While the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is responsible for insuring market integrity and protecting market participants against manipulation, abusive trade practices, and fraud the CFTC will not protect you from sudden and at times drastic changes in price levels.

It is always best to increase leverage relative to experience and success. To use too much leverage and trade a large position just starting out might seriously deplete your capital with just one or two losing trades.

The main point to keep in mind is that currencies usually trend in one direction for long periods of time. The trend can be easily determined by looking at forex charts. The old traders saying that "the trend is your friend" is especially true in trading forex.

If you are a large bank depositor it is a very good idea to spread your deposits over several banks. In addition, it is an excellent idea to hold some important percentage of your assets in gold. Even if you only have a small bank account you should be careful in selecting the bank that you bank with.

It is Helicopter Ben Bernanke who is now in the Fed hot seat. The fickle crowd who will be soon trying to survive a recession or worse will probably want their share of red Bernanke meat, including Bubbles Greenspan who as always will admit to no wrong and who will find fault with Bernanke's leadership while defending his own sorry role in the financial debacle.

In a high profile case of yet another homeowner being underwater with a mortgage even TV personality Ed McMahon is in danger of losing his Beverly Hills estate to foreclosure. Good old Ed probably took out too much equity from his almost $5,000,000 home as the value was increasing and now can't service his mortgage payments as prices fall.

In the near future, in a world starved for oil, Brazil will join the likes of Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran as an important oil exporter and cash magnet. The economic future of Brazil looks to be bright.

Currency rates are influenced by many constantly changing factors, including political events and economic developments in national economies, as well as investor attitudes. If you are able to understand and analyze these factors as well as accurately interpret forex chart patterns you could make profitable trades in forex.

At a minimum you can expect higher inflation rates for this year and next as commodity prices continue to climb. You can also expect great social unrest around the world as even middle class families find it difficult to pay higher prices for food and energy.

Forex charts are one of the most important things you should learn how to use properly in order to successfully trade in the Forex market. Without charting knowledge, you are very likely doomed to fail in the very liquid active forex market.