Forex574

Why Trade the FOREX?

2010-01-03T23:55:00.000-08:00

My purpose for writing this article is to demonstrate to you the advantages of trading on the Forex market. However, there is one myth that I want to dispel before I go further. The myth is that there is a difference between trading and investing. To dispel that myth I quote from Al Thomas, President of Williamsburg Investment Company, who wrote "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It". He said "Everyone who invests is a trader, only the time period is different." It is a lesson that I took seriously after taking a beating in the stock market in 2000
Liquidity — The Forex market is the most liquid financial market in the world around 1.9 trillion dollars traded everyday.
Trading Times — The Forex market is open 24 hours a day (except weekends) which means that in the US it opens at 3:00 pm Sunday (EST) and closes Friday at 5:00 (EST), allowing active traders to choose the times they want to trade
Leverage — Depending on your Forex account size, your leverage may be 100:1, although there are Forex brokers that offer leverage of up to 400:1 (not that I would ever recommend that kind of leverage).
Trading costs — Transaction costs in the Forex market is the difference between the buy and sell price of each currency pair.
Trade execution — In the Forex market, trade execution is almost instantaneous. In both the equity and commodity markets, you count on a broker to execute your trades and their results are sometimes inconsistent.

Forex The Future Investment

2010-01-03T23:54:00.000-08:00

There are many many advantages over the various other ways of investing. First of all it is a 24 hr market, except for weekends of course. You have the US market then the european and then the Asian. One of the great times to trade is during the over lapping periods. The USA and european overlap between 5am & 9am eastern and the Euro & Asian between 11pm & 1am eastern. Usually the busiest time and best to trade.

The is also the risk factor for the accounts. With futures and options you can get margin calls that can wipe you out. If you get caught in a bad trade not only do you lose the money in the account but you may have to come up with alot more from your pocket. It can be very risking. But not in Forex. Worst case senerio you could lose whats in you account. But you would have to do something really stupid. Like making a big trade on a Fundamental day and leave it alone. If market takes a bad move and you weren't there. OOOPS. But That wouldn't happen with a smarth trader

Investing in Forex

2010-01-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

Investing in foreign currencies is a relatively new avenue of investing. There are considerably fewer people are aware of this market than there are people aware of several other avenues of investing. Trading foreign currency, also known as forex, is the most lucrative investment market that exists. There are several factors that make this true among which, successful forex traders earn realistic profits of one hundred plus percent each month. Compared to some of the better known investment markets such as corporate stocks, this is an unheard of return on investment. It's very necessary to mention here that a person who invests in forex must, without exception, make it a point to learn the detailed, but simple strategies and information surrounding the market. This very fact is what makes the difference between successful forex traders and other traders.

Advantages of the Forex Market

2010-01-03T23:50:00.000-08:00

The Forex market is open 24 hrs a day, unlike the regular stock markets. Most investments require a substantial amount of capital before you can take advantage of an investment opportunity. To trade Forex, you only need a small amount of capital. Anyone can enter the market with as little as $300 USD to trade a "mini account", which allows you to trade lots of 10,000 units. One lot of 10,000 units of currency is equal to 1 contract. Each "pip" or move up or down in the currency pair is worth a $1 gain or loss, depending on which side of the market you are on. A standard account gives you control over 100,000 units of currency and a pip is worth $10.

The Forex market is also very liquid. When trading Forex you have full control of your capital.

Many other types of investments require holding your money up for long periods of time. This is a disadvantage because if you need to use the capital it can be difficult to access to it without taking a huge loss. Also, with a small amount of money, you can control Forex traders can be profitable in bullish or bearish market conditions. Stock market traders need stock prices to rise in order to take a profit. Forex traders can make a profit during up trends and downtrends. Forex Trading can be risky, but with having the ability to have a good system to follow, good money management skills, and possessing self discipline, Forex trading can be a relatively low risk investment

Forex Tip No 5

2009-09-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Independence - If you are new to forex, you will either decide to trade your own money or to have a broker trade it for you. So far, so good. But your risk of losing increases exponentially if you either of these two things:
Interfere with what your broker is doing on your behalf (as his strategy might require a long gestation period);
Seek advice from too many sources - multiple input will only result in multiple losses. Take a position, ride with it and then analyse the outcome - by yourself, for yourself.

