Where do you start if you want to learn currency trading?

Well a good starting point is to look at just what Forex trading is and who the players in this market are. We should also think about just why you should be learning online Forex trading and thinking about starting you own online Forex trading business.
The Forex market (which is sometimes referred to as the FX market and for which the full title is The Foreign Exchange Market) was established as we know it today in 1971 following the demise of fixed currency exchanges. Forex currency trading is conducted around the clock, 5 days a week, and daily currency trades are worth in the region of $1.9 trillion US dollars. This
means that the Forex the largest market in the world and puts the major stock markets very firmly into second place.

A world-wide market established to facilitate the buying and selling of currency, the Forex market involves large organizations, such as central governments, commercial companies and international commercial banks as well as smaller players such as brokerage houses and individual brokers.

There is no set location for the market (although there are major trading centers around the world in a number of cities such as London, Frankfurt, New York and Tokyo) but it is essentially an 'over-the-counter' market with the vast majority of trading being conducted by telephone and on the internet.

The exchange of currencies is a central element in supporting global trade and, as the major currencies such as the US dollar (USD), the British pound (GBP), the Euro (EUR), the Japanes yen (JPY) and others move against each other and the foreign currency exchange rate for any given pair of currencies changes, there is the opportunity to make money from currency exchanges.

The major players in the market take advantage of this by buying and selling in deals which often run into many millions of dollars, but the smaller players are also extremely active and often trade in deals of as low as one hundred thousand dollars. And, by trading on the back on the smaller players, individuals can get into the market with a lot less than that!

The fact that even small players can join this market means that, as long as you are prepared to take the time to understand the currency markets and to learn the skills of Forex trading, then, with a little bit of capital to invest, it is possible to enjoy an excellent income from online currency trading.

Despite the fact that you cannot trade on your own and will have to use the services of a Forex broker, you certainly don't need a fortune and many Forex brokers will now allow you to open an online Forex mini account with as little as $250.

The Forex market is a technical market and it does takes a while to come to grips with the basic principles underlying the currency markets, to develop the necessary skills in the use of some of the 'tools of the trade' (like technical and fundamental analysis tools) and to learn Forex currency trading online.

Despite this, you do not have to be an expert in the currency markets to profit from them. As long as you take the time to learn foreign exchange currency trading and put in a bit of effort it is quite easy to gain enough of an understanding to begin making money through Foreign trading online.

Foreign currency trading provides an excellent opportunity for the small investor to make money but learning to trade Forex is essential before heading out into the market.

Through a large and growing collection of articles covering everything from the history of foreign currency trading to fundamental and technical analysis, psychology and strategies, tools and software we aim to help you learn to day trade Forex quickly and easily.

The History Of Forex Trading

Currency trading can trace its history back to the middle ages when international merchant banker devised the system of using bills of exchange. It is however changes which have occurred during the twentieth century which have really shaped trading in the global currency market we see today.

In the 1930s the British pound was considered to be the world's principle trading currency and was the currency held by many countries as their main 'reserve' currency. London was also seen as the world's leading foreign exchange center.

Following the Second World War however the British economy was all but destroyed and so the United States dollar took over as the world's major trading and reserve currency - a position which it still holds today. This said however there are now a number of other currencies, including the Japanese Yen and the Euro, which are also beginning to be seen as major reserve currencies.

It was also following the Second World War that a number of events took place which have been instrumental in shaping today's Forex market.

The first of these was the conclusion of the Bretton Woods Accord in 1944 in which the United States, Britain and France agreed that they would stabilize world currency markets by pegging the major world trading currencies to the US dollar (which was itself pegged to the price of gold). This accord held that when the price of a currency fluctuated by more than one percent against the US dollar then the central bank of the country in question had to step in and buy or sell the currency to bring it back into its one percent bracket.

The Accord also spawned the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was designed to produce a stable system for the sale and purchase of currencies and to ensure that international currency transactions were conducted smoothly and in a timely fashion.

The IMF also created a consultative forum aimed at both promoting international co-operation and facilitating the growth of world trade. At the same time it also broke down many of the exchange restrictions which were hindering international trade.

The IMF was also tasked with making financial resources available to member states on a temporary basis where this was felt to be necessary in furtherance of the aims of the IMF. Loans were normally only made only on condition that the government of the country to which a loan was made undertook to make substantial changes to rectify the situation which had given rise to the need for the loan.

Without any doubt however the most significant events as far as the Forex market is concerned was seen when the IMF proposed that currencies should become 'free-floating' in 1978. This allowed currencies to be traded at a price which was determined solely by the law of supply and demand and that there was no longer any requirement for currencies to be pegged to the dollar or for central banks to intervene in currency trading. Central banks could of course continue to intervene if they wished to do so, but any intervention would be entirely a matter of choice and would no longer be a requirement as it had been under the Bretton Woods Accord.

The next significant event in the history of Forex trading was the birth of the European Monetary System which effectively came into being in 1979. The European Monetary System got off to something of a shaky start when Britain did not join the system, although she did later participate to a degree by joining the European Monetary System's exchange mechanism in 1990.

The final major event to affect the Forex market was the establishment of the Euro as the European Union's single currency in 1998 with eleven member states replacing their national currency with the Euro.

