Trading has been in existence for many years. It's been there ever since man has learned to make a way of living. Before, people traded goods for other goods; or goods for services and vice versa. All of these things are necessary for survival. But now, trading is not mainly about goods or services, it is much more than that.
Forex trading is not new in the market; in fact, it has been there for many, many years now. A lot of people find forex trading as a worthwhile and lucrative venture.
Forex trading basically involves the buying and/or selling of different foreign currencies in the global market, often referred to as the FX market. Having a portfolio filled largely with bonds, mutual funds, and stocks is simply not enough. Why not include different foreign currencies in your portfolio, this way you can have money in all its different aspects.
The financial market operates twenty four hours a day. The usual trading day starts in Sydney, Australia, and other markets around the globe follows. New York is the last market that opens. You can find a lot of different currencies in the world. Almost every country has its own currency, but with regards to forex trading, the trading of currencies is only done with what is popularly called the majors. These currencies are highly regarded as majors because they are economically stable compared to other foreign currencies.
The major currencies that are traded in the FX market are Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, American Dollar, Australian Dollar, Japanese Yen, and Swiss Franc. People who don’t know anything about forex trading may find the business a bit strange, because typically, currencies are used to buy goods and services, and not currencies. May be its time for you to familiarize yourself with forex trading and engage in one yourself. Besides, it is a shame if you don’t know what this particular business means.
Don’t be left out, now you can even do forex trading in your home. You don’t need to go to the actual FX market, as long as you have an internet connection. Choose from among the many software programs available in the market. You can instantly get alerts about the market condition, the prices, and other important information. This software can even tell you when to buy and/or sell and get an instant profit.
There are a lot of things to consider when you start trading. It would be best if you can do a little research and learn what the business is all about; you must understand the whole process to avoid major losses. Forex trading may be a great way to make money, but when done in the wrong way, it can get very expensive.
Forex currency trading is risky compared to stocks and bonds. But it is also a lucrative business because you can actually gain a lot within a split of a second or a few minutes. If you’re an ordinary individual, you can also take part in forex trading. Don’t think that only large organizations or banks take part in this huge financial market. People from all walks of life can be involved in forex trading as long as they know how to properly do it.
The next thing to do is to find the right system that works best for you. Again, do a bit of research; and you can take advantage of trial versions which are free of charge. Look for customer testimonials; and after carefully considering all the factors involved, you can choose one system that you can make use in your trade.
Another thing is to get a good broker who can effectively help you in your currency trading and together you can devise a strategy. And who knows, you might be the next person to earn a lot of money in the FX market. If you think you can make it big in the forex market, make sure that you use all the available resources around you to be able to learn about the business. After you have gained knowledge about forex trading, and were able to devise an effective strategy, you are free to start currency trading as soon as possible.
Showing posts with label Basics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Basics. Show all posts
1.8.11
Covering the basics of the forex market
The foreign exchange, or forex, market is relatively young, having begun in the early 1970s after the United States dropped the gold standard and national currencies started to fluctuate widely. For about 30 years prior to that, most nations had agreed to keep their currency values stable in relation to the U.S. dollar, making a forex market unnecessary. With that no longer the case, banks quickly realized that a profit could be made in “buying” currency when it was devalued and “selling” it after it strengthened, just like any other commodity.
Today, the forex market handles about $1.9 trillion in transactions every day, and it runs 24 hours a day, five days a week. (With nations around the world involved, it’s always daytime somewhere.) The most traded currencies are the U.S. dollar, the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Swiss franc and Australian dollar.
The forex market is overwhelmingly dominated by international banks, government banks, investment banks, corporations, and hedge funds. In fact, individual traders account for only about 2 percent of the market. Nonetheless, a lot of people do try their hand at it, with varying degrees of success.
In the forex market, transactions are always handled in pairs: You buy one currency and sell another one. The idea is to make a trade when you believe the currency you’re buying is going to go up in value compared to the one you’re selling. Then, if it turns out your prediction was correct, you do another trade in the reverse direction -- selling the currency you originally bought and buying the one you sold -- in order to reap the profits.
