The Forex Market and Understanding Foreign Exchange Rates

Unlike the stock exchange, the Forex Market (foreign exchange market) is a relatively new player to the investment world. Today's current Forex market model started in the early 1970's, and today it represents the biggest financial market around, even surpassing the stock market. With trading surpassing $2 trillion dollars per day, the Forex market attracts more and more investors all the time. Before an investor starts trading on the Forex market, he should grasp the fundamentals of how exchange rates work.

Exchange rates

Basically, the exchange rate represents the rate of exchange between two currencies. Most currencies are traded, or paired up against the dollar. The five most common currencies traded on the market are the dollar (USD), euro (EUR), the yen (JPY), the British pound (GBP), and the Swiss franc (CHF). Some other currencies that are traded are the Australian dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Hong Kong dollar.

In the exchange rate or ratio, the numerator represents the quote currency and the denominator the base currency, which always equals one.

Let's say that an investor wants to exchange euros for dollars. In this case, the euro currency is the quote currency, or how much currency you have to exchange. The base currency is the dollar. The investor researches the current exchange rate (euros converted into dollars) either on the Internet, through the bank, broker, etc., and then multiplies that amount by the number of euros to exchange. Let's say that the exchange rate is 1.57959. That means that 1.57959 euros must be paid to receive one dollar. If he has 1000 euros to exchange, then he can receive $1,579.59 (1000 x 1.57959).

On the flip side, the exchange rate can also tell the investor how much he'll receive if he converts dollars back into euros. If he has $1000, he can either divide that amount by the same euro to dollar exchange rate ($1000/1.57959 = 633.07 euros), or look up the conversation rate for dollars to euros on the Internet, etc. (i.e. .633072) and multiply it by the amount of dollars to exchange ($1000 x .633072 = 633.07 euros).

Once the exchange rate concept is understood, the investor can feel more confident in investing in the Forex market.

Futures Versus Forex (Foreign Exchange Market)

Todays current futures market is quite unlike the futures of the 19th century. Todays future market is a worldwide one that includes manufactured goods, financial currencies and treasury bonds, and agricultural products.
When you speculate on futures it is not the actual good that is speculated upon rather it is the contract for the goods that is traded as value. Every futures contract includes a buyer and a seller. The following is an example of a futures speculation: A farmer agrees to deliver 1000 bushels of corn to a baker at a price of $5.00 a bushel. If the daily price of corn futures falls to $4.00 a bushel, the farmer's account is credited with $1000 ($5.00 — $4.00 X 1000 bushels) and the baker's account is debited by the same amount. Futures accounts are settled every day.
Using the above as an example this is how the contract settlement would play out: If the price of corn futures is still at $4.00 the farmer will have made $1000 on the futures contract and the baker will have lost an equal amount. However, the baker can now purchase corn on the open market at $4.00 a bushel — $1000 less than the original contract, so the amount he lost on the futures contract is made up by the cheaper cost of corn. Also, the farmer must sell his corn on the open market for $4.00 a bushel, less than what he anticipated when entering the futures contract, but the profit generated by the futures contract makes up the difference.
Speculators profit by daily fluctuations in the futures market by choosing to buy from the seller (buying short) or from the buyer (buying long).
The FOREX market has advantages over the futures market. FOREX is the largest financial market in the world. It is a liquid market and stop orders can be executed more easily and with less slippage than in other markets. The FOREX market is open 5 days a week, 24 hours a day. Traders can take advantages of opportunities as they become available. FOREX transactions are usually instantly executed. FOREX transactions are commission free. Brokers earn money on the spread.
Some investors feel that due to built in safeguards that FOREX trading is safer than futures trading.
by Jeff Slokum

FOREX: What Is It And How Does It Work?

