One of the most popular techniques for profitable Forex trading is known as “breakout Forex trading”. Breakout Forex trading has grown in popularity because it has proven to be an extremely effective method to profitably trade Forex.
Breakout Forex trading gets its name because the trades are triggered when the price of a currency pair “breaks out” of a particular “trading range”. I know that may sound a bit confusing at first, but let me explain further. Let's say that we are standing in a room. This room has both a floor and a ceiling. If you were to take a sledgehammer and start hitting the floor with it, you would eventually make a hole through which you could crawl down into the basement. Conversely if you did the same thing to the ceiling of the room you would eventually make a hole through which you could crawl up to the attic. By knocking out the floor or ceiling you effectively “break out” of the room.
The above concept applies in Forex trading except that the floor and ceiling is defined by certain currency pair price levels. An example of a price level could be the highest high of the last 10 days as well as the lowest level of the last 10 days. In this case the highest high of the last 10 days is the price level which forms our ceiling and the lowest low of the last 10 days is a price level which forms our floor. Some traders also refer to the ceiling as “resistance” and the floor as “support”.
Breakout trades are typically entered when the price of a currency pair moves above our ceiling price or below our floor price. When a currency pair's price moves above our ceiling is said to “breakout to the upside”. When a currency pair's price moves below are floor is said to “breakout to the downside”.
The theory behind breakout trading is that once a price breaks out in one direction or the other it has momentum to continue in the direction of the breakout.
Breakout Forex trading can be done in any time frame be it monthly, weekly, daily, five-minute, etc. This means that short, intermediate, and long-term traders can take full advantage of breakout trading strategies to profit.
Many traders not only use the floor and ceiling concept to enter their trades, but to define their risk and exit their trades as well. The trader may buy a currency pair when the price breaks out above the ceiling price. The trader may then define their risk by placing a stop loss order to exit the trade if and when the price travels downward and goes through the floor price. The converse is true of a sell trade. One of the nicest things about this particular trading technique is that you completely eliminate the guesswork regarding your risk. Your risk is basically defined by your entry breakout point in your exit breakout point. Using this technique you will always know ahead of time exactly what your trading risk will be and you may act accordingly.
Breakout Forex trading can be a highly effective strategy. Feel free to experiment with different time frames and price levels to see just how effective it can be for you.
Leave a Reply