Saturday, October 31, 2009
Forex Trading - Basics You'll have to know for Successful Trading
More than two trillion dollars is traded daily in the Foreign Exchange market and without exception the largest trading in the world. The FX is open twenty four hours a day, but only five days a week, including public holidays. The world wide financial centers commence trading in Sydney, on to Tokyo, then London and New York.
There are active buyers all of the time and sellers at whatever given time anyplace worldwide. This lets the FX market have the most liquidity the globe has ever known. Money in the Forex market is traded in pairs only, for instance, EUR/USD, GBP/USD or UDS/JPY. Every trade coincide with the selling of one and the buying of another currency. The grounds for the buy or sell is the base currency. Think of the currency as a target to be purchased or sold and the 1st of the pair is the base currency.
The principal currency of the Forex marketplace and in general the base for quotes is the U.S. dollar includeing the USD/JPY, USD/CHF and USD/CAD. There are exclusions and they are the EUR/USD and GBP/USD. These and a lot of other currencies quotes are expressed in units of one dollar ($1) USD per the other half of the currency pair. For instance, a quote of USD/CAD. 1.1302 merely entails that one US ($1) equals 1.130 Canadian dollars. You will frequently discover whilst trading Forex, a double-sided quote. It'll be a bid' and ask' price quote. Bid' is the price to sell the base currency whilst, simultaneously, buying the other currency. Ask' price is the purchase price of base currency and, simultaneously, selling the other currency from broker.
The differences between bid' and ask' prices is the spread and is paid to the Forex broker as commission. Commission-free trading is offered by majority of brokers, and they instead profit from trades' spread. On major currency pairs the spread is usually 3-5 pips. Rollovers, what are they? The process by which the completion of a deal is rolled to another value date. The cost is based on the differential rate of the pair of currencies. Almost all brokers will roll your open positions thus allowing the position to be held over indefinitely.
Forex brokers trade on the margin or leverage and trading this actually allows you the advantage of not having to fully payout on the total cost of the positions value. The brokers in Forex trading, at least most of them, allow more leverage than futures or stocks. The amount of leverage access in Forex trading might be up to five hundred times higher in value of your trading account. In Forex trading the leverage availability is among one of the first concerns of many traders of FX.
Capitalizing on the leverage for brokers provides better, a lot better profits and since this can now and again be a double edge sword, they are able to get very big losses as well. All the same, with a calculated, low-cost and well prepared strategy and perseverance this may not be a problem at all. A properly made-up investment strategy will serve you in your trading successfully. I would like to afford you an important word of care.
As with gambling, you should not ever invest more than you are able to afford to lose. In the case that you do take a profit, commence employing the profit for investment. Log on to the net and open a demo account and practice, have fun and sometime when you're confident to trade a real account, then good luck.
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Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1183139_19.html
About the Author: John Eather is a successful forex trader and internet marketer with many years of experience increasing the income of people around the world with his insights into currency trading. Discover how enjoyable and easy it can be (with the right tools) to earn an extra income from the foreign exchange market.
http://www.moneymakingfxtrader.com
Friday, October 30, 2009
Currency Trading: Understanding the Basics of Currency Trading
Investors and traders around the world are looking to the Forex market as a new speculation opportunity. But, how are transactions conducted in the Forex market? Or, what are the basics of Forex Trading? Before adventuring in the Forex market we need to make sure we understand the basics, otherwise we will find ourselves lost where we less expected. This is what this article is aimed to, to understand the basics of currency trading.
What is traded in the Forex market?
The instrument traded by Forex traders and investors are currency pairs. A currency pair is the exchange rate of one currency over another. The most traded currency pairs are:
EUR/USD: Euro
GBP/USD: Pound
USD/CAD: Canadian dollar
USD/JPY: Yen
USD/CHF: Swiss franc
AUD/USD: Aussie
These currency pairs generate up to 85% of the overall volume generated in the Forex market.
So, for instance, if a trader goes long or buys the Euro, she or he is simultaneously buying the EUR and selling the USD. If the same trader goes short or sells the Aussie, she or he is simultaneously selling the AUD and buying the USD.
The first currency of each currency pair is referred as the base currency, while second currency is referred as the counter or quote currency.
Each currency pair is expressed in units of the counter currency needed to get one unit of the base currency.
If the price or quote of the EUR/USD is 1.2545, it means that 1.2545 US dollars are needed to get one EUR.
Bid/Ask Spread
All currency pairs are commonly quoted with a bid and ask price. The bid (always lower than the ask) is the price your broker is willing to buy at, thus the trader should sell at this price. The ask is the price your broker is willing to sell at, thus the trader should buy at this price.
EUR/USD 1.2545/48 or 1.2545/8
The bid price is 1.2545
The ask price is 1.2548
A Pip
A pip is the minimum incremental move a currency pair can make. A pip stands for price interest point. A move in the EUR/USD from 1.2545 to 1.2560 equals 15 pips. And a move in the USD/JPY from 112.05 to 113.10 equals 105 pips.
Margin Trading (leverage)
In contrast with other financial markets where you require the full deposit of the amount traded, in the Forex market you require only a margin deposit. The rest will be granted by your broker.
The leverage provided by some brokers goes up to 400:1. This means that you require only 1/400 or .25% in balance to open a position (plus the floating gains/losses.) Most brokers offer 100:1, where every trader requires 1% in balance to open a position.
The standard lot size in the Forex market is $100,000 USD.
For instance, a trader wants to get long one lot in EUR/USD and he or she is using 100:1 leverage.
To open such position, he or she requires 1% in balance or $1,000 USD.
