Tuesday, 25 September 2012

THE FOREX CLASS

Learn Forex
At we know knowledge is power. We understand the importance of educating our traders about trading forex on the forex market. Our goal is to enable traders to trade forex with confidence, while at the same time understanding the key characteristics of the forex market. This includes both potential risks and gains.

Making a transaction on the forex market is simple and the process is s

 In forex trading, when you buy one currency, you need to sell another currency in exchange. If you anticipate that the price of the base currency is going to go up in comparison with the counter currency, then you can choose a buy position (go long). You can then close this position by selling when the higher price is reached. If instead, you think the price of the base currency will go down as compared to the counter currency, then you would sell and enter into a short position. The idea is to cover your position by buying back at a lower price.

Order Types

A market order is placed when a forex trader wants to enter into a position immediately, at the best available price at the time. One possible downside to a market order is if the markets are moving fast, your order might get filled at a different price from the one you wanted. The difference is called slippage.

Alternatively, if you are concerned about getting the right price, and are willing to wait and enter the market when those conditions are met, then you would place a pending order.

There are several different kinds of pending orders in forex trading:

Buy Entry – This order is placed when a forex trader believes the price will begin to rise after first dropping to a certain level. It is executed when the asking price becomes equal to the pending order.

Buy Stop – This order is placed when a forex trader believes the price will continue to rise after it breaks above a certain level. This type of pending order is also executed at the ask price.

Sell Entry – This order is placed when a forex trader believes that the price will begin to fall after it reaches a certain level. It is executed when the bid price is equal to the pending order.

Sell Stop – This order is placed when a forex trader believes that the price will continue to fall after it breaks below a certain level. This type of pending order is also executed at the bid price.

Stops

A stop loss (or a stop) is an additional type of pending order designed to stop your losses by automatically closing your position if the price moves in a direction different to what you expected.

If you are buying a long position, then you would set your stop somewhere beneath your entry to protect yourself from a sudden drop. If you are selling a short position, then your stop would be placed somewhere above it, just in case there is an unexpected rally. A stop can also follow the price once it moves in your favor, in which case it is known as a trailing stop.

A stop under a long position automatically closes if it is touched by the bid price and a stop placed over a short position is executed when it is touched by the ask price.

Take Profit

Another order which can close your position automatically is called a take profit order (TP). In the same way that a stop is intended to protect your position if something unexpected happens, a take Profit order ensures that your position is closed if your target price is reached when you are not available, or in a fast moving market where the price may touch the target too quickly to react. It is generally a good idea to have both a stop and a target when entering new positions.

A target is normally set above the current price if you are in a long position, and below the current price if you are in a short position. For long positions, the take profit order would be executed when the bid price becomes equal to the amount you set. For short positions, the ask price must equal the take profit amount.

imilar to other markets. The forex market is based on the basic business model of buying and selling. Forex trading is quite simple; traders buy and sell foreign currencies against each other, and speculate on the constantly changing foreign exchange rates. Unlike with the stock market, a forex trader is not charged any commission for trading. Instead, the forex broker is compensated through the buy and sell differential (commonly known as the spread).

ENHANCE YOUR FX TRADING KNOWLEDGE

Buying and Selling (B/S) on the Forex Market

The Buying and Selling model is an easy process for the novice trader. There is one simple principle for buying and selling – you buy one currency pair while selling another. For each currency pair, such as the commonly traded EUR/USD cross, there are two prices. There is the bid price (price at which the market buys) and the ask price (price at which the market sells). The difference between these is referred to as the spread.

When placing an order, you first need to choose an amount (how much you want to buy or sell). For example, if you make a decision to sell 100,000 EUR/USD. Then by clicking BUY/SELL you are actively opening a position in the market, and you will automatically receive a notification on your trading platform. You can also do the opposite of your initial operation by closing your position in the fx market (BUY/SELL 100,000 USD/EUR in this case). Read more about placing orders.

