2/20/2011

What is FOREX (Foreign Exchange)?

The simple sense of Forex (Forex currency exchange, Foreign Exchange) is simultaneous purchase and sale of the currency or the exchange of one country's currency for the one of another country. The world currencies do not have a fixed exchange rate and are always fluctuating being traded in the currency pairs like Euro/Dollar, Dollar/Yen an others. 85% of daily trades are taken by major currencies trading.
Investments usually deal with 4 major pairs: Euro against US dollar, US dollar against Japanese yen, British pound against US dollar, and US dollar against Swiss franc or EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, and USD/CHF used to sign these pairs accordingly. These major pairs are considered as Forex market's "blue chips". You will not receive any dividends on the currencies. Well known "buy low - sell high" gives the profit for currency trades.

In case you have a forecast that one currency would get higher to another you can exchange the second one for the first one and wait for the profit. If you are lucky to see the trades following your forecast you can make an opposite transaction and to exchange currencies back gaining the profit.

Forex transactions are carried out by Forex brokerage companies, also known as major banks dealers. Forex market is worldwide and your European colleagues may make a transaction with Japanese traders when it's time for you to sleep in the North America. There are 3 shifts for the major institutions to work in due to 24-hours a day activity of the Forex market. It's possible to ask for overnight execution for take-profit and stop-loss orders of the client.

Prices in the Forex market fluctuate without any dramatic changes unlike stock market where considerable gaps are likely to be seen. There isn't any problems entering and exit the market due to its daily turnover of about $1.2 trillion. Forex market can not ever be forced to stop. The transactions were carried out even in 2001, on September, 11th.

Foreign exchange market (also called Forex of FX to shorten the name) is the oldest market in the world. It is also seen to be the largest one. Being currencies' primary market working 24-hours a day, Forex is also the largest market with highest liquidity. This is an interbank market carrying out spot (or cash) transactions. The currency futures market, to be compared with Forex is traded only 1% as much.

Forex market doesn't have any exchange center unlike the stock market. Forex trading seem to go after the sun around the world, from banks of the United States to other parts of the world like Australia, New Zealand, the Far East or Europe and back to the US some time later.

High minimum amount of transaction and strict financial requirements used to make this interbank market unavailable for small speculators. The only dealers of currency markets were banks, huge-amount speculators and largest currency dealers. They had an ultimate access to this market dealing with lots of primary exchange rates of the world currencies, the market with an extremely high liquidity along with an unusually strong nature of trends.

Nowadays small traders have an opportunity to purchase the small lots (units), as a result of the large inter-bank units being split by market maker brokers like FX Solutions, at the amount they like.
The traders of any size like small companies and individual speculators have an access to the market at the same price fluctuations and exchange rates which only large players used to enjoy recently. Market makers monitor the rates so that produce their profit on the difference of rates at which the currency was bought and sold.

Foreign Exchange Market has an acronymic name Forex. It has the largest size and the liquidity throughout the world nowadays. Forex daily transactions are carried out at the common amount from 1 to 3 trillion dollars. There is no stock market that is able to deal with a comparable amount of money.
This enormous market is like the dangerous sea where you can meet lots of sharks and dangerous waters but at the same time it is the only one where two weeks of trading can hypothetically bring you $1,000,000 out of $1,000 of initial investment.

This is certainly hypothetically because a lot of newbie traders deal with their trades as gambling, that surely bring them to having nothing in the end. You should always keep the phrase "be careful!" in your mind. This market would give you its profit possibilities only if you learn the basic things hard and make lots of demo trading.

The statistics is that as much as 95% of traders come to losing their money at Forex, 5% have profit and less than 1% of traders make large fortune at Forex. You shouldn't produce, sell or advertise anything trading at Forex. Your assets are your knowledge, experience and a small amount of cash.
This market is a platform for banks, transnational corporations and individual traders to change the currencies they possess into other ones. This is the spot Forex market. At this market you can trade with up to 1:400 leverage which means that you'll get $400 on your account for each dollar invested. So, you can trade with the $400,000 sum having invested $1,000 onto your account.

Still, lots of experienced traders consider such leverage dangerous and won't get started with it. Though, if you know how ho use such high leverage it will do you only good. But this is the place to stop speaking about the basic things. Keep reading these articles if you want to be aware of how this market has occurred and some of its historical matters.

Now it is time to speak about the strategies and the way of making money at Forex some traders use. First we should say that the things that work in one case do not certainly work in another. The fact is that currency trading surely means risk. Still, there are a number of strategies for the newbie to use to be the winner.
Forex trading may seem very easy but it is not. Your high today earnings may turn into considerable losses even of your starting capital tomorrow. Newbie traders are likely to make the same mistakes several times. Here is a list of such typical mistakes.

1. There is no use of searching the "Holy Grail"

This phrase is to think for those who are scared of losses or being too greedy does his best to get rich in no time. You can surely make lots of money during some time and there isn't a necessity of producing and advertising anything but a huge homework is required to learn first. You have to know how this market works and which factors can take the exchange rate up or down. You should also be aware of the effective management for your money not to lose everything.
The majority of traders starting at Forex, look for their ultimate strategy that will cause no losses and will bring only profit. The desire of such people is to make a strategy that guarantees stable profit and millions of earnings in a short time without any losses for them to quit and enjoy their fortune and the new huge house. This will never bring any success.
There is no strategy that will give you only profit and such research is only waste of time. High profits of trading are caused by high risk, and you won't earn a fortune without being on the knife edge. Don't be sure that every trade will close in advantage to you. You will always feel uncertain and there is no way to vanish it. It means that you should always be ready to the possibility of your strategy failing even if it is thought as perfect.
You'll save a plenty of time and nerves by avoiding the search for the perfect strategy of earning millions. Even if you find this strategy you won't ever need it. You'll see why later.

