i could not find a link trades or link exchange area on this forum!
can somebody point me in the right direction,maybe i just didn’t see it?
The forums don’t provide that kind of service. Sitepoint handle it through the marketplace. Do read the guidelines to know if it suit you. 
That’s because we don’t deal in or allow the promotion of link exchanges (or promote their use) within these forums.
They directly violate Google’s webmaster guidelines their usually participated in by spammers with poisoned rank positions.