The Foreign Exchange market, also referred to as the "Forex" is the biggest and largest financial market in the world. It has a daily average turnover of US$1.9 trillion- just imagine that amount of money! Don't you want to join this trillion-dollar industry?
Forex is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. Currencies are traded in pairs, for example Euro/US Dollar (EUR/USD) or US Dollar/Japanese Yen (USD/JPY). So basically, Forex is trading.
There are two reasons to buy and sell currencies. About 5% of daily turnover is from companies and governments that buy or sell products and services in a foreign country or must convert profits made in foreign currencies into their domestic currency.
The other 95% is trading for profit, or what you call speculation. Investors frequently trade on information they believe to be superior and relevant, when in fact it is not and is fully discounted by the market.
On one side of each speculative stock trade is a participant who believes he has superior information and on the other side is another participant who believes his information is superior.
For speculators, the best trading opportunities are with the most commonly traded (and therefore most liquid- meaning its in cash or convertible to cash) currencies, called "the Majors." Today, more than 85% of all daily transactions involve trading of the Majors.
A true 24-hour market, Forex trading begins each day in Sydney, and moves around the globe as the business day begins in each financial center, first to Tokyo, London, and New York. Unlike any other financial market, investors can respond to currency fluctuations caused by economic, social and political events at the time they occur — real time- day or night.
The Forex market is considered an Over The Counter (OTC) or 'interbank' market. This is because the transactions are conducted between two counterparts over the telephone or via an electronic network. Trading is not centralized on an exchange compared to stocks and futures markets.
Understanding Forex quotes
Reading a Forex quote may seem a bit confusing at first. However, it's really quite simple if you remember two things: 1) The first currency listed first is the base currency and 2) the value of the base currency is always 1.
The US dollar is the centerpiece of the Forex market and is normally considered the 'base' currency for quotes. In the "Majors", this includes USD/JPY, USD/CHF and USD/CAD. For these currencies and many others, quotes are expressed as a unit of $1 USD per the second currency quoted in the pair. For example, a quote of USD/JPY 110.01 means that one U.S. dollar is equal to 110.01 Japanese yen.
When the U.S. dollar is the base unit and a currency quote goes up, it means the dollar has appreciated in value and the other currency has weakened. If the USD/JPY quote we previously mentioned increases to 113.01, the dollar is stronger because it will now buy more yen than before.
The three exceptions to this rule are the British pound (GBP), the Australian dollar (AUD) and the Euro (EUR). In these cases, you might see a quote such as GBP/USD 1.7366, meaning that one British pound equals 1.7366 U.S. dollars.
In these three currency pairs, where the U.S. dollar is not the base rate, a rising quote means a weakening dollar, as it now takes more U.S. dollars to equal one pound, euro or Australian dollar.
In other words, if a currency quote goes higher, that increases the value of the base currency. A lower quote means the base currency is weakening.
Currency pairs that do not involve the U.S. dollar are called cross currencies, but the premise is the same. For example, a quote of EUR/JPY 127.95 signifies that one Euro is equal to 127.95 Japanese yen.
When trading Forex you will often see a two-sided quote, consisting of a 'bid' and 'offer'. The 'bid' is the price at which you can sell the base currency (at the same time buying the counter currency). The 'ask' is the price at which you can buy the base currency (at the same time selling the counter currency).
by Frederic Madore

The 6 Advantages Forex Trading Has Over Other Investments

There are many different advantages to trading forex instead of futures or stocks, such as:
1. Lower Margin
Just like futures and stock speculation, a forex trader has the ability to control a large amount of the currency basically by putting up a small amount of margin. However, the margin requirements that are needed for trading futures are usually around 5% of the full value of the holding, or 50% of the total value of the stocks, the margin requirements for forex is about 1%. For example, margin required to trade foreign exchange is $1000 for every $100,000. What this means is that trading forex, a currency trader's money can play with 5-times as much value of product as a futures trader's, or 50 times more than a stock trader's. When you are trading on margin, this can be a very profitable way to create an investment strategy, but it's important that you take the time to understand the risks that are involved as well. You should make sure that you fully understand how your margin account is going to work. You will want to be sure that you read the margin agreement between you and your clearing firm. You will also want to talk to your account representative if you have any questions.
The positions that you have in your account could be partially or completely liquidated on the chance that the available margin in your account falls below a predetermined amount. You may not actually get a margin call before your positions are liquidated. Because of this, you should monitor your margin balance on a regular basis and utilize stop-loss orders on every open position to limit downside risk.
2. No Commission and No Exchange Fees
When you trade in futures, you have to pay exchange and brokerage fees. Trading forex has the advantage of being commission free. This is far better for you. Currency trading is a worldwide inter-bank market that lets buyers to be matched with sellers in an instant.
Even though you do not have to pay a commission charge to a broker to match the buyer up with the seller, the spread is usually larger than it is when you are trading futures. For example, if you were trading a Japanese Yen/US Dollar pair, forex trade would have about a 3 point spread (worth $30). Trading a JY futures trade would most likely have a spread of 1 point (worth $10) but you would also be charged the broker's commission on top of that. This price could be as low as $10 in-and-out for self-directed online trading, or as high as $50 for full-service trading. It is however, all inclusive pricing though. You are going to have to compare both online forex and your specific futures commission charge to see which commission is the greater one.
3. Limited Risk and Guaranteed Stops
When you are trading futures, your risk can be unlimited. For example, if you thought that the prices for Live Cattle were going to continue their upward trend in December 2003, just before the discovery of Mad Cow Disease found in US cattle. The price for it after that fell dramatically, which moved the limit down several days in a row. You would not have been able to leave your position and this could have wiped out the entire equity in your account as a result. As the price just kept on falling, you would have been obligated to find even more money to make up the deficit in your account.
4. Rollover of Positions
When futures contracts expire, you have to plan ahead if you are going to rollover your trades. Forex positions expire every two days and you need to rollover each trade just so that you can stay in your position.
5. 24-Hour Marketplace
With futures, you are generally limited to trading only during the few hours that each market is open in any one day. If a major news story breaks out when the markets are closed, you will not have a way of getting out of it until the market reopens, which could be many hours away. Forex, on the other hand, is a 24/5 market. The day begins in New York, and follows the sun around the globe through Europe, Asia, Australia and back to the US again. You can trade any time you like Monday-Friday.
6. Free market place
Foreign exchange is perhaps the largest market in the world with an average daily volume of US$1.4 trillion. That is 46 times as large as all the futures markets put together! With the huge number of people trading forex around the globe, it is very hard for even governments to control the price of their own currency.
by David Morrison

