Forex Trading Guide                       Bookmark This Page

Welcome to Forex Trading Guide

Article

Learn Currency Trade - Intro to The FOREX Market
Anna Rowe

The Foreign Exchange Market – better known as FOREX - is a world wide market for buying and selling currencies.

It handles a huge volume of transactions 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Daily exchanges are worth approximately $1.5 trillion (US dollars). In comparison, the United States Treasury Bond market averages $300 billion a day and American stock markets exchange about $100 billion a day.

The Foreign Exchange Market was established in 1971 with the abolishment of fixed currency exchanges. Currencies became valued at 'floating' rates determined by supply and demand. The FOREX grew steadily throughout the 1970's, but with the technological advances of the 80's FOREX grew from trading levels of $70 billion a day to the current level of $1.5 trillion.

The FOREX is made up of about 5000 trading institutions such as international banks, central government banks (such as the US Federal Reserve), and commercial companies and brokers for all types of foreign currency exchange.

There is no centralized location of FOREX – major trading centers are located in New York, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, and Frankfurt, and all trading is by telephone or over the Internet. Businesses use the market to buy and sell products in other countries, but most of the activity on the FOREX is from currency traders who use it to generate profits from small movements in the market.

Even though there are many huge players in FOREX, it is accessible to the small investor thanks to recent changes in the regulations. Previously, there was a minimum transaction size and traders were required to meet strict financial requirements. With the advent of Internet trading, regulations have been changed to allow large interbank units to be broken down into smaller lots.

Each lot is worth about $100,000 and is accessible to the individual investor through 'leverage' – loans extended for trading. Typically, lots can be controlled with a leverage of 100:1 meaning that US$1,000 will allow you to control a $100,000 currency exchange.

There are many advantages to trading in FOREX, including:

- Liquidity: Because of the size of the Foreign Exchange Market, investments are extremely liquid. International banks are continuously providing bid and ask offers and the high number of transactions each day means there is always a buyer or a seller for any currency.

- Accessibility: The market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The market opens Monday morning Australian time and closes Friday afternoon New York time. Trades can be done on the Internet from your home or office.

- Open Market: Currency fluctuations are usually caused by changes in national economies. News about these changes is accessible to everyone at the same time – there can be no 'insider trading' in FOREX.

- No commission Fees: Brokers earn money by setting a 'spread' – the difference between what a currency can be bought at and what it can be sold at.

How does the foreign currency exchange market work?

Currencies are always traded in pairs – the US dollar against the Japanese yen, or the English pound against the euro. Every transaction involves selling one currency and buying another, so if an investor believes the euro will gain against the dollar, he will sell dollars and buy euros.

The potential for profit exists because there is always movement between currencies. Even small changes can result in substantial profits because of the large amount of money involved in each transaction.

At the same time, it can be a relatively safe market for the individual investor. There are safeguards built in to protect both the broker and the investor and a number of software tools exist to minimize loss.

About The Author

Article by Anna Rowe, webmaster of http://www.1st-forex-online-trading.com that assists you with FOREX trading strategies, fund analysis and broker tips and offers foreign currency exchange techniques.

Forex trading News

Forex trading

TOKYO (AP) - Japan 's central bank will hold an unscheduled monetary policy meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss ways to help companies raise money amid a pullback among lenders. Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa called the meeting Monday after ...

Japan central bank to hold extra meeting Tuesday - WTOP Radio

Dec 01 - Currency Trading Market Conditions Remain Challenging: Breakout Strategies Prove Profitable Nov 24 - Currency Trading Market Conditions Difficult to Forecast: Look for Good Range Trading Strategies Nov 20 - Forex Trading Signals Update ...

Currency Trading Market Conditions Remain Challenging: Breakout ... - DailyFx

Nov 30 - Forex Automated Trading Signals Sell EUR/USD Using Breakout2 in Final Week of Free Trial Nov 30 - Forex Automated Trading Signals Buy GBP/JPY Using Breakout2 in Final Week of Free Trial Nov 25 - Euro / US Dollar Breaks Out of Range, Aims ...

Forex Automated Trading Signals Sell EUR/USD Using Breakout2 in Final ... - DailyFx

(*) This is the password you need to enter the hotComm room, not your FXstreet.com user account password. You can catch up and review "The 1st on Forex Week Ahead - Live Webinar" by reading the "1st on Forex - Week Ahead Report". For commentary and ...

Weekly Webinar: 1st on Forex - The Week Ahead - FXStreet.com

The Dollar rose versus the Euro in thin trade on Friday as volatile equity markets and fears of a deepening global recession led investors to seek the US currency as a haven. Extreme risk aversion and repatriation flows have been supporting the US ...

Forex − Friday trading was thin in global risk aversion ahead of ... - FXStreet.com

Welcome to Part IV of a four part series discussing the current state of the foreign exchange markets and the future problems and issues that will surround it. Part I of this series explained the general relationship between commodities, the Euro and ...

Forex Markets: A Look into the Dollar Part IV - Seekingalpha.com

Easy-Forex has established an office in London, just months after launching its new forex trading platform, the Visual Trading Machineâ„¢. "Although we are an online service, Easy-Forex is well known for its high level of personal service. Our new ...

Easy-Forexâ„¢ opens in London - WebWire

Forex trading is a game of probabilities. Mathematically, the probability that the price of a currency will go up is the same as the probability of it going down. That means it is a 50:50 probability. This knowledge is what is applied in forex spot ...

Forex trading: The probability of profitability (I) - Punch

High prints in early New York as stocks firm further ahead of the US open. Follow-on selling drops the rate into light stops after IFO data released but lows hold above Friday's action. Rally off the lows to score highs at 1.2740 area suggests bids ...

EURO USD Forex Trading Tips and Analysis for Day Traders - Top News India

MUMBAI: Rupee fell towards a recent record low on Monday, weighed down by losses in the domestic equity market, but state-run banks capped losses by selling dollars, probably on behalf of RBI. The partially convertible rupee closed at 50.30/32 per ...