There are several ways to trade forex. There is no one best method to trade forex. You can trade forex without charts or with charts. But, one method might actually be superior to the other method.
In this article, we will talk about how to trade forex without charts. And also, we will discuss whether it is better to trade with charts or trade without charts.
There are several methods to trading without forex charts. These methods are:
- Trading with fundamentals
- Trading with forex signals from other professional traders
- Trading with forex signals from technical indicators
- Trading with automated trading robots
Now, let’s talk about each of these methods in detail.
Methods to trade without charts
1. Fundamental Analysis
Fundamental analysis is a method of trading without charts. With fundamental analysis, you are trading based on the news. Fundamentals are influenced by economic and political factors.
Let’s say for example you are trading the currency pair EUR/USD. Let’s say you are following the news and news came out that positively impacts the Euro currency. That means the EUR/USD will be bullish.
That said, it is quite hard to say how long the EUR/USD will stay bullish based on the news. We personally do not recommend trading based on the news alone.
You can surely use the news as one indication of what direction the market is going. But you will have to confirm where to exit the trade and place your stop loss based on a technical analysis of the market.
2. Forex Signals
Another way to trade forex is by using trading signals from other professional traders.
With forex signals, these professional traders send you trade signals saying you where to enter a trade, where to place your take profit, and where to place your stop loss.
The advantage of using forex signals is that you don’t have to sit down and analyze the charts by yourself.
But, forex signals might be expensive. Some forex signal providers charge you 100s of dollars every month. Most traders won’t be able to afford these services.
Also, there are a lot of forex signals providers that provide bad signals. Most forex signals don’t work over the long term. It can be really hard to find a signal provider that provides you with high-quality forex signals.
If you decide to use a signal provider, it is still very important that you are able to do your own technical analysis to verify these signals.
If you are interested in using forex signal provides check out 1000pipbuilder. They provide you with forex signals at a reasonable cost. But again, it is not advised that you solely depend on these forex signals without doing your own technical analysis.
It is also important that you track each signal and see your profit and loss. You can do this by having a trading journal. If you don’t have a trading journal make sure to check out our free trading journal here.
3. Signals from indicators
Now, this is slightly different than using normal forex signal providers. There are computer-generated signals based on different technical indicators.
If you are really good with trading with technical indicators you can have software that sends you a signal based on what the technical indicator says.
This way you can enter the trade based on your knowledge of trading with this technical indicator. For example, if you trade with moving average crossovers, you can have software that sends you signals when there is a moving average crossover in the market.
We personally do not recommend this method for trading, mainly because it can be really hard to know if the signal is good or not without looking at the forex charts.
4. Automated trading
Now, this is another way of trading without charts. You can buy an automated trading robot that does trading for you. But the industry is full of automated trading robots that do not work in the long term.
Most of these trading robots might generate some profits in the short term but lose in the long term.
If you want to go in the direction of automated trading we recommend you learn how to code your strategy or hire someone to code your trading strategy.
Of course, for this robot to be profitable, you have to have a profitable trading strategy. You can only have a profitable trading strategy if you have experience trading in the forex markets, ideally with charts.
Now, let’s look at why it is better to trade forex with charts than without charts.
Why you should trade with charts
As discussed, trading forex without charts is totally possible but it might not be the ideal way to trade.
If you enjoy trading without charts then keep doing it. But to become a profitable trader it is harder without the forex charts. Most profitable traders trade with charts.
There are several benefits to trading with charts. The number one reason is that you can see what is happening after you enter the trade. Some trades will require your full attention. Some trades will require you to actively manage your risk. It all depends on the trade. But these only can be done when you are trading with charts.
Also, if you are trading with charts you can have a trailing stop loss to maximize your trades. Without charts, you cannot do this. Trailing stop loss is used when you have a good feeling based on your technical analysis that the market will continue to go in your desired direction for a long. This way you can continue to move the stop loss until the market turns around. This is a way of maximizing your potential profits per trade.
Also, if you want to verify your trading strategy, you need to trade with charts. It is not possible to backtest without charts as well. Backtesting is very important if you want to be a profitable trader. We personally do not know any profitable forex trader who trades without charts.
As you can see trading with charts is much more superior to trading without charts. If you want to trade forex for a living, we recommend you trade with charts. This way you can know what the markets are doing exactly. Because everything in the market is reflected in the chart, including the news.
Also when trading with the charts, it is easier and clearer to journal your trades. Journalling your trades is very important if you want to see what works and what doesn’t.
If you are new to forex trading and want to learn how to properly trade with charts, we recommend you check out our free forex trading guide. In this guide, we cover everything step by step.
The only reason you might want to trade without charts is when you are doing position trading. Position trading is where you hold a trade for months or years.
It is more like long-term investing in the markets. For position trading stock markets are much more suitable than the forex market. With position trading, you won’t make many returns but it is more of a passive way of trading/investing. If you looking to make profits with trading day trading or swing trading is a much better option for you.
Conclusion
In this article, we talked about how to trade forex without charts. As discussed trading with charts is superior to trading forex without charts. So, if you want to trade forex, it is a good idea to learn how to trade using the forex charts.
If you are interested in learning how to trade step by step make sure to check out our free forex trading guide here.