2. Apply fundamental and technical analysis.

At the beginning of my trading I relied only on the money management on which I wanted to base my strategy and saw no sense of these analyses. But money management which is still very important doesn't worth omitting them. You can forecast the direction of the market basing on your technical and fundamental strategies to see their effectiveness.
You'll be able to make forecasts of price movements by applying the past data of the prices and graphs to the technical analysis methods. You can predict future prices with the level of accuracy dependent on your technical analysis skills using the graphs of the rates you observe.
Trading with some brokers you can see technical indicators along with the graphs. You can apply it to your demo account and estimate your prediction skills necessary for planning trading decisions.
It is impossible to choose the most effective indicator among lots of various ones. Each trader has to decide for himself which indicator is best for him. You can't find any magic formula; you just see the graphs, make your forecasts and find out whether they come true seeing the values in the news later.
Your decisions form this formula along with your knowledge that occurs out of the practical experience. Starting trading with an online broker it's best for you to trade with yourself on the sheet of paper rather than invest real money at once.
There are a lot of technical analysis indicators available but here are the ones which are the most wide-spread: the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), the Bollinger Bands, Pivot Points, RSI, Stochastic, Fibonacci, EMA, Elliot Waves.
The broker's software will automatically make all the necessary calculations when you add the technical analysis indicator to the graph so that you'll see some facts which are unavailable without using these indicators. It is even possible for you to build your own technical systems basing on these indicators.
Fundamental analysis is another tool that maximizes your profit and minimizes your losses on the trades. There are some traders who prefer only one kind but the majority prefers both.
Fundamental analysis means trading following the news, e.g. telling about the economies or unemployment rate in the countries of the currencies you trade. They can also tell about the events that can have a strong influence on the currencies' exchange rate.
You can make forecasts on the market direction by following the news as well. That's why various trading software of the brokers like www.oanda.com offer a link to the page containing important news.

a) www.bloomberg.com
b) www.businessweek.com
c) www.economist.com
d) money.cnn.com
e) markets.ft.com
f) www.reuters.com
g) www.fxstreet.com

3. Use the strategies of money management.

Money management strategies let you win or lose. You should use them to be in a profit. Many traders make too vast investments in every trade and this is not always rational and reminds of a saying: "Expect to make too much and you will make too little, expect to make little and you will make a lot." It means that even if you invest much trying to get a lot on every trade you can lose all and even if you make small investments looking for a small reward you can make a lot in some period.
1% of the total sum of your account is the maximum sum of the potential risk. This is the first rule of the money management. Stop loss and limit orders may help you to follow this rule. This may be the reason of the small profit, especially if you have small initial investments, but by compounding a part of you profit or the whole one you can get an exponentially growing income.

This strategy of compound profits is the one that helped to make millions on financial market instead of gambling that results in losing all investments quickly.

Here is the example of the opposite tactics that many traders follow. Imagine that you have an initial investment of $5,000. You're lucky to possess the trading account and you enter a $1,000 trade. In case the markets trends down and you lose your $1,000 your assets become $4,000. You keep following your strategy and enter a $1,500 trade being sure that the market is at its low and hoping to get back your $1,000 plus earn $500 more. Then the market keeps moving against you leaving you with $2,500 on your account which is only one half of your starting capital. This is a very difficult situation to recover from.

What is Forex?

FOREX — the foreign exchange market or currency market or Forex is the market where one currency is traded for another. It is one of the largest markets in the world.

Some of the participants in this market are simply seeking to exchange a foreign currency for their own, like multinational corporations which must pay wages and other expenses in different nations than they sell products in. However, a large part of the market is made up of currency traders, who speculate on movements in exchange rates, much like others would speculate on movements of stock prices. Currency traders try to take advantage of even small fluctuations in exchange rates.

In the foreign exchange market there is little or no 'inside information'. Exchange rate fluctuations are usually caused by actual monetary flows as well as anticipations on global macroeconomic conditions. Significant news is released publicly so, at least in theory, everyone in the world receives the same news at the same time.

Currencies are traded against one another. Each pair of currencies thus constitutes an individual product and is traditionally noted XXX/YYY, where YYY is the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currency into which the price of one unit of XXX currency is expressed. For instance, EUR/USD is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, as in 1 euro = 1.2045 dollar.

Unlike stocks and futures exchange, foreign exchange is indeed an interbank, over-the-counter (OTC) market which means there is no single universal exchange for specific currency pair. The foreign exchange market operates 24 hours per day throughout the week between individuals with Forex brokers, brokers with banks, and banks with banks. If the European session is ended the Asian session or US session will start, so all world currencies can be continually in trade. Traders can react to news when it breaks, rather than waiting for the market to open, as is the case with most other markets.