Above all else however it was the free-floating of currencies in 1978 which accelerated the growth of the foreign currency market. Back in 1978 Forex trading displayed a daily turnover of around 5 billion US dollars but, by the turn of this century, that figure had risen to 1.5 trillion US dollars.

The 4 Elements Of Any Good Trading Market

The foreign exchange market (forex market or fx market) is the world's largest market and consists largely of the forex spot market (spot foreign exchange market) and the currency futures market. Today however the majority of smaller traders tend to confine themselves to trading spot forex.

There are four elements which must be present in any good financial market, whether you are trading in the stock, bond, futures, currency market or any other market. These four elements are liquidity, transparency, low trading costs and market trends.

Liquidity

There are always two sides to a trade, a purchase and a sale, and in its simplest form liquidity refers to the ease with which traders can buy and sell. To be truly liquid traders must also be able to trade in substantial volume without this having any marked effect on prices.

If a market lacks liquidity then traders will often encounter delays in meeting orders to buy, frequently leading to a significant variation between the price when an order is placed and when it is executed. In addition, it may be hard to sell in a market that is not sufficiently liquid.

Fortunately the currency exchange market (especially when trading in major world currencies such as the USD and GBP) is extremely liquid and a huge number of trades are conducted each day on the Forex money market with a trading volume that far exceeds that of other markets.

Transparency

A market is said to possess transparency when traders can access accurate information at all stages of the trading process.

Information is the key to many things in life and the world's various markets are no exception. There are many examples, especially in the world stock markets, of companies and individuals which have run into difficulty because the parties to a trade did not have access to accurate information.

The foreign currency exchange market is without doubt the world's most transparent market and this is especially true when it comes to pricing.

Low Trading Costs

Markets carry trading costs which inevitably lower a trader's profits or increase his losses. However, when a market can keep its trading costs low it becomes attractive to traders and encourages both an increased number of trades and an greater trading volume.

The absence of commission and other usual trading costs, together with the tight spread of prices, in currency trading mean that trading costs in the Forex market are kept very low.

Market Trends

In many markets it can be difficult to know just when to enter the market and when to exit it (when to 'buy' and when to 'sell'). As a result, it is important to have some way of assessing the present state of a market and to predict its future direction.

In the foreign currency exchange market this is achieved by employing various forms of technical analysis which examine the past performance of the market and identify trends which can then be used to predict its future.

Most markets display trends of one form or another, but in some markets these are far more clearly defined than in others, making it far easier for traders to enter and exit the market. The foreign currency market displays a particularly strong trending characteristic.

5 Reasons For Becoming A World Currency Trader

The foreign currency exchange market offers today's investor many advantages and here are just reasons why you might want to become a world currency trader.

A Market Which Never Closes

Many of the trading markets around the world are situated in fixed locations and operate within strict trading hours, often limited to just five or six hours a day between Monday and Friday. The Forex market however is open 24 hours a day.

This means that traders can not only take advantage of international events and react literally as they happen, but they also have the ability set their own trading hours. If you prefer to work in the mornings then that's fine but, if this doesn't suit you, then you can choose to trade during the afternoon, late evening or even in the middle of the night if you want to.

Low Trading Costs

In many markets, like the equity market, traders not only have to pay a spread (the difference in price between buying and selling a stock) but also have to pay a commission to the broker. On small trades this commission can typically be about $20 and this can rise rapidly to over $100 for larger trades.

Because the foreign currency exchange market is a wholly electronic market many of the traditional trading costs are eliminated and you are in affect reduced to paying nothing more than the spread. In addition, the extremely liquid nature of the global currency exchange market means that spreads are normally much tighter than those seen in other markets.

The Ability To Trade On High Leverage

In most markets where a trader has an opportunity to trade on leverage the leverage offered is often quite low. In the case of equity markets, for example, professional equity day traders will normally operate on a leverage of about ten times their capital. In the Forex market by contrast it is quite common to find that traders are permitted to trade at one hundred to two hundred times their capital.

A downside of high leverage is that it can of course lead to high losses as well as high gains. However, within the foreign currency market, risk management is extremely tightly controlled.

Limited Slippage

In currency trading trades are executed immediately using real-time prices at which firms will buy or sell the currencies quoted. In almost all cases this means that the price you see and the price you pay are the same.

This is not often the case in other markets where there can be often considerable delays between placing an order and that order being executed during which time the price will often move against you.

The Chance To Profit In Both Rising And Falling Markets.

Equity markets follow rising and falling trends (cycling between Bull and Bear markets), but the Forex market does not suffer this cycling which comes from structural bias in the market.

World currency trading always involves two currencies so that if you are down on one currency then you are up on the other. There is therefore always the potential for making a profit whether the market is rising or falling.

Forex Traders Come In Various Shapes And Sizes

Although there is no centralized Forex market and trading involves many different market makers rather than just a few specialists, there in nonetheless both a structure and a hierarchy to the foreign currency exchange market.

The foreign currency market is dominated by the InterBank market which represents the greatest volume of trading and mainly involves the currencies of the G8 countries. Together, these represent approximately 65 percent of the world economy. In the InterBank market major banks trade with each other on a credit-approved basis with lines of credit clearly established between individual banks. Trading is conducted through InterBank brokers and electronic brokerage systems or Reuters and the rates at which trading takes place are visible to all of the participants.

