I received many mails & queries on my previous article of forex trading. I presume some of you have already downloaded the free demo version of etoro forex trade. If not , you may download it now by clicking this link : free etoro demo forex trading software. I find etoro to be the best forex trading system in the market.

Today’s forex currency trading tip is like a goldmine. This is the most powerful forex trading secret big players use to rope in loads of profit in fx trading. This one tip alone has the potential to increase your forex earnings many folds. Here is your friendly forex signal tip:

It is best to trade when the activity & volumes of  forex trade is huge.

The best days to trade in forex from Tuesday to mid Friday. The forex markets close from 4 pm (Eastern standard time)  on Friday & open on Sunday at 5pm(Est ). There is very low volume of forex trade on Friday afternoons & Monday as forex traders are vary of forex trends. During these low business hours forex trade is more like gamble because any one major purchase or sale can go totally against the trend & one’s speculations could go completely wrong.

As a forex trader, one needs to know the trading times of different forex markets. Forex markets first open in New Zealand & Australia, followed by Asia & middle east and the last markets to open are Europe & America. Forex Trading is at it’s heaviest when the major markets overlap. The biggest forex markets are of UK & USA.

Given below are the Forex Trading sessions of major market in EST

USA  8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Japan  7 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Australia  5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
UK  3 a.m. to 12 p.m.

A graphical representation of the above would be:

Click here to check out the current time in EST

From the above graph it is pretty clear that the best trading times when major markets overlap is:

USA & UK: 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Australia & Japan : 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
UK & Japan: 3 a.m. to 4 a.m.

Wherever you are located, I am sure that you will find lots of profitable time to trade. During these peak periods, one can do a lot of small forex trades & earn pretty decent amounts.

Let’s summarize today’s forex trading tutorial :

Best days forex tarde : Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.

Best time for forex trade: 3  Forex trade overlapping time zones.

Wishing you all the best with your online forex earning

Here are some related posts from the net that you will enjoy:

If you are exploring online earning opportunities where one can earn 1000′s  of dollars from your home PC; trading forex online could be the option you are looking for.  The word trading is usually associated with risk, due the ups & downs of the stock market. Here, we are not talking of stock trading but trading in foreign currencies through forex platforms.

Forex markets are a much safer bet than stock due the facts mentioned below:

• Unlike stock market, up or down forex signals does not affect your earning potential. When a currency pair is going down one can make profit by selling it & vice versa when the currency pair is going up.
• The forex market stays open throughout the day; this increases the earning potential & decreases the risk.
• Most online forex accounts come with a stop loss mechanism. This means that you can never loose more money than that you have invested in that particular trade. We can also manually set much lower stop loss levels.
• One need not pay brokerage or commission charges for forex trade.
• Personally, I like the leverage in forex trade (also known as FX trade). In stock market one can get a leverage of 2:1 whereas forex brokers give you a leverage of up to 400:1. This means that smaller investments can get higher returns. (Higher leverage also means higher risk)

The challenge that we face is to learn to the new skills like – forex trade, forex signals, forex calendars & decipher forex charts & forex news.

This is where I am excited to share a new forex platform called etoro. etoro makes forex trading as simple a video game. There are other platforms like AVAFX which may be better in terms of reports & reputation, but none can compare to the ease of etoro.

Some other benefits of etoro are :

1. Free forex account (demo version) where one can practice & sharpen his/her trading skills.
2. Free forex course, downloadable forex book & forex tutorials.
3. Extremely user friendly platform, which makes trading a child’s play.
4. Low  minimum investment to trade ( one can start trading from 50$ deposit)
5. Multiple options to deposit & withdraw money (lowest withdrawal is at 20 $)
6. Live help & chat section.

Click the banner to open a free demo trading  A/c

You may also these related articles from the web useful:

What is the easiest tool to achieving more? How diffificult is it & how much it is going to cost? Here is the big news- the tool for achieving more is simple & FREE!……………………………..It’s the good old “To do list“.

In my humble opinion, it is important to be organized to be super achiever & making a to- do- list is the most important step of being organized. This is true not just for people at work, self employed professionals; homemakers & students need it too.