Investing in Forex

Investing in foreign currencies is a relatively new avenue of investing. There are considerably fewer people are aware of this market than there are people aware of several other avenues of investing. Trading foreign currency, also known as forex, is the most lucrative investment market that exists. There are several factors that make this true among which, successful forex traders earn realistic profits of one hundred plus percent each month. Compared to some of the better known investment markets such as corporate stocks, this is an unheard of return on investment. It's very necessary to mention here that a person who invests in forex must, without exception, make it a point to learn the detailed, but simple strategies and information surrounding the market. This very fact is what makes the difference between successful forex traders and other traders.
A few additional points, which create such powerful leverage for investors within the forex market are: The amount of capital required to begin investing in the market is only three hundred dollars. For the most part, any other investment market is going to demand thousands of dollars of the investor in the beginning. Also, the market offers opportunities to profit regardless what the direction of the market may be; In most commonly known markets investors sit and wait for the market to begin an up trend before entering a trade. Even then, investors, as a rule must sit and wait some more to be able to exit the trade with a nice profit. Given that the forex market produces several up, down, and sideways trends in a single day, it can easily be seen that forex stands head and shoulders above other markets. Additionally there are trading strategies, which are taught that provide for compounded profits; these are profits on top of profits. In addition, free demo accounts are available within the industry of forex trading, which facilitate the sharpening of skills without the risk losing any capital. And the advantage regarding the time factor in trading foreign currency is a very attractive point for any investor. Compared to one of the most sought after avenues of investing, which often requires forty or more hours each week, namely in the real-estate market, the forex market requires a much smaller demand on the investor's time. Forex trading requires approximately ten to fifteen hours each week to earn a full time income. It's easy to see that the advantages and great leverage that exist in the forex market, make it among the most lucrative, time liberating, and easy to enter by far.
I hope this information gives you a clear understanding of how you can turn your investing into a true method of making your money work harder for you.

Forex The Future Investment

There are many many advantages over the various other ways of investing. First of all it is a 24 hr market, except for weekends of course. You have the US market then the european and then the Asian. One of the great times to trade is during the over lapping periods. The USA and european overlap between 5am & 9am eastern and the Euro & Asian between 11pm & 1am eastern. Usually the busiest time and best to trade.

The is also the risk factor for the accounts. With futures and options you can get margin calls that can wipe you out. If you get caught in a bad trade not only do you lose the money in the account but you may have to come up with alot more from your pocket. It can be very risking. But not in Forex. Worst case senerio you could lose whats in you account. But you would have to do something really stupid. Like making a big trade on a Fundamental day and leave it alone. If market takes a bad move and you weren't there. OOOPS. But That wouldn't happen with a smarth trader.

Then there are the demo accounts which is an account where you can trade using all the right things, platform,charts,and information. But you are using play money, or what we call paper trading too.

Plus with Forex you have a mini account. Instead of needing thousands of dollars to get into it. You can open an account with as little as $300.00. Now of course you will be trading at 1 tenth of a trade. IN other words you controling 10,000 instead of 100,000.00 These are call lots. Which also means you will only risk 1 tenth too!

