• Global Forex Trading now offers Pro Commentary via its currency trading software, DealBook FX 2. Available as an analytic feature inside of DealBook, Pro Commentary helps traders observe bullish or bearish relationships and trends for the following currency pairs: USD/JPY, EUR/USD, USD/CHF and GBP/USD. Pro Commentary comprises daily, weekly and monthly analysis, and caters to traders who enjoy bullish or bearish forecasts for variable timeframes: intraday support and resistance levels with daily forecasts, daily support and resistance levels with weekly forecasts, and monthly reports providing weekly support and resistance levels with monthly forecasts. For more information, see www.gftforex.com.
  
  
• Need To Know News is a real-time Web-based audio news service for traders. The service provides breaking, market-moving and tradable news on equities and futures, fixed-income, foreign exchange, the economy, earnings and corporate and geopolitical developments. The target audience includes proprietary and institutional trading firms, brokerages (IBs and FCMs included) and individual independent traders. Need To Know News offers a free trial. Subscriptions are $95 a month for individual users with multiuser discounts available. Visit www.NeedToKnowNews.com for more information.
  
  
• alert!fxT, developed by MG Financial Group, is a proprietary invention that keeps traders connected to the market 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Using a variety of communication channels, alert!fxT can update an investor via any wireless method. alert!fxT offers three different alerts: rate, indicator and customized. For more information, go to www.mgforex.com.
  
  
• Forexvoice (www.forexvoice.com) provides live audio forex rates of major currencies. Forexvoice’s technology allows you to receive and listen to live forex rates on your PC via the Internet 24 hours a day. Forexvoice delivers accurate real time forex rates on: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP. A one-month subscription is $62.50 and a three-month subscription is $165.00.

Market-related bulletin boards and chat rooms aren’t hard to find. Those catering specifically to forex and currency trading are not as plentiful, however.

Additionally, message boards are only helpful if they’re active and full of participants. A board doesn’t help if a legitimate post is greeted by more silence than somebody trying to use pesos in London, or a Swiss franc in Toronto.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the Internet, you have to go through a lot of coal to find a diamond. While discussion sites focusing exclusively on the FX world can be found with a simple Web search, discovering the ones that actually have some substance requires a little more research.

One of the best boards are the forums at MoneyTec (www.moneytec.com/forums/index.php). There are more than two dozen forums, divided into several categories (e.g., Main Discussion, Trading for a Living, Trading Styles and Strategies, Tools of the Trade, etc.), and many have thousands of views and hundreds of replies.

That’s a good sign, because it indicates questions will get answered, or at least generate a discussion. There’s nothing more frustrating to a person with a legitimate comment or question than to post it and get no responses, forcing the poster to try again at another site.

Additionally, the site is easy to navigate. Threads are listed singularly, one after the other, and reading the replies can also be done in an easy, organized fashion. MoneyTec is also good because it is completely devoid of advertisements on the main forums page, although some forums are sponsored. (Some of the posts are from firms and individuals trying to sell a product, but this is the case at any message board.)

Judging from the posts we looked at, it seemed users at MoneyTec had developed a sense of community — it was obvious in many cases certain posters had become familiar with each other, as posts mentioned other members by name and some asked specific questions of specific posters.

Plus, there were very few posts that strayed from the main topic of the thread. This is often the death of message boards — interspersed with legitimate conversation are posts that add nothing to the discussion, and only serve to discredit or otherwise blur the poster or the message. This can cause new posters to avoid a site, preventing the site from growing and eventually minimizing or negating its effectiveness.

Oanda.com, (www.oanda.com) also features a bin/msgboard/ultimatebb.cgi). It has eight forums and the threads inside are lively and active. Forex News (www.forexnews.com/forum/forum.asp) has a decent forum as well — active, but poorly organized.

Another good site is the Forex Forum section of Forex Factory (www.forexfactory.com/forexforum). Forex Forum only has three main forums — General Forex Discussion, Town Square and Forex Related News. But the General Forex Discussion forum is lively, with almost 400 threads as of mid November. What’s better, many of the threads have multiple replies, and when we checked, the entire first page (18 different topics) had been replied to within the past week.

ForexForum.net (www.forexforum.net) has a fair amount of forums, but only minimal participation. Although people are reading the posts (as evidenced by the number of views), very few are taking the time to respond.

