Lots of ways. With regards to prices, they do it through their trading software. It MT4, it's well-known there is a plug-in called Virtual Dealer plug-in that allows brokers to hunt your stop, delay quoting, requote, even change their price feeds and all sorts of wonderful things. And if you make too much money with them, they WILL withhold your profit and close your account.
Since you seem to be pretty knowledgable I am going to ask you some more questions. Is price the only data which I have access to if I am trading forex? Is this enough to make an educated guess? I read quite a bit on candlestick patterns and how people say buy on this candle and sell on something else. However, I dont think candlesticks make much sense and the reason I say this is the closing has no special meaning. But all the patterns in the candle are based on body open and close. (I posted a question on this a while back, and the conclusion I had is closing makes sense if I am trading stocks and am doing so only on a 1day time frame, however for forex since the markets are always open, candles do not make much sense.) Support and resistance does, but once again that is the only source of data I have(news doesnt seem to affect forex as much as stocks, but that may be because I am not looking at the right sources). How would you suggest someone who is getting started with forex to actually do(Read charts, or read books, or read posts?)? Trading stocks to me involves very high commission, and I dont want to get into it unless I know that forex is something so unregulated that it just doesnt make sense trading it.)
I certainly think it's a good idea (a) NOT to use MT4 (there are many other problems with it, too), and (b) NOT to use a brokerage that offers only MT4/5 (because that tells you a bit about what sort of customers they're trying to attract, which in turn tells you a bit about their own business model!). Not my experience at all (and I made a full-time living through one, for quite a while, before switching to futures). That relates to a whole range of other issues, like where/how they're regulated, and how efficiently they off-set their own net liabilities in the underlying market - clearly, IF they do that efficiently enough, they don't care which customers win and which lose, because they make their own living from the spread.
The same analysis, technical and fundamental that you use to trade stocks also can be used to trade Forex. The only difference Forex is more impacted by economic events and news than stocks. And Forex is traded 24 hrs 6 days a week so if you hold positions "after-hours", it can be impacted a lot by price movements during the European and Asian market hours.
Typo there, I think? The market is 24/5, not 24/6. Certainly it has. Hence all the comments above about the importance of regulation, government-backed guarantess, and so on. But not as a generalization, as you expressed it.
No ... but it's almost the only relevant, technical data. You don't have DOM or volume (apart from those of the corresponding forex futures, as mentioned above.) It's enough for those with the appropriate skill-set and experience to trade successfully, long-term; yes - definitely. (That's a tiny proportion of spot forex traders, though.) I completely agree. I strongly prefer bars to candles and always have done. (We're in the minority, but personally I'm used to that ). Both give exactly the same information, of course (the open, high, low and close) but bars visually accentuate the highs and lows (which I consider objective and factual) and candles visually accentuate the opens and closes (which I consider far more arbitrary in the sense that they're user-defined). Again, I completely agree. Don't try to learn from forums, blogs and Youtube videos (until you have enough skill, experience and judgement to be able to be wisely selective about which ones) - especially not about spot forex: all too often the blind are leading the partially sighted. Books first, then charts (i.e. basic education before screen-time practice; and don't let anyone tell you to try to do the two together, right from the start!). This post may help you. Good luck!
a simple but insightful statement. Thanks for this insightful angle. I'm currently tilted to how a bar opens & closes, compared to its highs & lows. will give this new angle a go & see what stands out
A lot of the books you linked to in the above post focus too much on bars and patterns. Is there any other book you could recommend?