So if you would love to learn to do investing and not have near the risk you really need to take a closer look at Forex trading.

by Mike Pachuta

FOREXYARD Introduces Forex Automatic Trading

Online Forex Broker FOREXYARD forges ahead with an ever widening array of products by launching its FSA (Forex Strategy Automator) account. The new product is more than just a new account type. It allows traders to choose pre-made strategies to trade on their behalf, essentially Forex Automatic Trading. Basically, where once a user would need to go through the steps of learning all there was to learn about forex trading, customers now need only choose a strategy that suits his or her needs and desires and the rest is automated. The technology is also revolutionary for experienced traders, allowing them to diversify their portfolios. The technology is completely web based, requires no download, and can be used on any computer or browser type.

The technology allows novices and experts alike to step into the forex market with little or no knowledge whatsoever. FOREXYARD makes only one assumption; that a customer can decide for himself who best to manage his portfolio. Customers need only imagine that they are stepping into a full service brokerage where they can meet and learn everything about their account manager including performance history. So at a click of a button, a customer can choose who best to manage his money - based on real performance.

Forex traders more familiar with the Meta Trader platform will also be very comfortable with this new account type. FOREXYARD customers using the aptly named FSA (FOREX STRATEGY AUTOMATOR) account can now utilize all the benefits found on MT4, but on a legitimate broker's software. Foreyard's new software allows an EA (Expert Advisors) the ability to upload strategies on to the platform making them readily accessible to all of Foreyard's customers. The new functionality will allow traders the world over to choose any number of Auto-Forex Trading Strategies to work for them while EAs can upload their own strategies just like on MT4.

Established in 2005, FOREXYARD is an online foreign exchange broker providing thousands of customers the vehicle they need to trade. By providing this new technology, Forex Automatic Trading, FOREXYARD hopes to take some of the bite out of learning forex

Europea faces tough path to recovery

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Europe may join the United States in leaving recession when growth figures come out next month -- but lackluster jobs and inflation data released Friday strongly suggest the continent's hoped-for recovery will be slow and fragile.

A day after official figures showed the U.S. economy finally returned to growth, the data released by the EU statistics agency Eurostat gave fewer reasons for joy: eurozone unemployment rose to a 10-year high of 9.7 percent in September.

Consumer prices fell on the year for the fifth consecutive month -- good for hard-pressed consumers, but an ominous sign of just how shaky demand for good remains.

The 0.1 percent annual drop in consumer prices was more moderate than September's 0.3 percent drop and does suggest companies and consumers are slowly spending more after a long freeze in demand.

The European Union will reveal growth figures on Nov. 13 for the 16 countries that use the euro and for the broader, 27-member EU. Many expect the eurozone -- with its 327 million people and euro9.3 trillion ($14 trillion) economy -- to show at least some growth, after shrinking 4.8 percent in the second quarter from the same quarter the year before.

Compared to the first quarter, the eurozone economy contracted only 0.2 percent in the second, indicating the recession had at least bottomed out.

Major European companies gave subdued outlooks as they released their quarterly earnings this week. Chemical firm BASF, the world's largest, warned that "major risks still exist" and "the recovery will be slow and uneven." Auto maker Volkswagen reported net income fell 86 percent and chief financial office Hans Dieter Poetsch said, "We predict no substantial global recovery in 2010."

Europe's growth path -- a steady, but slow, emergence from recession -- faces some of the same hurdles as does the U.S. Although the world's largest economy was confirmed to have exited recession in the third quarter with annualized growth of 3.5 percent, analysts warn that -- like Europe -- it is still saddled with increasing unemployment and swelling government debt.

Both Europe and the U.S. benefitted from stimulus such as cash-for-clunkers incentives for auto buyers. That program has been wound up in the U.S. and in Germany, Europe's single largest economy.

In Asia, where governments have had to spend less on bailouts and interest rates are in most countries not as low as in the U.S. and Europe, recovery is gaining a better grip. China's economy, for example, grew at an 8.9 percent rate in the third quarter. Even in Japan, whose economy more closely resembles the U.S. or Europe, the unemployment rate has fallen for two months and the Bank of Japan is considering removing some stimulus measures.

Friday's data shows the effects of the stronger euro exchange rate, which recently hit a 14-month high of $1.5020 against the dollar, hurting Europe's crucial export sector and dampening the effect of higher oil prices. It's a burden the U.S. does not face, with the dollar weakening substantially in recent years and giving a boost to exporters.

Of all the trends, however, it is the steady rise in joblessness that worries experts most. Across the entire European Union, some 22.12 million people are now out of work, 15.32 million of them in the eurozone.

