to any beginner in the forex market: if you want to learn and be a master at forex a lot faster, Trading Central is the school to be. You will learn from investment analysts who actually trade. So you will be feeding from those who walk the walk and talk the talk.
Trading Central has an evaluation period that enables you see what they have to offer you in the market. Following the trial, you can subscribe to any one of their products or services. It will be money well spent.
- Autochartist
Autochartist is a chart pattern recognition tool which comes as a standalone product, and also comes as an add-on to the MT4/MT5 from compatible brokers. This product has been fine-tuned over the years and it has gotten better at what it does.
In addition to chart pattern recognition, it also features a volatility analysis tool as well as a tool to delineate support and resistance areas. You also get a free trial period, after which you can either subscribe to the standalone version, or maintain a funded live account with a partner broker to get the add-on at no cost.
- MQL5 Community
If you love the MT4 and MT5 software and you cannot do without these trading platforms, then you need to love the MQL4 and MQL5 Community Marketplaces. These marketplaces are where you have a collection of anything that has to do with the MetaTrader trading platform. Is it indicators, scripts or forex robots you want, or perhaps you just want to look up some literature on how the two platforms work? You can go to the terminal window of the MT4 or MT5 platforms, click the tabs circled below, and you will be taken to the appropriate sections of the MT4 or MT5 Community websites.
It is also possible to pay for any software you want to buy from your trading account balance. A simple click of a few buttons will do the trick, allowing you to get access to any commercially available products in the marketplaces.
- EA Creator Software
The realm of programming of forex robots has gradually been demystified, allowing individuals with no programming knowledge to code robots for themselves. There are many of these tools around.
A Google search using the search phrase “EA Creator software” will present you with several tools that enable the creation of your own forex robot, using your own parameters, without the need to know complex programming languages.
Conclusion
Overall, all the tools above are impressive and offer traders all they need to begin profiting in the market. The tools are useful and will save traders some of their valuable time, all while helping them to gain financially. However, the ideal forex tool for any trader will come down to personal preference. While some may prefer a desktop download application, others would rather use a web-based platform. Automated trading is cool, but some advanced traders would rather trade manually. So, whichever application you decide to settle for, you would do well to ensure that it meets your trading needs. Don’t get a trending tool just for the sake of it.
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