A Beginner's Introduction to the Currency Markets - 1

The international Forex market is used by traders all over the world to trade one currency against another. The professionals refer to it as foreign currency exchange, more commonly referred to by the rest of us as Forex or FX trading. The market covers the entire planet, and has no specific central exchange, unlike all the other financial markets you can think of. It is also the biggest market in the world - almost 2 trillion dollars changes hands daily (that's an awful lot of zeros))

Why do we need a Currency Exchange? Well, An international currency exchange is necessary in many situations:-

Consumers will come into contact with a currency exchange whenever they travel abroad. They go to their bank or a local exchange bureau to convert one currency (usually their home currency) into another (the currency of the country they intend to visit) so that they can buy goods or services in that country. Consumers often purchase goods in a foreign country using their credit cards. They will find that their credit card company will convert the amount they paid in the foreign currency to their local currency, and will appear on their credit card statement at the converted rate. Although each such currency exchange is tiny, the sum total of all the millions of such transactions every day is very significant.

Businesses must convert currencies when they conduct business outside their own country. For example, if they export goods to another country and receive payment in that country's currency, the payment must be converted back to their own home currency. If they import goods or services, then businesses will often have to pay in a foreign currency, which requires them to first convert their local currency into a foreign currency. Big companies convert huge amounts of currency every year, often tens of billions of dollars. The timing of these transactions can have a huge effect on their balance sheet and overall profits.

Commercial and Investment Banks trade currencies to support their banking. These same institutions also participate in the currency market for hedging and trading purposes.

Governments and central banks trade currencies in attempts to improve national trading conditions or in attempts to manipulate or adjust economic or financial imbalances. Although they do not trade for speculative reasons they are often very profitable, since they generally trade on a medium to long-term basis.

Investors and/or speculators (traders) need currency exchange whenever they trade a foreign investment, whether it is in equities, bonds, bank deposits, or even real estate. If a French investor buys shares in an American company on the NASDAQ exchange, he must pay for his shares in U.S. Dollars. He'll probably have to convert Euros to U.S. Dollars to complete the deal. Similarly, an English real estate investor selling a New York property will need to convert the proceeds of the sale from U.S. Dollars to UK pounds.

Because the value of a currency continuously varies against all the other currencies, investors and traders can trade these currencies directly in order to profit from their movements. For example, if an English investor has an opinion that the Japanese economy is strengthening and expects the Yen to rise in value (i.e., go up relative to other currencies including the pound), then he will want to buy Japanese Yen, taking what traders refer to as a long position (expecting a rise). Similarly, if an American investor believes that the Euro is about to go down, he may sell the Euro to take a short position (expecting a decrease in value). To square his position and get out of the trade, he will later buy the euros he sold earlier, but at a much lower price. Therein lies his profit. Importantly, investors and traders can profit whether currencies becoming stronger (by taking a long position) or get weaker (by taking a short position).

Many speculators are day traders, meaning that they set out to take advantage of regular market movements over very short time periods, often buying a currency and then selling it again very soon afterwards (sometimes in just a few seconds).

Until a few years ago the Forex market was very difficult if not impossible to enter for an individual trader, because of the huge investment and very expensive facilities needed. The market was totally the preserve of the big banks and other huge institutions.

There has been an enormous explosion in interest in trading the Forex markets over the last three or four years, as single individuals have discovered that they can now set up and compete on equal terms with the huge trading corporations. Individuals working from home, using a desktop pc and an internet connection can purchase and download the training and expertise they need, together with the trading software and forex data feeds also required, and the be off and running - often making more money than they could ever have managed if they had been working for one of those huge corporations referred to earlier (and keeping all of it too).

