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. Forex trading is buying and selling the foreign currencies of different countries. It has a similarity with stock trading in that the foreign currencies behave like shares of the currency institutions of the countries. Like stock prices, these also move up and down with time-dependent volatility.
. It is possible to buy a currency low, buy long and sell short another high currency. It needs meticulous pursuit of the exchange rates of currencies you want to trade. One needs to keep up a continuous scrutiny of the trajectory every particular currency vis-à-vis the other currencies, pair-wise.
. It often has leverage enough to induce highly profitable arbitrage and hedging. Each internationally accepted currency has a market and the Forex market is the superset of all these markets taken together. Traders make their own basket or inventory of Forex and trade according to their anticipation of movements.
. For example, the primary Forex statistics for the euro in relation to the German mark prior to 1999 reveals a lot of interesting features and profit potential of dollar or German Mark in relation the euro.
. From the evidence it appears somewhat surprisingly that the euro lost ground against the US dollar in Forex spot trading, and in quite a few dimensions did not match the international transaction role of the German mark.
. The euro changed the structure of the Forex market and increased market transparency through currency elimination. This exposed the dealers to higher inventory risks as their respective inventory imbalances became exposed easily to other dealers.
. The increased inventory costs were recovered by the dealers in the euro markets through higher spreads. This made the euro a less attractive transaction medium than the German mark. This shows how trading in Forex involves both risk and profit potentials.
. Earlier, the fore market was the trading ground of millionaires and billionaires only. Now with the introduction of online Forex trading, the average person is able to create amazingly large amounts of wealth from safe online investments in foreign currencies. Online forex trading is nothing but Forex trading transacted through internet links and email through a competent broker.
. No technical know how, big “risk”, or large investment, hard work is needed. Online forex trading investment lets you use your dollar to control an investment two hundred times as high, $1 to control an investment worth $200, $1000 to control $200,000 and so on and on worth of investment.
. Through online forex trading, you are now able to invest your money to fetch more money for you like the millionaires and billionaires, instead of you laboring hard for your money.
. Online Forex trading is real fun. It is often the most striking and profitable internet investing opportunity because you can do it from your PC or connected laptop from any place in any country in the world.
You don’t need any stocks or big inventory in this trading. In online Forex trading, all you do is, just open an account with one of the brokers with as little as $300 or so. Of course, the larger your initial investment, the faster you stand to gain wealth.
. Then you simply have to follow simple instructions to purchase and sell the currencies. You buy when the price of the currency is low. Within a few seconds or minutes, the price may go up, and you may sell it and make a profit. This way, by just buying, selling and trading these foreign currencies for about 3 or 4 hrs in a day, you can easily make $500-$1000!
. Forex trading is easy money. Especially with the introduction of online trading, it is virtually a continuous upward money spiral for any alert person with a competent broker.
FOREX (FOReign EXchange market) is an international foreign exchange market, where money is sold and bought freely. In its present condition FOREX was launched in the 1970s, when free exchange rates were introduced, and only the participants of the market determine the price of one currency against the other proceeding from supply and demand.
OREX is a more objective market, because if some of its participants would like to change prices, for some manipulative purpose, they would have to operate with tens of billions dollars. That is why any influence by a single participants in the market is practically out of the question. The superior liquidity allows the traders to open and/or close positions within a few seconds. The time of keeping a position is arbitrary and has no limits: from several seconds to many years. It depends only on your trading strategies. Although the daily fluctuations of currencies are rather insignificant, you may use the credit lines, that are accessible even to currency speculators with small capitals ($ 1,000 - 5,000), where the profit may be impressive. (You can learn more about it in the section
The idea of marginal trading stems from the fact that in FOREX speculative interests can be satisfied without a real money supply. This decreases overhead expenses for transferring money and gives an opportunity to open positions with a small account in US dollars, buying and selling a lot of other currencies. That is, on can conduct transactions very quickly, getting a big profit, when the exchange rates go up or down. Many speculative transactions in the international financial markets are made on the principles of marginal trading.
Margin trading is trading with a borrowed capital. Marginal trading in an exchange market uses lots. 1 lot equals approximately $100,000, but to open it it is necessary to have only from 0.5% to 4% of the sum.
