Educational Articles

Knowledge Base

Learn how to understand various macroeconomic data releases and indicators, and how they could impact the financial markets.

Reading time • 3 minute(s)

The Influence of Politics

History knows that a lot of the sharpest moves in financial markets were caused by political rather than economic events. For example, the Brexit vote and US election provided high volatility and multiple trading opportunities. Learn more about the influence politics can have on the economy in this lesson.

Reading time • 3 minute(s)

Trading with the Trend

Financial markets can move in two distinct trends: up or down. One of the most basic - and often underrated - rules of trading is to trade in the direction of the prevailing trend. Learn how to identify trends, and what to do when a market is moving sideways.

Reading time • 3 minute(s)

Types of Charts

Learn all about the different types of charts, their respective strengths and weaknesses, and how you can use them to improve your trading experience.

Reading time • 4 minute(s)

What Is CFD Trading?

A CFD stands for contract for difference. CFD trading allows you to take a position on the price of an instrument without actually owning the underlying asset. One of the most unique aspects of CFDs is that they enable you to profit from falling markets as well as rising ones.

Reading time • 3 minute(s)

What Is Forex Trading?

Forex – also known as the foreign exchange market – is the largest trading market in the world. The daily volume of transactions in currencies is estimated to exceed $5 trillion. Forex trading takes place 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Reading time • 5 minute(s)

What Is Fundamental Analysis?

Unlike technical analysis, which looks at price action and trends to help pinpoint where prices may head to next, fundamental analysts consider all available data to help them to determine the relative value of a market. They then look for discrepancies between the current market price and their own valuation to spot trading opportunities. For example, they may want to go long or buy Apple shares if their own valuation of Apple is higher than its current share price.

Reading time • 2 minute(s)

What Is Technical Analysis?

There are three rules that form the foundations of technical analysis. Firstly, the market discounts everything. Secondly, prices move in trends. And lastly, history repeats itself. Learn more about technical analysis with this brief introduction.

Reading time • 2 minute(s)

xStation 5: Basic Layout

Our award-winning platform xStation 5 is intuitive to use and designed to offer our traders a superior experience. This short and comprehensive tutorial is here to help you familiarise yourself with the basic functions of xStation. Learn how to read the charts, find out where you can open and manage your trades, and how to place Stop Loss and Take Profit orders.

Reading time • 2 minute(s)

xStation 5: Calculator

The advantage of the trader’s calculator is that it instantly determines every aspect of your position, allowing you to make more informed decisions and take greater control of your trading, without any need for manual calculation.

Reading time • 2 minute(s)

xStation 5: Calendar and News

xStation 5 is designed to be the complete trading platform with everything you need in one place, keeping you as close to the markets as possible.

Reading time • 2 minute(s)

xStation 5: Charts and Customisation

For most traders, the chart is the main and most important source of market information, which is why it's important to customise it to fit your trading needs perfectly.

xStation was designed to be intuitive to use and fully customisable, allowing you to create a trading screen that's suited to your trading style. In this comprehensive tutorial, you can find out exactly how you can customise the appearance of xStation 5 to meet your needs.

Reading time • 1 minute(s)

xStation 5: Charts correlation

Correlations in financial markets essentially measures the degree to which two securities move in relation to each other. Traders find it very important to calculate correlations to reduce and diversify risk of their portfolios, as well as to identify additional trading opportunities.

Reading time • 1 minute(s)

xStation 5: Hotkeys

Once you’ve made the decision on market, speed is the key. That’s why professional currency traders are able to do almost everything via their keyboard.

Reading time • 4 minute(s)

xStation 5: Market Analysis

When trading the financial markets, it’s good to have as much information as possible. xStation 5 gives you a real advantage in terms of looking for and identifying potential trading opportunities. In this tutorial, we’ll cover the unique functions of xStation 5 that are designed to help you trade better.

Reading time • 2 minute(s)

xStation 5: Market Watch and How to Place a Trade

In essence, the Market Watch is your window to the world of investments from around the globe. Learn how to place your first trade through xStation 5, and choose from Forex, commodities, indices, equity CFDs and ETFs.

Reading time • 3 minute(s)

xStation 5: Pending Orders

When you have your own view on a particular market, but don’t have the time to constantly monitor prices manually, pending orders might be a good solution to your problem. Learn what types of pending orders you can find on xStation 5, how to place a pending order, and how to trade right from the chart.

Reading time • 1 minute(s)

xStation 5: Price alerts

Alerts on xStation 5 can automatically inform you when important to you levels will be achieved by the market, without having to spend all day in front of the monitor or mobile.

Reading time • 2 minute(s)

xStation 5: Statistics

One of the unique functions of xStation 5 is live statistics on your trading performance. These statistics update in real-time and are a modern day trading journal that may help you understand what aspects of your trading are successful and identifies areas for improvement.

Reading time • 4 minute(s)

xStation 5: Stop Loss, Take Profit & Trailing Stop

As we’ve already explained in our Basic terms and vocabulary tutorial, one of the key things to keep in mind when trying to find long-term success with trading is prudent risk management. This is why Stop Loss and Take Profit orders should be an integral part of your trading.

Cookie name	Description
SERVERID
userBranchSymbol	Expiration date 1 day
adobe_unique_id	Expiration date 364 days
__hssc	Expiration date 1 hour
SESSID	Expiration date 1 day
__cf_bm	Expiration date 1 hour
intercom-id-iojaybix	Expiration date 270 days
intercom-session-iojaybix	Expiration date 6 days
xtbCookiesSettings	Expiration date 364 days
TS5b68a4e1027
xtbLanguageSettings	Expiration date 364 days
userPreviousBranchSymbol	Expiration date 364 days
intercom-device-id-iojaybix	Expiration date 270 days
test_cookie	Expiration date 1 hour
_cfuvid
OClmoOot	Expiration date 18262 days

Cookie name	Description
__hstc	Expiration date 179 days
__hssrc
_vwo_uuid_v2	Expiration date 365 days
_ga	Expiration date 729 days
_ga_CBPL72L2EC	Expiration date 729 days
_ga_TC79BEJ20L	Expiration date 729 days
countryIsoCode
_vwo_uuid	Expiration date 365 days
_vwo_ds	Expiration date 29 days
_vwo_sn	Expiration date 1 hour
_vis_opt_s	Expiration date 99 days
_vis_opt_test_cookie
_gcl_au	Expiration date 89 days
AnalyticsSyncHistory	Expiration date 29 days
_gid	Expiration date 1 day

Cookie name	Description
hubspotutk	Expiration date 179 days
_uetsid	Expiration date 1 day
_uetvid	Expiration date 389 days
_ttp	Expiration date 389 days
MUID	Expiration date 389 days
_tt_enable_cookie	Expiration date 389 days
li_sugr	Expiration date 89 days
_fbp	Expiration date 89 days
muc_ads	Expiration date 729 days
guest_id_marketing	Expiration date 729 days
guest_id_ads	Expiration date 729 days
guest_id	Expiration date 729 days
_omappvp	Expiration date 3998 days
_omappvs	Expiration date 1 hour
IDE	Expiration date 389 days
MSPTC	Expiration date 389 days
_rdt_uuid	Expiration date 89 days

Cookie name	Description
bcookie	Expiration date 364 days
lidc	Expiration date 1 day
UserMatchHistory	Expiration date 29 days
bscookie	Expiration date 364 days
li_gc	Expiration date 179 days
personalization_id	Expiration date 729 days