"Unemployment is a lagging indicator and the depth and length of the recession that most countries have suffered will continue to impact for some time to come," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight in London.

"Furthermore, even though the eurozone economy highly likely returned to expansion in the third quarter and activity is continuing to improve in the fourth quarter, growth is unlikely to be strong enough to generate net jobs for some considerable time," Archer said.

Rising unemployment is expected to weigh on consumer spending, and while billions of euros (dollars) in stimulus measures by governments and central banks have helped in the short term, those efforts are only temporary.

European Union leaders insisted Friday that it was too soon to withdraw all their various stimulus programs. They said they would wait until a recover "is fully secured," but avoided setting a date until they meet again for talks in December.

They also warned that reforms were required "to prevent high unemployment levels from becoming persistent" by making labor markets more flexible.

4 Types Of Technical Indicator You Need When Trading Forex

If you have any experience in using any kind of charting packages to assist you with your forex trading, you will know that there are endless different technical indicators you can use. In this article I'm going to be asking what are all these indicators and which ones do you really need?

As you can guess from the title of this article, there are essentially four different types of technical indicator and they are as follows:

1.Trend indicators.

MACD, Parabolic SAR and the various moving averages are a few examples of trend indicators and they can all be used to identify a trend. It's widely argued that you should only trade with the trend so all of these indicators will help you to take the decision out of your hands, and therefore dictate which way you should be trading. Your only decision now is at what level to enter the trade.

2.Momentum indicators.

These types of indicators are essentially oscillating indicators and are most useful for determining overbought and oversold positions and can be very useful in signalling the start of a new trend. Examples include RSI, Stochastics and CCI.

3.Volume indicators.

As the name suggests, these types of indicators show the volume of trades behind a particualr price movement which can be extremely beneficial because a price movement backed up by high volume is a much stronger signal than a price movement based on low volume. Examples here include Chaikin Money Flow, Force Index, Money Flow Index and Ease Of Movement.

4.Volatility indicators.

Volatility indicators generally use ranges to show the behaviour of the price and the volume behind any movements. This is useful because any dramatic change in behaviour can provide a good entry signal. Common examples include Bollinger Bands, Average True Range and Envelopes.

So there you have the four different types of technical indicators available to you. Which ones you use is entirely up to you, but it's generally advised that you have at least one type of each in order to provide additional confirmation for entering a trade.

Trading forex using technical analysis is all about probabilities in that when you enter a long position, for example, you want all of your chosen signals to be signalling an upwards movement, therefore indicating a high probability of an upwards movement taking place.

If you use a strict stop loss policy and use these different types of indicators to confirm positions, then over time this high probability trading method should provide you with more winners than losers in the long run.

Tips to Find the Forex Method that will Give your Economy Rebound

The Forex Market is indeed to be one of the great places to produce tremendous wealth, even in an recent economy of uncertainty. Better than Stocks and Futures Markets combined, Forex has opened its doors to individuals that want to have wealth sooner than they thought, and even larger than they ever dreamed of, and yes, that is you and me. In a such situation of the economy, companies turn their heads on Forex for additional income.

Did you know that the Forex Market is like fire? Because, if you do not know how to nourish or control fire, it takes over you and does some damage that can scar for for a very long time. But if you know where to direct it, place it, control its intensity and quantity, then fire is not a damaging element anymore, but useful. Evolution and time has taught man to control fire.

Same as in Forex, if you do not know how to make Forex work for you, your loss can be heartbraking and traumatizing. Forex Traders fail in forex, but not because it was just too risky, if you dig down deep, they tend to use a trade method that doesn't work, for them. Remember that no matter how "effective" a trade method is, it won't work unless it works for you. There are many forex trader success stories, using the method that works for them.

But what is a good trade method?

Here are some guidelines in order to determine if a trade method will benefit you the most:

1. It must be a complete method, with setup conditions, entry rules, initial stop rules, and exit strategy rules, leaving no decision to chance.

2 . It must include specific risk management, money management, and portfolio management guidelines.

3. It must be based on technical analysis, but it must not be a 100% mechanical system.

4. It must take less than an hour a day to apply after learning how to trade with it.


In evolution and time, there are forex methods that some may not be aware of, on how Forex is flame that can be put to our good use and maybe it becomes an important resource of convenience, financial convenience. Find a good trading method using the guidelines mentioned, there are good methods out there that you can use to experience financial freedom with Forex, it is possible to have your economy rebound with Forex. Start now.