For example, you have analyzed the situation in the market and come to the conclusion that the pound will go up against the dollar. You open 1 lot for buying the pound (GBP) with the margin 1% (1:1000 leverage) at the price of 1.49889 and wait for the exchange rate to go up. Some time later your expectations become true. You close the position at 1.5050 and earn 61 pips (about $ 405). For the calculation of 1 pip click here.
Everyday fluctuations of currencies constitute about 100 to 150 pips, giving FX traders an opportunity to make money on these changes.
In FOREX, it's not obligatory to buy some currency first in order to sell it later. It's possible to open positions for buying and selling any currency without actually having it. Usually Internet-brokers establish the minimum deposit such as $ 2000, for working in the FOREX market, and grant a leverage of 1:100. That is, opening the position at $100,000, a trader invests $1,000 and receives $99.000 as a credit. The major currencies traded in FOREX, are Euro (EUR), Japanese yen (JPY), British Pound (GBP), and Swiss Franc (CHF). All of them are traded against the US dollar (USD).
In order to assess the situation in the market a trader has to be able to use fundamental and/or technical analysis, as well as to make decisions in the constantly changing current of information about political and economic character. Most small and medium players in financial markets use technical analysis. Technical analysis presupposes that all the information about the market and its further fluctuations is contained in the price chain. Any factor, that has some influence on the price, be it economic, political or psychological, has already been considered by the market and included in the price. The initial data for a technical analysis are prices: the highest and the lowest prices, the price of opening and closing within a certain period of time, and the volume of transactions.
A technical analysis is founded on three suppositions:
* Movement of the market considers everything;
* Movement of prices is purposeful;
* History repeats itself.
That is, technical analysis is a statistical and mathematical analysis of previous quotes and a prognosis of coming prices.
A number of technical indicators have been installed into the PRO-CHARTS trading system. Analyzing the indicators one can come to the conclusion about further movements of the quoted currencies.
Fundamental analysis is an analysis of current situations in the country of the currency, such as its economy, political events, and rumors. The country's economy depends on the rate of inflation and unemployment, on the interest rate of its Central Bank, and on tax policy. Political stability also influences the exchange rate. Policy of the Central Bank has a special role, as concentrated interventions or refusal from them greatly influence the exchange rate.
At the same time one should not consider fundamental analysis just as an analysis of the economic situation in the country itself. A far bigger role in the FOREX market belongs to the expectations of the market participants and their assessment of these expectations. Various prognoses and bulletins, issued by the participants, have a strong influence on the expectations. Very often an effect of the so-called self-filfilling prophecy occurs when market players raise or lower the exchange rates according to the prognosis. But a deep and thorough fundamental analysis is available only for big banks with a staff of professional analysts and constant access to a wide field of information.
In spite of these different approaches, both forms of analyses complement one another. Traders who act on the basis of a fundamental analysis, have to consider some technical characteristics of the market (the main rates of support, such as resistance and resale), and supporters of the technical approach to the market must track the main news (interest rates, important political events).
In contrast to exchange transactions with real supply or real currency the participants of FOREX use trading with a margin deposit; i.e. marginal or leverage trading. In marginal trading, each transaction has two obligatory stages (they can be divided by period of time, which can be as long as you like): buying (selling) of currency at one price, and then selling (buying) it at another (or at the same) price. The first transaction is called opening the position, the second one, closing the position.Opening a position, a trader furnishes a deposit sum from 0.5 to 4 per cent of the credit line, granted for the transaction. So, in order to buy or sell 100,000 US dollars for Japanese yens, you will not need the whole sum, but only from 500 to 2000 US dollars depending on your policy of controlling risks. When the position is closed, the deposit sum returns, and calculation of profits or losses is done. All the profit or losses caused by the change of currency rates is credited on your account.
Exchange markets work all the time. Their work in the calendar twenty-four-hour period is started in the Far East, in New Zealand (Wellington), passing the time zones in Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Moscow, Frankfurt-on-Main, London, then finishing the day in New York and Los Angeles. The count of time zones begins from the zero meridian in Greenwich near London, and the time itself is called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Depending on the season (summer or winter), the time in different financial centers of the globe will differ from the GMT.
The working day of exchange brokers of Western commercial banks starts, as a rule, at 7:30 am by local time. At 8:00 am the dealers are already closing deals. The morning hours are usually devoted to short analyses of events on the international exchange markets at the moment. The dealers use economic and technical analyses of the situation in the market, read analytical articles in newspapers, then exchange points of view and the latest rumors with each other and with dealers from other commercial banks. On the basis of various data, a picture of possible behavior of the exchange rate on the coming day is put together, with variants of all sorts of possible events.