Elite Trader (www.elitetrader.com), a site originallydesigned for stock traders, has since branched out into other instruments, including forex, and the site — which claims more than 30,000 members — is consistently crowded. While forex forums — FX Trading and FX Brokers — comprise only two of the dozens of forums at Elite, both feature heavy traffic and plenty of responses. One thread in the FX Trading forum was started on Aug. 16, 2004, and was still going strong as of late November — it has more than 2,000 responses and 48,000 views. Those are the kind of eyeballs you’re looking for if you have a serious topic worthy of discussion.

Although Elite Trader isn’t specifically designed for forex trading, it’s probably the best option for forex traders looking for a place to share ideas and questions.

• The FXCM Speculative Sentiment Index (FXCM SSI) from FXCM, a retail currency trading broker, is now available for public distribution. FXCM SSI provides a snapshot of the market sentiment and the pen interest of small noncommercial forex market participants. The indicator is compiled using aggregate order flow information from FXCM’s non-commercial clients (more than 55,000). FXCM SSI provides data on the long and short positions held by non-commercial market participants for the major currency pairs (EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, and USD/CHF), as well as current market positioning on the day of publication, and indicates if a currency pair is overbought or oversold. In addition, the FXCM SSI leverages FXCM’s client base of speculative traders from North America, Europe and Asia to provide global market sentiment, without bias toward American trading activity. The FXCM SSI is made available to the general public on the Internet at 10:30 a.m. ET every Thursday. Visit www.dailyfx.com/ssi.html for more information.
  
  
• Trading Technologies International Inc. (TT) and Hotspot FX Inc. announced Hotspot FX will provide access to its spot foreign exchange marketplaces via TT's X_TRADER order entry platform. All X_TRADER users will have the option to trade Hotspot FX products. The arrangement marks the first cross-market extension of X_TRADER into the cash foreign exchange markets. Hotspot FX, which is the first spot FX marketplace to connect to TT’s platform, expects to launch trading on the TT platform during the fourth quarter of 2004. For more information visit www.tradingtechnologies.com or www.hotspotfx.com.
  
  
• FXpress offers the FIRST Treasury Workstation, a global solution for managing foreign exchange, commodities, and debt and investment portfolios. FIRST is a Web-based platform providing global exposure management, robust accounting functionality (including FAS 133/138 and IAS 39 compliance), integrated financial instrument coverage, and superior security and audit capability. For more information, visit www.fxpress.com.
  
  
• Pristine Trading University has released two DVDs by Forex Capital Markets (FXCM). “The FXCM Forex Course — An Introduction to Forex Trading” is a 48-minute “crash course” in trading the 24-hour forex market, with an overview of major currencies and fundamental and technical analysis for forex trading. “Forex Trading Strategies — Technical and Fundamental Strategies for the Forex Market” takes an in-depth look at technical analysis, fundamental analysis, stop placement, risk management and how the general market affects exchange ranges, and gives five step-by-step trading strategies for the forex market. The DVD is 80 minutes. For more information visit www.pristine.com/seminars/online/PTU/fxcm.

• Chicago-based Rosenthal Collins Group LLC (RCG), an independent futures clearing firm, announced a partnership with Denmark’s Saxo Bank to expand RCG’s product base and offer the European bank’s award winning foreign exchange trading and information technology to online investors. The RCG Trader electronic information and trading platform will introduce a suite of more than 120 currency pairs tradable in spot, forwards and options, along with gold and silver, customized to three online investor segments. A free 20 day demonstration is available. For more information visit www.rcgtrader.com.
  
  
• EFX Group/Arizona, a real-time, direct-access brokerage firm for foreign currency traders, announced a partnership with Tradesight, an international online stock analysis and market education Web site. The package includes commission-free trades, higher leverage (up to 400:1 intraday margin), lower pip spreads, lower deposits (as low as $1,000), access to the dealing desk 24 hours a day, real-time updates, and daily currency reports and commentary. In addition, clients will have access to Tradesight Messenger through which they can receive real-time advice and trade calls around the clock. For more information visit www.tradefx.com.
  
  
• Track Data Corporation announced foreign currencies trading is now available through its existing retail and institutional trading platforms with no commissions. The foreign currency accounts and clearing will be handled by FXDirectDealer, a division of Tradition Company, a New York-based firm. Forex trading has been fully integrated into Track Data Securities existing trading platforms. For more information visit www.tracktrade.com, www.protrack.com or www.mytrack.com.
  