Forex Tip No 4

2009-09-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Over-cautious trading - Like the trader who tries to take small incremental profits all the time, the trader who places tight stop losses with a retail forex broker is doomed. As we stated above, you have to give your position a fair chance to demonstrate its ability to produce. If you don't place reasonable stop losses that allow your trade to do so, you will always end up undercutting yourself and losing a small piece of your deposit with every trade.

Forex Tip No 3

2009-09-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Unambitious trading - Many new traders will place very tight orders in order to take very small profits. This is not a sustainable approach because although you may be profitable in the short run (if you are lucky), you risk losing in the longer term as you have to recover the difference between the bid and the ask price before you can make any profit and this is much more difficult when you make small trades than when you make larger ones.

Forex Tip No 2

2009-09-30T08:24:00.001-07:00

Knowledge is Power - When starting out trading forex online, it is essential that you understand the basics of this market if you want to make the most of your investments.

The main forex influencer is global news and events. For example, say an ECB statement is released on European interest rates which typically will cause a flurry of activity. Most newcomers react violently to news like this and close their positions and subsequently miss out on some of the best trading opportunities by waiting until the market calms down. The potential in the forex market is in the volatility, not in its tranquility.

Forex Tip No 1

2009-09-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

rade pairs, not currencies - Like any relationship, you have to know both sides. Success or failure in forex trading depends upon being right about both currencies and how they impact one another, not just one.

What You Want In a Broker

2009-09-13T00:16:00.002-07:00

Thanks to the explosion of interest in the foreign-exchange market, investors are now able to pick a broker that would meet their needs entirely. Previously, investors had a selection of low minimum, low spreads, and good customer service, but you could only pick two. Today, you can find a broker that fits your needs perfectly, from top to bottom.

Not All Broker Traits Are Bad

2009-09-13T00:16:00.001-07:00

While there are a few warning signs to bad brokers – not all brokers that show these signs are bad. One low minimum broker, Oanda.com, offers accounts with as low as $1, and is known as one of the best retail brokers online. The site does not offer credit card deposits, which in the world of foreign-exchange brokers is nearly a tell-tale sign of a scam.

Picking The Right Forex Broker

2009-09-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

Picking the right forex broker is often the most important decision any new trader will make. In the past few years, there has been a virtual explosion in the number of forex brokers doing business. To the trader, this is great, as the number of brokers has helped lower the cost of trading and to provide better services and trading tools that were not available before.

Finding a Signal Service that Works for You

2009-09-13T00:14:00.003-07:00

inding the right signal service is difficult, as you have to find one that fits within your budget, but also your allotted time to trade. With the foreign-exchange market being a 24/7 marketplace, many signal services may offer trades while you’re sleeping, which is of little benefit. If you work full-time, you may not have the time necessary to make use of a signal service. The full-time worker may be more interested in a signal service that finds long-term trades, where entry times and costs are not as important as in short term trading.

Cost of a Signal Service

2009-09-13T00:14:00.001-07:00

Signal services vary wildly. Some services may cost just a few dollars per month while others will run into the thousands of dollars. Typically, signal service providers will offer a trial period, where the trader can use the service for a period of weeks or months. In this time, if a signal service is attractive the the trader, he or she can subscribe for future updates at a cost.

What’s in a Signal

2009-09-13T00:13:00.003-07:00

Forex signals will often be sent with an entry price, a stop loss, and a take profit. The numbers can then be analyzed by the end user, and traded. Usually a signal service will cater to a certain currency pair, and a certain type of trading. Most signal services offer day trading advice, or swing trading advice and charge by the month.

Using Forex Signal Services

2009-09-13T00:13:00.001-07:00

Forex signal services usually offer their positions in a variety of mediums. Some forex signal services broadcast messages through text message or email in order to get the position to the trader as quickly as possible.

Forex Signal Services

2009-09-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

Forex signal services offer investors the ability to trade the foreign-exchange market without their own analysis and with the ability to follow an expert with their own trades. Unlike managed forex accounts, forex signals are merely information on which a trader can trade, it is not access to an account managed by an expert. You have to make the trades yourself.