Average daily international foreign exchange trading volume was $4.0 trillion in April 2010 according to the BIS triennial report.

Like any market there is a bid/offer spread (difference between buying price and selling price). On major currency crosses, the difference between the price at which a market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") to a wholesale customer and the price at which the same market-maker will buy ("bid") from the same wholesale customer is minimal, usually only 1 or 2 pips. In the EUR/USD price of 1.4238 a pip would be the '8' at the end. So the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.4238/1.4239.

This, of course, does not apply to retail customers. Most individual currency speculators will trade using a broker which will typically have a spread marked up to say 3-20 pips (so in our example 1.4237/1.4239 or 1.423/1.425). The broker will give their clients often huge amounts of margin, thereby facilitating clients spending more money on the bid/ask spread. The brokers are not regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (since they do not sell securities), so they are not bound by the same margin limits as stock brokerages. They do not typically charge margin interest, however since currency trades must be settled in 2 days, they will "resettle" open positions (again collecting the bid/ask spread).

Individual currency speculators can work during the day and trade in the evenings, taking advantage of the market's 24 hours long trading day.

2/16/2011

What is Forex?

What is Forex?

Forex stands for the foreign exchange market. This is also referred to as the FX, Spot FX or Currency market. All of these names are just several ways of describing the very same market.

This market has been around since the 1970’s when currencies started to fluctuate when President Nixon took the U.S. off of the gold standard. Formerly, the U.S. currency was backed by gold and now it’s just backed by the “faith” in the government’s ability to honor and back the currency.

However, even though this market has been around for such a long time, it hasn’t been open to the retail public until the 1990’s and many market makers didn’t even get well established until 2000 or after.

Formerly, only the “big boys” could play around in this market. They usually had a minimum of $10 million to $50 million to throw around in this market. It was reserved basically for banks and big institutions.

However, with the advent of the internet, later on it was able to be opened up to the retail public as they were allowed to trade in smaller sizes that would be feasible for the “average Joe” to be able to handle.
Size of the Forex Market

The Spot Forex market is the largest financial market in the world, with a volume of $4 trillion average daily trading volume. Now let’s put that into perspective. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trades about $25 billion a day. So not only does this dwarf the trading volume of America’s largest stock exchange but if you combined the volume of ALL stock markets around the world, you still haven’t equaled the daily volume in the forex market.

Currency exchange Forex trading is simply the trading (exchanging) of money. It involves the simultaneous buying of one currency and the selling of another. The “exchange rate” is what you will see quoted. This determines how much currency that another currency can buy.

You will find that there will be many factors that cause these exchange rates to go up and down. Ultimately, the exchange rate is determined by the confidence that the world collectively has in a particular currency. This will be made up of many facets: how their economy is doing, political stability, consumer sentiment, the trend direction of these exchange rates on the charts, etc.
Where are these currencies traded in the forex market?

Trading stationThe good part about forex trading is that you don’t have to “literally” exchange money or set up foreign bank accounts or any of that nonsense. No, it’s as simple as opening up an account with a forex dealer (aka market maker…some even refer to them as brokers). They aren’t technically brokers and that’s why there’s not a commission in this market. It’s because you are dealing directly with the market maker. Market makers charge spreads (the difference between the buy and sell quote…which we’ll delve into more later) and brokers charge commissions.

In your stock brokerage account, you incur a buy commission from your stock broker, a spread cost from the market maker and a sell commission from your stock broker. So there are three fees by the time you’ve bought and sold a stock. However, in forex, you don’t have the commissions and even the spread you pay is less than that of stocks when you consider how much currency you are controlling.
Important note here!

Make sure to open your account with a well capitalized, regulated market maker. I’ll suggest some to check out here. There are many reputable market makers out there such as: FXCM.com, Oanda.com, Forex.com. GFTforex.com, etc. Your market maker ideally needs to be regulated in one of the following countries: the U.S., Canada, the U.K., or Hong Kong.

These are the countries that regulate the best and hold their market makers to the most stringent requirements. The last time I checked, FXCM.com had the best combination of capitalization and regulation in multiple countries. However, check all of this out for yourself at each of these market makers and see what you feel is best for you.
How are currencies traded?

They are traded in pairs. Why? Because a currency can be strong vs. one currency but weak vs. another. Remember that currency values are the collective sentiment of investors around the world. Currency rising

So if investors feel good about the U.K. economy and worse about the U.S. economy, then the British pound (GBP) will gain in strength to the U.S. dollar (USD). However, at the same time, investors could still feel better about the U.S. economy than that of Japan. If so, the USD would go up against the JPY (Japanese yen). So as you can see, it’s all relative to what it’s being compared to. In the first instance, the U.S. dollar is viewed as being weak (in comparison to the pound). In the second example the “buck” was viewed as being strong vs. the yen.

So these currencies are traded in the interbank market through these forex market makers. The market makers set the quotes based off of the buying and selling pressures that they see due to the demand for a currency vs. another.

Currencies trade in the spot forex market as OTC (over the counter). That simply means that they do not trade on a certain designated exchange around the world. An example that you might be more familiar with is the NYSE and the NASDAQ. The NYSE is an actual exchange that has a physical location where stocks are traded. The NASDAQ, on the other hand, is an OTC market where there is no physical place that you would see these traded. They are just two different ways that stocks are traded.