Another important aspect to consider is that the forex Buy and Sell rates are influenced by a variety of different factors. These may include currency rate differentials, global economic trends, political events, weather and even extreme situations such as war or terrorism. These are often referred to as fundamentals. Read more about fundamental factors that influence forex trading.

FOREX TRADING MARGINS

The margin is the amount of collateral required by forex traders to maintain their open positions on the forex market. Unlike stocks and commodities, there are no margin calls in forex. If an account falls below the required margin requirements, then all open positions are automatically closed. For example, if an fx trader buys one mini lot of the EUR/USD pair for 1.50 at 1:100 leverage, then they will need $150 of their account in margin to maintain that open position. Read more about leverage and margins.

FOREX CURRENCIES QUOTATION SYSTEM

In the forex market, currencies are quoted in pairs, for example, the GBP/USD or USD/JPY. The first currency in the pair is called the “base currency” and the second is called the “counter currency”. The basis for buying and selling is the “base currency”. For example, if a trader wants to buy EUR/USD, then he will buy Euros and sell Dollars. This means that he expects the Euro to gain against the Dollar. Every transaction on the fx market is double-sided, and performed with a buy/sell order.

FX ROLLOVER

If a trader holds an fx trade in the spot forex market overnight, this position is rolled over. In most cases, you are likely to either pay or receive a rollover fee. The rollover fee is determined by the differentiation between the interest rates which are priced into the 2 currencies that are being traded in the currency pair. The trade transaction is settled after 2 days. If positions are held overnight, then the forex broker closes forex trades at the conclusion of the trading day, (5 PM EST) and new trades are simultaneously opened.

For example, the USD/JPY pair is traded at 1.40, the JPY interest rate is 3.5% and the USD interest rate is 1.5%. The pip differentiation is 0.60 pips. As a result, if you were to be long on JPY and short on USD, your trade would be found at 0.60 pips higher than previously. The example was calculated out by completing the following calculation: (base currency interest ÷ counter currency interest) × (day/days) × (traded rate).

LEVERAGE ON THE FOREX MARKET

Leverage allows forex traders to control more currency in a trade than they have deposited in their trading account. This is where the real power of forex trading lies. Therefore, trading with the leverage system wisely can work in your favor, and bring you big profits.

With 1:100 leverage, the trader needs 1 unit of currency to control 100 units in the forex market. Thus, it would only take 100 units to control 1 mini lot (10K) in the fx market or 1000 units to control 1 standard lot (100K). Read more about leverage.

FOREX TRADING HOURS

The fx market is based on "spot transactions". The reason for this is that trading takes place 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Trading never ceases in the forex market, apart for weekends and holidays. This includes Christmas and New Year’s Eve, when the forex market closes early.

Forex traders often turn to a variety of economic data to determine where a particular country’s economy and currency may be headed next. This data may include the following: Gross Domestic Product (GDP), imports, exports, employment, unemployment, growth, debt and many other factors. Collectively, these are often referred to as the fundamentals. Therefore, fundamental analysis refers to the analysis of any data, as well as the actual price patterns of the currency itself. The price patterns frequently impact the value of the currency on the forex market.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Like any other market, the value of currencies responds to changes in supply and demand. For example, the value of the Dollar (USD) will rise when the demand for this currency rises. The Dollar will drop in value when too many Dollars are available on the market, or the demand for the USD declines.

Forex Currency Pairs

The world’s currencies trade in pairs - one currency’s value either rises or drops in comparison to another. In fx trading, each currency has a three-letter abbreviation, and the trailing currency of any pair is considered the base currency. The price at any given time tells you how much of the base currency is needed to equal exactly one unit of the leading currency.

For example, when the EUR/USD pair is priced at 1.5000, this means that it takes 1.5 US Dollars to exchange for 1 Euro. If the Euro rises in value, then the EUR/USD price will also rise as more US Dollars are needed to buy each Euro. Likewise, if the Euro drops in value, then the price of the EUR/USD pair will also drop as fewer US Dollars are now required to equal each Euro.