  
• CMC Group announced a partnership with Fxtrek through which CMC Group customers are being offered Fxtrek’s IntelliChart package free for the first month, and thereafter at a 50-percent discount rate. This package boasts a user-friendly interface with highly advanced functionality, including the ability for clients to draft their own alerts and send them to specified e-mail addresses or cell phones. The charts include more than 40 indicators, more than 75 time scales/periods, and advanced drawing studies, including Fibonacci, Gann, cycles, pivot points and Andrew’s Pitchfork. Visit www.cmcforex.com.
  
  
• FX Trading Station has added trailing stops to its menu of services. Users of both live and demo accounts can set stop-loss orders that automatically move up or down when the market moves a given number of points, helping traders to lock-in profits without prematurely closing positions. The Trailing Stop feature can be accessed by clicking the "Advanced" button on the "Stop-Loss" screen. Users can enter the desired number of pips the stoploss order should trail behind the current market rate. The stop-loss order will move up in increments of the pip value that is placed in the "Rate Min.Move" field. For more information visit www.refcofx.com/trailing_stop.html.
  

Barclay’s Capital is the latest bank to go live on Reuters Trading for Foreign Exchange (RTFX). The Barclays RTFX service will initially be available in Asia. Barclays Capital’s launch brings banks and other financial participants in Asia the ability to trade on all 68 currency pairs for which Reuters provides a service. Deutsche Bank also plans to go live on RTFX soon. Reuters Trading for Foreign Exchange allows banks and their customers to trade forex from their Reuters desktop. For information about Barclays Capital, visit www.barclayscapital.com; for Reuters, visit www.about.reuters.com.

• Inspired by the book The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, www.ConsensusView.com was launched to discover whether the idea that the many are smarter than the few can give traders an edge in the financial markets. The Web site allows participants in the stock, forex, and futures markets to forecast the direction of the markets and in return see the consensus view of where a market is heading. Participation is free and there is $12,000 of prize money for the best forecasters, with an additional prize of $250 for the person that referred them to the site. ConsensusView.com is the first Web site to open the voting to all members of the trading community and to capture the consensus on a daily basis. It keeps track of the hit rates of individual participants as well as the hit rate of the consensus. Voting for all markets opens at 4:30 a.m. London time and closes for each market as soon as it opens. Voters then get to see the consensus view for that market. Furthermore, the site displays the top five forecasters in each market as well as individual and consensus view hit rates. The site covers the constituents of the S&P 500, the FTSE 100, and the top 70 stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It also covers the 40 most actively traded futures markets as well as the 20 most actively traded forex currency pairs.
  
  
• The EFX Group Williamsburg branch is now offering hedge funds and institutions their lowest available Tier 3 commission rate. Commissions are based on the total dollar amount of currency traded each month; retail accounts are initially charged $7 per $100,000 traded. At the end of each month, the total dollar amount traded is calculated and a commission rebate is issued. Hedge funds and institutions that open an account through the Williamsburg branch will automatically receive their lowest rate of $5 per $100,000 traded, which is normally only available after $70 million in currency is traded each month. For more information on the three tiers and rates, visit www.efxgroup.com/williamsburg.

• Trade The News has launched their NewsStation platform. Subscribers can scan real-time headlines in a scrolling format or sort by industry sector and read research notes 24 hours a day. The platform contains an interactive element enabling users to reply to news in the headline module and/or request on-demand research under the “Ask the Desk” tab by instant messaging the News Desk. For a free trial, visit www.TradeTheNews.com/freetrial.asp or call (888) 311-NEWS. Packages start at $150 per month per user; discounts are available for multiple user contracts.
  
  
• TradingMarkets.com has re-launched its Web site with more than 30,000 pages, featuring expanded news coverage and 24-hour breaking news alerts. Much of the site is now free. New contributors include ETF trader Deron Wagner, pair trader Darrin Clifford, trend follower Michael Covel, and “Marketsurfer” Dave Goodboy. Forex coverage has been expanded as well, with new commentaries from Dave Floyd, Kathy Lien, and Jes Black. Options are covered by Market Wizard Tony Saliba’s former head trader Joe Corona, as well as Charles Cottle (The Risk Doctor) and John Summa. Several new indicators have been added: “Stocks Ready to Surge,” “Stocks Ready to Drop,” “Low Priced Stocks Ready to Surge,” “ETFs Ready to Surge,” “ETFs Ready to Drop,” “Windows Buys,” and “Windows Sells.” Visit the new TradingMarkets at www.tradingmarkets.com.
  
