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Friday, July 3, 2009

Forex Market Basics

By Frank M. Rivera

One of the most popular trading venues for investors is the Foreign Exchange or Forex market. This market works from the principle that currencies have an exchange rate that varies from day to day - even hour by hour. Buying currencies and working the trades (whether a short-sell or a buy-and hold position) can turn a nice profit. The forex markets are worth roughly three trillion dollars of action each day.

First of all, the main thing about the forex market is accessibility. Anyone and everyone can trade the forex market at anytime. You don't have to go through a high priced broker to place your trades. You can simply download a trading platform directly to your computer and make whatever trades you want from the comfort of home.

Unlike a traditional stock exchange, the market doesn't actually take place in one location. You're trading online with a virtual trading platform. You put your order in and it goes to a trading desk at whatever broker you have. From there it goes directly into the market. The forex market can be traded anytime except for the weekends. It is open 24 hours a day for 5 days a week.

Forex trading is all about changes in the price of a currency pair; these are denominated in ten thousandths of a unit of currency, and shifts of even one or two ten thousandths can result in large profits. Getting that small of a currency swing to turn into a profit requires leverage, where you're borrowing money to make the size of your bets larger. Leverage has its risks - just ask anyone who lost money in the last nine months on the financial markets. Used wisely, it's a sensible tool. Used poorly, it's like shaving with a chainsaw.

Forex trading can be lucrative, if you're willing to be wired in to be a constantly shifting day trader. You're playing the swings in volatility, and with leverage, even shifts of a thousandth of a unit of currency can create (or lose) large sums of money quickly. With forex trading, it's very unlikely that your investment will become utterly worthless - it's still currency at the end of the day.

Like any investment, there is an element of risk. Especially when playing with large amounts of leveraged capital, you run the risk of big losses. Be careful, start out slow, and used strict money management techniques while you figure out if this is a job you like.

Forex has a lot of strategies beyond day trading. One of the saner ones, for people who don't want to be glued to the Internet for 100 hours a week, is position trading. There are longer term trends in forex trading and this is a lot less stressful (and time intensive) than trying to run the volatile day by day swings.

Forex trading is appealing because of its accessibility and lure of 'fast profits'. Just remember that a gold rush mentality doesn't change the reality that it's a job, and one that requires constant attention to do well - and anyone who has a system that could actually beat the markets sure as hell wouldn't be selling it for $99 on the Internet. Go into this with your eyes open and you'll have a good paying job that works from home. - 23223

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