Below the InterBank market participants, such as smaller banks and corporations, have to trade through commercial banks. In this case however there are not normally any established lines of credit and this means that traders frequently trade at less competitive rates and are usually tied to using a single bank for all their foreign exchange dealings.

Until just a few years ago the foreign exchange market was not simply dominated by the major banks but was also very much an 'old boys club' which it was very extremely difficult to gain entry to. Today however technology has altered the market considerably and smaller investors can now get into the market and take advantage of the opportunities which were at one time only available to the members of 'the club'.

Access to the market has also been eased considerably in recent years by the changing nature of the market itself. Previously foreign exchange dealing was very much an activity associated with international trade and was seen as simply servicing the import and export markets. Now however investment plays a major part in the market and substantial capital sums flow between countries through participants such as mutual funds, institutional investors, insurance companies and others.

The size and extraordinarily diverse nature of the market nowadays, along with the ease of trading brought about by advances in technology, brings both high liquidity and price stability to the market and, unlike many other markets, the Forex market always boasts a large number of both sellers and buyers who together create an orderly market.

The Role Of The Commercial Banks In World Currency Trading

World currency trading is no longer just a matter of banks exchanging currencies amongst themselves and now involves a variety of different players, including specialist Forex brokerage firms, with very diverse reasons for trading in currencies. For example, some players will have to exchange currencies to buy goods and services overseas, while others will simply wish to earn short term profits from exchange rate movements or to influence currency exchange rates for one reason or another.

Whatever reason a player has for being in the market, this diverse group of traders influences supply and demand within the market and so alters the exchange rates at any given moment in time. It is important therefore to understand who the key players are and here we are going to look at one of the most important players - the commercial and investment banks.

Commercial and investment banks operate within what is known as the InterBank market which accounts for by far the greatest proportion of all trading, whether commercial or speculative in nature.

The InterBank market is composed solely of commercial and investment banks buying and selling currencies between themselves. Strict trading relationships are established between the InterBank member banks and lines of credit are established between individual banks before they are permitted to trade.

How Do Banks Trade The Forex?

The commercial and investment banks form the cornerstone of the foreign exchange market because, in addition to trading on behalf of their customers, they also provide the channel through which all other participants have to trade. In effect they are the main sellers within the foreign currency exchange market.

Another important point to remember is that the commercial and investment banks do not simply trade on behalf of their customers, but also trade in their own right through proprietary desks with the objective of realizing a profit for the bank. Commercial and investment banks possess a unique knowledge of the marketplace and have the ability to monitor the activities of other participants such as the central banks and investment funds.

The commercial banks have been at the very hub of the Forex market for many years and their role has remained basically the same throughout this time. However, the introduction of electronic brokering systems such as Reuter's 'Monitor Dealing Service' during the early 1980s and Reuter's 'Dealing 2000-1' in 1989 market the beginning of far reaching changes in the foreign exchange market. However the introduction of Reuter's 'Dealing 2000-3' system in 1992, followed a year later by the launch of 'Electronic Brokering Services (EBS)', brought the ability to automatically match buy and sell quotes from dealers and this changed the very nature of the market.

Electronic trading systems allow dealers today to conduct several trades simultaneously and to trade with far greater efficiency, tighter spreads, lower costs and, most importantly, much greater transparency than was seen previously in telephone dealing systems.

Perhaps the major advantage of electronic dealing however is that the accessibility of the system allows many more players to join the market alongside the commercial and investment banks.

How To Analyze Movements In The Forex Market

Like many other markets the Forex market is driven by supply and demand. When there is a demand for a currency its price rises and when there is an excessive supply of a currency its price falls. This may seem simple enough but unfortunately predicting movements in currency prices can be extremely difficult.

Today there are two main methods used to predict movements in the Forex market:

Fundamental Analysis

Fundamental analysis was the dominant predictive tool in the Forex market until the mid 1980s, although it has since declined in popularity. Fundamental analysis focuses its attention on the political, social and economic factors which drive supply and demand and is based upon such things as interest rates, inflation, unemployment and economic growth rates. All of these different indicators are used to assess a currency's present performance and then to predict its future movement.

The problem with fundamental analysis is that the trader has to keep up with events and to analyze a huge amount of data. Additionally, there is a great deal of debate about just what data needs to be included in any fundamental analysis and how much weight should be put upon each of the different indicators.

On thing about which there is general agreement is that a country's balance of payments is key to fundamental analysis as it shows the flow of money in and out of the country. In theory, a balance of payments of zero will produce a stable price while a balance of payments deficit or surplus will cause the currency to fall or rise.

Technical Analysis

Technical analysis is based simply upon movements in currency prices and uses historical price data to predict future prices.

The main principle behind technical analysis is that history repeats itself and that price movements today merely follow well established patterns. The second principle is that it is not necessary to study current market information to predict movements in the market as this is already reflected in currency prices. It is simply the movement in prices themselves that needs to be studied in order to predict the direction in which prices are moving.

