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Forex Trading - Advantages and Disadvantages


What is Forex Trading?

Forex, or Foreign Exchange, is the simultaneous exchange of one country's currency for that of another. This market of exchange has more daily volume, both buyers and sellers, than any other in the world. Taking place in the major financial institutions across the globe, the forex market is open 24-hours a day.

Currencies are quoted in pairs. The first listed currency is known as the base currency, while the second is called the counter or quote currency. In the wholesale market, currencies are quoted using five significant numbers, with the last placeholder called a point or a pip.

The forex market is one of the most popular markets for speculation due to its enormous size, liquidity, and tendency for currencies to move in strong trends. An enticing aspect of trading currencies is the high degree of leverage available.

Advantages of forex trading

Leverage. Huge leverage is available in Forex trading, often up to 100:1 meaning that large profits can be generated from small margin deposits.

Liquidity. The enormous size and global trading of the forex markets means that the markets in the major currency pairs are very liquid making trade executions almost instant with little slippage.

Ability to go short. Since currency trading always involves buying one currency and selling another, there is no structural bias to the market. This means a trader has equal potential to profit in a rising or falling market.

Trends. Fundamentally, the value of a country's currency is determined by interest rates and the strength of the economy in relation to other countries. Currencies, therefore, have a greater tendency to trend until the fundamentals change.

Disadvantages of forex trading

Leverage. With huge leverage available to forex traders the danger is that positions which carry too much risk for the account size can be taken on, leading to margin calls. Effective money management rules must be adhered to.

Brokers. Retail traders must use a broker rather than dealing directly in the interbank market. The broker will be the counterparty in all transactions and is, effectively, making the market. They can, therefore, widen spreads or even refuse to trade during volatile trading conditions. To avoid dealing with brokers an alternative to forex is to use futures. See online futures trading for more details.

Spreads. As the retail trader must use a broker to trade, they cannot deal at the interbank rates. A broker will generally quote a fixed spread of 3-20 pips depending on the currency pair. The underlying interbank rate might be as little as 1 pip.

Forex is a very large market but for most retail traders dealing with brokers the odds are shifted against them. Online futures trading provides a much more level playing field for most traders who want to take part in forex trading.

Tim Wreford operates Online Futures Trading, a website that provides information and resources for traders. Tim also provides an article detailing the development of a day trading system, the results of which are updated daily on the site.


MORE RESOURCES:

CBC.ca

Euro stronger in currency trading as Greek lifeline emerges
Corporate FX
The euro made headway against the dollar and other major currencies this morning (March 16th) as European finance ministers knitted a lifeline to support ...
Euro Weakens as EU Finance Ministers Spar Over Aid to GreeceBusinessWeek
Dollar falls at end of week as Greece debt worries easeXinhua
Dollar falls against euro amid rumors of Greek aid planFinancial Express Bangladesh

all 2,398 news articles »


Currency trading has become accessible, but it's a bad bet for the average Joe
Dallas Morning News
Today, there are 13 currency-specific mutual funds and 36 ETFs that specialize in currency trading. The amount of money in these funds has increased from ...



BigNews.biz (press release)

Forex currency trading system offers day trading software that guarantees results
News Broadcast
A Forex currency trading system that consistently produces results is worth its weight in gold. Guaranteed spreads of at least 100 to 200 pips daily, ...
FOREX.com Analysts Predict Choppy Seas Ahead for Traders in Second Quarter 2010PR Newswire (press release)
FOREX.com: FOREX.com Analysts Predict Choppy Seas Ahead for Traders in Second ...MyNewsdesk (press release)

all 18 news articles »


Currensee: The Facebook of Currency Trading Gets $8 Million
BloggingStocks (blog)
The growth of Facebook has been stunning, as the site has more than 400 million active users and is second only to Yahoo! (YHOO) in terms of traffic. ...

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Michigan Business Review - MLive.com

Currency trading company in Grand Rapids is runaway global success
Michigan Business Review - MLive.com
GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP — One “pip” at a time, a small business born out of the desire to make currency trading easier has grown into an industry giant. ...



Canadian Dollar Gains for Third Straight Week on Rate Bets
BusinessWeek
... will be a forceful move on rates sooner rather than later,” said Dean Popplewell, an analyst in Toronto at the online currency-trading firm Oanda Corp. ...

and more »


How Regulators Plan To Limit Leverage, And Make Retail Currency Trading Go The ...
The Business Insider
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed rules that would reduce the amount of borrowed funds that retail investors can use when investing in ...

and more »


Canada's Flaherty Says Currency Is 'Competitive'
BusinessWeek
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's currency, trading the closest to parity with its US counterpart since July 2008, ...

and more »


Moneycontrol.com

Will S&P's outlook upgrade lead to higher forex borrowing?
Moneycontrol.com
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Anant Narayan, MD & Regional Head of Fixed Income and Currency Trading for South Asia for Stanchart and Gunit Chaddha, ...

and more »


GCI, Currency Trading Broker, Expands Product Offerings and Global Presence
PR-USA.net (press release)
They are also great for more passive investors who do not have the time to dedicate to spot currency trading." Moreover, as the economic crisis continues to ...


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