Generally, if you see a stock traded that has a 4 letter symbol, it’s traded on the NASDAQ. However, if it’s 3 letters or less, then it’s traded on an exchange such as the NYSE.

An advantage of an OTC market is that market makers have to compete for your business more than a specialist would have to on a physical exchange. Therefore, this ends up working in the actual trader’s favor.

Why Trade Forex?

Enormous Volume

As was mentioned earlier on, the forex market dwarfs all stock markets of the world in volume. It trades about $4 trillion EACH DAY. To put this in perspective, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trades around $28 billion a day. The entire U.S. stock market trades about $191 billion daily. The Futures market trades about $437 billion daily. None of these even come close to $1 trillion, much less several trillion.

Forex volume

What advantage is that to you?

Greater volume means better fills on your orders (less slippage). Slippage is where you click on a market price yet get filled at another price by the time your order can be filled. The more volume at each price level, the better those fills become. Therefore, the forex market offers the least slippage of any market. Keep in mind too that slippage is a “real” trading cost.

On top of better fills, the spreads are less which means your costs are less and you can get into profitability sooner in this market due to that. Typical spreads are 2-4 pips on the majors and 4-7 pips on many of the crosses.

No Commissions

Comission free tradingYou have no commissions in this market since you don’t have to go through a broker on your way to the market maker. You simply deal directly with the market maker and therefore you don’t have a broker’s commission. This is a huge savings and allows you to get into profitability much sooner too. For instance, in stocks, you are charged twice (a buy commission and a sell commission). Ouch!

24 Hour a day Trading


Unlike stocks, that trade only 6 ½ hours a day, you can literally trade forex anytime 24 hours a day (Sunday evening through Friday evening). So instead of having to trade at work (like people do all over America with stocks), they can trade after work when they can really have some focus. So it doesn’t matter where in the world you are or what shift you work…you can trade forex. More tradable hours means more tradable opportunities.

Also, many important announcements come out for stocks when you can’t even trade them (before or after the bell). In forex, you can trade currencies at the time of the news announcement if you like.

No restrictions on Short Selling

In stocks, they make it hard to short. Why? They want stocks to go up and not down. They want an upward bias to aid corporate America in growing their stock prices. They have no incentive to help you short a horrible Short sellingstock or one with declining earnings.

However, in forex, you can short just as easily as you can “go long” (buy). The fills are just as quick. There isn’t any need for a firm to check for “shares to borrow” like in stocks. There are no “uptick rules” either. There’s none of that nonsense to worry about.

Besides, in currencies, you are always going long one currency in the pair and essentially short the other. So they don’t care which one you are long or are shorting.

Why Forex

So what exactly is the forex, you ask?
 

It's a market; it is that simple.

    More precisely, FOREX is a currency trading market, and it is one of the largest and most rapidly developing markets on the planet. Over 2.5 trillion dollars are turned over on the forex every single day. That is more than 100 times the amount turned over daily on the NASDAQ. If you are intrigued, you can click here and get more detailed market information from Forex4you.

    So, what is a market? Simple: it's a place where goods are traded. The forex is no different, but with one little twist: the goods traded on the forex are national currencies. For example, on the forex you might pay in American dollars and buy some Canadian dollars. Or, you could sell your euros for Japanese yen. There is nothing more to it than that.
How do I make a profit using the forex?

    Again, the answer is obvious: just as with any market, you make money by buying low and selling high! Buy for less, sell for more! All you do is take advantages of fluctuations in the relative values of world currencies. Each currency's value changes every day in the currency exchange market. All you have to do is use these fluctuations to your advantage.

    One thing we'd like to mention about currency exchange on the forex.  These daily fluctuations are actually 100 times greater than the actual fluctuation (for example, around 1%). Generally speaking, Forex4you can offer trading ratios of between 1:10, 1:100, 1:200 and 1:500. So let's do the math: if the exchange rate of your given pair of currencies increased by just 0.6% over the last few hours, then you'll bag a profit of 60% on your original investment! All of this can happen over the course of a single business day, or as quickly as a matter of minutes.

    And best of all, you don't risk losing anything more than your margin! There's absolutely no limit to your possible profits, but you never risk losing anything beyond what you originally invested.

    And another thing: you have the power to choose your pair of currencies, and their amount, based on which way the market's headed, and still turn a profit. It makes no difference which way the exchange rate is headed, down or up, because you always have the choice of buying US dollars and selling Yen, or the other way around - buy Yen and sell US dollars. And no, you don't need to actually own any particular currencies, or "have" them in hand, in order to make transactions with them on the forex (to buy them or sell them).
So, how do I get started?

    You simply register with Forex4you! We offer the easiest and fastest registration online, with absolutely no obligations. Once you're registered, just make a deposit of the margin amount you choose to begin trading with, and you can start. And only Forex4you allows you to make your deposit with your credit card and start trading in 2 minutes.

    It just doesn't get any simpler. But if you do need assistance, we offer as much customer service and one-on-one training as you need. And in case Forex4you your assistance won't come from a computer, but from a living, breathing human being, who speaks your language.
How do I trade on the forex?

    For starters, you simply choose which two currencies you want to make a deal with on the forex. You choose the amount of the deal you'd like to make (called the "volume"). You make a deposit to provide the collateral needed for the deal, called the "margin." In most cases, this is just a fraction of the overall amount of the deal, for example, 1%, or 1:100.