Technical analysis uses charts to provide a graphical representation of the market over time and allows the trader to identify trends in the pattern of price movements. There are various different charting techniques used today including such things as moving averages, oscillators, candlestick charts, Fibonacci retracement levels, Bollinger bands and others.

The 4 Main Types Of Order In The Foreign Exchange Market

There are various different ways in which traders can place orders to buy and sell currencies and this gives foreign exchange traders considerable flexibility in planning their trading strategies and allows them to both maximize their profits and minimize their losses.

Market Order

The simplest form of order is the market order in which the trader simply buys or sells a currency pair at the current market price. Because of the enormous size of the market and its high liquidity there is little if any delay or slippage in the market and market orders are in essence guaranteed.

Limit Order

A limit order allows the trader to set the price at which he wants to take his profit and close out his position. For example, where a trader has bought GBP/USD at 1.9450 he might place a limit order at 1.9465 so that, if the price rises to this level, his position would automatically be closed and he will take his profit.

Stop Loss Order

A stop loss order is another form of limit order but in this case it indicates the maximum loss which a trader is prepared to take. In our example above the trader could place a stop loss order at 1.9430 so that he would limit his losses to 20 pips if the market turned against him.

Entry Order

An entry orders is an order which is only filled when the market meets certain conditions which are specified in the order. An entry order can take the form of either a limit entry order or a stop entry order.

Limit Entry Order

Let's start by assuming that the market price for the GBP/USD is 1.9740-45. This means that a trader can enter the market to sell at 1.9740 or buy at 1.9745. A trader could place a limit entry order to sell above the current market price at a level of say 1.9750 and this order would then only be executed if the market price reached this point. Similarly, he could place an order to buy at a price below the current market price - in this case below the buying price of 1.9745. So, were the trader to place a limit entry order to buy at 1.9730 this order would only come into effect if the price dropped to this point.

A limit entry order is commonly used where a trader believes that a currency is trading within an upper and lower range and is expecting a reversal in the currency's price movement.

Stop Entry Order

A stop entry order is frequently used when a trader believes that a currency which has been trading within an upper and lower range is about to break out of that range and he wants to either buy at a price above the present market price or to sell at a price below the current market price.

Our GBP/USD trader above, who can enter the market to buy at 1.9740 or to sell at 1.9745, might place an order to sell at say 1.9735. In this case the trader believes that the currency will reach this level and then continue to fall. Alternatively, he might place an order to buy at say 1.9750 again believing that the market will reach this level and continue to move in the same direction.

A stop entry order is commonly brought into play when a trader foresees large movements in the market.

How A Forex Trade Works

A Guide For The Forex Currency Trading Beginner

For the Forex currency trading beginner a trade can be a little confusing until you break it down and come to grips with some of the trading terminology.

The purpose of any Forex trade is to swap one currency for another in the belief that the market will move and prices change such that the currency that you buy rises in value in relation to the currency which you sell.

The first important point is that each trade involves two currencies - the currency which you buy and the currency you sell. This gives us our first two important trading terms - the long position and the short position.

You take a long position when you buy a currency in the belief that it will rise in value and that you will able to sell at a profit.

If you sell a currency in the belief that it will fall in value you take a short position and hope to make a profit by buying it back again once the price has fallen.

The next important concept is that of the open and closed position. When you take a long position and buy a currency in the expectation that it will rise in value you open a position. When you later sell that currency to take you profit you close the position. The same is true when you take a short position and open that position by selling a currency in the expectation that it will fall in price and later close the position when you buy the currency back at the lower price.

Note: How does day trading work? You will often hear the term 'day trading' used and this confuses a lot of newcomers to the world of investing. When applied to forex trading, day trading simply means short-term trading effected by opening and closing trading positions within the same trading day, rather than running a trade over an extended period of time.

In Forex trading currencies are referred to by codes (developed by the International Organization for Standardization and known as ISO codes) such as USD for the US Dollar and GBP for the UK Pound. Prices for these currencies are quoted as either USD/GBP or GBP/USD with the first currency appearing in the quote being the base currency and the second currency being the counter or quote currency.

Here's an example quote to make things a bit easier to understand:

USD/GBP = 0.5260

In this case the US Dollar is the base currency and the UK Pound is the counter or quote currency. The base currency is always read as a single unit and so this quote means that it will cost 0.5260 UK Pounds to buy 1 US Dollar. Here's another quote:

GBP/USD = 1.9150

In this case it will cost 1.9150 US Dollars to buy 1 UK Pound.

In real world trading it's a bit more complicated as the market maker needs to add in his profit for selling you a currency or for buying currency from you. In reality therefore a quote might look more like this:

GBP/USD = 1.9238 1.9243

In this case the first figure is the 'sell' or 'ask' figure and the second is the 'buy' or 'bid' figure. The first figure is price at which a trader will sell the currency pair and the second is the price at which he will buy the pair. The difference between the two prices is known as the spread.

Prices are normally quoted to four decimal places and the fourth decimal place, which represents the smallest amount by which one currency can move against the other, is known as a 'pip'. In this case therefore the spread is 5 pips.

In our example therefore, if you wish to sell UK Pounds, the market maker will buy them from you at 1.9243 US Dollars per UK Pound and, if you wish to buy UK Pounds, 1 UK Pound will cost you 1.9238 US Dollars.