Lists energize us into activity & gives direction to our day. Without a list, one is very likely to drift aimlessly into the day. List is a great method to guide us into specific time bound activities. I feel that a well made to- do- list inflicts the right amount of pressure on us which makes us more productive. Some readers may say that their life is perfect without a list. Well! If you are happy with where you are, you probably needn’t change anything. But for people aspiring to achieve more,  a to-do-list is a good place to begin.

It is possible that one may still procrastinate & be ineffective despite making a list. Here are some tips that will ensure that you get the maximum out of your list:

• Do not lose your list. Yes! This can happen. One can avoid misplacing the list by having a designated place for it. Having it in my wallet works fine for me, you may find it more convenient to paste it on your refrigerator.
• Have a designated time to make your to-do-list. Late evenings are the most productive time for me. Whenever I have postponed making the list till next morning, I have invariably ended up without a list. If you think that you are most effective in the morning hours, make a list as soon as you get up. I do mine the previous night.
• The most important aspect of making the list is prioritizing it. Use colours, stars, bold letters, numbers or anything else but DO IT! From the many items on your list it is important to know which items will make the biggest positive difference in your life & make these items you’re No: 1 priority.

People procrastinate for various reasons:

• Fear of failure
• Enormity of task
• Dislike for a particular aspect of work
• Boredom

It may take a while for one to get to the base of the problem. Once we identify the reason, overcoming procrastination really becomes easy. Getting on top of this problem is a gradual improvement process. Here are some shockers (Quick tips) that may help you to get a jump start on some types of procrastination.

• Invite friends for lunch or dinner. This is certain to help you if you have been putting off cleaning the house!
• Spend some money on what I call `Organizers’.  Lets look at some illustrations :
  1. Purchase a desk or dated box file to organize the bills that are lying cluttered.
  2. Buy cartons to pack off certain seasonal materials.
  3. Get a tool kit to finish the pending home repairs.

  The excitement of new Òrganizers’ & the guilt of expense should get the job done.

• Do a 80:20 exercise on weekend. The 80:20 rule says that we use only 20 percent of our belongings 80% of the time. This in turn means that we do not need to keep 80% of the things we process!

Take a stock of your papers, utensils, clothes today. If you have not used something in the past one year, you are probably never going to need it again. Get Rid of it TODAY. When I knew that I need not file 80% of the pending papers, I immediately got into the act of filing ( & discarding).

The best part of this 80:20 exercise is that we can look forward to the exciting shopping ahead to replace some of the things we have discarded ( urghhhh… ??)

The first article of this blog was written on January & I procrastinated till May to write the next article. Two books have helped me to overcome the problem to a great extent: Eat that frog by Brain Tracy & Procrastinators’ handbook by Rita Emmett. Thanks to some of their recommendations, I have overcome the problem of clutter at my office & am on my way of overcoming the financial mess of late cheques & irregular premium payments.

Here are some tips that helped me.

• Set a dedicated time for the most dreaded work each day & avoid all distractions like phone calls & tea breaks during that time. I initially tried this in the night when everyone else was asleep. Today, I can manage to switch off my mobile for 60 minutes & give myself this time even during busy days at office.
• Introduce fun into boring tasks that are being procrastinated. I had procrastinated the cleaning of book shelf for a long time. Just to make this fun I involved my eight year old son in cleaning & together we had it done in no time! We also had a lot of fun doing it. Listening to music is another way of adding fun to boring jobs. You may use your creativity to come up with as many ides as you like.
• Reward yourself for finishing both small & big projects. This technique is very effective when I have an important but unpleasant task to perform. I used to start my day at office by checking mails over a cup of coffee.  Now, I reward myself to this luxury only after the important task is done. Some other small rewards could be gossip, break, walk, newspaper time, call to home etc. Rewarding yourself with movie tickets or weekend trips can work wonders for bigger projects.

Just in case you are wondering what is my reward for writing this blog post …….. ………………….. …………………. It’s your valued comments!

Click on the links below to read related articles

http://www.friendly-tips.com/2010/01/11/time-management-tips/

http://www.friendly-tips.com/2009/05/27/managing-time/

If you regularly find yourself running & dashing to meet deadlines, you have most probably fallen into the deadly sins of time management.

We often try to make time. ………… read that line again. How can one make time? We can only utilize the time we have.  In this post I have tried to analyze some of these traps that one needs to avoid, because these are dangerous & hidden time stealers.