By 8:00 am the market, consisting of individual dealers, will have worked out the tactics of its behavior, and it enters the operations of the international exchange market, giving a new and powerful impulse to the movement of the exchange rate. Various territorial markets can be given the following characteristics of an average typical activity during a 24 hour day.
Far East. Here the most active deals in the market are conversion transactions with the dollar to the Japanese yen, the dollar to Euro, Euro to yen, and the dollar to the Australian dollar. Very often fluctuations of exchange rates at that time are insignificant, but there are days when currencies, especially the dollar against the yen, make breath-taking flights. Especially so when the central bank of Japan makes an intervention. In Moscow its night and morning at that time, so till noon one can work with Tokyo, till mid-day with Singapore.
Western Europe. At 10:00 am Moscow time the market in the European financial centers of Zurich, Frankfurt-on-Main, Paris, Luxembourg are open. However, the really powerful movement of the exchange rate against the main currencies starts after 11:00 am Moscow time, when the London market is opened. This continues, as a rule, for 2 to 3 hours, after that the dealers of the European banks go to have lunch, and the activity of the market falls down a bit.
North America. The situation livens up with the opening of the New York market at 4:00 pm Moscow time, when dealers of American banks start working, and when European dealers come back from their lunch. Powers of European and American banks are about equal, that is why fluctuations of the rate do not go out of the limits of usual European fluctuations. Nevertheless, exchange dealers look forward to the opening of the New York market in order to receive fresh data about a possible movement of the rate (the more so if the European market has been sluggish). But when the European market is closed about 7p m or 8pm Moscow time, aggressive American banks, left alone on the "thin" market, are able to cause a sharp change of the exchange rate of the dollar against other currencies.
Trading foreign exchange is exciting and potentially very profitable, but there are also significant risk factors. It is crucially important that you fully understand the implications of margin trading and the particular pitfalls and opportunities that foreign exchange trading offers. On these pages, we offer you a brief introduction to the FX markets as well as their participants and some strategies that you can apply. However, if you are ever in doubt about any aspect of a trade, you can always discuss the matter in-depth with one of our dealers. They are available 24 hours a day on the Saxo Bank internet trading system, SaxoTrader.
The benchmark of its service is efficient execution, concise analysis and expertise - all achieved whilst maintaining an attractive and competitive cost structure. Today, Saxo Bank offers one of Europe's premier all-round services for trading in derivative products and foreign exchange. We count amongst our employees numerous dealers and analysts, each of whom has many years experience and a wide and varied knowledge of the markets - gained both in our home countries and in international financial centres. When trading foreign exchange, futures and other derivative products, we offer 24-hour service, extensive daily analysis, individual access to our Research & Analysis department for specific queries, and immediate execution of trades through our international network of banks and brokers. All at a price considerably lower than that which most companies and private investors normally have access to.
The combination of our strong emphasis on customer service, our strategy and trading recommendations, our strategic and individual hedging programmes, along with the availability to our clients of the latest news and information builds a strong case for trading an individual account through Saxo Bank.
Terms of trading are agreed individually depending on the volume of your transactions, but are generally much lower in cost when compared to banks and brokers. Your margin deposit can be cash or government securities, bank guarantees etc. Large corporate or institutional clients may be offered trading facilities on the strength of their balance sheet. The minimum deposit accepted for an individual trading account depends on the account type. Trade confirmations and realtime acount overview are built into SaxoTrader, while further account information can be produced in accordance with your specific requirement
Foreign exchange is normally traded on margin. A relatively small deposit can control much larger positions in the market. For trading the main currencies, SaxoBank requires a 1% margin deposit. This means that in order to trade one million dollars, you need to place just USD 10,000 by way of security.
In other words, you will have obtained a gearing of up to 100 times. This means that a change of, say 2%, in the underlying value of your trade will result in a 200% profit or loss on your deposit. See below for specific examples. As you can see, this calls for a very disciplined approach to trading as both profit opportunities and potential risks are very large indeed. Please refer to our page Forex Rates & Conditions for current Spreads, Margins
The global foreign exchange market is the biggest market in the world. The 3.2 trillion USD daily turnover dwarfs the combined turnover of all the world's stock and bond markets.