  
• progress Real Time Division extended its Progress Apama Algorithmic Trading Platform into the foreign exchange market with the addition of Apama real-time adapters to EBS and Hotspot FXi. This forex capability extends the Apama platform for algorithmic trading beyond the exchange-basedequities and futures markets into electronic forex trading. The Apama FX adaptors are already in use by a number of leading investment bank clients and a major hedge fund. In addition, the Apama Integration Adapter Framework includes tools to develop adapters to any in-house forex system. Apama-powered trading strategies enable financial institutions to maintain multi-currency positions and monitor key analytics such as Value-at-Risk, responding automatically if key thresholds are breached. The Apama platform also helps traders to algorithmically manage complex strategies, and it can operate autonomously to oversee high-volume ‘vanilla’ trades, freeing up key trading resources to concentrate on higher-margin activities. For more information, visit www.progress.com/realtime/index.ssp.

• ADVFN (www.advfn.com) is now providing users with free market data from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Retail investors can obtain quotes and view streaming intraday and historical charts for Australian stocks and indices on the site for free. ADVFN is providing full Level One data including bid, offer, highs, lows, current price, and traded volumes for ASX-listed companies such as Fosters, Telstra, and Qantas. In addition, users can view a comprehensive package of Australian indices, including the S&P/ASX 20, the S&P/ASX MIDCAP 50, and the Small Ordinaries. Investors can watch Australian stocks and indices on their monitor pages, add them into portfolios alongside other investments, and set up e-mail alerts.
  
  
• COESfx Inc., an online foreign currency exchange, has partnered with MoneyTec LLC, one of the world’s largest online trading communities. MoneyTec recently launched StrategyBuilderFX (SBFX), the first programmable and automatable rule-based forex-trading platform. COESfx will provideStrategyBuilderFX users with streaming, executable prices, taking Interbank liquidity via API to StrategyBuilderFX. With StrategyBuilderFX, traders can create rule-based strategies from scratch or use the development center forums as building blocks where they can collaborate with other users to develop winning strategies. StrategyBuilderFX takes the trading technology of the StrategyBuilderFXMetaTrader platform and connects to established and reputable futures commission merchants, fund managers, introducing brokers, and retail traders on the COESfx Electronic Currency Network (ECN). For more information, visit www.moneytec.com, www.coesfx.com.

ADVFN (www.advfn.com) is a UK-based financial markets Web site that offers data and news from trading centers around the world, along with a large selection of analysis tools and trading resources.

The site offers several feebased premium services and contains a great deal of free data and tools as well. The site’s sections include:

Quote, Monitor, Message Boards, Charts, Level 2, Desktop, Financials, Screener, Alerts, Toplists, Portfolio, Trades, Headlines, News, Commodities, Futures, Data, Trading Signals, Forex, Reports, Training, Money Words, Weather, and World.

Currency traders will find helpful information in the site’s free Forex and World sections. The Forex section goes beyond the usual collection of major currency pairs and provides access to “exotic” currencies such as the Greek Drachma, Finish Markka, and Hungarian Forint. You can get quotes, plot interactive charts, and access forex related news stories.

In the World section, you can click on a country to go directly to a page summarizing the nation’s economic and financial markets activity, including top currency pairs.

• COESfxTM’s partnership with NetPicks Forex enables NetPicks customers to trade on the COESfx Level 1 Trading Platform. NetPicks Forex customers trading on COESfx will be able to work with live executable prices, making each participant, in effect, their own market maker. The COESfx electronic network enables automatic execution of the NetPicks strategy. Also, all participants on the COESfx network will have the ability to try NetPicks Forex for a free, three-week trial of their Forex Trading Systems. For more information, see the companies’ Web sites: www.coesfx.com and www.NetPicksforex.com. In addition, COESfx Inc. has added 10 new currency pairs to its Web-based Electronic Currency Network (ECN), nearly doubling the amount of currencies available to retail and institutional investors. The new currency pairs include EUR/CAD, EUR/AUD, AUD/CAD, GBP/AUD, GBP/CAD, GBP/CHF, CHF/JPY, CAD/JPY, AUD/JPY, and AUD/CHF. Spot gold is also being offered on the COESfx ECN — the first in a wide range of spot tradable commodities to be added to the platform.
  