Garnishing  or Decorating:  In the process of completing projects , we give over emphasis to our own creative ideas & end up doing un-necessary things that are fun but do not add any real value to the project. The result of all this distraction is a delayed project.

The bane of Perfectionism: Some blessed beings, under the burden of ego end up spending too much time perfecting their projects rather than focusing on tasks that should already be done.

Working in the trenches: You might be a master at breaking down tasks to bite sized pieces, but if this traps you into working on low level details, achieving weekly goals will become difficult.

click here to receive free tips on improving productivity.

Waiting for the boss’s approval: I have heard this beautiful saying “It is easier to ask for apology than to ask for approval”. If your projects are repeatedly getting delayed because of unavailability of your boss, go ahead & do it your way.

Do not think tooooo … much : I was a master at this. I would often think & think about how I will go about accomplishing a difficult project. This process used to drain me of so much energy that I fooled myself into believing that I am actually working on the project by thinking about it. Believe me! Our minds works better when we are working on a project & not while thinking about it.

If case you are really serious to improve your productivity by leaps & bounds, you cannot afford not to read this wonderful book on mind mapping.

Related articles:

Managing Time, Tips for a successful supervisor, Tips for Supervisors # II

How I wish that I learned these at kindergarten.  I was/am enslaved to many of these habits blissfully unaware that these habits were causing long term damage to my body.  In fact I fall prey to some of these habits even today .  The good news is that now I am aware! & will eventually come out of these self damaging rituals.  May be, “Top to Toe Don’ts” is a more apt title for this article.

Here are 7 Don’ts (Top to Toe)

Hair:  Never use nails or comb to scratch your scalp.  This will cause injury to the scalp & thus result in damage to hair.  Use finger tips instead to rub the itching area mildly.  This also doubles up as massage which helps to spread the natural oils in your scalp.

Teeth:  Keeping too many tooth brushes in one cup, using a toothbrush protector (cover) or keeping tooth brush near to WC will all increase the bacteria in the tooth brush.  Even keeping tooth brush inside a closed cabinet is not advisable as it increases bacterial growth.

Eyes:  Never splash water directly into the eyes, ensure that the eyes are closed when splashing water.  I had the tendency to wash face as soon as I get back home.  It is advisable not to wash face when you are still sweating.  One needs to wait till the body cools down to the natural temperature before washing face.

Lips: Never bite the lips (this makes you look like a nervous wreck or a buck toothed moron ) or use saliva to keep it moistened.  I do agree that one should not let the lips go dry.  If you are against chemical laced creams, try natural cream or wax.

Skin:  One can overdo even a good habit & ultimately achieve the exact opposite of desired result.  I have oily skin & am also very prone to acne.  After being enlightened with the knowledge that washing face with pure water is a one stop solution to both my problems, I went overboard with it.  I started washing my face 20-25 times a day.  The results were shocking, the skin started cracking due to drying up of skin.

Stomach/ intestine:  Loosening the belt after a heavy meal is flirting with danger.  There is a good chance that the small intestine gets twisted in the process.  Here is my friendly tip-Eat less! Don’t eat as if there is no tomorrow .  It is also a myth that walking immediately after a meal is good for you.  In fact this exercise does not allow our body to absorb the nutrients from the food.

Foot: This is almost like a ritual for me; I judiciously polish my shoes every day to that shining appearance on it.  I do it with such vigor that I never felt the need for any other exercise to develop my biceps.  After spending so much of time with the smart & shiny shoe it was inevitable that I fell in love with it & started wearing the same pair everyday to office.  This was my biggest foot care error.  One must alternate between two pairs of shoes.  This gives sufficient time for each pair to dry out & also changes the specific pressure points that a shoe may have.

I recollect a story I heard long back; it was something about every part of the body fighting to prove that it is THE most important part. Fed up the senseless arguments, the ass hole shut itself up & every part suffered as a result. I guess it’s time to for me to shut up too !

It’s no wonder that today; supervisors have less & less interpersonal skills. My friend, Prewit did a wonderful job in listing the attributes for a good supervisor in the article Tips for a successful supervisor. That article clearly stated that interpersonal skills supplement other skills like problem solving & communication skills. I have always believed that an effective supervisor is one who can get the best out of his/her team. Let’s looks at five tips that will motivate people to work under you.

