Showing posts with label liquidity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label liquidity. Show all posts

Monday

Day Trading - What is Forex Day Trading?

Day trading – no, it’s not something that Bill Murray wished he had in Groundhog Day. It’s a style of trading on the foreign currency exchange market in which a trader completes all his trades within a single day. In other words, he may make a few dozen – or more – trades in a day with the objective of buying and selling quickly and making a profit from the fluctuations in a currency exchange rate over the course of the day.

Sound complicated? Depending on the method or system that you use to pick your trades it can be. The idea behind day trading is that currency exchange rates are subject to fluctuations over the course of the day – they go up and down depending on who’s buying, who’s selling and what rumors are floating around. In fact, day trading in the foreign currency market is probably the single segment of any type of stocks, currency or futures trading market most affected by rumors and real-time, real-world happenings. A savvy trader who is quick on his feet can roll up the profits by paying attention to what the current news is doing to the currency exchange rates.

The currency market, commonly referred to as the forex (short for Foreign Exchange), is the most liquid market in the world. The latest statistics say that daily trading on forex is in excess of $1.3 trillion U.S. dollars. That makes forex the world’s largest, most efficient market. A major part of the reason for the liquidity and volume of trade is the practice of day trading. The difference between day trading and other types of trading is in how long you hold your stocks (or in this case, your currency). In day trading, you hold nothing beyond the close of the day’s market. Think of it as a game in which the object is to keep trading cards back and forth, increasing the value of your cards – but have no cards in your hand at the end of the day.

Of course, since the currency market is a 24 hour market, there really IS no market closing – so the rules change slightly. The currency market is open from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon, with trading going on all the time, so you can pick your times to trade rather than being locked into the Stock Exchange timetable.

How You Make Money in Day Trading

People will tell you that the difference between a day trader and an investor is the length of time that each holds onto their stocks. That’s a superficial difference. The real difference is in the mindset of short-term vs. long-term and liquidity. An investor buys something that he believes will steadily increase in value, and holds onto it for the long haul. A day trader rides the minute fluctuations in the currency market minute by minute the way a surfer rides a wave. Because you’re trading in lots of 100,000, a tiny fluctuation can mean a big profit – or a huge loss.

Limiting Loss in Day Trading

One of the hardest concepts for new traders to grasp is that of limiting loss. Let’s say you make a trade for a currency that is heading down because you believe that it’s near its support point – the point where it will rebound and start heading back up. Instead, it breaks the point and keeps heading down – you’re losing money instead of making it. You have two choices – hold onto it because you KNOW it will start heading back up soon, or get rid of it and limit the amount of money you’re going to lose. In day trading, the name of the game is limiting your losses and maximizing your wins – decide ahead of time just how much you’ll allow each trade to lose before you sell it, and then STICK TO YOUR LIMIT. By the same token, decide how much profit you want to make, set a sell order for when the currency reaches that point – and sell when it hits the mark.

Know what you’re doing

Day trading on the forex is like any other business. The people who make money are the ones who take the time to learn the market and understand the ins and outs of the trades that they make. Those who jump in feet first without learning the terms, rules and trends of the forex market are priming themselves to lose – and lose big. Remember, there’s no such thing as high profit potential without equivalent risk. Before you jump in, take a course in trading, or read read read all that you can.


10 Minute Forex Wealth Builder

Forex Trading Robot - Forex Maestro

Sunday

How To Become a Successful Forex Market Trader

Forex trading on the internet is the quickest way to use your investment capital to its maximum. The foreign exchange markets can offer certain advantages to the smaller and larger traders, thus making the foreign exchange currency trading more preferable than the other markets such as stocks, options and all of the traditional futures. Here are some of the top reasons why you will want to use the forex trading on the internet, in order to become a more successful forex market trader.

1. Forex is the largest market, trading at a volume of almost two billion, giving forex traders virtually unlimited flexibility and liquidity. That’s over three times larger than the equity market and over five times larger than futures.

2. Forex trading can fit into anyone’s schedule because it is available on the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no waiting for markets to open; they are always open day in and day out. This flexible schedule makes the forex market extremely attractive to those professional and potential traders and investors.

