Archive for January, 2010

What Is Forex Trading

Forex is an attractive financial instrument, which can be mastered by you or any other person who wants to make good money.

It’s a market with extreme liquidity, long trading hours, geographical dispersion,  and a lot of factors that affect the exchange rates.

Currency transactions consist of 7 major currency pairs, and these currencies display price stability, smooth trends, narrow spreads and high levels of liquidity. This liquidity mainly comes from the banks which offer cash flow to companies, investors and market players.

The Forex market is superior to any other investment markets, having over USD 1,200 billion traded every day, more than the world’s stock and bond markets combined. It has no physical location and no central exchange.

It is made up of an interbank market and a retail market. The traders are central banks, commercial banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments and other financial institutions.

It’s different from the other financial markets, but still, very similar to other investment alternatives. It offers traders a market where they can buy or sell an investment product, which is the currency pair.

The price of a currency pair is the market’s expectations of the value of that currency compared to another currency given the current and expected economic and political situation of the two countries. This is like the price of the stock for equities.

Main tools for market movements’ prediction:

  • Fundamental analysis
  • Technical analysis
  • Quantitative analysis

If you decided to trade currencies and you made your research on what is forex trading, then you should be aware of the amount of money in your account before placing a trade.

If you think a long-term trend is developing, then you should consider whether you have enough funds to maintain your margin and withstand any movements against your position that may occur.

Manage your risks properly :

  • How much risk can you take?
  • What are the market conditions?
  • What is your potential?
  • What is the logic behind entering the trade?
  • When can you conclude if the logic behind the trade is correct or wrong?

You need more information to find out what is Forex trading:
Forex Trading Education
Understanding Currency Trading
FX Trading Tutorials

Forex Trading For Beginners

The Forex is an interbank market. Trading takes place directly between the two parts necessary to make a trade, over the telephone or on electronic networks all over the world.

The main centers for trading are Sydney, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt and New York. This means that the Forex market is open 24 hours.

The simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another one is a currency trade. The currency combination used in the trade is called a “cross”.

Major traded currencies:

  • EUR/USD- Euro/US Dollar
  • USD/JPY- US Dollar/Japanese Yen
  • USD/CHF- US Dollar/Swiss Franc
  • GBP/USD- British Pound/US Dollar

Settlement on the value date selected in the trade means that even though the trade itself is carried out immediately, there is a small interest rate calculation left. The interest rate differential doesn’t usually affect trade considerations.

The interest rate differential varies according to the cross you are trading. On the EUR/CHF, for example, the interest rate differential is quite small, whereas the differential on NOK/JPY is large. This is because if you trade NOK/JPY, you get almost 7% annual interest in Norway and close to 0% in Japan.

If you borrow money in Japan, to finance the trade and buying NOK, you have a positive interest rate differential.

This differential has to be calculated and added to your account. You can have both a positive and a negative differential, so it may work for or against you when you make a trade.

Forex trading for beginners may seem a little bit difficult, but when you have the proper education and training you will change your mind.

For more information please check these resources:
Trading Forex Currency Pairs
Forex Trading Basics
Forex Trading Information

Why Beginners Should Trade Forex

Being a Forex trader gives you the opportunity of trading 24 hours, from Sunday 5:00 pm, to Friday, 4:30 pm. You can trade according to your convenience, going by your own schedule, and also with a chance to react instantly to any breaking news of the market.

Many stock traders started to trade currencies instead of trading stocks of individual companies because they see this market as having greater leverage, sophisticated software and strong market trends.

A greater leverage allows traders to control larger positions with smaller amounts of capital.

Advantages of trading Forex:

  • 24 hour trading
  • Superior liquidity
  • No commissions
  • 100:1 Leverage
  • Profit potential in falling markets

The Forex market is so liquid that there are always buyers and sellers to trade with. The liquidity helps ensure price stability and narrow spreads.

The liquidity comes mainly from banks that provide liquidity to investors, companies, institutions and other currency market players.

The fact that Forex is often traded without commissions makes it very attractive as an investment opportunity for investors who want to deal on a frequent basis.

Trading the major pairs is cheaper than trading other cross because of the high level of liquidity.
Since the market is constantly moving, there are always trading opportunities, whether a currency is strengthening or weaking in relation to another currency.

When you trade currencies, they literally work against each other. For example, if the EUR/USD declines, is because the US dollar gets stronger against the Euro and the other way around.

If you think the EUR/USD will decline(which means the Euro will weaken versus the dollar), you would sell Euro now and then later you buy Euro back at a lower price. In case EUR/USD indeed declines, then you can take your profit.

If you are not sure yet, find some more reasons why beginners should trade forex:

Forex Market Basics
FX Trading Information
Currency Trading Market

Currency Trading For Beginners

Forex is the market where foreign currencies are traded, bought and sold for obtaining profit.

Any Forex trader has one purpose: buying one currency for another in the belief that the market will move and prices will change so that the currency that he bought will rise in value in relation to the currency he sold.

There is only one  key that opens the door of currency trading for beginners: education.
You have to learn all you possibly can about currency trading for beginners before deciding on a Forex trading strategy, take an overall look at different methods, choose one that you feel comfortable with and practice it.

Successful trading qualities:

  • Patience when implementing your strategy
  • Perseverance
  • Avoiding risk with a good risk management method
  • Responsibility
  • Good discipline
  • A lot of greediness

The Forex market does not resonate with most accepted beliefs and usually our life rules do not synchronize with the Forex market rules.

Intelligent and educated people can succeed at any other business and fail at trading because the usually effective life model that works in the real world is not the same paradigm that creates price action.

To re-program those unconscious beliefs or life rules, you must begin to uncover the mental models that you use.

Education and a good training is what brings you the capacity of anticipate the market movements and find the proper moment to trade.

Check these resources for more information:
Free Forex Education
Forex Trading For Beginners
Learn Currency Trading

Forex Currency Trading Basics

Forex trading gives you the opportunity to make a good profit, even though when playing on the market you are running a risk. It is not a market for everyone, and certainly not for people who are risk-averse and very cautious about money.

The currency pairs which have high spreads should be avoided by newbies. Currencies that have high spreads are more volatile,have wide price ranges and longer price spikes. Unprepared traders may find it difficult to trade.

There are particular things that are very important to know.

One is the margin, which represents a relatively small deposit that can control much larger positions in the market.

When trading main currencies, if a bank requires a 1% margin deposit, means that in order to trade one million euros, you need to place just EUR 10,000 by way of security.

You will have obtained a gearing of up to 100 times. This means that a change of 2% in the underlying value of your trade will result in a 200% profit or loss on your deposit.

A typical Forex investor will attempt to buy a foreign currency at a low rate with the anticipation of selling it at a higher rate. He will always trade a combination of two currencies. The trade currency is normally, but not always, the currency with the highest value.

Being a good forex trader needs you to be responsible and learn all you possibly can about forex currency trading basics.

Discipline  trading plan:

  • What does money represent to you?
  • From where do your beliefs about money come?
  • Who are you in that trade?
  • What is your analysis of that trade?
  • What is your target and why did you choose it?
  • What do you afford and what you don’t?

You can also consult other trading resources:
Forex For Newbies
About Forex Trading
Forex Trading Strategies