I’m a novice forex trader who just started trading forex a week ago. I was wondering if anyone had heard or tried the automated forex trading robot like this one http://forextrading.wellexplained.info/ I’m so much attracted to it and planning to get one and try it myself. I read some reviews on it and all of them were positive.
Have you tried it before? Worth buying? Should I give it a go?
A currency pair refers to the two currencies that are involved in a foreign exchange trade. For example, if you want to buy the Japanese Yen using U.S. Dollars, you would look at the quoted price for the USD/JPY currency pair (USD = U.S. Dollar; JPY = Japanese Yen).
Basically, the currency pair you should be looking at depends on the currencies you wish to trade in.
What Is A Base Currency?
A base currency is the currency that is first mentioned in a currency pair. In the USD/JPY currency pair for example, the base currency is the USD. In the EUR/USD currency pair (EUR = Euros), the base currency is EUR.
The base currency is the currency with which the quoted price refers to. For example, the quote USD/JPY 110.00 means that one unit of the base currency (i.e. USD) is worth 110.00 JPY.
To clarify, here’s another example: EUR/USD 1.4600.
This means that 1 unit of EUR is worth 1.4600 units of USD. To buy 1 EUR, you’ll need to trade in 1.4600 USD (i.e. sell 1.4600 USD).
What Are Bid And Ask Prices?
The base currency is traded at 2 different prices at any one time, depending on whether you want to buy or sell it. For example, if you want to sell the USD/JPY currency pair (i.e. sell the USD and buy JPY), you’ll receive 110.00 JPY. However, if you want to buy the USD/JPY pair, you may need to pay 110.03 JPY.
Notice how the buying price is higher than the selling price. This difference between the buy and sell price is known as the ‘spread’. If you first buy a currency pair and then immediately sell it, you’ll incur a loss equal to the spread.
The spread is what you pay to your broker as transaction fees.
By: Harold Hsu
1. Spreads – There is always an advantage to trade currency pairs that have a tight spread in forex trading. It means that lesser spreads equal to more profit, lesser spreads give you more room for price fluctuation if you have a tight stop loss and lesser spreads may help you to breakeven your forex trade earlier. Does that make sense to you? EUR/USD has the tightest spread of 2 to 3 pips for most forex brokers and even 1 pip for some brokers, while GBP/JPY has spread of 6 to 10 pips. For some forex traders who care a lot on spreads, he will certainly choose the formal over the latter.
2. Trendiness – For chartist traders like me, I depend mostly on technical indicators to help me decide which forex currency pair to trade. Although volatility is considered good, but it is then more risky and need a wider range of stop loss. e.g. is GBP/USD. On my forex trading screen, I have 7 to 8 currency pairs in smaller windows, so that I’m able to decide which pair is the trendiest, even when all pairs seem to have a trend. Though EUR/USD and USD/CHF is negatively correlated 90% of the time, you will sometimes find either of the pairs trending better than the other. Therefore you will want to choose the more trendy pair to trade with the help of some forex technical indicators.
3. Trading Sessions – The best time to trade forex is when the market is the most active and therefore has the biggest volume of trades. During Asian hours when Tokyo opens, the better trading time is from 7PM EST to 10PM EST. But since not all the currency pairs are actively moving, you may want to trade AUD/USD as it starts to move during the stated timing. When London market opens, this is where you can trade almost all the currency pairs. I will trade from 3AM EST to 6AM EST depending on the trendiness of the pair; example is GBP/USD, EUR/USD etc. Another trading session which will experience high volatility is from 8AM EST to 12PM EST where both the London and U.S. markets are open at the same time.
After looking at the above factors, do you think there is a right and wrong answer on choosing the best forex currency pair? I doubt so. As long as you are using a reliable forex trading system to help you, all currency pairs can be profitable. To know more on the behavior of the currency pairs, you can find it in my FREE forex ebook with a forex trading system that can help you generate profits consistently.