Of course it is not advisable to open a position with such limited funds in our trading balance. If the trade goes against our trader, the position is to be closed by the broker. This takes us to our next important term.
Margin Call
A margin call occurs when the balance of the trading account falls below the maintenance margin (capital required to open one position, 1% when the leverage used is 100:1, 2% when leverage used is 50:1, and so on.) At this moment, the broker sells off (or buys back in the case of short positions) all your trades, leaving the trader “theoretically” with the maintenance margin.
Most of the time margin calls occur when money management is not properly applied.
How are the mechanics of a Forex trade?
The trader, after an extensive analysis, decides there is a higher probability of the British pound to go up. He or she decides to go long risking 30 pips and having a target (reward) of 60 pips. If the market goes against our trader he/she will lose 30 pips, on the other hand, if the market goes in the intended way, he or she will gain 60 pips. The actual quote for the pound is 1.8524/27, 4 pips spread. Our trader gets long at 1.8530 (ask). By the time the market gets to either our target (called take profit order) or our risk point (called stop loss level) we will have to sell it at the bid price (the price our broker is willing to buy our position back.) In order to make 40 pips, our take profit level should be placed at 1.8590 (bid price.) If our target gets hit, the market ran 64 pips (60 pips plus the 4 pip spread.) If our stop loss level is hit, the market ran 30 pips against us.
It’s very important to understand every aspect of trading. Start first from the very basic concepts, then move on to more complex issues such as Forex trading systems, trading psychology, trade and risk management, and so on. And make sure you master every single aspect before adventuring in a live trading account.
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Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1030897_15.html
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When Is The Best Time To Trade Forex? Forex Trading Times
One of the questions many inexperienced forex traders ask about is about forex trading times: When Is The Best Time To Trade Forex? Unlike other markets, like the stock market, the forex market trades around the clock. The forex market opens for trading Sunday night (5 PM EST) and closes for businessagain on Friday afternoon (4 PM EST). First the Asian market begins, then the European, then the US, then the Asian and so on,
This gives you total freedom to trade aroun the clock.
Not all times are evenly profitable for forex trading.
So the question you are going to ask is probably: When to trade?
We are going to try to answer that question.
Asian Session (Tokyo) (7PM : 4AM EST):
The Asian forex trading session begins at 7 PM EST (12 AM GMT) and closes at 4 AM EST (9 PM GMT). During this session the most often traded currencies are GBP/JPY, GBP/CHF and USD/JPY. These currency crosses can fluctuate 110 pips.
U.S. Session (New York) (8 AM : 5 PM EST):
The US session kicks of at 8 AM EST and closes at 5PM EST. The US sesssion is quite volatile because of the other markets, stocks and bonds, are higly linked to the USD.The most traded currency pairs during these forex trading times arethis session: GBP/USD, GBP/JPY and USD/JPY which fluctuate around 95 pips. There is also trading in USD/EUR and USD/CAD.
European Session (London) (2 AM : 12 PM EST)
London is the biggest and most important trading center in the world at a market share higher than 30%. The absolute majority of all Forex trades in the market are carried out during these forex trading times because of the liquidity and quick efficiency of the market.
All major currency pairs are traded during this session. For risk loving traders the GBP/JPY and GBP/CHF have very high fluctuations of up to and even surpassing 140 pips.
To learn more about forex trading times CLICK THE LINK!
Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_876805_19.html
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Successful Forex Trading: Forex Hates Procrastinators
What have you put off today? Something important you had to do that you ended up not doing? Well i am sorry to say this but Forex doesn't like you very much, it won't actually come out and say this, but it will definatley show you by eating all your money.
Why do lazy people flounder in the forex market?
1. They put off getting a broker too long and then often make a bad choice.
2. They don't do any research or engage in education and therefore end up gambling.
3. They clutter up informative blogs and forums with their incessant whines about how forex is a scam and can anyone lend them $20 because they are good for it.
4. They are often emotional about trades and will either get too excited after a good trade or try to take revenge on the market after a bad loss.
Does this look like a successful traders mindset to you? Of course it isn't. Are you guilty of any of these things? If you are get it sorted ASAP, not or my sake, but for your own. It isn't my money you are gambling away. "But i thought forex is investing not gambling?" Thank you! I don't gamble in forex, i invest, many other traders i know invest as well. Whats the difference? Education my friend, education. We know what we are doing, and make educated decisions about where we want our money, a forex gambler wakes up in the morning and just decides then and there where he is going to flush away some more money. They don't research, they don't even know what a chart looks like, they just go with uneducated gut feelings.
But let's stop talking about forex gamblers before i have a stroke, what about successful traders?
1. They research brokers and then choose one and stick to it until the broker gives them reason not to.
2. They are always learning. What is a better indicator to use? What have i done wrong in the last week? This is the kind of thing that sharpens their trading sword so sharp it could cut space and time.
3. They don't post often, they might not ever post on a forum or blog. To them forex is about learning and they would rather listen then speak. Humble eh?
4. They keep their cool. They know that a win can turn into a loss and the other way around within the next 5 minutes. They have the experience and they have already set up their trades to accomodate for a turn in fortune. They are in control. Well mostly.
So the main point of all this text is to realize that if you can't even bother having a shower when you wake up in the morning, how are you ever going to be successful in something as demanding, but equally as rewarding as forex? You aren't because forex hates you.
About the Author:No other market in the world offers the potential for profit like FOREX. . So just how long will you wait until you make the decision to join this $3 Trillion daily market?
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Successful Forex Trading: Forex Hates Procrastinators