A reader recently asked me if I could recommend a forex trading course and with a couple coming to mind, an expanded review is worth sharing.

Why Live Training Could Give You The Forex Edge

Interestingly, both training services shun scalping to make trades based around the higher time frames, an approach your broker won’t thank you for, but that will probably stand you in good stead over the years.

In my experience, finding a good education course is about finding the right course for you, one that suits your trading personality.

www.forex121.com

The first trading service is Forex121, a trading education service run by Dan Armitage.

Dan is an ex city trader who now spends his time trading and helping others benefit from his experience. The typical trading day starts early, around 6.45AM with Dan looking for trades and set ups early doors so people with busy working lives can set their trades up before heading to work.

Dan’s focus is very much on the higher time frames on major pairs, commodities and the Dow Jones. If you are wanting to learn how to scalp quick moves for 10 pips, then this course is not for you.

If there is anything compelling he will highlight the trade set ups and alert when those trades have been triggered.

The whole process takes less than 30 minutes, an excellent process for anyone looking to learn how to scan markets quickly before going to work.

Strategies

Dan takes a multi time frame approach with his unique chart set up combining the action from the hourly charts, daily charts and weekly charts all on one page for quick navigation.

It’s a set up I’ve never seen before and was impressed when I first saw it. There isn’t a single strategy that Dan employs, but his set ups are primarily drawn from breakouts of weekly highs and lows, candlestick reversal patterns and pull backs/ breakouts from key moving averages.

Layered on top of this is a good understanding of currency correlations and how this impacts on any individual trading set ups. For example, part of Dan’s analysis is taken on the US dollar index, a single basket measure of the US dollar taken from the dollar’s average performance across a host of currencies.

By analysing the US dollar index in isolation, it refines any trading decisions on pairs such as the USD/ JPY or USD/ CHF. If the USD/ JPY has a good set up, but the US dollar index is screaming a move in the opposite direction, then the trade may be best left alone.

Dan will also look at commodities to trade such as Silver, while at the same time using this information to inform trades on the US dollar, important because commodities trade in US dollars.

Here’s a typical trade set up explained by Dan:

Breakouts – Weekly breakouts are the most consistent movers in the market.

After years of studying and trying to gain consistency from the short-term charts, I soon realized that there is very little consistency on candle patterns, chart patterns and breakouts, on anything less than a 60 minute chart. The beautiful thing about having weekly and daily candles superimposed on the 60 minute chart is that they explain breakouts perfectly.

Below are examples of the typical trades that are taken at Forex121.

1) WTI – The Daily 20 moving average cross over and break of previous weekly high. Yet again the most profitable and consistent trade in my book. Simple order – set above the break level will nearly always generate a decent return. 125 pips was taken in only a few hours on this trade.

Following the morning session, Dan will then place any updates or specific trade entries on his blog with email alerts for any posts.

Members also have the opportunity for Q&A sessions on a Wednesday evening.

The bottom line

In recent weeks Dan has managed forex markets well which is a tribute to his technique. Big pips were bagged during the May commodity slump, while caution was sensibly exercised towards the end of the month as markets became rather more skittish.

On the one hand, aside from the innovative multi time frame chart display, there is nothing magical about Dan’s trading approach. There is nothing new in trading moving average pull backs or weekly breakouts, but as with most things in trading, the value of the service is the sum of its parts.

The skill is in combing all these potential set ups together and learning how to read markets effectively.

You can if you wish, use Dan’s alerts to blindly track the trades, but in my opinion this is far from the best approach. Watch the morning set up video then place your own trades.

Ratings:

Value For Money: 3/5 – Not cheap but Dan offers a good service.

Profit Potential: 4/5 – Has good potential, but depends how this style of trading suits you.

Ease Of Use: 3/5 – Not exactly trading by numbers, but the analysis is sound.

Longevity: 4/5 – Dan has been operating for some time with good experience in the field.

Overall rating: 4/5 – Good forex training course.

Contact Details:

Dan Armitage Website: http://forex121.com

Cost: See below

Audience: Short-term forex traders

Level: Beginners upwards

Location: UK

Category: Forex Training

Costs:

50% – Education Fee – £750 paid upfront for one to one mentorship

50% – Performance Fee – Another £750 paid after the client has made £5k.

Monthly Fee – £99pm