Traders are attracted to currency trading for many reasons, including:-

the volatility of the market, which gives them regular opportunities to earn money.

the enormous liquidity of the currency markets. Unlike most other markets, there is so much money in the system at any one time that it is almost impossible to imagine a situation where you could not trade

the currency exchanges are open 24 hours a day. From Monday to Friday, 24 hours per day, the market is active and money can be made.

currencies can now be traded without brokerage charges. An account with a spread trader can be set up and funded in minutes, and the only trading charge is the spread, or difference between the buying and selling price, this can be as low as 2 pips (pip is the smallest unit traded, and you can often trade as little as one or two dollars per pip)

Very low entry costs. A newcomer can enter the market for as little as the cost of a PC, some training books, videos and software, probably one or more trading systems to get him started, and a datafeed to provide instant currency prices (good free ones are available too). Probably less than a thousand bucks for a genuine business that (if you are successful) can produce an extremely good lifestyle.

Even lower ongoing costs. No staff, no offices, no expensive travel (unless you want to). Costs are limited to broadband running cost, a little electricity, and lots of coffee.

Tax-free status. In my country at least (The UK) I pay no tax on my trading income. With tax at 40% on earned income here, this means that instead of getting just 60 bucks out of every 100 bucks I earn, I keep the lot. And this equates to around 66% extra income (60 x 1.66 = 100). Now that's an incentive!

So if you are considering trading as a way of earning an online income, I say come on in and join me. And if you think that maybe you are not cut out for this sort of thing - no maths qualifications, no skill with numbers, I say nonsense!

It will cost you very little to find out if you are cut out for a trading life or not, certainly less than getting into internet marketing or establishing an offline business only to find you don't like it or can't cut it. You could even surprise yourself.

Some of the best traders I know are totally average, totally self-taught people who didn't think for a single second that they could cope with this sort of thing. Oh, and a lot of them are women!

This is the first of a short series of articles aimed at introducing newcomers to internet-based forex trading. The follow-on articles will be launched at regular intervals. This and the follow-on articles (and lots of others too) can be found at my web site (links in the final paragraph)

Forex Education - Why You Should Not Try and Predict Prices

One of the most important points you need to learn in terms of basic forex education is - that if you want to win at forex trading, do not make the mistake of trying to predict prices in advance, if you do you will lose. Here we will explain why and give a better way to trade.

We don't know the future and if you try predicting it or forex prices you are simply hoping or guessing and that will not get you anywhere in life and certainly not in forex trading.

Most traders make this mistake when trading:

They spot prices moving to a support or resistance level and then simply jump in the market and execute their trading signal - this is totally wrong and is guaranteed to lose you money over time.

Why?

Well if the price is moving to support and the trend is down why anticipate?

What you should do is waiting for prices to come to support and then start moving away - this is the correct time to execute your trading signal and to do this properly you need to learn about momentum oscillators which will help you determine when price momentum is moving in your favour.

We have written numerous articles on the use of these, so look them up and if you want to look at some good ones check out the Relative Strength Index and the stochastic, there excellent simple indicators you can learn to use in 30 minutes which is time well spent!

REMEMBER THIS:

Trading is a game of odds and to get the odds on your side, you should always trade with momentum on your side.

Do not believe the far out investment crowd who tell you there is a scientific formula for market movement - there isn't

If there was we would all know the price in advance and there would be no market!

There are many vendors selling forex trading systems based upon the works of - Fibonacci, Elliot and Gann and they didn't make any money for them and won't make money for you.

If you want to trade forex successfully then as part of your forex education you must learn how to confirm your trading signals with momentum indicators. If you do, you will have a head start on your way to forex trading success.

Learn To Trade The Forex: Forex Online Trading Systems Can Make You Rich

Foreign currency exchange trading (Forex) is creating a lot of buzz in investment circles, because it’s making many people very wealthy. Unlike the New York Stock Exchange, the forex market is open twenty-four hours a day. You can literally trade from sun up to sun down.

This is great news for anyone who has a job and other daily responsibilities. You can trade after work, or early in the morning at the crack of dawn. How often you trade and the time of day you choose is totally up to you.

The reason why so many people want to learn how to trade forex is because they hear stories about average folks, who have become forex traders, putting some money into a few good trades and making themselves a bundle – we’re talking thousands of dollars.

Is this kind of success in currency trading possible for you?

Yes, and no.

Yes, it is absolutely possible for you to learn how to analyze the market and pick winning trades. However, this success will not come overnight and will not come without some study and practice on your part.

