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Broker guides, fee-schedule comparisons, market analysis and everything that helps you pay less per trade.
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Featured guides
The guides to read first if trading rebates are new to you.
Market analysis
How CPI and inflation move forex
The market does not trade inflation; it trades the central bank's response to it. That is why gold can fall on a hot CPI.
Trading costs
Spread markup: where the biggest rebates come from
One sign-up route can pay three times the rebate of another — because the markup funding it is added to…
Market analysis
What moves gold: four forces on four clocks
Real rates, the dollar, safe-haven demand and central bank buying all move gold, but on four different clocks — which…
Risk management
Counterparty risk: who is holding your money
Counterparty risk has no unit, so it appears in no cost table. What you can check: segregation, a compensation scheme,…
Trading costs
The real cost of scalping, measured in pips
Seven dollars a lot sounds small until you pay it 200 times a month. Convert the cost into pips and…
Fundamentals
How markets react to news: the gap, not the figure
Price moves on the gap between actual and forecast, not on the figure. The part you control is the execution…
Fundamentals
Five order types, and which one buys you a cheaper spread
A market order always fills but gives you no control over price; a limit order lets you pick the entry…
Risk management
Weekend gaps and how to protect against them
A stop loss does not protect you across a gap. A planned 30-pip risk can become 110 pips at the…
Fundamentals
Reading an economic calendar and filtering what matters
Markets react to the gap between actual and forecast, not to the absolute number. How to cut the calendar down…
Risk management
Overtrading: five signs you are trading too much
Sixty trades when the strategy produces twenty setups means $400 of surplus cost a month — before counting the negative…
Risk management
Running several positions without running out of margin
Long EUR/USD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD is not three 1% risks — it is one 3% short-dollar risk. How to measure…
Fundamentals
What is forex? A straight explanation for beginners
Forex is always traded in pairs, runs 24 hours across five days, and uses leverage that magnifies losses exactly as…
Regulation & markets
Is forex legal in Vietnam?
No retail forex derivatives broker has ever been licensed in Vietnam. The most important consequence is not whether it is…
Fundamentals
Support and resistance: drawing them so they mean something
Three or four zones per timeframe at most. A chart with fifteen lines always has one near price - and…
Market analysis
Trading crude oil: how WTI and Brent differ
One lot of oil is 1,000 barrels. Beyond WTI versus Brent, the thing you must know is the contract roll…
Regulation & markets
Tax on trading income: what is known and what is not
There is no specific guidance for this kind of income in Vietnam. The most important thing is to keep complete…
Fundamentals
Moving averages and how to use them
A lagging indicator: useful for direction and as a filter, useless in a range. A crossover is a slow confirmation,…
Market analysis
Trading US indices: S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow
Three indices with three different characters. 14:30-17:00 UTC is the deepest liquidity, and dividend adjustments are a regular source of…
Risk management
A trading journal: what to record and how to use it
The most dangerous box is not breaking the rules and losing - it is breaking the rules and winning, because…
Fundamentals
TradingView for beginners: what to use first
A watchlist of at most five instruments, three drawing tools and price alerts. The free tier is enough if you…
Market analysis
USD/JPY: the interest-rate-differential pair
A pip is 0.01 and pip value moves with the rate. This pair tracks US Treasury yields closely, and the…
Risk management
Revenge trading: the signs, and how to stop
Six signs you can spot immediately, and four barriers that have to be in place while you are still calm…
Fundamentals
Fibonacci retracements without fooling yourself
Fibonacci works because a lot of people watch the same levels. Four rules for using it seriously, and how it…
Fundamentals
What a prop firm is, and how it differs from a live account
The daily loss limit is measured on equity at any moment, open trades included. That is the hardest rule and…
Market analysis
Gold and real interest rates: the core relationship
Gold pays no interest, so a rising real rate makes it less attractive. This is why gold often falls straight…
Risk management
Securing a trading account: six things to do
MetaTrader has three passwords and they must differ. The investor password is read-only — the only one that can safely…
Fundamentals
How interest rate differentials move exchange rates
Markets trade rate expectations, not the current level. Why a rate rise exactly as forecast can send the currency down.