    You still have the power to "freeze" the deal for several seconds before you finalize it. Freezing allows you to adjust the terms or to accept them as they are. Or, you can call the whole thing off, and cancel the deal. Freezing is a feature offered exclusively by Forex4you. While your deal is still running, you have a so-called "open position." This means that you're able to follow your deal's status and scenarios online at any time. You can make changes to the deal's terms, or you can simply cancel it and either pocket any profits, or minimize any losses. What's more, Forex4you allows you to set a "take-profit" rate. When and if the market reaches this rate, your deal will close automatically, allowing you to be away from your computer while you have an "open position."

   Ready to learn more, or find additional training online. Just register with us, with no obligation, and we will lead you through the process step-by-step.

About Forex Trading Online

The internet is indeed a gift of today’s advanced technology. It has changed the communication industry and now it is being used for different kinds of tasks. It seems that everything is possible through the internet. Before, the only way to trade in the Forex market is to be there physically. But now, you can trade even in your own home or in the office as long as there is an internet connection.

If you think that only the intelligent individuals are involved Forex trading, you’re wrong because at present, average individuals can already trade in the market, provided they have adequate capital. The behavior of different currencies in the Forex market can be compared to the movements of regular stock. The economies of most countries around the globe are fluctuating. Some currencies are highly priced but there are also currencies which have very low values. The Forex market is alive twenty four hours each day and so you can do your transactions at any time of the day and night. If you have an internet connection at home, you can monitor the Forex market trends and other vital info. Don’t worry if you’re not very familiar with Forex trading because you can find loads of information on the internet. Gather all the possible information you can get about Forex trading; you must read, comprehend, and learn from the information sources because that’s one way to attain success. With the internet in your home or in the office, you can monitor all the real time market information without much difficulty.

Forex trading also have mechanics. For you to understand the trade’s mechanics, you will need some helpful tools. Before you invest in the Forex market, you have to ensure that you’ve already developed the right trading skills to prevent possible loses.

There are some Forex firms that help new traders in becoming more skilled in Forex trading by giving free demos, guidance, and helpful Forex news. You can even start investing in the Forex market with only $300. Starters often feel uncomfortable but as days and months pass, you can get the hang of it. With the aid of the internet, it’s much easier to learn about the current Forex market trends. You can also rely on a good Forex broker especially if you’re new in Forex trading. Brokers can help you in developing trading strategies or in finding efficient trading systems. Aside from that, a good broker can also help you with fundamental and technical analysis of relevant data.

You too can earn promising rewards if you’re willing to assume some risks in Forex trading. However, it is vital that you minimize such risks so as not to lose your investment. Make use of all the possible online tools so that you can make educated Forex decisions.

What are your needs? You must be able to identify your needs so that you can choose a god trading system or perhaps a reliable broker. Take your time when researching about the latest trading systems offered in the market. Don’t forget to check the background of the broker as well.

Forex trading online can be easily carried out and you can expect more profits to roll in once you properly use the tools mentioned earlier. As a trader, you need to be disciplined and you must be very careful with all your trading decisions; being hasty will not get you anywhere.

Things You Should Know About Forex Trading

There are some questions that how to make money by trading the Forex market? What is the time period in which one becomes able to make living trading Forex market? These two points and other aspects are discussed in the article. Forex market trading has so many advantages as compared to the other fiscal markets and some are- 24hrs market, better execution, and superior liquidity etc. Dealers and depositors see Forex market as a major opening with all these advantages. So, it does not mean that making money trading the Forex market.

The Forex market experts are of the view that ninety percent of the dealers simply loose their money out here, five percent reach a situation of break even and five percent receive significant outcome. Trading is not an easy task and to master any venture is also not easy. Not in my view as there are musicians, writers and businessmen and their success ratio is identical. There are others who are not able to make it to the top.

Keeping the fact in mind it is not easy to produce constant lucrative outcome, but what it does is it raises one question that that why some of the dealers succeed in getting constant lucrative results and some are not able to in the Forex market? There are no fixed steps or methods that can be easily followed to get the significant results. The only fact that is known is that those who make it to the top their thoughts are different. They are not the ones who will do the same as others do.

Few points that differentiates the top dealers from the rest:

Education: The professionals are intellectuals in their field and they are aware of every single characteristic of the trading. These intellectuals have the best knowledge of their field and they learn new things from every trade. They work in the Forex market with a more humble attitude or else the market will get them wrong.

The organization of Forex trading: Those who are professional of Forex trading they have a unique working method. They thoroughly follow the guidelines as they know that the trade that functionalize on their methods gets a decent success rate.

Cost Factor: Price factor is also included in the trading method as they know that the price factor is really important factor.

Money Organization: The dealers have to take an extra care of the damages as they cannot trade without cash in your account.

Behavior of the trade: These professionals are also aware of what will be the behavior and choices those can be effective for the decisions taken by the dealers. They are aware of the fact that not everybody can be successful.

These elements are really essential for the success of the dealers of the Forex. It is admitted that it is not easy to earn money trading Forex market but it is not out of reach either. Some of the essential elements those are also discussed for the better performance of the Forex dealers. The main question how to achieve constant success in Forex market? It also varies from dealer to dealer, some dealers can get constant results in short time period and some are not able to achieve results in many years. It is worth mentioning that achieving constant success is a matter of patience and it will come with the changing time it is something that you have to earn it.