  
• Interbank FX (www.interbankfx.com) and Equis International (www.equis.com) have partnered to enhance MetaStock Pro FX, the new real-time version of MetaStock specifically created for forex trading. MetaStock Pro FX uses advanced charting and technical indicators to help investors analyze the forex market. Interbank FX has developed a proprietary execution engine interface called Pro FX Trader 2.0 that is incorporated into the MetaStock Pro FX software. The integration allows MetaStock customers the ability to trade live or demo accounts directly from MetaStock Pro FX software. MetaStock customers can execute from live streaming prices. The Interbank FX engine includes automated trailing stops, wireless trading from PDA devices, direct Interbank dealing to world money center banks, and guaranteed liquidity for up to $10,000,000 per execution. Money managers utilizing MetaStock Pro will also have access to the Interbank FX PAMM 3.0.

• MetaQuotes Software Corp. has released MetaTrader 4, the latest version of their forex trading system. MetaTrader 4 is designed to organize brokerage services for forex, CFD, and futures. It includes both a client terminal to be installed on the trader’s computer and back office components to process trading operations on the broker’s side. MetaTrader 4’s client terminal processes a wide array of orders: market orders, pending orders (buy stop, buy limit, sell stop, sell limit), stop loss and take profit, and trailing stop.
  
  
• eSignal and Hotspot FX Inc. announced the availability of Hotspot FX’s foreign exchange data via eSignal’s market data and news platforms. Hotspot FX is known for its multibank data, and its participating banks are fully integrated into the Hotspot FX marketplace, providing ongoing liquidity and a virtual clearinghouse network. eSignal products are available for purchase online or by calling (800) 833-1228. Visit eSignal’s Web site (www.esignal.com) for a complete list of features and pricing options. To trade on Hotspot FX, individuals, broker/dealers, and FCMs representing retail traders can establish omnibus or direct accounts with Hotspot FX’s fully regulated Futures Commission Merchant (FCM). To trade on Hotspot FXi, Hotspot FX’s institutional marketplace, establish an account with any of the top-rated clearing banks and prime brokers in Hotspot FXi’s network.
  
  
• CNBC World’s new and only global program, “Foreign Exchange,” brings together the worldwide resources of CNBC and Dow Jones providing up-to-the minute news and analysis about the forex market. “Foreign Exchange” is anchored by The Wall Street Journal’s Bob O’Brien in New York with Dow Jones Newswires’ Nick Hastings reporting from London. The 15-minute show airs weekdays at 8:30 a.m. ET.

• Forex broker TGForex.com now provides on its Web site a free technical analysis program for currency traders. Users can evaluate the results of several different trading programs in an interactive graphical environment. The onscreen graphs and reports immediately update to show how changes to such things as moving average periods and stop placement affect profits. The simulator uses recent data from eight different currency pairs and has four basic trading algorithms built-in: single moving average, moving average crossover, triple moving average, and high-low channel. No download or installation is necessary — the simulator is programmed in Flash, so it automatically runs from a browser. The program is available at http://tgforex.com/tradesim.htm.
  
  
• FlexTrade Systems now offers the Fast Simulator application to clients of FlexTRADER, enabling traders to simulate trading strategies using recorded tick data 25 to 80 times faster than real time. flexTrade has also created a data set containing three years of tick data. FlexTRADER is a quantitatively enriched, algorithmic trading and order-management system covering equities, foreign exchange, options, and futures. FlexTRADER’s capabilities include pre-trade cost estimation, listed and OTC smart order routing, execution strategies, realtime access to full depth of books, and transaction quality management. Well known for basket trading, FlexTRADER is also leveraged for its single stock trading and market making capabilities. From a single platform, FlexTRADER clients can access all proprietary and broker provided algorithms. For more information about the new Fast Simulator tool, visit www.flextrade.com.
  
  
• Tradingpatterns.com released version 4.8 of Automatic Pattern Search (APS), a software program that discovers price patterns that fulfill user-defined performance statistics and risk/reward parameters by searching historical data automatically. Traders can use APS to develop stock, futures, and Forex trading systems based on price patterns. APS is a fully automated program and no coding is required. Version 4.8 offers the option of automatic code generation for the price patterns it discovers to use with Wealth-Lab and TeleChart, in addition to Tradestation and Metastock. For more information, visit www.tradingpatterns.com.
  
