Forex Trading

Forex trading isn’t strange words for those who looking forward to make quick profit in the financial market. Most investors will have at least hear or read about Forex trading. If Forex is a new term to you, please do read the Introduction to the Forex market before proceed reading this Forex trading article.

Forex trading is said to be the highest risk with highest return investment (or speculation game to be more accurate) in the financial market. The amount traded in the Forex market is much larger than any stock market or even combining few stock markets. Forex trading is simply a world wide trading market running 24 hours from Monday to Friday.

Everyday, there are new Forex traders entering into trading Forex. Some of them don’t even fully understand how Forex is traded but have already trading Forex. They are not idiot who want to burn their hard earned money, it’s just because Forex market is simply too lucrative market to enter with extreme high return. Any Forex traders can easily make a double return just in few minutes time trading Forex.

Forex trading is the trading of buying or selling certain currency. For example, buying US Dollar, then selling it later at a higher price to gain profit. Forex traders may also first sell US Dollar and later on buy it back at a lower price with the same gaining profit. It’s simple strategy of selling price minus buying price to make profit. In Forex trading, we just treat currency as a good, buy it and sell it.

You might now think how can Forex trading make huge profit just by selling and buying currency? Forex is traded using margin, Forex traders don’t need to full amount to buy any currency. For example, Forex traders just need 1000 Dollar to buy up 100,000 Dollar. This allows any Forex traders to make huge profit with little money.

Another important factor that any Forex traders can make huge profit is the high fluctuation for currency. Every day every seconds, the currency exchange rate is moving up and down, the Forex exchange rate fluctuate more heavily whenever there is any important economic data being released.

Forex trading is simply sounds too easy for anyone to make profit in very short time. But before you committed into Forex trading, it is strongly advised to have full understanding in Forex trading. Do read up other Forex trading articles in this website and share Forex trading knowledge in the Forex forums

Foreign Exchange

Forex is the abbreviation for foreign exchange, refers to the foreign currency or the foreign country currency expresses which can be use in the international settlement payment means and the property, mainly it includes the credit instrument, disbursement voucher, the negotiable securities and the foreign exchange cash and so on.

The International Monetary Fund defined Forex as the international creditor's rights which a country has, no matter this kind of creditor's rights are express by the foreign currency or expressed by the standard currency.

Exchange Rate
Exchange rate, also known as the exchange price, it refers by a country currency being express by another country currency, or it is also the price ratio between both countries currency, generally it is being expressed by using the price proportion of both countries. For instance: USD/JPY=105.40, is being expressed a US dollar equal to 105.40 Japanese Yen, US dollar is also known as the unit currency, the Japanese Yen is known as the price currency.

In the foreign exchange market, the exchange rate is demonstrated by five numerals, for example:

Euro/US dollar: EUR/USD 1.3325

US dollar/Japanese Yen: USD/JPY 104.95

Pound/US dollar: GBP/USD 1.9337

US dollar/Swiss Franc: USD/CHF 1.2303

The exchange rate smallest change unit is, namely a final one-figure number digital change, is called an exchange rate basic point (Pip), abbreviation exchange rate spot, for example:

Euro EUR 0.0001

Japanese Yen JPY 0.01

Pound GBP 0.0001

Swiss Franc CHF 0.0001

Characteristics Of Forex Market

In recent years, the foreign exchange market could favor more and more people, it becomes a favorite for the international investors, and this is strongly related to the characteristics of the Forex market. The main characteristics of the foreign exchange market are:

1st, It consists market but no trading field
The finance industry in the western countries consist two sets of systems, namely the centralism business central operation and there is no fixed place for such business network. Stock trading is being traded through stock exchange. Like the New York Stock Exchange, the London stock market, the Tokyo stock market, respectively is American, English, the Japanese stock main transaction place, it is a centralism business financial commodity, its quoted price, the transaction time and hand over to the procedure all consist of unification the stipulation, and has established the same business association, it has formulated the same business rules. The investor could buy and sells the commodity through the broker company, this is known as "consist of trading market and trading field".

But foreign exchange business is done without any unification operation market and business network, it has no centralism unified place like the stock transaction. But, the foreign currency trading network actually is globally, and it has formed a organization which has no formal organization, the market is relied through an approval way and the advanced information system, Forex traders do not consist any membership qualification for any organization, but must obtain colleague’s trust and approval. This kind of Forex market which has no trading field is known as "consist of market but no trading field". Each day, the trading volume in the global Forex market involves billions of U.S dollars, the so huge large amount fund, is being control under both the non-centralism place and non central governance system, plus it is settle based on non-government governance.

2nd, Circulation work
Due to the different geographical position of the various financial centre, the Asian market, the European market, the Americas market because of the time difference relations, it has become an entire day 24 hour continued operation whole world foreign exchange market.