Getting positive and rewarding results is not an easy task and probably will take years to achieve constant success. There are factors those are very important for every trader that could assist him in achieving a speedy success- the traders should have trading system, should be aware of the market behavior, have significant knowledge, religiously following the trading methods, and planning for the conducting the trade.

About Forex

What is forex?

FOREX or Foreign Exchange market is the world largest financial market, where currency of one country is exchanged with another country through currency exchange rate system. Trader’s purpose is to get the profit as the result of foreign currencies purchase and sale. From latest assessment, Forex trading daily constitution is approximately average from 1.5 trillion to 2.5 trillion. . The free-floating of currencies being in the market turnover are determined by the supply and demand. The currency rate is actually run through telecommunication all over the network of banks 24 hours a day from 00:00 GMT on Monday to 10:00 pm GMT on Friday. Importance of human society event in the sphere of economy strongly influences the currency market. Traders gain the profit from the fluctuations in accordance with an agreed principle “buy cheaper- sell higher” or “sell higher-buy cheaper”. Forex is a continuously changing number financial system which exclusively create high trade turnover to all individual and corporative traders with an ensured liquidity of traded currencies. Due to the high potential profitability, therefore the higher risk should be essentially considered. Traders can only be the successful forex investors by going through proper training including an understanding of forex structure and types, the common techniques of analysis, the factors influencing currencies and potential risks, high confident prediction of the market movements with the trading tools and data. There are lots of simulation trading software on web, you can simply choose anyone of them for self training. This will help you to be in a better scenario. Most of the trading providers have the toll free phone number, so just call them up! Ask them question! Learn from them! Some of them may take initiative to consult you, so do write down the question from time to time.

There are many countries in world; so results different currency pairs. Among all of them, these are the popular in currency trading:

EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, EUR/CHF, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, NZD/USD, EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, CHF/JPY, GBP/CHF, EUR/AUD, EUR/CAD, AUD/CAD, AUD/JPY, CAD/JPY, NZD/JPY, GBP/AUD, AUD/NZD
Five Major Currencies are:

U.S dollar - The United States dollar is the world's main currency – an universal measure to evaluate any other currency traded on Forex.

Euro- Euro was designed to become the premier currency in trading by simply being quoted in American terms. Like the U.S. dollar, the euro has a strong international presence stemming from members of the European Monetary Union.

Japanese Yen- The Japanese yen is the third most traded currency in the world; it has a much smaller international presence than the U.S. dollar or the euro. The yen is very liquid around the world, practically around the clock.

British Pound - Until the end of World War II, the pound was the currency of reference. The currency is heavily traded against the euro and the U.S. dollar, but has a spotty presence against other currencies.After the introduction of the euro, Bank of England is attempting to bring the high U.K. rates closer to the lower rates in the euro zone.

Swiss Franc - Swiss franc is the only currency of a major European country that belongs neither to the European Monetary Union nor to the G-7 countries. Although the Swiss economy is relatively small, the Swiss franc is one of the four major currencies, closely resembling the strength and quality of the Swiss economy and finance.

To have a well focusing, you have to concentrate on less than 5 currency pairs( preferred the U.S. cross-currency pairs.)

Some traders see forex as a business, and some see it as a fortune. And even some traders think forex is an art. But anyway, its highly recommended to use pivot system in your trading plan or else you are trading blind.

Forex Lot Sizes and Risks

What is lot size and what's the risk?

Currencies in Forex are traded in Lots.
A standard lot size is 100 000 units.
Units refer to the base currency being traded. For example, with USD/CHF the base currency is US dollar, therefore if to trade 1 standard lot of USD/CHF it would be worth $100 000.
Another example: GBP/USD, here the base currency is British Pound(GBP), a standard lot for GBP/USD pair will be worth £100 000.

There are three types of lots (by size):

Standard lots = 100 000 units
Mini lots = 10 000 units
and micro lots = 1000 units.

Mini and micro lots are offered to traders who open mini accounts (on average from $200 to $1000). Standard lot sizes can be traded with larger accounts only (the requirements for a size of standard account vary from broker to broker).

The smaller the lots size traded, the lower will be profits, but also the lower will be losses.

When traders talk about losses, they also use term "risks". Because trading in Forex is as much about losing money as about making money.
Risks in Forex refer to the possibility of losing entire investment while trading. Trading Forex is known as one of the riskiest capital investments.

Returning back to lots:

With every Standard lot traded (100 000 units) a trader risks to lose (or looks to win) $10 per pip. Where Pip is the smallest price increment in the last digit in the rate (e.g. the smallest price change/move).

With every Mini lot traded (10 000 units) a trader risks to lose (or looks to win) $1 per pip.

With each micro lot (1000 units) - $0.10 per pip.

In Forex traders always search for the most efficient ways to limit risks or at least lessen risk effects. For this purpose various risk management and money management strategies are created.

It is impossible to avoid risks in Forex trading. In order to limit risks traders use methods of setting protective stops, trailing stops; use hedging techniques, study scalping strategies, look for the best deals on spreads among brokers etc.

Traders with the best risk management strategy earn the largest profits in Forex.