There are many reasons for the popularity of foreign exchange trading, but among the most important are the leverage available, the high liquidity 24 hours a day and the very low dealing costs associated with trading.
Of course many commercial organisations participate purely due to the currency exposures created by their import and export activities, but the main part of the turnover is accounted for by financial institutions. Investing in foreign exchange remains predominantly the domain of the big professional players in the market - funds, banks and brokers. Nevertheless, any investor with the necessary knowledge of the market's functions can benefit from the advantages stated above.
In the following, we would like to introduce you to some of the basic concepts of foreign exchange trading. If you would like any further information, we suggest that you sign up for a on this website, where you will be able to exchange views with other FX traders and get answers to any questions you might have.
Initially, the value of goods was expressed in terms of other goods, i.e. an economy based on barter between individual market participants. The obvious limitations of such a system encouraged establishing more generally accepted means of exchange at a fairly early stage in history, to set a common benchmark of value. In different economies, everything from teeth to feathers to pretty stones has served this purpose, but soon metals, in particular gold and silver, established themselves as an accepted means of payment as well as a reliable storage of value.
Originally, coins were simply minted from the preferred metal, but in stable political regimes the introduction of a paper form of governmental IOUs (I owe you) gained acceptance during the Middle Ages. Such IOUs, often introduced more successfully through force than persuasion were the basis of modern currencies.
Before the First World War, most central banks supported their currencies with convertibility to gold. Although paper money could always be exchanged for gold, in reality this did not occur often, fostering the sometimes disastrous notion that there was not necessarily a need for full cover in the central reserves of the government.
At times, the ballooning supply of paper money without gold cover led to devastating inflation and resulting political instability. To protect local national interests, foreign exchange controls were increasingly introduced to prevent market forces from punishing monetary irresponsibility.
In the latter stages of the Second World War, the Bretton Woods agreement was reached on the initiative of the USA in July 1944. The Bretton Woods Conference rejected John Maynard Keynes suggestion for a new world reserve currency in favour of a system built on the US dollar. Other international institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) were created in the same period as the emerging victors of WW2 searched for a way to avoid the destabilising monetary crises which led to the war. The Bretton Woods agreement resulted in a system of fixed exchange rates that partly reinstated the gold standard, fixing the US dollar at USD35/oz and fixing the other main currencies to the dollar - and was intended to be permanent.
The Bretton Woods system came under increasing pressure as national economies moved in different directions during the sixties. A number of realignments kept the system alive for a long time, but eventually Bretton Woods collapsed in the early seventies following president Nixon's suspension of the gold convertibility in August 1971. The dollar was no longer suitable as the sole international currency at a time when it was under severe pressure from increasing US budget and trade deficits.
The following decades have seen foreign exchange trading develop into the largest global market by far. Restrictions on capital flows have been removed in most countries, leaving the market forces free to adjust foreign exchange rates according to their perceived values.
But the idea of fixed exchange rates has by no means died. The EEC (European Economic Community) introduced a new system of fixed exchange rates in 1979, the European Monetary System. This attempt to fix exchange rates met with near extinction in 1992-93, when pent-up economic pressures forced devaluations of a number of weak European currencies. Nevertheless, the quest for currency stability has continued in Europe with the renewed attempt to not only fix currencies but actually replace many of them with the Euro in 2001.
The lack of sustainability in fixed foreign exchange rates gained new relevance with the events in South East Asia in the latter part of 1997, where currency after currency was devalued against the US dollar, leaving other fixed exchange rates, in particular in South America, looking very vulnerable.
But while commercial companies have had to face a much more volatile currency environment in recent years, investors and financial institutions have found a new playground. The size of foreign exchange markets now dwarfs any other investment market by a large factor. It is estimated that more than USD1,200 billion is traded every day, far more than the world's stock and bond markets combined.
. Forex trading is buying and selling the foreign currencies of different countries. It has a similarity with stock trading in that the foreign currencies behave like shares of the currency institutions of the countries. Like stock prices, these also move up and down with time-dependent volatility.
. It is possible to buy a currency low, buy long and sell short another high currency. It needs meticulous pursuit of the exchange rates of currencies you want to trade. One needs to keep up a continuous scrutiny of the trajectory every particular currency vis-à-vis the other currencies, pair-wise.
