Here we are going to give you an introduction to the basics of forex charting and how to use them to successfully catch and hold forex trends for big profits.

Forex markets (or any financial market for that matter) move to this basic equation:

Fundamentals + Investors Perception of them = Market price

The fundamentals are the supply and demand facts and we all see them but being humans we all draw our own subjective judgments on what they mean and we are not just influenced by logic - but the emotions of greed and fear as well.

It's very difficult to trade the fundamentals, because all the facts are instantly known and discounted in the price and of course you never quite know how humans are going to view them.

A basic premise of using forex charts is to simply assume that all fundamentals are instantly discounted in the price and no study of them is needed - while this sounds essentially simple (and it is), it means a chartist is not interested in knowing them - he is only interested in price movement generated by them and investor psychology.

How and where prices move is decided not by the facts or supply and demand situation but is down to how investors as a whole see them, this then becomes the market price.

A basic foundation of forex technical analysis is that history repeats.

Why?

Because human nature is constant it will be reflected in forex charts as repetitive price patterns that can be traded for profit.

In essence forex charts allow us to study the fundamentals and investor psychology all at once - a technical analyst is not interested in how or why prices move - he just studies the charts and wants to make money when they do.

Another foundation of technical analysis is that a trend in motion is likely to persist and the aim is to lock into these trends and hold them for profit.

The fact is anyone with the right forex education can make money using forex charts but it's an art not a science and you need to learn a method based upon sound logic.

Many forex traders base their currency trading systems on trying to predict forex prices but this is wrong.

Why?

Because it's simply another word for hoping and guessing and that won't get you far in any walk of life and that includes forex trading.

Forex charting is a game of odds - not certainties and you need to keep this in mind while chart patterns do repeat they do not move to a scientific theory.

If you want to learn currency trading and be successful then charting is a quick simple and profitable method and takes very little time. You can learn it in a few weeks and you can then cover your currencies daily in around 30 minutes and that's it.

Forex charting basics are enclosed but you will now say - I like the idea how do I use them for profit? That is the subject of part 2 of this article series.