Posted by Yogesh Gupta | 10:00 PM

What is Forex?

The largest financial market in the world, Foreign Exchange market, Forex or FX market, all the terms are used to describe the business of trading of the world's various currencies, with more than $2 trillion changing hands every day. Being an international foreign exchange market, Forex is a market where money is sold and bought freely. FOREX was launched in the 1970s, to become the biggest liquid financial market today, dealing in more than hundred times the daily trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

FOREX is a perfect market to invest in, as it is free from any external control and free competition. Mostly, all Forex trading are tentative and unlike the stock market trading, the Forex market is not conducted by a central exchange, but on the “interbank” market, which is thought of as an OTC (over the counter) market. The trading takes place between the two dealers, either over the telephone or through Internet, all over the world. The major trading centers are the ones at Sydney, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and New York, making Forex a 24-hour market.

Forex Trading requires the employing fundamental as well as technical analyses. These analysis help a trader to foresee and determine the development in the price trends of currencies, based on which, he attempts to predict market changes and make profits. Fundamental analysis can be said to use techniques to analyze the value of a state’s currency with the help of its economic indicators, quality markets and political events and associations. Political stability also influences the exchange rate at Forex. Its not just that Forex Trading is intutive, rather its technical

While Technical analysis engages the study of patterns of price trends and movements, making it easier for the trader to predict the path of the future developments in the Forex market. The primary data for a technical analysis are values, be it the highest or the lowest values, the price of opening and closing in a definite period of time, and the amount of transactions taking place. Any factor, be it economic, political or psychological, having little or some influence on the value or the price, has already been measured by the market to be included in the price. We offer some very useful Tips for New Forex Traders.
WHY FOREX?


Forex or the Foreign Exchange Market is world’s largest financial market where various currency exchanges take place. Foreign Exchange started in 1970’s, and with technological advances in 80’s it is growing steadily, and have also grown from trading levels of $70 billion a day to around $1.2 trillion. Unlike other financial markets, Forex market does not require any physical location. It works continuously for 24 hours and five weeks.

The Foreign Exchange market has become the world’s largest financial market by offering individual retail investors access to the same 24 hour Interbank market and spreads as large financial institutions. This forex trade is increasing day by day. There are many traders all over the world who are involved in Forex trading online. The main participants in Forex are banks, business organizations either small or large and there are many individual traders or investors also. Everybody in this world can start trading forex online, from anywhere and at anytime.

Advantages of trading in Forex

24 hours Accessibility: While in share market the trading begins in the morning and ends in the evening and it is not open on the weekends, Whereas Forex market is open for 24 hours a day and for 5 days a week. The market begins on Monday morning according to the Australian time and closes on Friday afternoon according to New York time. In stock market the Traders can do trading from the office; they must have a fixed physical location but the Forex Trading can be done from any where as it’s online.

Commission Free: In the equity or share market or futures market traders must pay a spread and a commission but the traders in Foreign Exchange Market are not charged any commission or any other transactions fees either online or on phone. As Forex is combined with the tight, steady and fully transparent spread, its trading costs is lesser than any other market. The over-the counter formation of the Forex market reduces exchange and clearing fees, which in turn lowers transaction costs.

Liquidity: The Forex market operates on huge volume of money which facilitates providers with complete choice to open or close their positions, regardless of the size. In simple terms liquidity is an influential thing for an investor in which he has the freedom to enter or leave the market at any time.

High Leverage: Forex allows higher leverage than equities or future markets. Forex decreases the necessities to the size of the first deposit. In this market trading, a small amount of margin deposited can control a much larger total contract value.100:1 leverage enables traders to buy or sell $100,000 worth currencies with $1000 margin deposit. Forex traders are provided with the great profit because of leverage.

Warnings and Risk: Foreign Currencies trade is a very demanding and likely chance for experienced and educated investors. Investor should carefully consider his investments purpose, level of experience and risk appetite. In any foreign exchange there is significant risk. Any transaction that involves currencies includes risks, but is not limited to it, the potential for changing political or economic conditions that may considerably affect the price or liquidity of a currency.

Open Market: National economies generally cause currency fluctuations. In forex market all the news is accessible to everyone instantaneously, there is no “insider trading”.