. It often has leverage enough to induce highly profitable arbitrage and hedging. Each internationally accepted currency has a market and the Forex market is the superset of all these markets taken together. Traders make their own basket or inventory of Forex and trade according to their anticipation of movements.
. For example, the primary Forex statistics for the euro in relation to the German mark prior to 1999 reveals a lot of interesting features and profit potential of dollar or German Mark in relation the euro.
. From the evidence it appears somewhat surprisingly that the euro lost ground against the US dollar in Forex spot trading, and in quite a few dimensions did not match the international transaction role of the German mark.
. The euro changed the structure of the Forex market and increased market transparency through currency elimination. This exposed the dealers to higher inventory risks as their respective inventory imbalances became exposed easily to other dealers.
. The increased inventory costs were recovered by the dealers in the euro markets through higher spreads. This made the euro a less attractive transaction medium than the German mark. This shows how trading in Forex involves both risk and profit potentials.
. Earlier, the fore market was the trading ground of millionaires and billionaires only. Now with the introduction of online Forex trading, the average person is able to create amazingly large amounts of wealth from safe online investments in foreign currencies. Online forex trading is nothing but Forex trading transacted through internet links and email through a competent broker.
. No technical know how, big “risk”, or large investment, hard work is needed. Online forex trading investment lets you use your dollar to control an investment two hundred times as high, $1 to control an investment worth $200, $1000 to control $200,000 and so on and on worth of investment.
. Through online forex trading, you are now able to invest your money to fetch more money for you like the millionaires and billionaires, instead of you laboring hard for your money.
. Online Forex trading is real fun. It is often the most striking and profitable internet investing opportunity because you can do it from your PC or connected laptop from any place in any country in the world.
You don’t need any stocks or big inventory in this trading. In online Forex trading, all you do is, just open an account with one of the brokers with as little as $300 or so. Of course, the larger your initial investment, the faster you stand to gain wealth.
. Then you simply have to follow simple instructions to purchase and sell the currencies. You buy when the price of the currency is low. Within a few seconds or minutes, the price may go up, and you may sell it and make a profit. This way, by just buying, selling and trading these foreign currencies for about 3 or 4 hrs in a day, you can easily make $500-$1000!
. Forex trading is easy money. Especially with the introduction of online trading, it is virtually a continuous upward money spiral for any alert person with a competent broker.
1. Make sure that your plot of the ADX also includes the plot of the Plus DI and the Minus DI. The pattern begins when the ADX is above both the Plus DI and the Minus DI. Most often when the ADX is above both the Plus and Minus DI the ADX will be at a high level, perhaps greater than 30 or 35. The high level of the ADX indicates that the previous trend was a very strong one. Now we are going to try and catch the reversal of that strong trend.
2. With the ADX at a high level and declining, look for a crossing of the Plus DI and Minus DI. If the Minus DI crosses above the Plus DI it indicates that a strong up market has ended and weakness has set in. If the Plus DI crosses above the Minus DI it indicates that a strong downtrend has ended and a new uptrend can be expected.
3. These reversal patterns should be entered only as the market moves in the new direction. (We suggest that you use stops for entry triggers.) Once you have entered the trade you should expect a substantial move in the new direction.
4. Be sure to use a stop loss at the recent low or high of the previous trend. Be willing to make more than one attempt to catch the new trend. (Sometimes the Plus and Minus DI will cross back and forth more than once before the new trend emerges.)
We have found that this simple pattern identifies major changes in direction in almost any market. However you should be aware that the change of direction pattern we have described is not as reliable as the typical rising ADX pattern that starts with a basing action. However the trades that do work are exceptionally profitable and we know of no other method that is as timely at catching major changes in direction. Most traders take a great deal of personal satisfaction in quickly recognizing major changes in direction. This simple entry method can produce some truly outstanding trades and provides a welcome change from typical trend following strategies.
Our Phoenix Bond system uses this technique to identify major bottoms in the bond market. The same system also spots bottoms in individual stocks. To catch major tops we simply reverse the logic. Just put up some charts with the ADX and look for the pattern we have described in this Bulletin. We think you will be very surprised at its accuracy. Give us your comments and observations on the Forum.
Good luck and good trading.
Tips of trading..
ADX for V Tops and V Bottoms
We have often described how the ADX (J. Welles Wilder's Average Directional Index) can be a useful tool for measuring the strength of trends. (Please review: Contradictions in using ADX and ADX Has it's Limitations if you are not familiar with our recommended use of ADX.) To briefly summarize our previous advice, we have found that when the ADX begins to rise it is telling us that a strong trend is developing.