Would you like to add your own comment or ask another question?
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What is Forex?

Abbr. "FOREX" stands for Foreign Exchange, an exchange of currencies. When a person comes to trade currencies, e.g. buy one currency and sell another one - it is called currency exchange trading, or simply known as Forex.

Because the value of each currency always on the move, it fluctuates depending on the local and global economic factors, there is always an opportunity to profit on those changes/fluctuations - it is called currency speculation.


Euro, US dollar, Swiss Frank, British Pound and Japanese Yen - these are the most traded currencies in Forex. Of course, trading is not limited to those currencies, Forex offers variety of currencies one can trade.

If to describe in simple words how individuals trade Forex it would look next way:

Forex trading in its prevailing volume is done online.
A person finds a Forex broker, opens a trading account with the broker and deposits money.
Forex broker provides to trader so called Forex trading platform - an application, a working environment, where trader buys and sells currencies, dealing online - in other words he speculates to make money on the difference of currency rates.

In Forex currencies are traded in pairs.

EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/JPY, USD/CHF and so on.
FOREX

The first currency in the exchange pair is referred to as the base currency and the second as the quote currency.
For example, EUR/USD exchange rate = 1.400
Here the price of the Euro is expressed in US dollars: 1 euro = 1.400 dollars
The exchange rate tells to trader how much of the quote currency should be paid to obtain one unit of the base currency.


A Quick Overview of FOREX


FOREX is a spot market, where foreign currencies are traded - bought and sold for profit.

FOREX is a worldwide currency speculation arena with no centralized place for trading and exchange.

FOREX is a huge market with trillions dollars turnover a day and the largest investors - banks, hedge funds, investment companies and so on.

FOREX is open to individual retail investors - Forex traders - through the services of Forex brokerage companies that provide an access to the currency exchange market and take care of buying and selling orders of their clients.

FOREX is a 24 hour market that is traded every day all year round, except for holidays.

FOREX allows trading over 150 foreign currency pairs, among which the most traded are: EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, AUDUSD, USDCHF, USDCAD and GBPJPY.

FOREX trading is based on technical (price charts) and fundamental (news, economic events) analysis.

FOREX is an online stay-at-home type of business for individual investors.

FOREX is an attractive financial instrument, which can be mastered by any person with any kind of education and/or social status.

FOREX is a type of market which nowadays can also be traded by automated online expert advisors without any human intervention.

FOREX is an alternative type of investment, which unlike any other investment carries one of the largest financial risks.

FOREX is a trading arena, where in order to succeed a trader needs to learn the rules of the market, its trends, moves and behavior, and be able to apply the knowledge under real trading conditions.

FOREX is difficult to trade without a trading method - a trading strategy or system.

FOREX is a fast growing industry, and by directly dealing with money it also became
a lucrative business to various scam dealers. Novice traders should be alert about any offers in Forex which sound too good to be true.

Finally, FOREX should never be associated with quick and easy money.

Forex market and its players

What is Forex (Foreign Exchange)?

Foreign Exchange (FOREX) is the arena where a nation's currency is exchanged for that of another. The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world, with the equivalent of over $1.9 trillion changing hands daily; more than three times the aggregate amount of the US Equity and Treasury markets combined. Unlike other financial markets, the Forex market has no physical location and no central exchange (off-exchange). It operates through a global network of banks, corporations and individuals trading one currency for another. The lack of a physical exchange enables the Forex market to operate on a 24-hour basis, spanning from one zone to another in all the major financial centers.

Traditionally, retail investors' only means of gaining access to the foreign exchange market was through banks that transacted large amounts of currencies for commercial and investment purposes. Trading volume has increased rapidly over time, especially after exchange rates were allowed to float freely in 1971. Today, importers and exporters, international portfolio managers, multinational corporations, speculators, day traders, long-term holders and hedge funds all use the FOREX market to pay for goods and services, transact in financial assets or to reduce the risk of currency movements by hedging their exposure in other markets.

MG Financial, now operating in over 100 countries, serves all manner of clients, comprising speculators and strategic traders. Whether it’s day-traders looking for short-term gains, or fund managers wanting to hedge their non-US assets, MG's DealStation™ allows them to participate in FOREX trading by providing a combination of live quotes, Real-Time charts, and news and analysis that attracts traders with an orientation towards fundamental and/or technical analysis.

Quick and Easy FOREX Tips

The green buck has been working people around its little finger. In the Phillipines for example, millions of Filipinos become OFW’s or overseas Filipino workers in the hope of earning dollars to bring home to the family.
The United States is a superpower with a superpower currency to boot! Its currency, the US Dollar, is clamored in every place around the world. Even in a hole-in-the-wall money exchange stop, the US Dollar seeks a place in the pedestal of cross rates bulletins.

But for smart FOREX traders, they know that the US Dollar is not the only currency where money is power. They have learned how to delve into the Japanese Yen and the European Euro among others. Basically, if one is going to be engage in FOREX trading, better try out the other currency samples and widen one’s currency portfolio. The US Dollar will not always be the darling of the world’s central banks. [As can be seen right now, where the US presidential elections is especially affecting the value of the green buck.]

However, for first-time FOREX traders, trading US Dollars with the local currency is probably a safe way to start. After all, the local currency is needed for one’s everyday transactions; and the US Dollar is still strong relatively (most probably) to the local currency. [Unless the trading rate is already 1:1.]