Early morning 0830 (New York time) New York market opens, 0930 Chicago market opens, 1830 Sydney opens, 1930 Tokyo opens, 2030 Hong Kong, Singapore open, before dawn 1430 Frankfurt opens, 1530 o'clock London market opens. So 24 hours uninterrupted movements, the foreign exchange market becomes a day and night market, only on Saturday, Sunday as well as the various countries' significant holiday, the foreign exchange market only then can close.

This kind of continued operation, provided no time and spatial barrier ideal outlet for investors, the Forex trader may seek the best opportunity to carry on the transaction. For instance, Forex trader buys up the Japanese Yen in the morning at the New York market, in the evening Hong Kong market opens the Japanese Yen rises, the Forex trader sells in the Hong Kong market, no matter Forex trader in where, he all may participate in any market, any time business. Therefore, the foreign exchange market may say is does not have the time and the spatial barrier market.

3rd, Zero and Game
In the stock market, the rise or the drop of stock market could influence the value of the stock whether to rise or drop, for example the Japanese new date iron stock price falls from 800 Japanese Yen to 400 Japanese Yen, the value of this stock has been reduced to half. However, in the foreign exchange market, the value of a stock and a currency is being calculated differently, this is because the exchange rate is refers to the exchange ratio both countries currency, the exchange rate change will influence one kind of monetary value to reduce and at the same time another kind of monetary value increase. For instance in 22 years ago, 1 US dollar exchanges 360 Japanese Yen, at present, 1 US dollar exchanges 110 Japanese Yen, this explains the Japanese Yen currency value rise, but US dollar currency value drops, in the end the value will not reduce or increase. Therefore, some people described the foreign currency trading is "zero and the game", exactly said is the wealth shift.

In recent years, investment foreign exchange market fund has continuously increased, the exchange rate fluctuation expands day by day, urges the wealth shift to be larger, the daily trading volume of the global foreign exchange involves 150 billion US dollars, the rise or falls 1%, means that the 150 billion funds has been shifted. Although the foreign exchange rate change is very big, but, any kind of currency will not become waste paper, even if some kind of currency unceasingly falls, however, but generally it represents certain value, only if such currency has been abolished

A Detailed Overview Of Forex Market

Introduction

The following facts and figures relate to the foreign exchange market. Most of the information comes from the Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity conducted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in April 2004, and published in March 2005. 52 central banks and monetary authorities participated in the survey, collecting information from approximately 1200 market participants.

Structure

* Decentralized, over-the-counter market, also known as the 'interbank' market
* Main participants: Central Banks, commercial and investment banks, hedge funds, pension funds, corporations & private speculators
* The free-floating currency system began in 1973, and was officially mandated in 1978
* Online trading began in the mid to late 1990's

Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004

Trading Hours

* 24 hour market
* Sunday 5pm EST through Friday 4pm EST. Rollover at 5pm EST
* Trading begins in New Zea-land, followed by Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America

Size

* Largest market in the world
* $1.9 trillion average daily turnover, equivalent to:
o More than 10 times the average daily turnover of global equity markets 1
o 40 times the average daily turnover of the NYSE 2
o $300 a day for every man, woman, and child on earth
o An annual turnover more than 10 times world GDP 3

* The spot market accounts for about one-third of daily turnover

1. About $167 billion - World Federation of Exchanges aggregate 2004
2. About $46 billion - NYSE 2004
3. About $36 trillion - World Bank 2003

Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004

Major Markets

* The US & UK account for more than 50% of turnover
* Major markets: London, New York, Tokyo
* Trading activity is heaviest when major markets overlap
* Nearly two-thirds of NY activity occurs in the morning hours while European markets are open 4

4. NY Federal Reserve

Average Daily Turnover by Country

Concentration in the Banking Industry

* 16 banks account for 75% of turnover in the U.K.
* 11 banks account for 75% of turnover in the U.S.
* 11 banks account for 75% of turnover in Japan

Note: The reference here is to individual banking offices rather than banking organisations.

Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004

Trading

* An estimated 95% of transactions are speculative
* More than 40% of trades last less than two days
* About 80% of trades last less than one week
* Brokers research: 90% of traders lose money, 5% break even, 5% make money

Technical Analysis

Commonly used technical indicators:

* Moving averages
* RSI
* Fibonacci retracements
* Stochastics
* MACD
* Momentum
* Bollinger bands
* Pivot point
* Elliott Wave

Currencies

* The US dollar is involved in approximately 90% of all foreign exchange transactions, equivalent to over $1.5 trillion a day

Currency Codes

* USD = US Dollar
* EUR = Euro
* JPY = Japanese Yen
* GBP = British Pound
* CHF = Swiss Franc
* CAD = Canadian Dollar
* AUD = Australian Dollar
* NZD = New Zealand Dollar

Average Daily Turnover by Currency

N.B. Because two currencies are involved in each transaction, the sum of the percentage shares of individual currencies totals 200% instead of 100%.

Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004

Currency Pairs

* Majors: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF
* Dollar bloc: USD/CAD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD
* Major crosses: EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF

Average Daily Turnover by Currency Pair