Market analysis
Market seasonality: real or not
Twenty years of data gives only twenty observations per month. The deciding question: is there a mechanism behind the pattern,…
Fundamentals
Free tools for traders, grouped by the job they do
The free tools worth using, grouped by task - nothing paid, and nothing that promises signals. Plus three things to…
Regulation & markets
What documents you need to open an account, and how to pass first time
Two document types, four reasons files get rejected, and the rule that withdrawals must return by the deposit method -…
Fundamentals
Equities or forex: compare on cost and hours, not on returns
Vietnam's stock market trades 09:00-15:00 local, squarely inside working hours. Forex runs 24/5 but with a far more complicated cost…
Fundamentals
How forex and crypto differ: leverage, fees, hours and regulation
The two get lumped together because both trade around the clock with leverage. But the fee model, the volatility and…
Fundamentals
A forex learning path that costs least in tuition to the market
Most curricula begin with indicators and candlestick patterns. That is why so many people blow up before reaching them. There…
Fundamentals
Trading robots (EAs): realistic expectations
An EA cannot create an edge the strategy does not have. A win rate above 90% is the classic sign…
Fundamentals
Trading VPS: when you actually need one
Stop loss and take profit sit on the broker's server and keep working with your computer off — a lot…
Market analysis
GBP/USD: more volatile than you expect
Its daily range runs 30-50% above EUR/USD, so using the same stop distance is a recipe for being swept out.…
Trading costs
What EUR/USD actually costs per lot
Standard $11 a lot, Raw $8. But the rebate can reverse the order — the right comparison is net cost…
Trading costs
The cost of trading USD/JPY, and the swap trap
USD/JPY has a cheap spread but a heavy negative swap on the short side. One lot short for 20 days…
Regulation & markets
KYC and account verification: what to prepare
Withdrawals must return by the method you deposited with, in the account holder's own name. Do KYC when you open…
Trading costs
Overnight financing on multi-day gold positions
Gold charges negative swap in both directions. Holding one lot for two weeks can cost over $500 — about $5…
Trading costs
Is a swap-free account really free?
Swap-free removes overnight financing but recovers it through a wider spread, a daily administration fee, or excluded instruments. How to…
Trading costs
Seven ways to cut your forex trading costs
Pick the right account type, trade the liquid hours, stop holding overnight without reason, collect a rebate — seven measures…
Trading costs
Why almost every spread comparison is wrong
Six reasons a spread comparison reaches the wrong conclusion, and the four-step comparison that works. The most commonly omitted variable…
Fundamentals
How much capital you need to start: work back from cost, not from the minimum deposit
Brokers accept $1-5. That is what the broker will take, not what is enough to trade with. The real figure…
Risk management
A withdrawal that will not go through: six causes, in the order to check them
A stuck withdrawal does not automatically mean fraud - most cases are incomplete verification or withdrawing through the wrong channel.…
Fundamentals
Forex for beginners: the complete guide, in the order worth learning it
Start with cost and position size rather than indicators. Most accounts are not lost by guessing direction wrong but by…
Trading costs
The cheapest hours to trade: 12:00-15:00 UTC
The average XAU/USD spread during the London session is about 6 cents. The four sessions converted to UTC, and three…
Risk management
Risk management in forex: the complete guide, from rules to psychology
70-80% of retail accounts lose money, according to the figures European brokers are required to publish - and mostly not…
Trading costs
Fixed spreads versus floating spreads
A fixed spread costs more in ordinary hours but does not blow out around news; a floating one is cheaper…
Fundamentals
MT4/MT5 server time vs. your local time
Daily candles close on the broker's server clock, usually GMT+2 or GMT+3 — four to five hours behind Vietnam time.…