We have often described how the ADX (J. Welles Wilder's Average Directional Index) can be a useful tool for measuring the strength of trends. (Please review: Contradictions in using ADX and ADX Has it's Limitations if you are not familiar with our recommended use of ADX.) To briefly summarize our previous advice, we have found that when the ADX begins to rise it is telling us that a strong trend is developing. A rising ADX has proven to be a particularly reliable indicator after a market has been going sideways for a while and then begins to trend. For best results, the ADX should begin its rise from a low level (less than 15 or 20) because the low level of the ADX indicates that a sideways basing pattern has been formed. Most of our applications of the ADX strategy have been predicated on finding these highly profitable patterns where a trend suddenly emerges after an extended sideways period.
Unfortunately not all trends begin with a sideways pattern. There are many V tops and V bottoms that our rising ADX strategy fails to capture. In a V pattern the ADX rises and then peaks out and declines. The ADX does not begin rising again in time to catch the change in direction in a timely fashion. By the time the ADX falls and then begins to rise again a major portion of the new trend will have already been completed. As we have pointed out in our previous Bulletins, any entry on a rising ADX that was not preceded by an extensive sideways period is not a very reliable pattern.
Recently in our research on using the ADX for trading stocks we have observed another ADX pattern that we believe shows great promise. This new ADX pattern signals very timely entries that allow us to profit from possible tops and bottoms that are V shaped.
Technical analysis and fundamental analysis are the two basic areas of strategy in the FOREX market which is the exact same as in the equity markets. However, technical analysis is by far the most common strategy that is used by individual FOREX traders. Here is a brief overview of both forms of analysis and how they directly apply to forex trading:
Fundamental Analysis
If you think it's hard enough to value one company, you should try valuing a whole country instead. Fundamental analysis in the forex market is often an extremely difficult one, and it's usually used only as a means to predict long-term trends. However it is important to mention that some traders do trade short term strictly on news releases. There are a lot of different fundamental indicators of the currency values released at many different times. Here are a few of them to get you started:
* Non-farm Payrolls
* Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)
* Consumer Price Index (CPI)
* Retail Sales
* Durable Goods
You need to know that these reports are not the only fundamental factors that you have to watch. There are also quite a variety of meetings where you can get some quotes and commentary that can affect markets just as much as any report. These meetings are often brought out to discuss any interest rates, inflation, and other issues that have the ability to affect currency values.
Even changes in how things are worded when addressing certain issues such as the Federal Reserve chairman's comments on interest rates; can cause a volatile market. Two important meetings that you have to watch out for are the Federal Open Market Committee and Humphrey Hawkins Hearings.
Just by reading the reports and examining the commentary, it can help FOREX fundamental analysts to get a better understanding of any and all long-term market trends and also to allow short-term traders to be able to profit from extraordinary happenings. If you do decide to follow a fundamental strategy, you will want to be sure to keep an economic calendar handy at all times so you know when these reports are released. Your broker may also be able to provide you with real-time access to this kind of information.
Technical Analysis
Just like their counterparts in the equity markets, technical analysts of the FOREX trading market analyze price trends. The only real difference between technical analysis in FOREX and technical analysis in equities is the time frame that is involved in that FOREX markets are open 24 hours a day.
Because of this, some forms of technical analysis that factor in time have to be modified so that they can work with the 24 hour FOREX market. Some of the most common forms of technical analysis used in FOREX are:
* The Elliott Waves
* Fibonacci studies
* Parabolic SAR
* Pivot points
A lot of technical analysts have a tendency to combine technical studies to make more accurate predictions on your behalf. (The most common method for them is combining the Fibonacci studies with Elliott Waves.) Others prefer to create trading systems in an effort to repeatedly locate similar buying and selling conditions.
Choosing Your Strategy
Most successful traders will develop a strategy and perfect it over a specific period of time. Some people will focus on one particular study or calculation, while still some others use broad spectrum analysis as a means of determining their trades. Most experts would likely suggest that you try using a combination of both fundamental and technical analysis, with which you can make long-term projections and also determine entry and exit points. Of course, in the end, it is the individual trader who has to decide what works best for him.
