Greece has moved closer to securing emergency funding before debt payments become due in mid May as finance minister George Papaconstantinou warned investors they will “lose their shirts” if they bet that the nation will default.

The euro stabilized in the Asian forex market early this morning after the Greek finance minister said yesterday the aid would arrive in time to avert what would be the euro zone’s first sovereign debt default, although there are increasing indications that the 45 billion euro rescue package may not be large enough.

The euro was steady at around .3375 after a short-covering rebound on Friday. It fell as far as .3201 in the previous session, its lowest since April 2009, but it recovered as Greece sought to activate the financial aid package. Against the yen, the euro edged up 0.2% to 126.00 yen, having risen 1% on Friday.

Greece has 8.5 billion euro’s worth of bonds maturing on the 19th of May so any delay in receiving financial aid could trigger another sell off of assets and hurt global markets. Greece’s debt which totals 115% of GDP as well as a budget deficit of almost 14% has led to major concerns among investors.

The debt crisis has dominated the agenda at the weekends G-20 meetings in Washington. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters that some in the G-20 worry the plan now being crafted is “not enough” and want to ensure any rescue is a “one-time event.”

“Greece has eclipsed everything,” said Sophia Drossos, co-head of global foreign-exchange strategy at Morgan Stanley in New York. “It’s a fluid and fast-moving situation that has captured the attention of markets not least because it has the potential to be a systemic threat.”

Even as Greece draws close to receiving the aid markets are still signaling concern Greece’s fiscal woes may not be over as the country tries to bring its deficit back underneath the EU’s 3% limit by 2012. A recovery in Greek bonds yields fizzled out last Friday after the government’s request for support, pushing the yield on the two-year bond to 10.23% after it dropped to 9.63%. This is almost triple the rate on an equivalent German bond.

There is still strong opposition to the aid in Germany. The German finance minister said over the weekend that any loan depended “entirely on whether Greece continues in the coming years with the strict savings course it has launched”. Germany’s government must pass legislation before the aid can be made available. Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti warned Germany against dragging its feet, saying “if your neighbor’s house catches fire, it’s not to your advantage to sit back.”

However, Mr. Papaconstantinou said he believed Germany would agree to help: “They are completely on board on the need for a framework of conditionality and fully supportive of a decision that Germany has co-signed at the level of heads of state and government and at the Euro group level.”  He also said bridge loans may be possible if all countries cannot reach agreement in time. He promised to meet all obligations, and suggested his country could raise funds by embarking on a privatization program.

European Central Bank officials in Washington played down speculation that Greece’s woes could spill over to other indebted EU member states. “There is no economic cause for a contagion discussion,” ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said in an interview.

What is Forex software? Which is best? What should I look for? How do I know I am getting the right Forex software? These are all valid questions that require valid answers, which this article will address.

Basically, Forex trading is a simple process of purchasing one currency and then trading it for another when the rate goes up. This is how you profit from Forex trading. Although it may sound simple, but it carries some risk as does all speculative investments. The trick is in knowing when to trade a particular set of currencies so you make more than you spent and this is where good Forex software is needed.

What is Forex software?

The software is designed to track the exchange rates across a range of time. This could be hourly, daily, weekly or monthly. The secret to success with Forex is proper research and timing. To gain that precise timing takes experience.

The information you need is displayed in a choice of forms including bar charts, line charts, plot charts, etc. You can watch a specific set of currencies and make an educated prediction as to when the time is right. If you speculate wrong, it could be disastrous depending how much you had invested.

What should I look for?

The software needs to have built in Forex signals so that you know when the time is right. These signals tell you that a currency pair is a good or bad buy at that time. As simple as that is, it is absolutely critical to be spot on. Having the software spot these trends is much better than relying on yourself since with the mass of data available, it is easy to miss a strong signal if you are doing this manually.

Look for software that has a wide selection of display charts for research. Some people do better with bar charts, some like swing charts. With a variety, there is always one that works for you.

One key feature that the Forex software must have is the stop loss. This means that you have a currency pair working and you start to lose money on the pairing. A stop loss tells the software to sell that pair at a certain point. Forex is quoted in as many as 5 decimal places. So say you bought at $ .65234 and want to stop the loss at $ .64234. At 0 investment, you would have only lost (0 X $ .01) overall.

Look for Forex software that allows you to practice before you go “live”. This is absolutely imperative because to be successful in the world of Forex, a working knowledge of it is beneficial. There are terms you need to learn and you can work on strategies. Working in demo mode allows you to exercise the software as much as you want with no financial risk, but to see how you would have done if it was live, and as you are learning the software.

This is possible due to the fact that the whole time you are practicing, you are doing it in real time. What you do in practice you would either gain or lose in actual dollars. Imagine knowing what you are doing before you start doing it. No losing your shirt before you learn the ropes. Try that with stocks or bonds.

How do you know you are getting the right software?

The right software will have you knowing the system and/or signals in a short time. The time varies by individual and how much knowledge of the Forex market you may already have. It also varies, like anything else, by how much time you have to devote to it. After all, your financial success is dependent on your understanding of the Forex software. You should be able to follow it easily and understand profitable Forex trading.

A man has been going to the horse races for 25 years.  Before he goes, he researches everything he can find about the horses and the jockeys – their age, weight, wins, and losses.  He knows what the weather will be and if the condition of the track will be affected.  He knows the odds on each race.  Confidently, he places his bet.  Next to him is a young man who is attending his first horse race.  In fact, he just arrived 15 minutes ago.  Placing his bet next to the old timer, he picks a horse from random.  Lo and behold, the new kid’s horse wins.  The old timer, with a tone of frustration mutters, “Beginner’s Luck.”

As a novice trader, you probably have had your fair share of “lucky breaks.”  You’ve probably also had times when you have pored over endless amounts of market information and made a “sure trade” – and then lost your investment.  Either way, it’s not a good way to approach the game of trading.  There needs to be a healthy balance of analysis and just trading.  Sure, if you make a mistake, you can lose your money – on that trade.  But if you are a prepared trader, those losses should be rare, and besides, a loss helps you learn for the next time.

Analysis paralysis is an informal phrase applied when the opportunity cost of decision analysis exceeds the benefits.  When your hard-earned money is on the line, there’s a strong urge to be extremely careful.  But, if you constantly search for more statistics, reports, studies, evaluations and data, you will come to little real decision-making because more “study“ or “research“ always needs to be done!

One trader we know says, “For a while I couldn’t come up with a trading plan because at first I was making it too simple and I thought there was more to it.  Well I found out that being simple was right to begin with.  I know that I am a good technical analyst and I know that I am right a good portion of the time.  I have begun to embrace uncertainty and admit that I don’t need to know where the market will go next.  If I stick with my trading plan and setups then I will survive.  There are thousands of tools ranging from market profile, to candlestick analysis that will aid me to figure out what will happen next but at the end of the day it could be one trader that changes all of it and makes me wrong.  The more I accept this reality the clearer I see the markets and the opportunities presented to me every day.”

Most traders are not worried about losing all of their money, but instead have a fear of being wrong.  They expect perfection of themselves, and when they do not achieve it (as they never will), they feel like a failure.

Research has shown that it is actually detrimental to fall into “analysis paralysis” when making a decision.  Dr. David Armor and Dr. Shelly Taylor found that it might be wise to just quickly choose an alternative and focus all your energy on achieving an objective.

So when you start to see yourself over-analyzing and becoming paralyzed, stop!  Just make the trade.  You will feel free, and will trade more profitably in the end.

In the mean time, Good Luck on your journey to success…

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