The most important piece of information for all FOREX traders is the local currency cross rate. A simple usage of the cross rate is one can compare the value of a currency from let’s say, last month’s to this month’s rate. One can see how much local currency one has earned for every 1 USD as to, for example, the Canadian Dollar. 

In this way, one can know which currency is worth putting one’s money into. Remember, the US Dollar is not always the darling of the central banks. There are other currencies that offer better value for the local currency. 

According to Citibank, this is the simplest way to leverage against the impending depreciation of the US Dollar. Be aware of how other currencies are performing!

But, before diving into FOREX trading, here is, in my own opinion, the number one tip one should first adhere to—
Have a system. 

Whatever happens, a personal trading system will greatly help in making fast decisions. Although the market is relatively steady, a personal system will prevent the trader from making rash decisions. In this very fast market, there should be no space left for blaming. Like “I should have done this or that”.
To have a specific system, a suggestion merely—better invest in a FOREX training ground first. That’s step one for the first-time trader. Or at least read everything about FOREX trading. Education is the key and then the strategies and systems and ultimately, the big bucks, will follow.

Forex Secrets

 How did the taipans and billionaires get so filthy rich?!

Besides the more obvious hard work and diligence and always saving little by little in their piggy banks, the really rich guys know how to work up the foreign exchange.
Basically, foreign exchange trading or simply FOREX trading is just the buying and selling of the world’s currencies. Money today is not the same as money tomorrow. Money has time value. The worth of a currency can go up or down.
There is one secret that FOREX traders live by. And it is buy low, sell high. Don’t ever forget that rule.
However, the trick is to know when to buy and when to sell. In FOREX trading, everything is by speculation. Sure, there are graphs to aid decisions. Business pages also give out strategies for the day. But the next step is always a guess based from the previous actions. 

FOREX traders like to call their speculations as smart guesses. Usually, patterns on the currency values can be derived from how the politics of a specific country is running.

For example, if there is a plan to oust the president, most probably the value of that country’s currency will go down—how low, we don’t know. Usually. Because there are still a lot of factors to consider why a currency is going strong or not. 

Improvement on the tourism sector can mean more foreign investments. This will be good for a particular currency, but this may affect how the other countries are doing. 

These are just trade scenarios. As the cliché goes, one man’s medicine may be another man’s poison. One country’s good tidings may be another country’s, well, downfall. 

That is why in FOREX trading, another secret to live by is to be aware of the national news in the country concerned.
Current events have a say on the economics of a country. Money makes the world go round, so to speak.
But, if one is truly serious in earning their first million in FOREX trading, another secret is—it might be a good idea to invest in a FOREX trading training school. Learn from the pros and conquer the world afterwards.
Let me leave you one last secret I learned from my father. If everyone is going in this direction, go the other way. This applies to FOREX and other areas of life. You won’t ever get rich by following the crowd.
Besides buying low and selling high, follow that last secret and you might just join the ranks of the taipans and billionaires.

Learn All About FOREX

The foreign exchange market or better known as FOREX is when one currency is traded for another country’s currency. It is an alternative form of business where the goods to be bought and sold are money itself using money.
In the past, people would normally engage in stocks and pool their savings in the money market to build up their investment portfolio. 

Nowadays, with more than 1.5 trillion USD of FOREX being exchanged on a daily basis, even the “small-time” investor can participate in the FOREX market. There is leverage in the FOREX market where a minimum amount of currency can have access to a large deal of money. 

A lot more advantages to study and dive into FOREX trading include the following: 

Why FOREX?
 
24-hour trading
Compared to stocks, FOREX trading is twenty-fours. A FOREX trader can trade right away once they spot an opportunity to buy low and sell high. Remember, money has time value. And a lot of factors in the economics and politics of a government affect how low a currency will drop or how high a currency will gain. It is fairly easy to say buy low and sell high. But the trick is to know when to do it. With twenty-four trading, the FOREX trader has the ultimate advantage already. Since, after all, time is money. 

High liquidity
A market or business is considered very liquid if the assets involved can enable the person to directly meet his payment obligations. In other words, if cash is at hand—immediately. What is a more liquid market than the FOREX market?
FOREX has high liquidity, because it can be traded swiftly, without considerable loss of value, and anytime within the trading hours or in FOREX trading’s case—24/7.

No commission
FOREX trading need not have brokers in between to facilitate. With other forms of money market ventures and stock trading, brokers come in handy; because they are able to handle varied forms of portfolios and company stocks for the investor. Even if FOREX trading is involved with multiple currencies, it is a very direct business where the trader himself can act on his own; thus no commissions are leaked out and all profits are kept!

Steady market availability
In all businesses, businessmen strive for a steady market, if not an increasing one. Why spend time in a trading scene when it is short-term?

Because FOREX trading is all about the buying and selling of currencies, it is a continuously moving market. Money make the world go round, as the cliché goes. 

The market will always be there. The trader only has to be aware of the rising and falling of the currencies. When is the currency starting to be weak? When is it going strong? Is there a trend?

Taking action
This benefits and advantages all the more make FOREX trading a very attractive business venture. For first time FOREX traders, why not inquire now at your home bank on how to start making your money work for you? FOREX trading is the way to go.