When you are ready to get started in the FOREX market, you should open a demo account and paper trade so that you can practice until you can make a consistent profit. Many people who fail have a tendency to jump into the FOREX market and quickly lose a lot of money because of a lack of experience. It is important to take your time and learn to trade properly before you start committing capital.
You also need to be ale to trade without emotion. You can't keep track of all stop-loss points if you don't have the ability to execute them on time. You must always set your stop-loss and take-profit points to execute automatically, and don't change them unless you absolutely have to. Make your decisions and stick to them. Otherwise you will drive yourself and your brokers crazy.
You should also realize that you need to follow the trends. If you go against the trend, you are just messing with your money because the FOREX market tends to trend more often than anything else and you will have a higher chance of success in trading with the trend.
The FOREX market is the largest market in the world, and every day people are becoming increasingly interested in it. But before you begin trading, make sure your broker meets certain criteria, and take the time to find a trading strategy that works for you
It is the one where current economic, political, financial situation of the country of currency is studied. A country's economical and political condition depends upon many factors like the interest rate, unemployment level, exports and imports, per capita income, percentage of population living above and below the poverty line, inflation, trade relations with other countries, tax policies etc.
A fundamental analyst studies and evaluates all these factors before coming to any decision. Thus it helps in long tem decision making and making profits in short term by extra ordinary developments.
Some of the indicators that help in fundamental analysis include:
1. GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT:
It reflects total market value of all the goods and services produced in a country during a given year.
2. RETAIL SALES:
This reflects total receipts by all the retail stores in a country.
3. CONSUMER PRICE INDEX:
It reflects change in prices of consumer goods.
4. BUSINESS CYCLE:
It reflects various phases through which a business passes. These phases include:
* EXPANSION * PEAK * RECESSION * DEPRESSION
5. MONETRY POLICY:
It controls the supply of money in an economy.
Trading successfully needs knowledge, time and understanding of a market. You cannot earn continuously in a Forex market due to its volatile nature. Thus as a trader you should try to consider both technical and fundamental strategies of forex trading and make decision based on market expectations and trends. Try trading with money that you can afford to loose without any regrets. Trade with logic and if you are not sure quit and take rest for some time.
Forex trading refers to an international, 24/7, over the counter, exchange market where currencies of different nations are bought and sold. Trading is always done in pairs assuming the price of currency bought to go up and that sold to fall down. It is the largest liquid financial market making it impossible for any single investor to influence the prices of currencies.
There are two kinds of Forex investing strategies:
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS:
Technical analysis is mostly undertaken by small and medium size investors. A technical analysis considers factors that are actually affecting the market rather than factors that can affect it. Thus the price quoted reflects all the factors that have influenced it. Only market generated facts and figures are taken into account and factors like fear, hope, expectations or other changes are not considered. Thus the analysis is generally based on these suppositions:
* Price reflects all actual market movements. That means price includes everything known to the market like supply and demand of foreign exchange, political factors, trade agreements etc. It is not concerned with what resulted in change rather deals with actual changes. It works on the assumption that price can take only one of the three directions:
Upward, downward and sideward
* It rest on those market patterns that have been identified as significant. That means those factors which are repetitive in nature or will produce desired results.
* History always repeats itself as human psychology changes very slowly with time. That is market movements are predictable.
VARIOUS TECHNICAL INDICATORS ARE:
1. RELATIVE STRENGTH INDEX:
It takes into account the ratio of upward and downward movements in index and expresses it in the range of zero to hundred.
2.CHARTS:
Charts include various hills, slopes, curves that develop on a chart over a time and reflect some major and minor changes in pattern. Some of the chart formations include:
* TRIANGLE * RECTANGLE * HEAD AND SHOULDERS * DOUBLE TOP AND BOTTOM * SAUCERS * V
3.GAPS:
A gap represents area on a bar chart where no trading took place.
* UPGAP: it is formed when the lowest price on a particular day is more than the highest price of previous day.
* DOWNGAP: it is formed when highest price of a certain day is less than the lowest price on previous day.