If you are just starting to learn Forex currency trading then this probably seems a little bit complicated but it represents the basis on which the Forex market operates and will quickly become second nature.

Calculating Pip Values

Perhaps the first question we need to ask is what does pip mean in forex trading? A pip is the smallest movement that is possible in the price of one currency against another and it is vital to be able to calculate pip values quickly and easily as it is the movement in prices which results in your profit or loss when trading.

A pip is normally, but not always, 0.0001 or 0.01%. In other words, if a currency moves from a price of 1.7650 to 1.7655 it is said to move 5 pips.

The easiest way to understand how to calculate pip values is to start by considering currency pairs which involve the US Dollar and we start by considering the situation when the US Dollar is the quote currency as in the case of JPY/USD, GBP/USD or CHF/USD.

Here calculating a pip value is very easy as a pip will always have a value of $10. So, if while trading JPY/USD the market moves in your favor by 10 pips you will make a profit of $100. Let's see how this works.

Consider a quote of GBP/USD is 1.9730. This means that 1 UK Pound is worth 1.9730 US Dollars. A standard InterBank lot size is 100,000 and which means that 100,000 UK Pounds are worth 197,300 US Dollars. If the market moves 1 pip so that GBP/USD is 1.9731 then 100,000 UK Pounds will now be worth 197,310 US Dollars - a rise of $10.

Now let's turn our attention to what happens when the US Dollar is the base currency and consider a quote of USD/GBP = 0.6439. Here 1 US Dollar is worth 0.6439 UK Pounds and 100,000 US Dollars are worth 64,390 UK Pounds.

If the price moves up 1 pip then USD/GBP = 0.6440 and 1 US Dollar is worth 0.6440 UK Pounds and 100,000 US Dollars is worth 64,400 UK Pounds.

In this case a movement of 1 pip represents a value of 10 UK Pounds which, in US Dollars, gives a pip value of 15.53 US Dollars (10 ÷ 0.6440).

For a standard trading lot with the US Dollar as the quote or counter currency a pip has a value of $10 but, when the US Dollar is the base currency, the pip value will vary with the market price.

Forex Trading - Profiting From Rising and Falling Exchange Rates

The easiest way to demonstrate the ability to profit from Forex trading as the exchange rate rises and falls is to look at some examples. Let's start by looking at how you might profit when exchange rates rise.

Let's assume that you believe that the UK Pound is going to rise against the US Dollar and that you can buy GBP/USD at 1.8730. We'll also assume that you are trading a standard InterBank lot of 100,000 so that 100,000 UK Pounds will cost 187,300 US Dollars.

To open a trade you start by borrowing 187,300 US Dollars, which you will have to repay when you close out your position.

[Note: We will not discuss the idea of borrowing to fund your Forex trading at this point but will simply note that the majority of trading is done using borrowed funds making use of leverage.]

Assuming that you are correct and that the UK Pound rises against the US Dollar and that the price moves 100 pips to a rate of 1.8830, the 100,000 UK Pounds which you purchased are now worth 188,300 US Dollars and you can close out your position and repay the original borrowing, leaving you with a profit of 1,000 US Dollars.

In real life of course it is not quite as simple as this because there will be transaction costs to pay. However, this does demonstrate the principle of profiting when exchange rate rise.

Now let's turn our attention to profiting when the exchange rate falls.

Assume this time that you believe that the UK Pound will fall against the US Dollar from its present rate of GBP/USD = 1.8730. In simple terms, you believe that the UK Pound is going to buy fewer US Dollars.

This time you will need to place a sell order for 100,000 UK Pounds at a cost of 187,300 US Dollars. In other words, you borrow 100,000 UK Pounds and sell them for 187,300 US Dollars.

Assuming once more that you are right and that the rate falls by 100 pips to GBP/USD = 1.8630, you can now close your position by buying back and repaying the 100,000 UK Pounds which you originally sold. In this case this will now cost you 186,300 US Dollars and you will once more make a profit of 1,000 US Dollars.

Again we have ignored any transaction costs to simply demonstrate the principle of profiting from a fall in exchange rates.

Calculating Interest On Forex Trades

One of the great things about Forex trading is your ability to trade using leverage, effectively borrowing sometimes as much as 1,000 times your capital to make a trade. But borrowing money for currency trading is exactly the same as borrowing money for any other purpose and you will have to pay interest on your loan.

Currency transactions involve both buying and selling currencies however and this means that interest payments due on money which you borrow to fund a sale can be offset by interest earned on the currency you buy. If this seems a bit confusing we will take a look at an example in a minute but, first, let's take a moment to look at the subject of interest rates in general to see the wider picture as it affects the foreign exchange market.

Central banks set interest rates to meet a country's monetary policy and interest rates raise or lower the cost of a currency. High interest rates will make it expensive to buy a currency and low interest rates will make a currency more affordable.

As an example of how interest rates are used imagine the government of a country with high inflation. With the price of goods and services rising rapidly, the government might decide to raise interest rates. This would increase the cost of the country's currency making borrowing more expensive and both demand and consumption fall. As demand begins to fall, so the rate at which prices rise will also begin to fall and inflation will come down.