3. Forex trading on the internet encompasses buying one currency while simultaneously selling another currency; therefore you have an equal opportunity to make a profit no matter what direction the currencies are heading. Another great advantage to consider is that there are currently only fourteen pairs of currencies to trade. Compare those fourteen currencies to the thousands of stocks, options and futures when you’re considering the pros and cons of delving into the trading game.

4. Investors and traders are flocking to the forex internet trading as a way to gain a higher leverage to their investments. Some brokers even offer margin ratios of 200/1 in open forex trading accounts. There are also those mini-forex accounts that can be opened for a minimum of $200, offering a margin of 0.5%, where $50 in trading capital will control a ten thousand unit currency position.

The Forex prices are often predictable, allowing the currency prices to create trends that can be followed to allow the technically trained forex trader to able to spot, and even take advantage of, the many entry and exit points. One of the best parts about forex trading on the internet is that there is no charges for commissions, any exchange fees or any other hidden fees. The forex market is a very easy market to research the countries and currencies involved. The only fees come from the forex brokers, who only make a very small percentage of what the bid/ask price is. Plus, there is no need to calculate any commissions or fees when completing a trade and your transactions are made a confirmed within seconds. Also because this is all done electronically, with no people involved, there is not much that can slow you down.

For the newbie’s in the forex trading game, you will need to know the forex terminology. Here is a list of some basic terms and concepts you will need to know in forex trading:

Spot Market- The market for buying and selling currencies that are usually for settlement within 2 business days, also known as the value date. For example: USD/CAD = 1 day.

Exchange Rate- This is when the value of one currency is expressed in the terms of another. For instance, the EUR/USD has an exchange rate of 1.3200, and then 1 Euro is worth 1.3200 USD.

Currency Pair- All currencies must be sold in pairs. There are two currency’s that make up an exchange rate, so when one currency is bought, the other is simultaneously sold and vise versa.

Base Currency- This is the first currency in a pair.

Counter Currency- This is the second currency used in a pair. The counter currency can also be known as the “terms” currency.

Broker- This is a firm that will match a buyer to a seller for a small fee or commission.

Sell Quote- This quote is normally displayed on the left side and represents the price that you can sell the base currency for. The sell quote is also referred to as the “bid” price. For instance: EUR/USD quotes 1.3200/03, and then you can sell one Euro for 1.3203 USD.

Buy Quote- This quote is normally displayed on the right side and represents the price that you can buy the base currency for. The buy quote is also referred to as the “ask” or “offer” price. For instance, EUR/USD quotes 1.3200/03, and then you can buy one Euro for 1.3203 USD.


10 Minute Forex Wealth Builder

Forex Trading Robot - Forex Maestro

Friday

Top Ten Basic Terms in Forex Trading and Their Definitions

Forex refers to the foreign currency exchange market, the world’s largest financial trading market. Some terms that help a person understand Forex trading include:

Pip - the smallest price increment in forex trading - pip stands for percentage in point.

Bid – to buy

Ask – to sell

Liquidity – financial ease of transaction, i.e. cash

Trading volume – the amount traded

Bid/ask spread – the difference between the proposed buying price and the actual selling price

OTC – over the counter

Exchange rate – the difference between currency values; for instance, a Canadian dollar is valued at .86 of a US dollar

Hedge funds – large mutual funds companies that control vast amounts of money and are able to manipulate the value of a currency through speculation

Central bank – the national bank of a nation, which usually exerts control over the value of that currency

Forex trading is in essence the investment in the currency of one country. Large international corporations that do business in many nations find value in keeping their cash reserves in a variety of nations, and holding their funds in a variety of ways. For example, a US company may have a percentage of its working capital in US dollars, but if it does quite a bit of business in Europe may also find it beneficial to keep a percentage of its money in Euros, in European banks. Many individual investors over the years have discovered that there is profit to be made in investment and speculation in the currency or forex markets.

As an example, during the 1970’s the German deutchmark was changing rapidly in value. It was worth anywhere from 1.7 marks to the US dollar to 2.5 US marks to the dollar. When the mark was worth 2.5 it was beneficial to spend dollars buying marks, since the mark would buy more goods or services at that rate. When the mark was only worth 1.7 to the dollar there was less incentive.


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