NUMBERS:
Various number theories are used in technical analysis like:
* Fibonacci theory * GANN
STOCHASTIC OSCILLATOR:
This indicates the overbought or/and undersold condition. It uses a scale of zero to hundred percent
If you want to make money in the Forex Market you have to be able to predict where the price is going. The more accuracy you have in predicting how the price will change, the more you will earn. Your profit is measured in pips. Pip (or Piont) represents the smallest incremental move an exchange rate can make. It is one one-hundredth of a percent. For example, when a currency moves from 1.5720 to 1.5725 it has moved 5 pips. That means that you've won or lost 0.0005% of the money you invested in that trade. However trading for such profits is not worthy. That's why forex brokers introduced leverage. Most common leverage is 100:1. That means that for every pip you win or lose you will win or lose 0.0001%*100=0.01% of your investment.
The Foreign Exchange market, also referred to as the "Forex" or "FX" or "Spot FX" market is the largest financial market in the world, with a volume over US$1.95 trillion -- 30 times larger than the combined volume of all U.S. equity markets. If you compare that to the $25 billion a day volume that the New York Stock Exchange trades, you see how giant the Foreign Exchange really is. It's actually more than three times the total amount of the stocks and futures markets combined!
"Foreign Exchange" is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. Currencies are traded in pairs, for example Euro/US Dollar (EUR/USD) or US Dollar/Japanese Yen (USD/JPY).
There are two reasons to buy and sell currencies. About 5% of daily turnover is from companies and governments that buy or sell products and services in a foreign country or must convert profits made in foreign currencies into their domestic currency. The other 95% is trading for profit, or speculation.
For speculators, the best trading opportunities are with the most commonly traded (and therefore most liquid) currencies, called "the Majors." Today, more than 85% of all daily transactions involve trading of the Majors, which include the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar.
In general, the exchange rate of a currency versus other currencies is a reflection of the condition of that country's economy compared to the other countries' economies.
. Forex trading is buying and selling the foreign currencies of different countries. It has a similarity with stock trading in that the foreign currencies behave like shares of the currency institutions of the countries. Like stock prices, these also move up and down with time-dependent volatility.
. It is possible to buy a currency low, buy long and sell short another high currency. It needs meticulous pursuit of the exchange rates of currencies you want to trade. One needs to keep up a continuous scrutiny of the trajectory every particular currency vis-à-vis the other currencies, pair-wise.
. It often has leverage enough to induce highly profitable arbitrage and hedging. Each internationally accepted currency has a market and the Forex market is the superset of all these markets taken together. Traders make their own basket or inventory of Forex and trade according to their anticipation of movements.
. For example, the primary Forex statistics for the euro in relation to the German mark prior to 1999 reveals a lot of interesting features and profit potential of dollar or German Mark in relation the euro.
. From the evidence it appears somewhat surprisingly that the euro lost ground against the US dollar in Forex spot trading, and in quite a few dimensions did not match the international transaction role of the German mark.
. The euro changed the structure of the Forex market and increased market transparency through currency elimination. This exposed the dealers to higher inventory risks as their respective inventory imbalances became exposed easily to other dealers.
. The increased inventory costs were recovered by the dealers in the euro markets through higher spreads. This made the euro a less attractive transaction medium than the German mark. This shows how trading in Forex involves both risk and profit potentials.
. Earlier, the fore market was the trading ground of millionaires and billionaires only. Now with the introduction of online Forex trading, the average person is able to create amazingly large amounts of wealth from safe online investments in foreign currencies. Online forex trading is nothing but Forex trading transacted through internet links and email through a competent broker.
. No technical know how, big “risk”, or large investment, hard work is needed. Online forex trading investment lets you use your dollar to control an investment two hundred times as high, $1 to control an investment worth $200, $1000 to control $200,000 and so on and on worth of investment.
. Through online forex trading, you are now able to invest your money to fetch more money for you like the millionaires and billionaires, instead of you laboring hard for your money.
. Online Forex trading is real fun. It is often the most striking and profitable internet investing opportunity because you can do it from your PC or connected laptop from any place in any country in the world.
You don’t need any stocks or big inventory in this trading. In online Forex trading, all you do is, just open an account with one of the brokers with as little as $300 or so. Of course, the larger your initial investment, the faster you stand to gain wealth.
. Then you simply have to follow simple instructions to purchase and sell the currencies. You buy when the price of the currency is low. Within a few seconds or minutes, the price may go up, and you may sell it and make a profit. This way, by just buying, selling and trading these foreign currencies for about 3 or 4 hrs in a day, you can easily make $500-$1000!
. Forex trading is easy money. Especially with the introduction of online trading, it is virtually a continuous upward money spiral for any alert person with a competent broker.