Was that a buzz kill?

I hope not. It’s just a little cold water being splashed in your face. Look, online forex trading can be a little like gambling in Vegas. You’ve got your cash on hand, you’re sitting there at your computer looking at all the charts and currencies: dollar, yen, euro, etc.

You’re just itching to make some trades and even though you’re still green under the gills, you’re ready to jump in on that hot tip you got from your fellow trading buddy. The rent money’s due and you’ve got bills to pay, but you just know that if you make this one trade - you’ll make big bank!

Okay, this is where the excited new traders get happy, go all in and then . . . lose lots of money they can’t afford.

That’s right. While experienced traders are making nice profits on that hot tip, the newbies are getting wiped out clean, because they really don’t know what they’re doing and are betting their hard earned cash based on pure emotions. The first thing you need to learn about trading currencies is that you should NEVER make a trade like a gambler sitting at a roulette table letting it all ride on red.

The best traders are the ones that know how to keep their cool.

The best traders also learn how to read the forex news and analyze what trades they think are best given certain market conditions. Another golden tip is that you should never invest money that you need to keep a roof over your head, food in the fridge and the lights on at home. People who do this are gamblers and we already know that gamblers lose most of the time.

Successful traders have learned to risk no more than 2-3% of their total trading account. So, while they may make thousands, these investors have learned how to build on their success. When you have a winning trade, you take that money and invest it again and again.

To be safe, while you are learning how to trade in the forex market, you shouldn’t use real money period. You can open a demo trading account and make your trades without risking a cent. This way, when you lose, you can study that mistake and try to correct it. While all investors, even successful ones, lose money, you’ll be learning how to minimize your losses and increase your winning trades.

A good online forex trading system will show you the ropes and teach you how to look at trends and study market movement. You’ll also learn how to put in a strategic stop loss to keep you from losing too much money when the market goes against you.

When the time is right, and you are confident you can trade successfully (with a cool head) using real money, then jump in and go for the gusto!

Forex Trading Tip - 3 Tips to Super Charge Your Profits

The forex trading tip enclosed is all about increasing your profitability and there logical, easy to apply and work. So here are your 3 trading tips, to increase the profitability of your forex trading strategy.

1. Learn The 80 - 20 Rule

It's a fact that in many areas of business work etc that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your efforts and it's also true in forex trading.

Most traders over trade and trade for the sake of trading, they think that if their not trading they will miss a move or the more they trade the better and this is not true. What you need to do is:

Cut you're trading dramatically and only focus on the high odds set ups. I know traders who trade less than once a month but earn triple digit profits. They know trading frequency has nothing to do with forex trading success and you should learn this to.

2. Don't Diversify

Diversification is seen as a way to cut risk - that's only true if you diversify into good high odds trades, but most traders think they should trade a spread of positions, take marginal trades but all that does is dilute profit potential.

Most forex trader's accounts are so small they simply can't diversify and have meaningful gains. No you need to concentrate on high odds trades and then use the next tip to milk them for all their worth.

3. Load up The Risk Reward

How many times do you read that you should only risk 2% per trade well for a small forex account of say $5,000 you wont make much doing that that's $100!

No you need to risk up to 20% on the high odds set ups - if you don't take a risk, you won't make big gains, its as simple as that.

You are not being rash, you are taking a calculated risk based upon the odds and like a good card player, you are going to load up your trade.

The tips above are simple and mean that you have to see forex trading for what it is a high risk - high return odds based game, where you need to be patient, to wait for the right trades and when you see them - hit them hard.

Think about the above simple forex tips and you will see they make total sense.

They will help you enhance your forex trading strategy and enjoy forex trading success.

Currency Trading Basics - Answer This Question Correctly or Lose Your Equity

Here we are going to look at currency trading basics and one specific question any novice forex trader must answer correctly, if they are going to win with their forex trading strategy, so here it is...