  
• Market Technologies has released VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis Software Version 6.2. This new release contains retrained Neural Networks for 52 markets. In addition, VantagePoint clients can now use the software’s nearly 80 percent predictive accuracy to trade the six major forex currency pairs (USD/JPY, USD/CAD, AUD/USD, EUR/USD, USD/CHF, and GBP/USD) and three of the most actively traded Exchange Traded Funds (Diamonds, Spiders, and QQQQ). For more information, go to www.tradertech.com.

• COESfx Inc. has announced its recent partnership with AbleSys Corporation (ASC), a financial trading software company. AbleSys’ eASCTrend software offers traders specific buy, sell, and stop signals, and is fully automated for day, swing, and position trading for all markets. Traders on the COESfx platform will gain access to eASCTrend’s up-to-the-minute trading signals. COESfx is offering a free one-month trial of the COESfx Level 1 Trading Platform to AbleSys software users. To learn more about the AbleSys eASCTrend software and to begin trading with COESfx, visit www.coesfx.com. In addition, www.coesfx.com has been enhanced with content from Thomson Financial’s IFR Markets. IFR Markets provides investors with key market transactions, data, analysis and commentary on the international markets, and a broad array of information including currency outlooks, economic calendars, and forecasts.
  
  
• E f u t u re s, an operating division of First Capitol Group, has launched its fully automated foreign exchange trading platform. The platform — EZ-FX Trader — offers trading execution, information, and risk management in real-time. EZ-FX Trader contains a suite of 120 spot currency pairs customized to three customer segments: EfuturesFX Mini, EfuturesFX Premium, and EfuturesFX Institutional. The three versions of the platform offer customized workspaces and product coverage in line with graduating levels of investment. For more information, visit www.efuturesfx.com.
  
  
• Advanced Trading Research and Collective2.com announced a new joint service that will allow customers to place trades without human involvement. Thanks to Advanced Trading Research’s TradeBullet software, any trading system monitored by Collective2 can be automatically traded in acustomer’s live brokerage account. Collective2 monitors more than 500 trading systems for stocks, options, futures, and forex. Anyone who wants to sell their trading advice can add their system to the Collective2 Web site. Collective2 then tracks the results each trader achieves and rates all systems on their results. Those interested in TradeBullet can download a demo version at www.tradebullet.com/download.
  

• GAIN Capital announced the launch of Learn to Trade Forex, an online trading course designed to educate individual investors on the fundamentals of forex trading. The course focuses on understanding currency quotations and the factors that drive individual currency movements; reading and analyzing currency charts using advanced technical tools; effectively utilizing the leverage available in forex trading; managing risk and protecting open positions using stop-loss and other order types; anticipating and reacting to major economic events impacting global currency prices; and employing sound money-management techniques to maximize gains and limit losses. In addition, all students receive a demo account funded with $25,000 of virtual money to practice lessons learned on a live trading platform. For more information, visit www.learn-to-trade-forex.com.
  
  
• Portware LLC has implemented access to Hotspot FXi — a leading multibank foreign exchange marketplace — via Portware Professional, a trade and execution management system. The integration allows Portware users to directly place FX orders into the Hotspot FXi marketplace via the user interface and incorporate FX trades into automated trading strategies executed across the global equities, futures, and options markets. Portware and Hotspot FXi’s leading edge systems are linked through a FIX gateway, providing users with instantaneous FX trading capability and live, streaming, executable market data supplied by Hotspot FXi’s network of top-rated bank market makers and nstitutional customers. For more information, visit www.portware.com
  
  
• FFastFill announced the start of its application service in support of the new CME/Reuters service, which gives Reuters users direct access to CME’s foreign exchange futures and enhances the ability to trade FX spot and futures. FFastFill has been responsible for building and maintaining a trade order routing service that enables traders using Reuters to also execute CME’s FX futures contracts. FFastFill has initially signed four major institutions —ABN AMRO, Bank of America, HSBC, and the Royal Bank of Scotland — for this service. These CME clearing members will not only support their internal trading teams, but also offer a service to non-clearing member firms that use the Reuters platform.

Ragee Horner’s book, Forex Trading for Maximum Profit, is a good choice for any novice interested in the forex market.

Horner’s book is divided into three general sections, the first of which explains forex market basics. For newcomers, these first 30 pages are the best part of the book. Horner dispels the notion that forex is exceptionally complicated and risky and lays the groundwork for exploring the market further.

The second section of the book delves into a subject matter you’d find in most trading books technical tools. Fortunately, Horner shies away from writing a laundry list of different technical indicators and instead focuses on the ones she uses herself. If discussions of Fibonacci analysis or the CCI make your eyes cross, Horner’s clear explanations should leave you with the understanding they are not as complicated as you once thought.

