What is FOREX?

FOREX stands for the FOReign EXchange market, which is an international financial market where currencies are traded. The foreign exchange market began in the 1970s and is now the largest financial market in the world, with an average daily turnover of US$1.9 trillion. That’s thirty times the amount of daily activity on all of the US stock exchanges.

Each Forex trade involves simultaneously buying one currency and selling another. For example, if you think that the Euro will rise relative to the dollar, you would place a Euro/Dollar trade. The forex system would then buy the Euro and sell an equivalent amount of the Dollar. Then, when you want to close your position, you would place a Dollar/Euro trade. This would buy the Dollar and sell the Euro. If the Euro had risen against the Dollar, you would make a profit, but if it had fallen relative to the Dollar you would make a loss.

What currencies are traded?

Most of the world’s currencies are available to trade, but the majority of market action involves a group of major currencies, including the US Dollar, the Euro, the Yen, the Swiss Franc and Sterling.

Where is the Forex market located?

Unlike most financial markets around the world, Forex is not centralized on an exchange. Instead it operates on a basis known as the interbank market or Over the Counter (OTC). As each Forex trade involves two reciprocal trades (buy one currency and sell another), these are conducted electronically with any broker who is willing to accept the trade.

Who can trade in the Forex market?

Traditionally, access to currency trading was restricted to banking organisations, including central banks, commercial banks and investment banks. That’s the reason it operates on a system known as the interbank market.

However, the number of non bank participants in the Forex market, which includes multinational companies, money managers, money brokers and private speculators, is growing rapidly. And thanks to the relatively small amount of capital required to open a trading account (often $500) Forex is opening up to more and more people all the time. If you’re over 18, have internet access the enough money to open a trading account, the world of Forex is open to you.

When is the Forex market open for trading?

As Forex doesn’t exist within a traditional exchange, it’s the only 24 hour financial market in the world. Forex trading begins every day in Sydney and then moves around the globe as the major international financial markets in Tokyo, London and New York open.

In other words, there are always traders somewhere in the world who are actively trading foreign currencies. This means you can make trades and respond to major social, economic and political events day or night. However, there is a short rest period from close of trading on the American financial market on Friday until trading begins in Australia on Monday morning. However, due to the time differences around the globe, this period only lasts for approximately 48 hours.

What is a trading margin?

Forex trades are made in lots of $100,000. If you had to provide that amount of money to cover your position before you could trade, the market would once again be restricted to banks and other institutional investors. So brokers have established the principle of margin trading. In effect they allow people to trade $100,000 blocks of currency if they can provide an element of security against potential losses.

For example, they may allow people to trade on a margin of 1% (in comparison, traditional stock brokers often require a 50% margin). This means that they can trade $100,000 blocks, provided their account contains at least $100,000 x 1% = $1000. One thousand dollars will protect the broker against any potential losses that their client makes (currency values rarely fluctuate by more than 1% in a single day). If a client’s account is reduced by losses (i.e. reducing the broker’s security below acceptable levels), the broker will close all trades and require an additional deposit before further trades can be made.

Trading margin allows people to control vast amounts of currency wiith relatively small amounts of capital (often 50, 100 or even 200 times the amount of capital that they have invested). This can lead to massive gains, but increases the risk of losing most or all of your investment capital.

How much does it cost?

Thanks to the trading margin offered by most Forex brokers, it’s possible to open an account and get started trading with a relatively small amount of capital.

Forex trades are made in lots of $100,000. However, most Forexs brokes will provide you with a leverage ratio of up to 100:1, which means that you have the ability to control a $100,000 trade with as little as $1000 in your account. Some brokers will provide leverage of 200:1 or even 400:1, which allows you to start with as little as $500 or $250 in your account.

However, please remember that although greater leverage allows you to maximize your profit potential, it also increases the risk factor. The higher the leverage ratio, the smaller trading fluctuation that will be required to wipe out your trading capital. So choose the amount of leverage that you use wisely.
For new traders, it may be safer to begin with leverage of 20:1 or 50:1. This will increase the amount that you need to open an account, but it will reduce the risk of seeing all your trading capital disappear due to a small shift in the value of a currency.

By: Michael Mancini -

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

For more information on Forex Trading, visit Michael Mancini’s website at www.ForexCurrencyTradingGuide.com

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4 reasons for Auto Forex trading systems

Forex auto trading systems have become very popular for both beginners and intermediate traders. Many claim auto trading systems will produce better results than any sole human can achieve.

Let’s address four key critical areas where a Forex auto trading system helps a trader to better profits.

1. Complex technical analysis is handled by software.
2. Human emotions are removed from the equation.
3. Can trade anytime.
4. One can back test, and forward test on a free account.

1. Technical analysis is used extensively for forex trading. There are a vast number of indicators, many of them involving complex mathematical calculations. More importantly a good system never relies on a single technical indicator but involves several and how they relate to one another. A good Forex trading system uses a computer to analyze these different technical indicators and issue buy and sell signals based on probability of past correlation of these indicators. This is critical as experienced traders often spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars learning different technical indicators and how they relate to one another. We all know computers are great at number crunching and detecting patterns. A good Forex auto trading system uses this huge advantage to benefit the trader.

2. Any experienced trader will tell you the biggest obstacle any trader will have regards successful trading is their emotions. A good trader must master their emotions and this can take several years. An automated system removes the element of emotions, all one does is let the system do the trades. Fear has prevented many traders from entering a position when the technical indicators are positive. More importantly greed has often turned huge gains into losses, just ask any trader. I can’t stress enough that human emotions are a Forex trader’s worst enemy. When you have a trading system that you know works over time you just let it run its course.

3. Forex trading occurs around the clock Monday to Friday. There are systems that run on autopilot, they attach to your trading software and execute trades without your intervention. Institutions, banks, and large broker houses have done this for years. The main reason are for the two items listed above. Now, consider if you live in New York and you are trading the US/EURO. A very active timeframe for trading is during the European business hours, that would be 1AM to 4AM your time. So why not sleep and let an automated forex trading system do the trades for you. And let’s not forget when the Japanese traders are active during their normal business hours.

4. I mentioned being able to do back testing and forward free testing on a forex trading system. If I am to purchase a trading system I want to be able to do a risk-free test of the system. Some systems will give you the exact details of their signals and you can then actually go back in time to the charts and see how effective they were. Also many forex trading systems will provide you with historical records, but keep in mind there are other factors involved and you may be observing ideal situations. As almost every forex broker will provide a demo account you can actually test a system for free using a demo account. This is a MUST. I would never test a trading system with real money.

Forex trading, and Forex trading systems are becoming very popular today mainly because you no longer need $100,000 to open account, in fact you can open account with some brokers with with as little as $100. Also in the past the systems have been cost prohibitive so only large institutions used them. Forex has always offered huge leverage like 200:1 and for this reason has been very popular. You are hearing more about it today because almost anyone can get started for the very little money.

Barry Z is a retired Internet Marketer living in Mexico who coaches entrepreneurs in his spare time. I will be speaking at the 1st Forex Affiliate Conference in Las Vegas 25-26th July 2008. For more information on a auto trading systems see Forex Auto pilot. For marketing and forex information visit forex.earninternet.com

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