Search
Recommended Products
Related Links


 
 

 

 

Informative Articles

An Explanation of Forex Trading
Forex trading means the simultaneous buying of one currency, and selling of another. The currency of one country is exchanged for that of another. The currencies are always traded in pairs such as US Dollar/Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), Euro/US Dollar...

Choosing eCurrency Exchange Training Courses - What Should You Look For?
Trading eCurrencies on the DXInOne marketplace often has a steep learning curve for most people. Sure, there are the few that can pick it up without any direction but I would not be surprised if these people had prior trading experience in...

DXOut E-Currency Exchange Program and Free Training
Copyright 2005 East Tech LLC I’m sure you’ve heard about DXInOne and the E-Currency Exchange business by now. There are dozens of online marketers taking full advantage of this opportunity by promoting their very expensive courses that can cost...

Forex basics: make money with money, part 1
FOREX or The Foreign Exchange market refers to an international exchange market where simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another is done. Currencies are traded in pairs, for example Euro/US Dollar (EUR/USD) or US Dollar/Japanese Yen...

Forex Trading
The foreign exchange market, also knows as FOREX, originated in 1973 has become the largest e-currency trade market in the world today. FOREX trading occurs 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The FOREX market offers a unique trading opportunity to those...

Forex Trading - Opportunities for Individuals
Indeed large multinational and individual banks and other major financial institutions have dominated FX trading (also known as Forex trading), but there is a paradigm change in the nature and type of investing. According to one estimate, in the new...

Is Trading E-Currency a Legitimate Business?
When I first came across the e-currency trading business on the advice of a friend, I didn't take the opportunity very seriously. It appeared to be just another "hyped up money making scheme." From what my friend was telling me it seemed too good to...

Mazu E-currency Exchange
If you are like many of the thousands of people trying to make money online today, then you are probably trying to find a program that works. I have tried Quixstar, Market America and Amway, all of which require you to build a down line and sell a...

The Forex Trading System
The Forex trading system was first created in the 1970's. The word means "foreign exchange market" where the different currencies of the world are freely bought and sold on the market. Global Forex Trading is leading the world in...

Your Guide To Successful Forex Trading
If you were wondering; forex trading is nothing more than direct access trading of different types of foreign currencies. In the past, foreign exchange trading was mostly limited to large banks and institutional traders however; recent technological...

 
 
 
5 Reasons to Trade Forex Instead of Stocks

While Forex trading is becoming more popular in the United States, the vast majority of investors still do not understand the massive advantages offered in the foreign currency market when compared to equities or fixed income trading. When you fully grasp the following concepts, you'll understand why you might want to reconsider your current investment strategies.

1. Currency prices are not heavily influenced by institutional investors. In stock trading, there is a limited amount of volume on a daily basis. Each stock has a specific number of shares on the open market and trade prices are governed by the number of people attempting to buy or sell shares at a specific point in time. This makes the market vulnerable to price swings when a large investor is attempting to buy up or unload large amounts of shares. For example, if some pension fund owns 10% of a company and suddenly decides to liquidate their position, the market is now flooded with sell orders. Since the amount of shares attempting to be sold will outnumber the amount of buy orders, the price of the stock will start to drop as the number of buyers days up. This creates losses for the remaining shareholders. On the other hand, the forex market is so massive and has so many investors that no single investor can possibly have a major impact on pricing. There are too many units of Euros, Dollars, Yen, etc for any single institution to hold even close to a controlling interest in any currency.

2. Margin requirements are significantly lower in forex trading than equity trading. While the exact amount of margin allowed is determined by each broker, the restrictions are usually much less stringent when trading forex. Margin allows the investor to "play with house money." In essence, you're borrowing money from the broker to invest in your own account. While this can be risky, it can also be insanely profitable. For example, let's say you have $10,000 of your own money to invest. If you open up a margin account at an equity broker, you can usually margin up to 50% of the value of stock. So if you buy $10,000 in Microsoft stock, you can borrow another $5,000 to own a total of $15,000 in value. With your forex account, the margin requirement is often as low as 1%. Which means that if you buy $10,000 in Euros, you can use your broker's money to buy another $1,000,000. So you now own over $1 million in Euros. Now lets say that the value of each investment increases 10%. Your $15,000 in Microsoft stock is now worth $16,500. You sell it, pay back the $5,000 you borrowed, and you pocket $1,500 in profit (minus any fees or interest). Your return on investment is 15%. If your Euros went up 10%, your $1 million is now worth $1.1 million. After selling and repaying your broker, you profit $100,000 before any

 


interest. That's a return on investment of over 1,000%. Of course, you need to be extra careful when trading on margin. Imagine if the transaction went the other way. You'd be in a much bigger hole in the forex scenario. But the potential for enormous gain is there and is one of the major reasons why forex trading is so attractive to serious investors.

3. Forex trading is open 24 hours a day. Unlike the U.S. stock markets, you can trade forex any time of day from Monday through Friday. If a major news story breaks when you're holding stock, and it's after hours, you're stuck holding onto your position until the market opens the next day. By the time this happens, everyone else knows the news and there's thousands of buy/sell orders waiting when the opening bell rings. This will dramatically influence your trade price and negate any advantage you might have had by being one of the first to react. Keep in mind that many corporations withhold major news such as earnings reports and personnel moves until after the market closes. They do this to minimize emotional trading, which is smart for them to do but also hurts savvy investors. Since Forex trading is open 24 hours, you can place your trade order whenever major events occur.

4. The foreign exchange market is more liquid than the equity market. Forex is the largest market in the world. Every day, an average of $1.4 trillion dollars is traded, and the amount of securities (foreign currencies) is minuscule when compared to the number of companies traded in the equities market. This means that there are always buyers to be matched with sellers, which means that you'll have a much better chance to get a fair and accurate price on your trade than if you were trading a low volume stock where the bid and ask spreads can be very large.

5. Forex trading offers the advantage of limited risk. This is one of the large advantages over the futures market. When you buy a futures contract, you are obligated to buy or sell a specific amount of a specific commodity at a specific time for a specific price. Which means that if disaster hits, you're out of luck. For example, lets say you buy a futures contract to sell corn. If news breaks that reports an outbreak of deaths caused by a pesticide used in corn crops, the price on your contracts will drop through the floor, limits will drop, and you could be stuck in your position and end up taking massive losses. This would not happen in the forex market since you can leave your position at any time.

About the author:

This article is just a small piece of the free Forex Trading Course at forexgameplan.com. Go learn about this incredible market and sign up today while the 30 day course is still free.