The book’s third and largest section addresses Horner’s mindset and approach to trading. Horner covers everything from building a trade to stop-losses and how a trade can go astray; she even discusses how to place orders in a forex brokerage account. These are topics many trading books address, but few do as good a job at framing this information from a personal point of view. After reading the book, you get a true sense of Horner’s thought process as she goes through the trading day.

A multimedia DVD that comes with the book covers the technical indicators Horner uses (a helpful bonus given the small size of the book’s chart examples). It gives you a better sense of what these indicators look like, and Horner’s commentary provides more insight into how she uses them.

Forex Trading for Maximum Profit is a good book, particularly as a departure point for people beginning to investigate the forex market. The writing is concise and easy to understand. You get the feeling you’re in a discussion with a regular person rather than listening to a lecture. It’s a good place for new forex traders to start their research.

Product: FXtrek’s IntelliChart Desktop

What it is: Real-time forex charting software with quote windows, customizable indicators, alerts and multiple data feeds.

Who it is for: Currency traders

Skill level: Beginner to intermediate users

Company: FXtrek.com.

Web site: www.fxtrek.com

Address: 1234 Summer St., fifth floor Stamford, CT 06905 USA

Contact information: General — info@fxtrek.com; technical support support@fxtrek.com; sales sales@fxtrek.com

Price: Desktop version — $100/month; Online version –– $50/month.

Upside: Versatile charting package offering everything needed for technical analysis at a great price. User-friendly for all experience levels. IntelliScript feature builds custom indicators and alerts excellent for applying proprietary formulas.

Downside: Technical support should be a bit more accessible (i.e., an online chat with a live representative or at least a 24-hour phone number); however, the e-mail service is prompt. Retrieving historical data could be faster. Intelliscript requires a programming background.

Minimum system requirements: Online version –– No special operating system requirement for java charts; Desktop version –– Windows 95 or higher.

Recommended: Pentium 500 MHZ or higher, at least 128 MB RAM; MS Java (latest version)

• Online forex trading provider Interbank FX has introduced its platinum rewards Visa credit card and platinum Visa debit card exclusively for Interbank FX customers. The credit card not only allows traders to get points for dollars spent but also delivers 50 reward points for every round-turn standard foreign exchange lot traded. These reward points can be redeemed for airline travel, cruise vacations, and many other rewards. Because of the need for a Social Security Number, the credit card is open to U.S. residents only. The debit card eliminates the downtime and the fees associated with wire transfers. From any location in the world, Interbank FX account holders are able to move money from their margin accounts into an FDIC-insured money market or high yield checking account. These funds can then be accessed quickly and easily, exactly like a standard debit card. The debit card is available worldwide, regardless of location. More information can be found at www.interbankfx.com.

• TradingEducation.com has launched Locate Brokers.com, a new information portal. The Web site (www.locatebrokers.com) offers a detailed directory of U.S. brokers and information for those seeking a reputable broker. LocateBrokers.com presents in-depth content for use by everyone from the average investor to those already trading in futures, commodities, and other financial markets. Broker names and related companies are broken down by state and summarized for easy selection and comparison. Trading exchange information is also featured to give potential investors more in-depth insight.
  
  
• Matrox Graphics has released Matrox PowerSpace, a new virtual desktop management software solution for individuals who work in multi-display computing environments and utilize numerous applications and documents simultaneously. The Matrox PowerSpace software is designed to compliment any Matrox multi display graphics card and is now available as a complimentary download to all Matrox registered users. The Desktop Recall feature enables users to save the application position where it appears on the workspace and automatically reposition these applications to their saved locations. Autostart enables users to determine which applications they would like to start automatically upon log-in, and repositions them to their saved location. Import/Export is used to back-up the application “profile” onto the network so workspaces can be imported and exported to and from other PCs. RDP Awareness retains the user’s local (work) settings for a multi-monitor configuration, even after a remote login session (RDP) from a single monitor has occurred. For more information, please visit www.matrox.com.

• Interbank FX (www.interbankfx.com) now provides its customers with streaming real-time news, covering pertinent world economic data and news releases throughout the world. Interbank FX customers will be able to view the streaming news from their trading platform. In addition, Interbank FX has launched a customer rewards program which gives new customers the opportunity to earn up to $5,000 when they open and fund an Interbank FX account. All new accounts opened and funded between Feb. 1 and March 31 are eligible. Once the new account is funded, customers will have exactly 90 days to trade the required amount of lots to receive the rebate. This does not apply to existing customers who simply wish to open a second account.
  
