Why Trade the FOREX?

My purpose for writing this article is to demonstrate to you the advantages of trading on the Forex market. However, there is one myth that I want to dispel before I go further. The myth is that there is a difference between trading and investing. To dispel that myth I quote from Al Thomas, President of Williamsburg Investment Company, who wrote "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It". He said "Everyone who invests is a trader, only the time period is different." It is a lesson that I took seriously after taking a beating in the stock market in 2000.

So now, let's compare features of currency trading to those of stock and commodity trading.

Liquidity — The Forex market is the most liquid financial market in the world around 1.9 trillion dollars traded everyday. The commodities market trades around 440 billion dollars a day, and the US stock market trades around 200 billion dollars a day. This ensures better trade execution and prevents market manipulation. It also ensures easily executable trading.

Trading Times — The Forex market is open 24 hours a day (except weekends) which means that in the US it opens at 3:00 pm Sunday (EST) and closes Friday at 5:00 (EST), allowing active traders to choose the times they want to trade. Commodities trading hours are all over the board depending on which commodity you are trading. Including extended trading times US stocks can be traded from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm (ET) on weekdays

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Leverage — Depending on your Forex account size, your leverage may be 100:1, although there are Forex brokers that offer leverage of up to 400:1 (not that I would ever recommend that kind of leverage). Leverage in the stock market can be as high as 4:1, and in the commodities market, leverage varies with the commodity traded but it can be quite high. http://wafaaamien.gpsrobot.a.clickbetter.net Because the commodity markets are not as liquid as the Forex market, its leverage is inherently riskier. Although I was never shut out of a commodity trade by the day limit, the fear was always in the back of my mind.

Trading costs — Transaction costs in the Forex market is the difference between the buy and sell price of each currency pair. There are no brokerage fees. For both the stock and the commodity markets, there are transaction costs and brokerage fees. Even when you use discount brokers, those fees add up.

Minimum investment — You can open a Forex trading account for as little as $300.00. It took $5,000 for me to open my futures trading account.

Focus — 85% of all trading transactions are made on 7 major currencies. In the US stock market alone there are 40,000 stocks. There are just over 200 commodity markets, although quite a few are so illiquid that they are not traded except by hedgers. As you can see, the fewer number of instruments allows us to study each one more closely.

Trade execution — In the Forex market, trade execution is almost instantaneous. In both the equity and commodity markets, you count on a broker to execute your trades and their results are sometimes inconsistent.

While all of these features make trading the Forex market very attractive, it still requires a lot of education, discipline, commitment and patience. All trading can be risky.

by Susan Walker



How To Start Trading The Forex Market? ( Part 2)

Why is FOREX trading so popular?

Because you can trade from anywhere. From your kitchen table, bedroom, garage or from the nearest Starbucks coffeehouse ( most of them have wireless Internet connection).

If you have or like to travel, take your laptop with you and you can trade the FOREX anywhere in the world where you have an Internet connection.

When you want to start trading the Forex Market nobody is asking you for a diploma, a formal license or a proof of how many hours you have spent studying the Foreign Exchange Market and/or Banking Industry.

FOREX Trading is Economical and Start-up Costs are Low!
You can open an account to trade Forex with as little as US$ 200 at he most brokerage firms.
I personally do recommend  Fenix Capital Management, LLC, which offers  a state of art Trading platform, that allows you to place orders directly by clicking  on the chart.

The Main Benefits of Trading the FX Spot Market are:

YOU don't pay commissions or fees!
YOU can trade 24-hours a day !
YOU can trade up to 400:1 Leverage !
YOU can have FREE Streaming executable Price quotes and live charts!

It is important to know the differences between cash FOREX (SPOT FX) and currency futures.

In currency futures, the contract size is predetermined.

With FOREX (SPOT FX), you may trade electronically any desired amount, up to $10 Million USD.

The futures market closes at the end of the business day (similar to the stock market).If important data is released overseas while the U.S. futures markets is closed, the next day's opening might sustain large gaps with potential for large losses if thedirection of the move is against your position.