By: Daniel S.
So this means to you that you as a forex trader has total freedom on when to trade.
Not all trading times are equally profitable for forex trading.
So the question you are going to ask is probably: When to trade?
We are going to try to answer that question.
Asian Session (Tokyo) (7PM : 4AM EST):
The Asian forex trading session begins at 7 PM EST (12 AM GMT) and closes at 4 AM EST (9 PM GMT). In this forex trading times the most commonly traded currencies are GBP/JPY, GBP/CHF and USD/JPY. These currency crosses can fluctuate 110 pips.
U.S. Session (New York) (8 AM : 5 PM EST):
The US session kicks of at 8 AM EST and closes at 5PM EST. The US is a moderate to highly volatile session, because of its interaction on other markets such as the Stock or Bond market. The most traded currency pairs during these forex trading times arethis session: GBP/USD, GBP/JPY and USD/JPY which fluctuate around 95 pips. There is also trading in USD/EUR and USD/CAD.
European Session (London) (2 AM : 12 PM EST)
London is the the most important and influential trading center at a market share higher than 30%. The bulk of all Forex trades in the market are executed out in these forex trading times because of the liquidity and efficiency of the market.
All major currency pairs are traded during this session. For risk loving traders the GBP/JPY and GBP/CHF have very high fluctuations of up to and even surpassing 140 pips.
By: Huey Davis
If I was to put in $1000 into a forex trading company, what is the realistic result I would get from that in one month period?
By: phpeterhenry
The currency trading tutorial you’re about to receive here will give you a basic idea of how things works. However, you must keep in mind that this tutorial is only scratching the surface. The Forex market is complex, fast-paced and requires serious further study if you wish to trade successfully.
Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, let’s begin by looking at the fundamental unit involved in every trade: the ‘currency pair’.
What are currency pairs?
Currency pairs are units of 2 currencies involved in a foreign exchange trade. For example, if you want to sell U.S. dollars to buy Euros, you would look at the exchange rate quoted for the EUR/USD currency pair. Or, if you wanted to sell Euros to buy U.S. dollars, you would look at the exchange rate quoted for the USD/EUR currency pair.
You might thinking: “Aren’t they the same thing?” Well, they almost are, but you must look at the correct pair, in the correct order, based on the currency being purchased.
There are two reasons for doing this:
First, it is easier to calculate the results of your exchange in terms of how much of the base currency you can purchase with your ‘quote’ currency. Your base currency is the currency you intend to buy, and the quote currency is the currency you intend to sell in exchange for the base.
When quoting an exchange rate, your broker will list the base currency first in the pair, and the quote currency second.
This means that when you see a pair like EUR/USD, you are seeing the cost of 1 Euro in U.S. Dollars. An exchange rate quote of EUR/USD = 1.4436 means that 1 Euro costs $1.4436 in U.S. Dollars.
Likewise, the USD/EUR pair indicates the cost of 1 U.S. Dollar in terms of Euros. An exchange rate of USD/EUR = 0.6834 would mean that 1 U.S Dollar costs 0.6834 Euro.
The second reason for looking at the correct buy/sell ordered pair is that you’ll want to know the difference between the ‘bid price’ (exchange rate) and the ‘ask price’ (what the market makers want for the currency).
The difference between bid price and ask price make up what is known as ‘the spread’. Forex traders are subject to spreads when opening or closing trades in the buying position.
In other words, you are always subject to a spread when you buy, regardless of whether you are opening or closing the trade.
Open buy -> spread
Close sell -> no spread
Open sell -> no spread
Close buy -> spread
Let’s say that you want to buy the EUR/USD pair. The bid price is 1.4436. The ask price may be something like 1.4440. You must pay the spread of 0.0004 in order to do the trade.
Those are the basics of a currency trade, but there are other factors to take into consideration. In order to make a profit on currency exchanges, you must also know how
to calculate the cash value of exchange rate fluctuations in terms of ‘basis points’ – or, in Forex jargon – ‘pips value’.