  
• EBS has recently made technological and data enhancements to support the growth of forex trading. In particular, EBS launched Data Mine, which provides historical trading information from the EBS system since 1997. In addition, spot trading is being enhanced with new data for EBS Live, the spot market trading platform. This data provides insights into the depth of the market. Also, Bank of China became an EBS spot customer in January. Bank of China conducts the largest volume of forex transactions in China and further strengthens the depth of EBS in the Asian market. For more information, visit www.ebs.com.

• FXCM recently introduced its new systems trading platform, Forex System Selector, which provides traders access to more than 40 back-tested systems. It is configured so traders can compare several systems side-by-side and choose which ones to add to their automated portfolio. With Forex System Selector, traders can view overlay performance of multiple systems, view back-tested performance of the portfolio, monitor all trades placed, apply risk management control options, and have access to unlimited portfolio customization and diversification. After creating and testing trading systems, clients can monitor their trading portfolio for results at any time, as well as abandon any system immediately or change their leverage. To help clients better understand Forex System Selector, FXCM has created an instructional video located at http://forex.acrobat.com/p42375479/ and a 30-day free Forex System Selector demo account.
  
  
• Interbank FX ( IBFX) has added the IBFX Instrument Monitor to its offering of forex trading tools. One of 10 free tools Interbank FX offers traders in the off exchange forex market, the IBFX Instrument Monitor allows traders to look at the broader picture of each currency’s relative strength across the board. The IBFX Instrument Monitor tracks the U.S. dollar (USD), euro (EUR), Great Britain pound (GBP), Japanese yen (JPY), Swiss franc (CHF), Canadian dollar (CAD), Australian dollar (AUD), and the New Zealand dollar (NZD) in real time. The tool uses a colored dot next to each currency to give traders an idea of a currency’s status. Red indicates the currency is trending down more than up, blue indicates the currency is trending up more than down, and black indicates a neutral position. The IBFX Instrument Monitor is available now as a free download at http://www.interbankfx.com. In order to use the tool, traders must have either a live account (full IBFX Instrument Monitor functionality) or a demo account (limited IBFX Instrument Monitor functionality). For more information please visit http://www.interbankfx.com/Tools/ExpertAdvisor.aspx.
  
  
• TradingEducation.com has launched Trader-News.com, a member of the TraderWeb.com network of affiliated Web sites offering education, chat rooms, blogs, quotes, news, and more. TraderNews.com provides economic news and market updates covering the latest economic reports and statistics as well as comments from key officials and other important developments. Traders can target U.S., European, or Asian news and can get reports on the latest events behind the changes in overall market values or in individual public company share prices. The site automatically refreshes the latest news about stocks, commodities, currencies, futures, or options in both domestic and global markets. For more information, please visit http://www.tradernews.com.
  
  
• Global Forex Trading’s product line has been enhanced to include global futures market trading. GFT Futures offers trading on more than 100 global futures products from electronic and open outcry markets in 10 exchanges. Traders are able to trade all global futures markets offered by GFT — including energies, E-Minis, stock indices, interest rates, and metals — electronically from the DealBook 360 desktop trading software platform. Suited to meet the needs of traders of all skill levels, DealBook 360 provides free advanced charting features for visual trading, customizable tools to meet a variety of trading preferences and risk management auto-notification emails — all from one platform. For more information on GFT Futures, visit http://www.gftfutures.com.
  
  
• LJM Partners, an investment management firm specializing in managed futures, has released its new trading and risk management system — LJM System for Trade Optimization and Risk Management (LJM STORMSM). The first generation of LJM STORMSM incorporates SPX, VIX, options, and variance futures. Future generations of the technology will introduce additional underlying commodities including ETFs, currency, and interest rates. LJM will work with select clients to design custom investment strategies tailored to specific standards of S&P correlation, risk/volatility, and performance. This system combines the following features: Monte Carlo simulations based on heavy-tailed asymmetric distributions, multidimensional implied and statistical models, volatility forecasting techniques and stress test scenario analysis, risk factor dependence vmodeling beyond traditional linear correlations, and coherent risk measure analysis more appropriate than VaR estimates. For more information, please visit http://www.ljmpartners.com.