Introduction to Foreign Exchange Markets

2009-08-08T01:47:00.001-07:00

Being the main force driving the global economic market, currency is no doubt an essential element for a country. However, in order for all the countries with different currencies to trade with one another, a system of exchange rate between their currencies is needed; this system, is formally known as foreign exchange or currency exchange.

In the early days, the system of currency exchange is supported solely by the gold amount held in the vault of a country. However, this system is no longer appropriate now due to inflation and hence, the value of one’s currency nowadays is determined through the market forces alone. In order to determine the value of a currency’s exchange rate, two main types of system is used which is floating currency and pegged currency.

For floating exchange rate, its value is determined by the supply and demand of the global market where the supply and demand is bound by all these factors such as foreign investment, inflation and ratios of import and export. Normally, this system is adopted by most of the advance countries like for example UK, US and Canada. All of these countries have a similarity where their market is well developed and stable in economic terms. These countries choose to practice this system due to the reason where floating exchange rate is proven to be much more efficient compared to the pegged exchange rate. The reason behind this is because for floating exchange rate, the market itself will re-adjust the exchange rate real-time in order to portray the actual inflation and other economic forces. However, every system has its own flaw and so does the floating exchange rate system. For instance, if a country suffers from economic instability due to various reasons such as political issues, a floating exchange rate system will certainly discourage investment due to the high risk of suffering from inflationary disaster or sudden slump in exchange rate.

Another form of exchange rate is known as pegged exchange rate. This is a system where the value of the exchange rate is fixed by the government of a country and not the supply and demand of the market. This system is called pegged exchange rate because the value of a country’s currency is fixed to another country’s currency. As a result, the value of the pegged currency will not fluctuate unlike the floating currency. The working principle behind this system is slightly complicated where the government of a country will fixed the exchange rate of their currency and when there is a demand for a certain currency resulting a rise in the exchange rate, the government will have to release enough of that currency into the market in order to meet that demand. However, there is a fatal flaw in this system where if the pegged exchange rate is not controlled properly, panics may arise within the country and as a result of that, people will be rushing to exchange their money into a more stable currency. When that happens, the sudden overflow of that country’s currency into the market will decrease the value of their exchange rate and in the end, their currency will be worthless. Due to this reason, only those under-developed or developing countries will practice this method as a form to control the inflation rate.

However, the truth is, most of the countries do not fully practice the floating exchange rate or the pegged exchange rate method in reality. Instead, they use a hybrid system known as floating peg. Floating peg is the combination of the two main systems where one country will normally fixed their exchange rate to the US Dollars and after that, they will constantly review their peg rate in order to stay in line with the actual market value.

The Foreign exchange market, or commonly known as FOREX, is the largest and most prolific financial market because each day, more than 1 trillion worth of currency exchange takes place between investors, speculators and countries. From this, we can deduce that the actual mechanism behind the world of foreign exchange is far more complicated than what we may already know, and that, the information mentioned earlier is just the tip of an iceberg.

Currencies in forex

2009-08-08T01:46:00.000-07:00

Currency name	Commonly used currency code
Singapore dollar Thai Bath Swedish krona Danish Krone Norwegian krone Spanish peseta German Mark US dollar Euro Japanese Yen Pound Swiss franc Australian dollar New Zealand Yuan Canadian dollar Hong Kong dollar French franc Italian lira Belgian franc	SGD THB SEK DKK NOK ESP DEM USD EUR JPY GBP CHF AUD NZD CAD HKD FRF ITL BEF

Forex Margin Trading

2009-08-08T01:45:00.002-07:00

Comparing to other investment, the Foreign Exchange margin trading is one of the fairest and the most attractive investment method.

The Foreign Exchange margin trading meaning the traders borrow loan from bank, finance organization or broker house to carry on the foreign currency trading. Generally, the financing proportion is above 20 times, which means the Forex traders’ fund may enlarge to 20 times to carry on the trading. The bigger the financing proportion, means the Forex traders just need to pay very less fund, for example, the financing proportion provided by the financial organization is 400 times, namely the lowest margin request is 0.25%, the traders just need to pay 25 US dollars, then he or she could trade as high as 10,000 US dollars, fully using the contra method to make big profit by only paying a very less price.