1)      Recognize efforts & accomplishments: Every survey ever done on motivators has repeatedly highlighted the fact that is not $money$ but recognition which is the biggest motivator for humans . There is an art to recognition too! Praising your team member’s effort in public is much more effective than doing it in your cabin. Let’s assume that you praise an employee’s punctuality in a meeting, now this employee is forced to maintain his new found image & what’s more, he will love you for doing that!

2) Make deposits: A friend once told me that managing people is not as complicated as it seems. In fact, human relationship is like a bank account. To withdraw from it, you must first deposit into the account & there is no overdraft facility. Whenever you can accommodate special requests of subordinates, do it! Spend some time socializing with them after hours. Take every opportunity to grow your account. Be the first one to send them cards on the birthday/ anniversary or inquire the well being of their near & dear ones. I have noticed that if you are willing to go the extra yard for them, they are willing to go the extra mile for you .

3) Feeling of importance: Many supervisors for some strange reason hide information from subordinates. May be these supervisors feel that their team members have no use with that important piece of information. Here is the breaking news – “without sharing your vision/goal, you will never have the full commitment of your team”. You certainly cannot be a good leader if you do not command the commitment of your team. Make every team member feel important by communicating your goals, strategies & vision with them. It’s amazing what people will do when you tell them that you are depending on them to accomplish the organization’s goals.

4) Art of criticism: I guess we all think that we have mastered at least this art. I thought the same too. I was a fault finding machine & never felt the need to hold back my criticism . Experience has taught me few things which I want to share here.

• Never criticize the person, instead focus your criticism on the action.
• Let the criticism be constructive.
• Always criticize in private.
• Use sandwich technique. Sandwich the criticism within two encouraging statements.

5) Blame Game: Despite the best efforts of your team it is possible that you missed a deadline & there is a problem with quality of the product. As a leader accept the blame & resist the temptation of putting the blame on team members. Do not make the session into a blamestorming session!  If one cannot accept responsibly for failures, one should not accept the responsible position itself. It is humility rather than ego that will earn you the respect & commitment of the entire team.

I have recently read a new terminology for modern managers –  “SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.”

To be a successful manager or a seagull manager is a choice that you have.

Click here to read part 1 of this article

E-mail Etiquette

E-mail has improved the efficiency of companies worldwide.  It is easy to use, totally free & instant. E-mail has also given the option to the companies to be proactive to the changes in the market.

Alas! Despite this, most business schools do not teach e-mail basics even in today’s world. Your E-mail etiquette is absolutely vital to your career growth. Lack of E-mail etiquette is detrimental to the image of your establishment.

I have learned some E-mail basics through many trial & errors & want to share the same with readers of Friendly-Tips.

5 basic tips for better E-mail etiquette

• Type & matter before “To address”: This tip is especially useful when you are working on your Laptop. Since keypads of laptops are ultra sensitive to touch, there is a chance of hitting the “send” key even before you complete your message.  To save you from the embarrassment, it’s best to key in the “send” address after completing the entire message.

• Enable “ Forgotten Attachment Detector” in Gmail : Being of sanguine nature, I spend a lot of time in developing flowery language for the mail. After doing a wonderful job with the message, I often get excited & forget to add the attachment . To my embarrassment, I realize this folly only after hitting the “send all” button. Thankfully, the new version of Gmail has a wonderful tool called “ Forgotten Attachment Detector”. Enable it ! Once enabled, Gmail reminds you whenever you forget an attachment, provided there is a word called “attached” or attachment” in your mail.

This is how you do it step by step.

1. Go to “ settings of Gmail”
2. Select “ labs” option
3. Hit “enable” key at the Forgotten Attachment Detector lab.
4. Save your setting changes.

• Auto spell check: We all know that Gmail does not come with auto spell check option. This means that whenever we send the mail in a hurry, without manually using the spell check option there is a chance for spelling errors to creep in due to oversight. I found a solution to this through Firefox addon. Since that day, I have been using firefox browser to operate Gmail. After enabling the above mentioned option, I can auto check the spellings while typing itself.

Here is the step by step procedure for enabling the auto spell check option.

1. Click https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
2. Select the “Language Support” option.
3. Choose the “dictionary” eg: US English or British English.
4. Press “add to firefox button”
5. Download the addon by selecting the “install now” icon.
6. Restart firefox
7. Now try your Gmail & see the red underline whenever you spell wrong!

