Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Forex Currency Pairs

The Forex Currency Pairs

Major Forex Currency Pairs

Foreign Exchange trading is in general the trading of many currencies of the world. It is emerging as the largest and least regulated market providing the greatest liquidity to investors.

This trading is always done in pairs – Currency Pairs, one currency is bought and the other is sold. Together, they make up what is known as the "exchange rate".

For example, you may buy Euros with Dollars, anticipating that the Euro to increase in value relative to the Dollar. If the Euro rises relative to the Dollar, you sell the position and can earn a profit.

Most commonly traded currencies or the “majors” are:

US Dollar (USD)
Japanese Yen (JPY)
Euro (EUR)
British Pound (GBP)
Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Australian Dollar (AUD)
Swiss Franc (CHF)

Most commonly traded currency pairs are:

US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY)
Euro and US Dollar (EUR/USD)
US Dollar and Swiss franc (USD/CHF)
British Pound and US Dollar (GBP/USD)

While quoting currency pairs, the first currency is referred to as the base currency and the second as the counter or quote currency. The base currency is always equal to 1 monetary unit of exchange, for example, 1 Dollar, 1 Pound, 1 Euro.

Trading Forex Currency Pairs for Maximum Profit

Trading Forex Currency Pairs for Maximum Profit

It is also known as domestic currency or accounting currency and sometimes also referred to as the primary currency of a Forex currency pair. The price represents how much of the quote currency is needed to get one unit of the base currency.

When a currency is quoted against US Dollar, it is known as direct rate. Any currency not against the US Dollar is called a cross rate.

The quote currency is translated into a certain number of units of the base currency. This is also referred to as the foreign currency, secondary currency or counter currency. For example, if you find that a quote of USD/JPY is at 1.30, it says that for every 1 US Dollar, you get 1.30 Japanese Yen. When you quote for AUD/JPY of 67.73, it says that for every 1 Australian Dollar, you get 67.73 Japanese Yen.

Currency pairs are generally traded as 100,000 units of the base currency. For example, if you were buying EUR/USD at 0.95 you would be paying Dollars for Euros as follows:

100,000 x .95 = $95,000 for 100,000 Euros

When you find a quote going up, it means that the value of the base currency is rising or in other words, it is getting stronger. If a quote is going down, it means that the base currency is weakening.

The dominant base currencies are:

Euro - EUR/USD, EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF, EUR/JPY, EUR/CAD
British Pound - GBP/USD, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY, GBP/CAD
US Dollar - USD/CAD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF

The currency pairs are usually traded and quoted with a ‘bid’ and ‘ask’ price. The ‘bid’ is the price at which you are willing to buy and the ‘ask’ is the price at which price you are willing to sell.

For example, if the USD/EUR currency pair is quoted as - USD/EUR = 1.5 and you purchase the pair, this means that for every 1.5 euros that you sell, you get US$1. If you sold the currency pair, you receive 1.5 euros for every US$1 you sell.

The key to successful trading lies in selecting one or two pairs of currencies that you wish to trade in as a beginner. As you gain confidence, you may wish to add more pairs in your trading portfolio. But for a new trader or investor it is always advised to have limited pair just to ensure simplicity.

Forex Market Terminology - Understanding The Basics

Forex Market Terminology - Understanding The Basics

Achieve Instant Forex IncomeWhen you first start trading the Forex market you can become overwhelmed with the amount of information there is to consume.

One of the hardest parts for a new trader is learning the lingo. Some of the terms used in currency exchange are self-explanatory, whereas others are not. In this section I provide brief definitions of some of the most common Forex trading terms.
Spot Deal

A deal taking part between two parties who can deliver a certain amount of different currencies to each other within 2 business days of each other (excluding Canadian dollar where the trade is executed within 1 business day)
Market Order

This is the execution you make when deciding to buy a currency. In other words you see a currency exchange rate quote on screen and you place a ‘market order’ when you click the button to execute the trade.
Entry Orders

This is basically and advance order, you decide at what price you want to buy or sell a currency and you place an ‘entry order’. As soon as the currencies reaches this rate your trade is executed.
Stop-Loss Order

This is a function offered by some brokers which is aimed at reducing your risk, you can decide the maximum and minimum amount of profit or loss you want to exit a trade at. In other words if you decide you are happy to make $1,000 from one trade but don’t want to lose anymore than $1,000 should the trade go the other way you can place this safety net on your trade.
Bid

This is the currency rate that you wish to buy or sell at.
Offer

This is the currency rate you will actually get when buying or selling
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The difference between the bid and offer rates
Pip

This is the last decimal of the exchange rate with the exception of the Japanese Yen where it is the second decimal.
Lot

The amount of units of the base currency when you enter the market.
Margin

The minimum amount of money you need for each lot to trade, for example the margin may be 1 lot for $100 and therefore you would need $300 in your account to trade 3 lots.
Trend

The direction the market is currently moving in.
Long Position

This is used to describe a market in a long-term buy trend
Short Position
This is used to describe a market in a short-term sell trend

How to Make Money by Forex Trading

How to Make Money by Forex Trading

Achieve Instant Forex IncomeAcheiving an income from Forex trading is said to be easy by some yet almost impossible by others. Why such a difference in opinion? Surely it is one thing or the other and not both?

Well, truth be told it is both easy and very difficult to make money by Forex trading. Lets look at an example:

Mr A and Mr B are both new to the Forex market and both have equal experiences of trading other markets. They are both equal when it comes to the amount of money the have to invest in Forex and their personal situations.