For example, let’s say the market reports this: GBP/EUR 1.2200. That means the cost of buying one British pound is 1.22 euros. If you believed that course was going to change, and the euro was going to become more valuable than the pound, you might sell 100,000 pounds, buy 100,000 euros, and wait. Then let’s say a few weeks later, the exchange rate fluctuates to this: EUR/GBP 1.3100. Sure enough, the euro is now worth 1.31 pounds, a profit of 0.11 per unit.
The forex market is vast and daunting and mostly inhabited by giant organizations. But it can be navigated by individuals who have studied the finer points and who want to take a risk on something potential profitable. And since the whole world uses money, the trading of that money is always going to be a major force in the financial world.
Today, the forex market handles about $1.9 trillion in transactions every day, and it runs 24 hours a day, five days a week. (With nations around the world involved, it’s always daytime somewhere.) The most traded currencies are the U.S. dollar, the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Swiss franc and Australian dollar.
The forex market is overwhelmingly dominated by international banks, government banks, investment banks, corporations, and hedge funds. In fact, individual traders account for only about 2 percent of the market. Nonetheless, a lot of people do try their hand at it, with varying degrees of success.
In the forex market, transactions are always handled in pairs: You buy one currency and sell another one. The idea is to make a trade when you believe the currency you’re buying is going to go up in value compared to the one you’re selling. Then, if it turns out your prediction was correct, you do another trade in the reverse direction -- selling the currency you originally bought and buying the one you sold -- in order to reap the profits.
For example, let’s say the market reports this: GBP/EUR 1.2200. That means the cost of buying one British pound is 1.22 euros. If you believed that course was going to change, and the euro was going to become more valuable than the pound, you might sell 100,000 pounds, buy 100,000 euros, and wait. Then let’s say a few weeks later, the exchange rate fluctuates to this: EUR/GBP 1.3100. Sure enough, the euro is now worth 1.31 pounds, a profit of 0.11 per unit.
The forex market is vast and daunting and mostly inhabited by giant organizations. But it can be navigated by individuals who have studied the finer points and who want to take a risk on something potential profitable. And since the whole world uses money, the trading of that money is always going to be a major force in the financial world.
The Basics of Reading a Forex Quote
The foreign exchange market can be a baffling place for newcomers, and one of the sources of confusion is the forex quote. A forex quote is a small bit of information, yet it’s packed with numbers that may not make sense to someone unfamiliar with the forex system. Here’s a basic explanation of how it works.
A forex quote consists of a currency pair -- forex deals always involve simultaneously selling one currency and buying another -- a bid price and an ask price. For example, one quote might be this:
USD/JPY 118.71/75
The first currency is the base currency, and the other one is the quote currency. The value of the base currency is always 1 -- in this case, 1 U.S. dollar. The number tells you how many of the quote currency (the Japanese yen, in this case) you can buy with $1.
But what kind of number is 118.71/75? It’s actually forex shorthand for two numbers: 118.71 and 118.75. The lower number is the bid price, the other is the ask price. The bid price is the price that dealers will buy the base currency for. The ask price is what dealers will sell it for. So if the above were the current quote, it would mean right now, you could SELL U.S. dollars in exchange for 118.71 yen per dollar. Or, if you preferred, you could BUY U.S. dollars at a rate of 118.75 yen per dollar.
The difference between the bid price and the ask price in a forex quote is called the “spread,” and those tiny units are called “pips.” In our example, the spread for USD/JPY was four pips. The spread is usually that small for the most commonly traded currencies, which means anything involving the U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, Great British pound, the euro, Swiss franc or Australian dollar. In fact, thanks to the great competition in the forex trading market, some quotes will have spread of as little as one pip.
Of course, for less commonly traded currencies, the spread can be much greater. And even when the quote delivers a small spread, it adds up when you’re trading hundreds of thousands of units. If you were dealing with 100 U.S. dollars, the difference between selling them for 11,871 yen and buying them for 11,875 yen wouldn’t be much at all -- just four yen. But if it were 100,000 U.S. dollars, suddenly that four-pip spread means a 4,000-yen difference. So the spread in a quote is more important than its smallness would suggest.
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