The Spot FOREX market runs continuously on a 24-hour basis from 7:00 am New Zealand time Monday morning to 5:00 pm New York Time Friday evening.

Dealers in every major FX trading center (Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong/Singapore, London, Geneva and New York/Toronto) ensure a smooth transaction as liquidity migrates from one time zone to the next.

Furthermore, currency futures trade in non-USD denominated currency amounts only, whereas in spot FOREX, an investor can trade in almost any currency denomination, or in the more conventionally quoted USD amounts.

The currency futures pit, even during Regular IMM (International Money Market) hours suffers from sporadic lulls in liquidity and constant price gaps.

The spot FOREX market offers constant liquidity and market depth much more consistently than Futures.

With IMM futures one is limited in the currency pairs he can trade. Most currency futures are traded only versus the USD.

With spot FOREX, you may trade foreign currencies vs. USD or vs. each other on a 'cross' basis, for example: EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, CHF/JPY, EUR/GBP and AUD/NZD

More and more well informed investor and entrepreneurs are diversifying their traditional investments like stocks, bonds & commodities with foreign currency because of the following reasons: (will be continued)

RISK WARNING:

Risks of currency trading: Margined currency trading is an extremely risky form of investment and is only suitable for individuals and institutions capable of handling the potential losses it entails. An account with an broker allows you to trade foreign currencies on a highly leveraged basis (up to about 400 times your account equity). The funds in an account that is trading at maximum leverage may be completely lost if the position(s) held in the account experiences even a one percent swing in value, given the possibility of losing one's entire investment. Speculation in the foreign exchange market should only be conducted with risk capital funds that, if lost, will not significantly affect the investors financial well-being.

7 Reasons To Start Trading On The Forex Currency Market

If you have time or money, there are lots of ways to earn additional income like from active involvement in multilevel marketing, website development, property investment, residential construction security, etc. Trading in Forex (foreign exchange) is also another way of making that extra income.

In the Forex currency market, you have the flexibility of trading from any location (home, hotel, etc.) and at any time as long as you have a laptop and internet connection for your portable computer.

There are no specific requirements or experience necessary in this particular online income generating trading business. Just by attending a Forex training course should be adequate enough for you commence trading in Forex. Why trade in Forex?

Below are 7 reasons why people should trade in Forex:

1. Forex trading offers monetary leverage. Meaning that you can trade with a low capital outlay to control a large currency position. You can trade a standard of $100,000 currency lot by investing with a small capital of only $1000. However, some Forex brokerage firms permit even less that that by giving you up to 200 times the leverage. That is, with only $100 capital outlay you can control a 200,000 unit currency position.

2. Online Forex trading has low transaction charges even though if you have a mini account or trade in small volumes.

3. Forex market transparency is an advantage since there are no hidden figures. You get what you see and thus there is no unexpected surprise. Therefore, it enables you to manage your risk and you can execute your order within seconds if you want to stop further losses in a particular trade.

4. You can trade by buying or selling in the Forex market in either direction, i.e. when it is going up or down.

5. Flexible time is one of the advantages in Forex trading. The Forex market never shuts as it is an incessant electronic currency exchange taking place globally. Since it is worldwide, involving in diversity of currencies of various nations that float their currencies in the world Forex market, it operates 24 hours daily, allowing you to enter or exit a trade whenever you like. In this regards, you can trade whenever you have the free time and as long as there is an internet available anywhere.

6. As you accumulate your personal experience you can earn you extra income by profiting from this sort of online trading in foreign currency. If you trade smartly with the use of technical analyzing tools, you can profit from a trade by predicting the outcome of a trade based on observing the changing trend of a currency which normally repeatedly shows up in predictable cycles.

7. There is unlimited earning potential when you participate in Forex trading for it has a daily trading volume in excess of 1.5 trillion. That makes it the largest financial market worldwide when compared with the equity and futures markets of 50 billion and 30 billion respectively.

by Sorna Devadas