My trading edge over the 95% if traders who lose is (defined)

To win you need to have a trading edge - it's as simple as that. Here are some answers the bulk of losers will give and they will all see you lose

- I intend to use a forex day trading or scalping method

- I am going to blindly trade a vendors system

- I like to take expert opinion and trade the news

- I have a forex trading system that can predict forex prices

- I believe the markets move to a scientific formula and will take advantage of one

- I have a complicated system that I have refined in back testing

- I am simply going to buy into support and sell into resistance

All the above do NOT constitute and edge and will see you fail at forex trading - keep in mind 95% of traders lose!

If you learn anything in your forex education it should be that forex trading is not as simple as it first appears and to learn currency trading correctly you must end up with an edge that you can define - no two peoples edges are identical but successful traders know what it is and why it gives them an advantage and they have the confidence to apply it with rigid discipline.

Lets first start with a fact - forex trading is an odds game not a game of certainties.

There is no scientific method to help you determine prices in advance.

If there was we would all know the price and there would be no market! Furthermore, if you try and predict forex prices, you will lose because you are simply hoping and guessing and you should really be trading the reality and confirming every trading signal before executing.

Forget complicated trading system!

Simple systems work best as they are more robust in the face of brutal ever changing market conditions and have fewer elements to break.

Forget the news its just stories.

The news reflects the emotions of the losing majority and if you get involved in trying to follow it, you will lose.

You need to trade the odds to enjoy currency trading success.

The best way is to use forex charts, where you can simply see the reality of price change and you can either forex swing trade or trend follow - but never day trade!

Day trading is the best way to lose money out and doesn't work in the real world.

Forget all the gurus out there with their regular income systems and simulated track records; it's a loser's game.

Forex trading is a combination of a simple forex trading system; you totally understand this then allows you to execute it with discipline.

If you don't have the confidence in your system you will never have the discipline to follow it and these traits come from understanding and knowing a trading edge.

So there you have it perhaps the most important point of currency trading basics to learn but if you do and apply what we have written you could enjoy huge forex success

Learn Currency Trading - 5 Common Deadly Mistakes

If you want to learn currency trading you need to get the right forex education and avoid the mistakes of the losing majority. The mistakes below are common ones but there easy to avoid and you must do so if you want to enjoy currency trading success.

1. Following a Vendor Blindly

One of the most common errors is to think someone else can give you success - they can't.

Most systems sold are junk - but even if you do find a good one, how can you follow it with discipline if you don't know how it works?

You cant to have discipline to follow a system you must have confidence in it so you need to take the time to develop your own trading system or have total confidence in someone else's logic.

2. Trading News Stories

We have more news at our disposal than ever before and all those stories are very convincing - but that's all they are stories. The news reflects the greed and fear of the crowd and they lose longer term - try and trade news stories and you are guaranteed to lose as well.

The best way for any novice to trade is to simply follow the reality of price action on a forex chart and trade it - your trading the truth not an opinion and that is the only way to win.

3. Day Trading

Simply the dumbest way to trade.

It doesn't work as all short term volatility is random and you can't get the odds in your favour.

Don't believe me?

Try and find a forex day trader with a real ( not simulated ) track record that's made real dollars over the long term. Let me know if you find one I have been searching for 25 years and still not found one!

Avoid day trading at all costs!

4. Trying to Predict Forex Prices

If you try and predict prices in advance you're hoping or guessing and that won't get you anywhere in life and certainly not forex trading.

You must not predict wait for momentum to confirm a turn and you can look up how to do this in our other articles - it is essential to confirm a price turn, rather than simply guess when it might come.

5. Markets are Scientific

It's amazing how many people buy into this myth yet it's obviously not true.

Why?

Because if prices did move to a scientific theory, there would be no market, as we would all know the price beforehand and there would be no market. The reason a market moves is because we all have different opinions of where the price may go.

The far out investment crowd love scientific theories and like to follow the works and methods of gurus such as:

Gann, Elliot and Fibonacci.

Well they made no money with their theories in forex trading and neither will you.

So if you want to learn currency trading correctly avoid the common mistakes enclosed and work and getting a simple forex trading system which will help you trade the odds, you can understand and can apply with discipline.

If you learn currency trading the correct way ( and 95% of traders don't ), then you can enjoy currency trading success and create a life changing income - good luck