Mr A likes to rush in to things, he rarely sits back and weighs up his actions, he likes to see instant results and will do anything to get them. Mr B on the other hand is much more logical, he likes to plan things out and will always research as much as possible before making a firm decision.

Which one do you think is the better trader? If you haven't already guessed it's Mr B. Knowledge is the key in this market and Mr B's advantage is that he sits back and sees the whole picture. He knows that by rushing in to decisions that Mr A is being a fundamental error.

Mr A cannot get his head around Forex and has blown his starting capital within a few short weeks, he says that it is impossible to make money trading Forex, Mr B disagrees and has the bank balance to prove it.

Slow and Steady Wins the Forex Race

Slow and Steady Wins the Forex Race

This may just sound like a nice little anecdote but the fact is, this is not far from a real life situation I encountered when two good friends of mine decided to follow my lead and start trading currencies online.

The fact is that all professional and profitable Forex traders take time to fully understand the market before investing their hard earned cash. You can make money by trading Forex but you have to be prepared to learn and wait for your chance.

Ease yourself in easily, the first few weeks of your trading should be made up with about 75% of your time dedicated to reading and educating yourself, the remaining 25% should be invested in to practicing trading on a demo account. At this point you should not be risking your own money.

This website is here to help you for those first few weeks, if you take your time to read every page on the navigation to the left then you will be a better a trader for it. The Instant Forex Income website that these links lead to will help to educate and inform you so that when you do start trading with real money you will see much quicker, much more instant Forex profits.

Thank you for visiting us, please do carry on reading as only more profit will come of it!

Good luck!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Forex Demo Accounts - Are They Useful For Novice Traders?

Forex Demo Accounts - Are They Useful For Novice Traders?

A lot is made in forex trading about using a demo account but they won't help you win when it comes to real time trading even if you have made a profit - Why? The reason is obvious...

No money is at risk therefore emotion is absent.

Trading is an emotional game and it's emotions that make traders lose - so if there not there when you trade, you don't know what their impact would be.

A demo account is only good for learning the mechanics of trading.

A new service being offered, helps traders experience emotions, while only risking a small amount of cash and lets them trade even - if they lose and go debit!

This allows them to trade in a set period as much as they want with limited risk then at the end of the period:

The broker takes the losses and the client takes any profits.

The period is normally a couple of weeks.

Traders get a real time trading experience, with lots of trades and the experience of money on the line but they also get - strictly limited risk.

These accounts provide a more authentic experience and a more exciting one, as money is on the line.

These protected accounts are good at giving you the feel of what trading money is actually like and how you cope with your emotions.

Lets face it all traders are impacted by emotion to varying degrees and discipline is the most important variable in forex trading success.

The equation for market success is:

Your Method + Executed with Discipline = Forex Success

If you don't have discipline to execute your method you won't win, because you won't have a method at all, unless your trading signals are executed properly!

A demo account will help you get used to the trading platform - but these protected accounts, will let you feel the emotional side of trading.

Many traders think they can cope with their emotions and then get a nasty shock when they trade for real.

These accounts offer you a step up from a demo account before you trade properly and are a useful exercise for any new trader

Learn Forex Trading Online Tips

Learn Forex Trading Online Tips

Forex trading, often called "FX," is the practice of trading currencies for profit. A forex trader buys one currency and simultaneously sells another, hoping to realize a profit from any variance in valuation between the two currencies. Because currencies are the largest market in the world, there are many opportunities to profit. So, how do you learn to trade currencies? Fortunately, there are many excellent free resources that can help you learn forex trading online.

Learning To Trade Currencies Online

In the past, if you wanted to trade currencies, you were forced to buy expensive courses, attend high-priced seminars that often required traveling to other states and purchasing cost-prohibitive computer programs that allowed you to tap into the trading activities of more experienced traders.

Today, all of that has changed. You can learn forex trading from the comfort of your home without spending outrageous amounts of money on courses and seminars. There are several resources online that will not only teach you the fundamentals of trading currencies, but will share basic, intermediate and advanced strategies of trading while showing graphical examples of such strategies to ensure clarity. Further, this information is often offered free.

Watching Other Forex Traders

Many websites that offer free tips and even entire courses on forex trading principles and techniques are run by experienced currency traders. These are men and women who often have years of trading experience and can offer their insights regarding the best forex trading techniques to use in various markets. Some of these experienced traders even conduct free online workshops which allow you to virtually look over their shoulder and watch as they trade in particular markets. Watching these advanced traders is one of the best ways to learn real trading techniques that work in today's currency markets.

Preparing To Trade Currencies Live

Learning in a classroom setting is not the same as conducting live trades. Once you learn the basics of forex trading strategy, you should prepare to do a few live trades. After watching over the shoulders of experienced traders, you should have a good feel of what to expect. Part of learning how to trade currencies involves knowing what signals to watch for in your particular market and staying on top of those signals. If you know these things, you are likely ready to trade forex live.

How To Get Started Trading Forex Online

You only need a few things to begin conducting live currency trades. First, you obviously need a computer with access to the Internet. Second, you need access to an information source that can provide you with real-time signals so you can keep on top of your market. Third, you need a small amount of cash to begin trading. Lastly, you need calm nerves. Though forex trading is potentially very profitable, some people do lose money.

Once you have decided to learn forex trading online, you need to begin learning the basic strategies of trading currencies. After you have mastered the basics, begin learning some of the advanced techniques of forex trading. You can often access this type of information for free online along with clear examples that will help you understand the currency markets. Remember, although there is a high potential for profit, there are significant risks to trading currencies.

Try to learn from the best traders in the world by attending online forex trading workshops. After doing the above, you will likely be ready to start making your first few trades live.