This currency trading tutorial will not cover pips values, but it is a concept you should investigate further if you want to master the basics of trade on the foreign exchange
By: Rosli
What is traded in the Forex market?
The instrument traded by Forex traders and investors are currency pairs. A currency pair is the exchange rate of one currency over another. The most traded currency pairs are:
EUR/USD: Euro
GBP/USD: Pound
USD/CAD: Canadian dollar
USD/JPY: Yen
USD/CHF: Swiss franc
AUD/USD: Aussie
These currency pairs generate up to 85% of the overall volume generated in the Forex market.
So, for instance, if a trader goes long or buys the Euro, she or he is simultaneously buying the EUR and selling the USD. If the same trader goes short or sells the Aussie, she or he is simultaneously selling the AUD and buying the USD.
The first currency of each currency pair is referred as the base currency, while second currency is referred as the counter or quote currency.
Each currency pair is expressed in units of the counter currency needed to get one unit of the base currency.
If the price or quote of the EUR/USD is 1.2545, it means that 1.2545 US dollars are needed to get one EUR.
Bid/Ask Spread
All currency pairs are commonly quoted with a bid and ask price. The bid (always lower than the ask) is the price your broker is willing to buy at, thus the trader should sell at this price. The ask is the price your broker is willing to sell at, thus the trader should buy at this price.
EUR/USD 1.2545/48 or 1.2545/8
The bid price is 1.2545
The ask price is 1.2548
A Pip
A pip is the minimum incremental move a currency pair can make. A pip stands for price interest point. A move in the EUR/USD from 1.2545 to 1.2560 equals 15 pips. And a move in the USD/JPY from 112.05 to 113.10 equals 105 pips.
Margin Trading (leverage)
In contrast with other financial markets where you require the full deposit of the amount traded, in the Forex market you require only a margin deposit. The rest will be granted by your broker.
The leverage provided by some brokers goes up to 400:1. This means that you require only 1/400 or .25% in balance to open a position (plus the floating gains/losses.) Most brokers offer 100:1, where every trader requires 1% in balance to open a position.
The standard lot size in the Forex market is $100,000 USD.
For instance, a trader wants to get long one lot in EUR/USD and he or she is using 100:1 leverage.
To open such position, he or she requires 1% in balance or $1,000 USD.
Of course it is not advisable to open a position with such limited funds in our trading balance. If the trade goes against our trader, the position is to be closed by the broker. This takes us to our next important term.
Margin Call
A margin call occurs when the balance of the trading account falls below the maintenance margin (capital required to open one position, 1% when the leverage used is 100:1, 2% when leverage used is 50:1, and so on.) At this moment, the broker sells off (or buys back in the case of short positions) all your trades, leaving the trader “theoretically” with the maintenance margin.
Most of the time margin calls occur when money management is not properly applied.
How are the mechanics of a Forex trade?
The trader, after an extensive analysis, decides there is a higher probability of the British pound to go up. He or she decides to go long risking 30 pips and having a target (reward) of 60 pips. If the market goes against our trader he/she will lose 30 pips, on the other hand, if the market goes in the intended way, he or she will gain 60 pips. The actual quote for the pound is 1.8524/27, 4 pips spread. Our trader gets long at 1.8530 (ask). By the time the market gets to either our target (called take profit order) or our risk point (called stop loss level) we will have to sell it at the bid price (the price our broker is willing to buy our position back.) In order to make 40 pips, our take profit level should be placed at 1.8590 (bid price.) If our target gets hit, the market ran 64 pips (60 pips plus the 4 pip spread.) If our stop loss level is hit, the market ran 30 pips against us.
It’s very important to understand every aspect of trading. Start first from the very basic concepts, then move on to more complex issues such as Forex trading systems, trading psychology, trade and risk management, and so on. And make sure you master every single aspect before adventuring in a live trading account.