In a similar fashion, a country experiencing recession might decide to lower interest rates in an effort to stimulate the economy into growth. As the cost of the currency falls, so too will the cost of borrowing and investors, companies and individuals will be enticed to borrow and thus spend more, increasing demand and stimulating supply to meet that increased demand.

The interest rates which are set by central banks also determine the rate at which the commercial banks can borrow from the government and the rate at which they lend to their customers, which of course includes foreign currency traders.

So how do interest rates impact Forex trades?

Imagine a trader who buys GBP/USD. In this case he needs to borrow US Dollars to buy UK Pounds and will both pay interest on the US Dollars he borrows and earn interest on the UK Pounds he buys.

As long as the Bank of England interest rate is higher for the UK Pound than the interest rate set for the US Dollar by the Federal Reserve, the trader has the opportunity to earn more in interest on his holding of UK Pounds that he is paying on the US Dollars he had borrowed.

In general however, unless the difference between the two interest rates is significant, any net gain or loss will usually be quite small. It also has to be remembered that interest rates are set at an annual rate and that most trading position are held open for only a short, or very short, period of time. This acts to lower any interest gained or paid significantly.

The Dangers Of Getting Emotional About A Forex Trade

Anyone who has seen the film Wall Street will undoubtedly remember Michael Douglas telling Martin Sheen not to get emotional about a stock. This is good advice for people trading in the stock market, but it is absolutely vital for people involved in Forex trading.

It is very easy to find yourself caught up in a trade. You open a position because you feel good about it and then you hang in there even if the market starts to move against you because you just know that the market is going to turn back in your favor. From time to time of course it does but, as a general rule, it doesn't.

The problem here is that you allow yourself to become attached to a trade and your decision to stay with it is very much an emotional decision. Also, because you are emotionally attached to a trade you view closing your position as an admission that you were wrong to have opened it in the first place.

Trading within the Forex market has to be driven by the market indicators and your trading decisions must be based on what these indictors are telling you and not on how you are feeling. If you are going to be a successful trader then you have to be ruled by your head and not by your heart.

There will be times when you find that you have an emotional attachment to a specific currency and that the majority of your trading tends to be in that currency. There's nothing wrong with this. You may even feel sometimes that the time is right to buy a particular currency. That's okay too. The mistake is not to follow a feeling about a particular currency but to open a position purely on the basis of this feeling.

If you have a feeling about a currency then begin by checking it out and take a look at the market numbers. If the numbers tell you that the time is right to open a position then do so but, if they tell you that it's not a favorable market then, no matter how you feel about it, you should not get into the market.

Similarly, if you have opened a position and the indicators tell you that the market is moving against you and that it is time to close your position then do so. Your heart may well tell you to 'hang in there' but it is the market and not your heart which pays your bills

In Forex trading you will win on some trades and will lose on others and that's nothing more than the way the market works. It is not a question of whether you are right or you are wrong. The market will frequently move unexpectedly and catch out even the most experienced of traders.

The secret lies in following the market indicators, recognizing that you are going to lose in a trade and getting out as quickly as you can to minimize your loss. You can then move on to your next, hopefully profitable, trade.

Draw Up A Set Of Forex Trading Rules And Stick To Them

One of the biggest problems with Forex trading for many novice traders (and quite a number of experienced traders) is that they are no real rules to follow. In one sense this is of course one of the advantages of Forex trading and it is good to be able to trade when you want to, to open and close trades when you feel like it, to increase or reduce an existing position and indeed not to trade at all if you don't feel like it.

But this very freedom can also make Forex trading dangerous.

Whatever we do in life there can be little doubt that we do much better when we know exactly where we are going and have a roadmap to get us there. But, even if we have a map to follow, it is also vital that we have a set of instructions to keep us on course.

In foreign exchange trading those traders who follow a set of rules undoubtedly enjoy far greater success than those who simply 'wing it' and, if you talk to those traders who do follow a set of rules, they will tell you that when they follow the rules they generally have a good day and when they don't follow the rules they often run into trouble.

Now, since the Forex market doesn't have any rules, you will have to create your own. Just what rules you draw up will very much depend on your trading strategy but what sort of rules are we talking about?

Well, one very good rule which you might set for yourself is that of not entering a trade without first putting a stop loss order in place. You might also set down a number of rules detailing the specific conditions which must be met before you will enter a trade. In other words, you clearly specify that you will not enter a trade simply because you have a good feeling about it, but will only do so if your market analysis, as defined by your set of rules, tells you that you should enter a trade. Finally, you might stipulate that whenever you find yourself in a profitable trade you will always protect your position by moving your stop whenever your profit reaches a pre-determined level.

These are just a few ideas of the type of Forex trading rules you might lay down and your own list will of course have to be drawn up to meet your own particular trading strategy.

Whether you have a long or a short list of Forex trading rules is not important, but it is extremely important that you draw up a list and that that you then stick to it.

The Dangers Of Trading Without Stop Loss Orders

Despite the fact that it is one of the most important orders which a Forex trader can place, a surprisingly large number of foreign currency traders simply ignore the stop loss order.