The value of the leading Forex currency is not the only factor in determining the value of a particular currency pair. Any change in the value of the base currency obviously also affects this relationship. So, in the same example, if the US Dollar now rises in value, then the EUR/USD pair would drop as fewer Dollars are now needed to buy each Euro. If the US Dollar drops in value, then the EUR/USD price would rise, as more US Dollars are now required to equal each Euro.

Interest Rates

Another key factor that influences the value of a given currency is the constantly changing interest rate determined by the central bank of a particular country.

For example, if the Federal Reserve (Fed) in the United States lowers its interest rate, then the value of the US Dollar usually drops, causing the EUR/USD pair to rise. If the Fed raises interest rates, then the US Dollar will typically go up as well, causing the EUR/USD to drop.

Central banks are always caught in a delicate balancing act. If a country’s currency gets too strong, its exports become too expensive and other countries may look elsewhere.

Higher interest rates also tend to attract more foreign investments, which is why the currency of that country frequently goes up with the interest rates. Meanwhile, cheaper interest rates tend to stimulate lending inside the country and therefore economic growth.

Long reading i guess??

The world of forex is filled with unique concepts and terms. Here are some of the most common fx terms that you need to be familiar with whilst trading on the forex market:

Pips

Pip stands for percentage interest point and it is the smallest individual unit in forex trading. The pip is always the right-most digit of any forex price quote.

The exact value of an individual pip depends on the currency being traded. For example, the Euro is measured out to four decimal places, thus each pip equals 1/100th of a cent. The Yen, on the other hand, is measured out to two decimal places, thus one pip is one cent. That’s not to say that each pip is worth 1/100th of a cent in Profit – to calculate this, we need to introduce two other terms, lots and leverage.

Lots

Banks and other liquidity providers trade currency in lots. For example, if a standard lot is 100,000 (100K) units of the currency being traded, while a mini lot is 10,000 (10K) in the forex market, then these amounts would make trading prohibitive for the average trader. As a result, forex brokers introduced a concept called leverage.

Leverage

Leverage allows forex traders to control more currency in a trade than they have deposited in their trading account. This is where the real power of fx trading lies. Therefore, trading with the leverage system wisely can work in your favor, and bring you big profits.

With 1:100 leverage, an fx trader needs 1 unit of currency to control 100 units in the forex market. Thus, it would only take 100 units to control 1 mini lot (10K) in the forex market or 1000 units to control 1 standard lot (100K). Profit, therefore, is a factor of a forex trader's leverage X the amount and size of lots being traded X the amount of pip price moves in the trader's favor. Loss, likewise, is calculated in the same way when price moves against the trader.

For example, if a you buy 1 mini lot of the EUR/USD currency pair, then your account equity would increase or decrease by $1 for each pip of movement. If you buy 1 standard lot, then your account would increase or decrease $10 with each pip of price movement. Example 1: if the EUR/USD pair increases by 10 pips (10×$1) from 1.5000 to 1.5010 with mini lots, then this is a $10 increase. Example 2: if the EUR/USD pair increases by 10 pips (10×$10) from 1.5000 to 1.5010 with standard lots, then this is a $100 increase.

Trading on Margin

The margin is the amount of collateral required by forex traders to maintain their open positions on the forex market. Unlike stocks and commodities, there are no margin calls in forex. If an account falls below the required margin requirements, then all open positions are automatically closed. For example, if a forex trader buys one mini lot of the EUR/USD pair for 1.50 at 1:100 leverage, then they will need $150 of their account in margin to maintain that open position. If the price moves against the forex trader by one pip, then they will need $151 and if the price moves against the fx trader by 10 pips, then they will need $160.

If, on the other hand, a forex trader buys 1 standard lot of the EUR/USD pair for 1.50 at 1:100 leverage, then they will need $1500 of their account in margin to maintain that open position. If the price moves against the fx trader by one pip, then they will need $1510. Or if the price moves against them by 10 pips, then they will need $1600. visit www.jointnetwork.blogspot.com for investment guidance
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