By: Raul Lopez
The Forex, or foreign currency exchange, is all about money. Money from all over the world is bought, sold and traded. On the Forex, anyone can buy and sell currency and with possibly come out ahead in the end. When dealing with the foreign currency exchange, it is possible to buy the currency of one country, sell it and make a profit. For example, a broker might buy a Japanese yen when the yen to dollar ratio increases, then sell the yens and buy back American dollars for a profit.
Prices of currency are influenced by a number of factors such as political and economic conditions in the issuing country. Interest rates, inflation and political stability are all factors in the prices of a currency. Governments try to control their currency prices by lowering the price (flooding the market), or by raising the price and buying on a large-scale. Although the volume of Forex is sizable, it’s still impossible to have any control of a market for any length time and because market forces normally prevail in the long run, Forex has become one of the fairest investment opportunities available.
Each currency in the Forex market is given its own three letter code that is used in the Forex quotes. The most common and widely used currencies used in the Forex market are USD (U.S. dollars), GBP (United Kingdom pounds), JPY (Japanese yen), CAD (Canadian dollars), EUR (European euros), AUD (Australian dollars) and CHF (Swiss francs). These currencies are the top foreign currencies to watch in the Forex trading game. The prices of the foreign currency exchanges are specified in pairs by the forex quotes. By using a currency pair of U.S. dollars and European euros in the example below, the first currency is called the base (which is always at 1) and the second currency is called the quote (which shows how much it costs to buy one unit of the USD, or base currency): USD/EUR = 0.8419. When reversed, this is the cost of USD to buy one euro: EUR/USD = 1.1882.
The base currency is growing stronger when the price of the quote currency goes up, therefore only one unit of the base currency can buy more of the quote currency. However, if the quote currency begins to fall then the base currency will become weaker. All forex quotes are perceived as a “ask” or a “bid” price. The ask price is what sellers will sell the base currency at, while at the same time be buying the quote currency. The bid price is what the buyers will pay for the base currency, also while selling the quote currency. For example, a symbol bid ask of:USD/CAD 1.2392 1.2397. This shows that you can buy one U.S. dollar for 1.2397 Canadian dollars, or you can also sell one U.S. dollar for 1.2392 Canadian dollars. You can find the exchange rates in cross country charts that list numerous types of currencies with their values against one another. There are also currency conversion calculators, all of which are readily available online.
Along with the U.S. dollar, United Kingdom pound, Japanese yen, Canadian dollars, European euros, Australian dollars and Swiss francs as some of the top currencies to watch in the forex trading game; some new currencies have been emerging. Be sure to keep an eye out on these emerging currencies: CNY (China yuan), CZK (Czech koruna), HKD (Hong Kong dollar), HUF (Hungarian Forint), INR (Indian Rupee), KRW (Korean Won), MXN (Mexican Peso), PLN (Polish Zloty), SGD (Singapore dollar), ZAR (South African Rand), and THB (Thai Baht). These currencies may not be one of the top currencies now, but they can make for some good investments. Taking two examples out of all of the emerging currencies:
The Czech koruna is a convertible, yet free floating currency that has been floating around since May 1997. All foreign investors have unrestricted access to these local markets. London banks continue to be very active in currency trading and accounts for nearly 60% of the daily turnover. This market is liquid for about five years. The Interest Rate Swaps, or the IRS, is mainly driven by offshore banks.
The China yuan is only limited to financial institutions and onshore companies and is not liquid. Currently the USD/CNY rate is about 8.2770 and is being closely managed by the central bank (PBOC). The Chinese government has resisted all calls for them to revalue their currency; but as the Chinese government continues to strengthen their banking systems and make reforms in their economic policies, there is likely to be a possible call for opening spot trading. The interbank money market does not go beyond four months.
Knowing the top currencies to watch in Forex trading will get you in the game.
By: David Mclauchlan
How can i benefit from FOREX trading?
