1. What is your name and position?

Julia Moss, Chief Dealer at UFXBank

2. How has your firm been coping with the current financial crisis?

The financial crisis has made people turn away from the disappointing stock market conservative investment and turn to Forex trading. We see more and more disappointed investors shift from the stock market and bonds to the Forex market and manage to make substantial profits even during the worst times. The recent crisis has increased the major currencies volatility from 7% to approx 18%-20% which made it more interesting and rewarding for investors to shift to this growing market. The global interest rate reduction made investors seek alternative higher yielding investments and Forex gave them just what they were looking for.

3. How has the Forex market been affected by the financial Crisis?

The financial crisis led investors to "safe" currencies such as the Yen and Dollar instead of higher yielding currencies that are considered more risky in times of crisis.  A lot of investors turned from stocks and futures to the Forex market which is still attractive even in times of recession. One may see that during the crisis people tend to base their trades according to the financial events and their effect on the related currencies.  

4. Have you got any current data/statistics as to the size of today’s Forex market?
Most of the experienced traders around the world consider the Forex market as the best and most profitable of the capital markets. In recent years, thanks to the internet era, the Forex market has shifted from financial institutions to practically anyone willing to learn trading techniques. A trader in the Forex market can consistently make pretty high profits from trading in the Foreign Exchange market. The total global daily volume in the global Forex market is estimated at approx $4 trillion. Of this, over half is actually invested in speculative trading.

5. Do you believe the worst is behind us?

Thanks to the fast and strong response of US and global central banks to stop a rapidly deteriorating and dangerous situation, economic activity appears to be leveling out, both in the United States and abroad, after suffering from the worst recession since World War II. In these last few weeks, prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good. In the Forex market we see investors shifting from "safe" currencies such as US Dollar back to higher yielding assets. This shows us that most investors believe the worst is behind us. The Market is still quite volatile and affected by news releases on a daily bases, as investors keep seeking for more proof the recession is really ending. Personally I believed we have reached rock bottom but a correction might be expected and many investors are waiting for the market to go back down in order to enter. 

6. Can you offer any tips to today’s traders?

As an experienced trader myself, I have a few tips I can share with the readers:
1.    Risk management - You don't want to put all your money in one position as it might go against you even if it looks perfect. Scatter and hedge your risk. 
2.    The trend is your friend – go with the trend. Trade with the trend to maximize your chances to succeed. Trading against the trend will not necessarily result in a loss, but will definitely require more attention, nerves and sharp skills to rich trading goals.
3.    Look at a bigger timeframe than the one you chose to trade in. Watch the charts from longer timeframes to shorter timeframes. A good trader will want to start by analyzing the daily chart and then continue to 4H charts and so on until we reach 15-30 minutes charts. This way we assure we will always follow the main and current trend and give a bigger picture of the market price.
4.    One of the most important tips that a trader should follow is to "Trade Calm". Put aside your emotions and don't lose your head after losing a trade. "Revenge" is not an option. Same goes with winning. Don't be greedy and know when to take your profits.

7. Do you offer managed accounts? If so, what type of managed accounts?

We at UFXBank support managed accounts for our list of portfolio managers.
UFXBank supplies tools that include: fixed allocation of deals daily, directly to client accounts and portfolio management screens that monitor all managed accounts activities.

8. Do you offer a signal trading/Auto trading service?

UFXBank offers free trading signals to our customers as part of our trading package. These signals are carefully generated and monitored by our experienced in-house analyzers and stand on a 70% success level.
As for "Auto Trading" services - UFXBank does not offer auto trading and does not believe in this type of trading. There are some advantages to auto trading but the cons exceed the pros. First of all, using auto trading teaches you nothing about the Forex trading world. It's important to be able to trade manually and understand the market if you're going to be trading a lot. Second thing one should note is that the trader is becoming dependant on a tool that may work now but may become irrelevant when newer and more sophisticated programs come on the market. Since you know nothing about the market, it's difficult for you to realize when this happens. As I see it, a trader should always have control of his investment.
What we do see now is a rising trend in new financial instrument like Bungee Options. More and more traders find the cash-or-nothing possibility very exciting. Bungee options, better known as binary options or digital options give even inexperienced traders the possibility to profit from the Forex market.  

9. Which tool/software do you believe is the most important for a trader?

I believe in technical and fundamental tools for trading. A trader can and should learn about the Forex market and there are numerous resources that a trader can choose from. It is important to develop a trading strategy and there are various techniques that one can apply. An example of such technique is the Forex Candlestick trading. Another type of trading is the fundamental trading. The Forex fundamental traders evaluate currencies and their countries, according to economic announcements. This helps a trader to get an idea of the currency’s true value. All of the news reports, economic data and political events that come out regarding a country are factors that affect the currency's value and should be taken into consideration before applying a trade.

10. What is your favorite technical indicator?

Personally, my favorite technical trading indicator is RSI. RSI indicator compares the average of up and down closes for a specific period of time. Standard period settings for RSI are 14 periods, which can be applied to any time frame. Another indicator I usually use is SMA. SMA (Simple Moving Average) is one of the most used indicators in Forex. It is easy to set and easy to interpret. Moving average simply measures the average move of the price during a given time period. The Simple Moving Average is an extension of the trend line concept. The SMA takes the average of the close price of a given number of the last few periods.