Besides the fund enlargement, another attraction of the Forex margin trading method is that it can be traded in both ways, you can make profit by buying the currency when the currency rise (makes many), or to sell a currency when the currency is dropping to make profit (short-selling), thus does not need to be restricted by the restriction so-called bear market is unable to make money.

Making Profit in the Foreign Exchange Market

The currency fluctuate continuously due to reasons such as political, economical reasons, sometimes the changes could be extremely great, therefore, the Forex traders also can have the opportunity in among which makes a profit. For example, the Japanese Yen daily fluctuation is probably between 0.7% to 1.5%, Forex traders may make profit through buying and selling. All trading could be completed in a short time, the trading strategy could be carry up according to the market conditions, it is extremely flexible, even if the direction looks wrong, the lost could be stop immediately, the lost could reduce but profit potential is still great. Therefore, the Foreign Exchange margin trading is the most flexible and the most reliable investment method.
Foreign Exchange Margin Trading elementary knowledge

Quoted Price

2009-08-08T01:45:00.001-07:00

All quoted prices can be divided into direct quoted price and the indirect quoted price, for example:

The direct quoted price currency includes: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD ......
The indirect quoted price currency includes: USD/JPY, USD/CHF, USD/CAD ....

For example, the EUR/USD quoted price is 1.2653, which means each euro could convert to 1.2653 US dollars, while the USD/JPY quoted price is 107.65, which means that each US dollar could convert to 107.65 Japanese Yen.

The buying price and the selling price of the foreign currency is decided by the bank or the broker house, customer decides only the buying trend. For example, the EUR/USD quoted price general demonstration is 1.2652/57, which means the broker house is willing to buy Euro dollar at the price of 1.2652, and sell at the price of 1.2657. At this time, the price difference between the buyer and the seller (pip difference) is 5 pips, for foreign exchange trading, the smaller the point means the trading cost is lower and the chance of profit making is much larger.

The Exchange Rate Change

2009-08-08T01:44:00.002-07:00

The exchange rate smallest change for the final figure (is 1 pip), for example:

The EUR/USD smallest change is 0.0001
USD/JPY smallest change is 0.01

The Foreign Exchange Rate

2009-08-08T01:44:00.001-07:00

In the international market, the Foreign Exchange rate is demonstrated by five numerals, for example:

EUR/USD 1.2653
USD/JPY 107.65
GBP/JPY 195.03

Forex Market Development

2009-08-08T01:43:00.003-07:00

The history of the Forex market as an international capital speculation market is much shorter compared the stock, the gold, the stock, the interest market, but it is developing in an astonishing speed. Today, the foreign exchange market daily trading volume has amounted to 150 billion US dollars, it’s scale has gone far beyond the stock, the stock and other finance commodity markets, it has became the world's most biggest sole finance market and the also the speculation market. Since the birth of the foreign exchange market, the fluctuation of the exchange rate of the Forex market is becoming bigger. In September 1985, 1 US dollar exchanged 220 Japanese Yen, but in May 1986, 1 US dollar only could exchange 160 Japanese Yen, in 8 months, the Japanese Yen has revalued 27%. In recent years, the foreign exchange market wave amplitude has been bigger, on September 8, 1992, 1 pound exchanged 2.0100 US dollars, on November 10, 1 pound exchanged 1.5080 US dollars, in the short two months, the pound exchanged US dollar exchange rate to fall more than 5,000, depreciated 25%. Not only that, presently, everyday the fluctuation of the exchange rate of the Forex market enlarges unceasingly, within a day the rise and drop 2% to 3% is commonly seen. On September 16, 1992, the pound exchanged US dollar from 1.8755 to fall to 1.7850, the pound on first lowers 5%. Due to the large fluctuation of the Forex market, it has created more opportunities for the investor, attracted more and more investors to join this ranks.

Hedging

2009-08-08T01:43:00.001-07:00

Due to the fluctuation between two currencies, those companies who owns foreign asset (for example factory), when these companies convert these properties into cost country currencies, there consist of certain risks. When the value of a foreign asset which is estimated based on foreign currencies remained unchanged, if the exchange rate changes, when converting this property value according to the domestic currency, there could be profit and loss. The company may eliminate such hidden risk through hedging. This carries out a foreign currency trading, its transaction result just counterbalances the foreign currency property profit and loss which produces by the exchange rate change