No Broker: As in other financial markets the brokers are involved and the traders are charged by these brokers. This charge can be in the form of money or time. But in foreign exchanges it gives advantage to the trader as there is no need of any broker and the clients directly interact with each other. Forex traders get easy access and cheaper costs.

No one can Corner the Market: The forex market has many participants as it is very vast, so the forex market price can not be controlled by a single person or by a central bank.

Always Bull Market: Unlike the equity market, there is no restriction on short selling. Profit potential exists in the currency market regardless of whether a trader is big or short, or which way the market is moving. Since currency trading always involves buying one currency and selling another, there is no structural bias to the market. This means a trader has an equal potential to profit in a rising, or falling market.

Inter-bank market: The backbone of the Forex market consists of a worldwide network of traders. They are mainly major commercial banks that communicate and trade with one another and with their clients through electronic networks and telephones. There are no organized exchanges to serves a central location to make easy transactions the way the New York Stock Exchange serves the equity markets.

Forex trading is an outstanding medium for outline day traders who desire to leverage their current capital to trade. Forex trading provides more options, greater precariousness and stronger tendency than currently available in stock futures indexes.
How to trade Forex

STEP 1:
The step 1 defines certain concepts and terms of Forex Trading-
Quotes are a vital part of the foreign exchange trading, as Forex trading is done in terms of quotes. Therefore, comprehending these quotes is the first important step.
Firstly, in a Forex quote, the currency listed first is known as the Base currency. For example, we have EUR/USD. Here, EUR is the Base currency.

Secondly, the base currency has always the value 1. In other words, the rate of other currency is calculated against 1 pt of the Base currency. For example, we have EUR/USD where EUR is the Base currency. Then 1 EUR = 1.2323 USD or the value of one currency against the other in the pair.
Thirdly, when dealing in terms of quotes, prices are expressed in terms of Pips. Pips can be defined as “percentage in points” and are mostly the fourth decimal point i.e. 1/100th of 1%.
Also used while trading through quotes, are two significant terms known as Bid and Ask. These two terms are responsible for making trading quote, a two-sided quote.

Bid can be defined as ''The price at which the base currency is sold concurrently buying the counter currency. Ask can be defined as “The price at which the base currency can be bought concurrently selling the counter currency''

STEP 2:
Step 2 illustrates the other key features of Forex trading which are namely, the leverage and the Margin. These two are immensely important in attracting the interest of the traders as they enhance the trading power of the investors.The leverage is the ratio of the deposited amount to the amount that can be traded. Leverage enables the investors to deposit a small amount of money but still trade for a much larger amount. This way, investors can trade easily, utilizing less money to deal.
Margin, therefore, is the minimum amount required to be deposited before an investor starts trading. This can also be known as the initial amount with which the Forex trading account can be opened.
A detailed Example below illustrates exactly how Forex trading is done-
Supposing the current bid/ask price for EUR/USD is going by the rate of 1.5027/30, giving you the option to buy 1 euro with 1.5030 US dollars or sell 1 Euro for 1.5027 US dollars. Now, if you feel that the Euro is underrated against the US dollar, you would opt on buying Euros, selling your dollars at the same time. So you buy 100,000 euros by paying 150,300 dollars. You can then start analyzing the market, waiting for the exchange rates to rise.
As predicted, the rates begin to rise and then you decide a favorable rate at which you plan to sell your Euros to get a hefty profit. Supposing the Euro rises to 1.5090/93. Now, to realize your profits, you sell 100,000 euros at the current rate of 1.5090, and receive $150,900.
You bought 100k Euros at 1.5030, paying $150,300. You sold 100k Euros at 1.5090, receiving $150900. That's a difference of $600 or in other words, you successfully earned a profit of $600.
Return on Investment = $600
Always learn a lesson from the Forex Indicators, keep a watch, think long term and then take a step.

STEP 3:
MarketForex does e-trading using high end MarketForex softwares. Easily accessible and user friendly, they have a simple operating process. For instance, the currency pair to be bought or sold can simply be dealt with, by clicking on the sell or the buy key, placed in front of that currency.
After the deal to be done is selected, a quote is then displayed by the software, making it easier for the user to keep track of the records. Also, MarketForex software provides some attractive powerful features such as account details of the holder, like balance, leverage and margins, along with stop/limit orders.
The trader also has the option of selecting various other currency pairs for trading purposes. Before investing always analyse the forex market with various types of forex analysis.