Buying and Selling Currencies

Posted by Admin on Aug 17, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments

Trading opportunities in the forex market deserve serious consideration as a diversification strategy for your portfolio.

While online equities and futures trading have enjoyed exponential growth and widespread notoriety over the past few years, online foreign exchange trading is only now gaining popularity among seasoned active traders, commodity trading advisors (CTAs), and other professional money managers.

Until recently, large international banks dominated the foreign exchange market, only allowing access via telephone trading to a select few such as Fortune 1000 companies, large funds, high-net worth individuals, and so on. But now, the tide has turned and finally there are established online trading firms that provide individual investors with direct access to the largest, most liquid financial market in the world.

In this market you may buy or sell currencies. The objective is to earn a profit from your position. Placing a trade in the foreign exchange market is simple: the mechanics of a trade are virtually identical to those found in other markets, so the transition for many traders is often seamless.

Here are an example of how forex trading works. Say, a trader purchases 10,000 euros in the beginning of 2004 at the EUR/USD rate was .9600. In May of 2006 the trader exchanges his 10,000 euro back into US dollar at the market rate of 1.1800. In this example, the trader earned a gross profit of $2,200.

Currencies are quoted in pairs, such as EUR/USD or USD/JPY. The first listed currency is known as the base currency, while the second is called the counter or quote currency. The base currency is the ‘basis’ for the buy or the sell. For example, if you BUY EUR/USD you have bought euros (simultaneously sold dollars). You would do so in expectation that the euro will appreciate (go up) relative to the US dollar.

EUR/USD

In this example euro is the base currency and thus the ‘basis’ for the buy/sell. If you believe that the US economy will continue to weaken and this will hurt the US dollar, you would execute a BUY EUR/USD order. By doing so you have bought euros in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the US dollar. If you believe that the US economy is strong and the euro will weaken against the US dollar you would execute a SELL EUR/USD order. By doing so you have sold euros in the expectation that they will depreciate versus the US dollar.

GBP/USD

In this example the GBP is the base currency and thus the ‘basis’ for the buy/sell. By doing so you have bought pounds in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the US dollar. If you believe the British are going to adopt the euro and this will weaken pounds as they devalue their currency in anticipation of the merge, you would execute a SELL GBP/USD order. By doing so you have sold pounds in the expectation that they will depreciate against the US dollar.

USD/JPY

In this example the US dollar is the base currency and thus the ‘basis’ for the buy/sell. If you think that the Japanese government is going to weaken the yen in order to help its export industry, you would execute a BUY USD/JPY order. By doing so you have bought U.S dollars in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the Japanese yen. If you believe that Japanese investors are pulling money out of U.S. financial markets and repatriating funds back to Japan, and this will hurt the US dollar, you would execute a SELL USD/JPY order. By doing so you have sold U.S dollars in the expectation that they will depreciate against the Japanese yen.

USD/CHF

In this example the CHF is the base currency and thus the ‘basis’ for the buy/sell. If you think the Swiss franc is overvalued, you would execute a BUY USD/CHF order. By doing so you have bought US dollars in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the Swiss Franc. If you believe that due to instability in the Middle East and in U.S. financial markets the dollar will continue to weaken, you would execute a SELL USD/CHF order. By doing so you have sold US dollars in the expectation that they will depreciate against the Swiss franc.

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Forex Currency Trading – How To Get Your Slice of the Forex Pie

Posted by Admin on Aug 13, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments

Have you ever heard about forex currency trading? In layman’s terms, Forex, or foreign exchange, is the business of exchanging of one nation’s currency for another and making a profit in the process through ever-shifting rates of exchange. Forex is the largest financial market with the most liquidity on Earth and trades about $4 trillion a day globally.

Forex is quite a broad term, as it includes business done between governments, large banks, central banks, currency speculators, commercial companies, multinational corporations, and other financial institutions and markets. As you can no doubt discern, in today’s global market, virtually everything financial comes back in some way to forex.

Forex trading is the most reliable meter for how things are going in the world, economically and politically. Though it is mostly based on supply and demand economics, fx trading is also affected by economic conditions such as inflation levels and trends, government’s budget deficits and surpluses, balance of trade levels and trends, and the nation’s economic growth and economic health. currency trading is also affected by every sort of political condition in countries across the world. Any sort of war or conflict, political upheaval (such as a coup detat), or instability can have an unfavorable effect on forex trading. Currencytrading is also affected by market psychology. Just like everything else, fx trading is all about people. If citizens are not confident about the economy, it will show in the form of rumors and trends that can adversely affect currency trading.

If you want to know more about forex trading, the best things you can do to educate yourself further are look into a course online, enroll in a course at your local college or university, or find a mentor – someone who already knows about currency trading and is willing to show you the ropes. Though your college days may far behind you, you can easily bite the bullet and take a short course to learn more about forex. If your local school doesn’t offer such a course, open your local newspaper and see if anyone is offering a course at the community center or library. If you’d rather stay at home and learn at your own pace, try an online course. Online courses can teach you everything you need to know, but just make sure you look into those offering the course before investing in it, as there are a lot of get-rich-quick scams out there that do nothing but take your money. Your best option by far is to find yourself a mentor, someone experienced in currency trading who is willing to teach you everything you need to know one-on-one before you consider using a forex trading system or automated software.

Conclusion

Forex trading is a very profitable business that anyone with a little bit of ambition can get into. With the global economy growing by the day, now is your time to get into fx trading and start making some money. Though finding a mentor is the best way to learn more about forex currency trading, you may also benefit from a college or online course.

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