• Send word documents in 2003 version: This tip may sound ridiculous to some of you. But not doing so has wasted many precious minutes of mine. We end up sending mails to different countries & different types of clients & suppliers. Some of them may not have 2007 version of windows installed. Why take a chance? spend a few seconds extra to convert the file to 2003 version, especially if you are sending the mail to multiple recipients.

• Avoid “all Caps” option: I had a major misunderstanding with a government official. The last line of my official mail was in capital letters. This offended the official greatly. It was too late before I realized that writing in capital letters is synonymous with shouting. This error resulted in our company losing out on the training contract for government employees.

How I wish these E-mail etiquettes were taught to me at my finishing school ! By the way I am taking the first step towards correcting this wrong. Right now, I am forwarding this article to communication & computer teachers at various schools that I know. I urge you to do the same.

Here are some more articles that you may enjoy

• Email Etiquette Overload | What Would Bing Do? | BNET – BNET’s Stanley Bing delivers clear-eyed career and workplace advice on office politics, climbing the ladder, and managing up.
• Geek Etiquette » Email etiquette 1: Greetings – Used to be that business letters were simple. You (or your secretary) typed them on your manual typewriter, beginning Dear Sir, and followed a simple formula as laid out in various handbooks of business communications. And in completely informal situations, we all know how to use it just fine.
• The etiquette and dangers of signing off an email – An article in The New York Times this weekend draws attention to the importance and dangers of how you sign off your emails. One entrepreneur tells the story of a deal gone bad and of deteriorating email signatures: …

Tips for a successful supervisor

When I asked one of my friends to define supervisor, he said, “Supervisor is a middle management employee on whose shoulder rest managements’ gun, used as sand bag by the subordinates and as punching bag by the customers” . In real work scenario, this definition is very true because, most of the supervisors are internally promoted to that position without any proper guidance! And the result, new supervisor gets weighed down by the conflicting demands of the management, customers and sub-ordinates.

Who can become a supervisor?

Well, every one has the potential to become an effective supervisor provided, he /she understands their role and has the right approach towards the organization goals. The best of the employees not always make the best supervisors, at least, not without the proper guidance.

As a supervisor, it is important to clarify your job role, to your subordinates and other coordinating departments. Realize that you are no longer belongs to that “group’’ you used to hang around with. That doesn’t mean that you are estranged, it’s just relationship with different vision.

What are the important skills required for a supervisor?

Effective supervisor should have a combination of skills like, technical skills, HR skills and interpersonal skills. A supervisor must have complete technical knowledge required for the job, in order to guide the team and get respect from them. Apart from this, should also have some core management skills like communication skills, time management skills, delegating skills, decision making skills, performance assessment skills, etc.

5 most important skills to become an effective supervisor

1. Delegation skills: This is one of the most important supervisory skills and requires logical rules and technique for proper assignment. Effective delegation saves time, develops people, motivates the team and increases the production. Poor delegation will result in frustration, de-motivation and creates confusion among the sub-ordinates. The delegated task must be specific, measurable, realistic, agreed, time bound, ethical and recorded.
2. Interpersonal Skills: Employers appreciate supervisors who get along with people at all levels and so they hire supervisors with good interpersonal skills like communication, problem solving skills and team building skills. Interpersonal skill helps to build a trust between you and the sub-ordinates and thus able to work harmoniously and efficiently.
3. Performance evaluation skills: Evaluation of employee performance is one of the most challenging aspects of a supervisor’s job. This evaluation improves employee’s job satisfaction and morale by letting him/her know that the supervisor is interested in their job progress and personal development. This serves as systematic guide in planning employee’s further training, assist in determining special talents, skills and capabilities. EPE also provides an opportunity for employees to discuss job problems and interests.
4. Training Skills: It is a supervisor’s job to identify and impart training to the employees on regular basis.  It helps in increasing the job knowledge and skills of the employees and thus expand the over all personality of the employee to achieve individual goal and organization goals.
5. Decision making skill: This is an important skill required for a supervisor in order to complete their job responsibilities. Best way is to solve problems by selecting one course of action from several possible alternatives where the positive outcome can outweigh possible losses. Avoiding decision may be easier; however, making own decision and accepting the consequences is the best way to stay control of your time and success.