This type of market order is called a stop loss order for a very good reason - it stops you from making too heavy a loss should the market move against you. So, why do so many traders ignore a trading tool which is specifically designed to protect their trading interests?

The answer is emotion.

The Forex market is a technical market and foreign currency trading must be based upon a technical analysis of the market. But human beings are emotional creatures and, even when the numbers are staring us in the face, there will always be an urge to go with our feelings and let our hearts rather than by our heads dictate our decisions.

If you ask most traders why they do not use stop loss orders they will tell you that one of their greatest fears is that often, despite the fact that a trade is moving against them, their instinct tells them that it is basically sound and that it will reverse in their favor. If they had a stop loss order is placed on the trade, there is a danger that their position would automatically be closed out before the market had an opportunity to reverse.

Undoubtedly there are occasions on which this will happen but all too often it will not. If you are away from the trading floor and don't have a stop loss order in place then all too frequently you will return to find that you have made an unexpectedly large loss and the trader who remains on the trading floor not likely to fare any better, despite the fact that he is there watching the action.

In the latter case the trader can see that the market is moving against him and that his trade is moving into a loss but he hangs in there because he continues to believe that the market is going to turn in his favor shortly. However, as a relatively small loss starts to turn into a fairly large one he finds himself in the position of not only still being convinced that the market will reverse, but also now feeling compelled to hold his position because he needs to recover some of his now large loss when the market does turn. In the end of course he is invariably forced to admit that he has made a mistake and to close his position before an already large loss turns into a disaster.

Even the most experienced traders do not make a profit on ever trade they make and losing trades are a fact of trading life. Nonetheless, the only way to become a successful trader is to minimize the size of any losing trades by ensuring that you put a stop loss order on all of your trades. In this way you protect yourself against movements in market and also stop your heart from ruling your head.

Trading In A Market Which Is Always On The Move

The Forex market never stands still and even though it may move quite slowly at times it is nevertheless always on the move. It is of curse this movement which provides the opportunity to make money buying and selling global currencies, but it can also make it difficult to decide when to open a trade, close a trade or simply stay out of the market altogether.

Probably the greatest problem with the fast moving foreign currency market however is that it plays on our natural sense of greed and this can present traders with a very real danger.

We all like to make a profit, but what level of profit is acceptable? If you are in a trade which is showing a profit of $2,000 should you close your position and take your profit or hang on in there for $2,500? You are trading to make money and so, when the market is moving in your favor, it is only natural to want to ride the wave all the way to the beach. The difficulty however often lies in knowing when you have hit the beach and in not waiting for the undertow to start dragging you back out to sea again. Once the undertow catches you it can drag you back out to sea again very quickly.

Most Forex traders enter foreign currency trading with a clear picture in their mind's eye of just what they intend to do with all the money they are going to make and that is no bad thing. It is extremely important for you to have a goal, as well as a plan of action to allow you to reach that goal, and it certainly helps if you create a visual image in your mind of something concrete you are aiming for.

The problem however is that you could well find that you are tempted to try to reach your goal sooner than you had planned or that you create a bigger and better goal as you go along, allowing your natural tendency towards greed creep in and to start taking control of your trading.

Another commonly seen problem is that of failing to understand that it is not money which drives the market.

Think about this for a minute. It doesn't matter if you have $10,000 or $100,000 in your trading account because whatever sum you're looking at it is not going to make the slightest difference to the way in which the market moves. By the same token, it doesn't matter if you are looking at a $750 profit or a $750 loss in an open trading position because this again will not make any difference at all as far as the market rising or falling is concerned.

The fact that you are doing well in a trade and have made a profit of $750 does not mean that this profit will turn into $900 or $1,000 if you wait a bit longer. It is of course human nature to find yourself caught up in your 'winning streak' and to convince yourself that there is more profit to come.

It is also human nature to find that, having already lost $750 in an open trade, you will try to convince yourself that things will turn around if you keep your nerve and just hold on a little longer.

It is essential that you set a goal and have a plan to reach that goal but your trading decisions must be based on what is happening in the market and not on your goal.

Money should have no influence on whether or not you enter or exit a trade, or stay out of the market altogether, and these decisions should be based solely on what your analysis of the market tell you.

Forex Traders Need To Be Objective

A difficult lesson for Forex traders to learn is that within the currency market almost anything can happen at any time. Because new traders spend a considerable amount of time learning the mechanics of the market and focusing their attention on finding a method for predicting movements in the market, it is only natural that they also come to believe that there are rules which govern the movement of the market. This is not the case and this catches many traders out.

Forex traders use a number of tools to judge when the time is right to open or to close a position, but the majority of traders will also have one particular tool which is their favorite and which they will rely on more than any other. So, once they have opened a position, they will watch their favorite indicator and base their trading decisions to a large extent on what this single indicator tells them.

This is fine until this indicator begins to tell them one thing while the other indicators are telling them something else. They are now in an open position and their favorite tool is telling them for example to hold that position while everything else is indicating that they should close their position and get out of the market. More often than not the trader will hold his ground and will end up in a losing trade.

The problem is quite simply that the trader has created an expectation in his own mind about the market and is not looking at the market objectively. He is using his favorite tool to reinforce this expectation rather than stepping back and looking at the wider picture. He is also probably being encouraged in this view by the thought that he must be right and by the profit in this trade which is being forecast by his favorite indicator. He is in effect seeing the money rather than the market.

