I opened an Interactive Brokers account last week and plan to use them for stock and forex trading. That was a big step I had in my mind since 2005, when I was online trading in the Betfair markets. I have done a huge research on Forex brokers and decided to go with what seems the best online broker. I'm also considering blogging about online trading in a new blog, should I do it?

I was professionally trading the Betfair betting markets some years ago and my technique was towards scalping, so reading about an interview of a stock scalp trader sounded interesting. However I was totally shocked of what the stock scalper confessed in that interview given to the popular community web site for traders, trade2win.com. I was so amazed that I no longer wish to open a trading account overseas. I might have taken a shot at the US Level 2 stocks, or try scalping foreign financial markets, but he has convinced me otherwise. If you read the interview, you would probably be persuaded as well!

One of the currency pair in trading forex, euro usd, is in a mjor downtrend since November and is now reaching a major resistance level at 1.38. If you have short sold euro to usd, prepare to cover, as a retracement is expected the following month after a quick drop in the euro exchange rate. The major forex pair has been in a downtrend from 1.51 during the last 2 months and your usd accounts are now worth 15% more! However, I won't be converting my dollars to euros just yet, since in the long term I predict a decline of the euro rate even below 1.30.

If you had been trading Forex the last months you would have noticed the EUR/USD uptrend that ended at 1.50 and has been falling ever since. Euro is trading at 1.40 US dollars today and the euro currency seems to lose value quickly. Could it be due to the bad economy of Greece which is so popular lately in the news worldwide? Surely the new 5 year bond didn’t actually help. At least I won’t be risking my money into the Greek debt and bankruptcy. Just another fish not going for the bait.

Alex Reid's betting odds of yesterday when I posted my betting tip on the Celebrity Big Brother UK show do seem tempting now, don't they? My betting tip was to back Alex Reid and lay Dane Bowers and if you are usually trading in Betfair you have already made money! Alex' betting odds fell from 2.32 to 1.76 while Dane's odds drifted to 5.5 from 3.80. Sufficient trading profits for one day's work, don't you agree?

Technical analysis is popular in financial markets like the stock exchange. Since Betfair is a betting exchange and odds fluctuate like stock prices one could say that technical analysis may also be applied to the Betfair betting graphs. Betfair trading has quite a few differences compared to stock or forex trading though, but basic technical analysis tools should work just the same. However, many Betfair traders continue to doubt the effectiveness of support and resistance levels or reversal patterns and dismiss technical analysis. Are you one of them?

Most FOREX traders focus on the most popular currency pair which is EUR/USD. Lately I don't trade FOREX that much but I always keep the Windows currency gadget on my computer's desktop. The last days I noticed EUR/USD to be eager to reach out the 1.50 mark so when the gadget read 1.498 I immediately fired up my FOREX broker, Oanda. I went long on the pair as soon as it broke the resistance level at 1.5000 and have been making some easy money, since I have not traded out yet. I'll be exiting the market when a major bullish reversal pattern appears on the daily or hourly EUR/USD chart.

I started my trading journal this month, and with only one working day left I thought I should post my stock trading results. I have made 15 trades of which 4 are completed with minor profits, although merely one was a losing trading. The remaining 11 include a big winner gaining more than 15% that helped me end the month in profit. Here are all the stock trading charts of my trades with entry and exit points indicated in them.

I use Alpha Bank's web trading services as my online trading software to carry out my trading orders. I'm not a fan of dealing with banks when trading but I have opened my trading account there long time ago and I expected to be the easiest way to trade the Greek Market. Big mistake. Compared to overseas' trading platforms and professional web trading services, the Alpha Bank's web trading platform is miles behind. However, I was determined to give it a shot at least in the beginning. Now, after 2 weeks of active trading I am encountering a huge problem when accessing the stock data feed, and that is an occasional web browser's crash. What is even more disturbing is that I cannot login again once the browser has crashed, until 30 or 60 minutes have lapsed! And we all know how important time is in trading!

It's already been 2 weeks since I started trading the Greek Stock Market. I have completed one losing and one winning trade, while I still hold shares of 10 more companies, 7 of which are profitable trades for the moment. If I sold today everything, my trading capital would increase by 1%. That is not the case though, as most of them have reached neither the take profit point nor the stop loss. However I'm pleased by the total performance and I'll be buying some new stocks today, maximizing my total exposure to the market.