If you are someone who is interested in investing, you must certainly have heard the term, Forex Trading. What many investors don’t know is that “Forex” is not a new term by itself, but rather a short form of “Foreign Exchange”. As the name implies, Forex Trading simply refers to Foreign Currency Trading.
As recently as ten years ago, Forex Currency Trading was confined to the large institutions and banks as they only had access to the tools and systems required to meet the then high barriers of entry set in the Forex Trading game.
Today, things have changed drastically. Recent advancements in technology have empowered the individual investor to participate in the game, and trade with any of the various online trading platforms that exist today.
Once you get started with buying and selling in the Forex Currency Trading market, it will become obvious to you that there exist four “Currency Pairs” that completely dominate the Forex market. The four pairs are “US Dollar vs. Euro”, “US Dollar vs. British Pound”, “US Dollar vs. Japanese Yen” and “US Dollar vs. Swiss Franc”.
The prime goal of any investor who deals in the Forex market is to hold a currency that is appreciating in value in relation to the other currencies. To illustrate with an example, if you choose to buy 100 British Pounds in exchange for 200 US Dollars, hold the 100 British Pounds for a week and in that period, the value of the British Pound appreciates in relation to the US Dollar, you get to convert those Pounds back into Dollars for say $250 and make a tidy profit.
Unlike domestic stock markets around the world that operate for only a few specified hours each day, Forex Currency Trading is open 24 hours a day. Since every country trades on the Forex market, it’s always business hours in some part of the world and so it’s open all day. The volume of trade on the Forex market is roughly a whopping $1.2 Trillion.
Another important distinction is that Forex Currency Trading is not centered on any exchange such as the NASDAQ. There is no central governing authority or organization and trading is carried out between all the major banking institutions of the world.
The advent of the internet has given rise to online Forex Brokers which are similar to an online stock trading account. These brokers have thousands of investors placing orders through their online portals and so are able to allow anyone to open a Forex account and buy and sell in any quantity.
Times have changed and made it extremely easy for anyone to trade on the Forex Currency Market. But, a new investor must keep in mind that it is a very complex and complicated environment that may offer amazing opportunities for wealth creation, but is also capable of relieving you of your hard-earned money in an easy fashion. A would-be investor is advised to do a lot of homework and gain as much knowledge as possible about the Forex market before choosing to make an investment.
By: Mike Freije
Posts Tagged ‘Swiss Franc’
Forex – What is Forex Currency Trading?
March 2nd, 2010Forex Trading – Simple Facts About the Forex Market
January 24th, 2010
The Froex was founded in 1971. Today the current turnover of the Forex is said to be between 1 and 1.5 trillion dollars a day compared to the stock market’s turnover of about 10 billion a day.
Major currencies being traded on the Forex are the US Dollar, Japanese yen, British pound, Swiss franc and the Euro.
Investors can trade on the Forex from any location, using telephone services, the Internet or secured access. Traders can also trade for long periods or decide to trade for just one day.
Another exciting fact is that the Forex market (unlike other foreign exchange services or the stock market) does not have a closing time, so you can trade 24/7 (round the clock). Forex trading includes a measure of risk. That is, you can gain a lot of money or lose money. However, you can operate on lower risks by making use of market analysis methods such as discussed below, in addition to “stop loss” and “take profit” order mechanisms available to traders.
Factors that influence the trend of the Forex market include but are not limited to transfer of capital between countries, economic factors (such as interest rate and inflation differentials, equity market flows et.c.), activities of large financial funds based on forecasts, political factors, psychological factors and market volatility (irregularity in the investment market). These factors affect the currency exchange rate and the price movements on the Forex. Two basic methods are used to analyse foreign exchange markets. These methods are frequently used to inform trading decisions on the Forex. These are:
Technical analysis Fundamental analysis
Fundamental analysis involves the use of external indicators such as economic factors, political, social and psychological factors to predict price movements and trends on the Forex market.
On the other hand, technical analysis uses charts to identify price trends; these price charts are believed to have (already) taken into account the effects of external factors (such as economic, political and social factors) on prices. The implication of this is that, there is no need to study these external effects separately. Another important believe of technical analysts is that the price has a trend and this trend enables you to predict and make profitable decisions. This information leads us to the last important assumption made when using technical analysis – history repeats itself. The point being that human beings tend to react to situations in the same way they reacted when they came in contact with a similar situation in the past. All these assumptions are the bases used to analyse the Forex market and make decisions.
To trade online you need an online trading platform that includes automated online brokerage services that enables you to buy and sell via the Internet. In other words, you don’t need a physical broker; you can get an online trading platform that will provide you with all the broker services you need to trade on the Forex. There are a number of reputable broker websites online that provide this service.
One of the most common platforms is the MetaTrader 4.The MetaTrader has a user-friendly front-end trading interface. The software provides technical analysis; charts and Expert Advisors that help you build up your own trading strategy. This software is fully compatible with Forex automated trading robot. Automated trading software are developed to simplify the complication that comes with trading on the Forex; most especially to reduce risk levels and human errors while trying to analyse the market. Automated trading involves the use of Expert Advisors.
Expert Advisor are written programmes compatible with trading platform software and enables automated trading to take place without human intervention. The Advisor can notify you of profitable opportunities and also complete deals automatically on your behalf. It is important to note that you can use a demo account that does not involve real money investments to learn how the Forex works. When you are comfortable with this and you are ready to invest, you can go ahead and open a real account.
In summary, this article examined in layman’s terms, simple facts that new investors need to understand about trading on the Forex. More specifically, the article touched on the history of the Forex market, the level of risk involved, factors that influence foreign exchange rates and tools used for market analysis. We also delved into online Forex trading and what it entails.
By: Lola Adegbulu