The foreign currency market is, by its very nature, unpredictable and, were it not so, the market would soon collapse as we all made a profit on every trade we opened. Of course there are numerous tools to help us to predict the direction of the market and thankfully they do a pretty good job most of the time. Occasionally however even the best of tools in the hands of the best traders come up against an unexpected turn in the market.

Getting it wrong is a feature of Forex trading and traders need to learn to accept losses as an inevitable part of foreign currency trading. More importantly traders need to learn how to avoid getting into a position where they can be proved right or wrong. To do this you need to understand and accept that the market has a will of its own and have to remain objective and follow market movements, rather than try to get the market to go in the direction you want it to, if you are going to succeed.

A Forex Demo Account

The Value Of Simulated Forex Trading To Currency Trading Success

As a novice you will probably begin trading by opening a Forex demo account and your first few trades will be paper trades, or simulated Forex trading, as you learn how the market works and how to use some of the trading tools. It is not long however before you are ready to move on and to put your paper trading days behind you.

But is it such a good idea to leave paper trading behind you?

Many successful Forex traders today are discovering that continuing to trade on paper from time to time can be both helpful and profitable.

Problems often arise for traders when they find themselves with a losing trade. Despite the fact that losing trades are an everyday part of trading life, you are always going to be affected by a trading loss and there is often a strong, albeit often subconscious, urge to recoup the money you have just lost as fast as possible. This frequently means that you go right back into the market but, because you are in a losing frame of mind, your next trade often also results in a loss or a less than spectacular gain.

For many traders the answer to this problem is to follow a losing trade with a paper trade.

In this case you trade seriously and in exactly the same way that you would trade normally but run the trade on paper. You study the market indicators, open a trading position, put a stop loss order in place and then track the trade. As the trade progresses you move your stop loss order as the market moves and, finally, you close out your position when your market indicators tell you to do so.

This paper trade might result in a profit or a loss but, as the trade is only being made on paper, it doesn't matter one way or the other. The importance of this trade is that it allows you to clear your mind and to put your previous losing trade behind you. Even if this paper trade results in a loss the affect is positive because you are happy knowing that you have not actually lost any money.

Having run this paper trade you are now ready to leave the world of simulated Forex trading and return to live trading and can open a new trading position in a winning frame of mind.

Forex Trading Strategies Are The Key To Successful Trading

Before venturing into the world of Forex trading it is vitally important that you stop and think carefully about the trading strategy that you are going to adopt, because forex trading strategies are the key to success in currency trading. There is no single strategy when it comes to trading in the foreign currency markets and every Forex trader has to develop his own strategy. It is important however to have a clearly defined plan from the very outset.

Some Forex traders choose to use a technical approach when it comes to trading while others are more at home with a fundamental approach. Both approaches are of course sound, but in reality most successful traders use a combination of the two to give them both an overview of the foreign exchange market and to permit them to plot specific entry and exit points for each currency trade.

The idea behind technical analysis is simply that prices rise and fall according to well established trends and that the currency market possesses clearly identifiable patterns which can be seen as long as you know what to look for. Knowledge and experience come into play here, but it is also a question of using the numerous analytical tools that are available and this means having a sound working knowledge not just the patterns of price movement but also of the tools at your disposal.

Many traders also rely on what are known as support and resistance levels. Here 'support' refers to a low price which is repeatedly seen as being the bottom of the market and from which there is a tendency for prices to rise. A 'resistance level is a high price beyond which a currency is rarely traded.

The principle here is that, should a currency break through either its support or resistance level, its price is likely to continue in that direction. So, if the price of a currency rises above its resistance level it is considered to be bullish and the price can frequently be expected continue to rise.

Another commonly used tool in foreign currency trading is that of moving averages. A simple moving average (SMA) shows the average price in a given time period (say 7 or 10 days) when the price is plotted out over a longer time period. Forex traders use moving averages to eliminate short term fluctuations in price and to provide a clearer picture of the movements in currency prices. A SMA can be plotted to indicate when prices are displaying a tendency to rise or fall. Prices which rise above the average will frequently continue to rise and, similarly, prices which fall below the average will often continue to fall.

These are just two of the many trading tools that can be used either in isolation or in combination and it is recommended that traders make use of several trading tools to analyze the market. If you are relying on just a single trading tool then trading can often be risky but, if the results from several different tools show that the market is moving in a particular direction then trading can be conducted with a fair degree of confidence.

Many traders will base their trading upon a fundamental analysis of the market and thus base their trading on such things as economic and political events, trade figures, inflations figures, unemployment rates and a host of other similar forms of data.

Fundamental analysis can be very powerful but it is perhaps at its most powerful when it is used alongside technical analysis, particularly as a tool to reinforce the indications derived from technical analysis.

In many ways it does not matter what trading strategy you adopt as long as you are happy that it can provide you with clear expectations about movements in the market and indicate to you just where you should be trading and when you should enter and exit individual trades.

A sound knowledge and understanding of fundamental and technical analysis should be every forgein currency trader's starting point when it comes to building a Forex trading strategy.