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Informative Articles

A Beginner’s Guide to FOREX
FOREX is the abbreviation for the Foreign Exchange market. FOREX is basically an international exchange market where currencies from all over the world are bought and sold for profit. The market today began in the 1970’s. FOREX is a very unique...

FOREX 101
The Foreign Exchange Market, or FOREX market is a worldwide market where buying and selling of currencies takes place. These transactions take place 5 days a week, 24 hours a day and daily are worth approximately 1.5 trillion dollars (US). The FOREX...

FOREX Trading
Copyright 2005 Dave Markel The Foreign Exchange market, also referred to as the "FOREX" or "FX" market is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average turnover of US$1.9 trillion - thirty times larger than the combined...

Forex Trading Can Be Like Day-Trading
Forex trading, or foreign currency trading, has become a bit of a craze of late, especially since it is something available to anyone who owns a computer. And anyone who is willing to put in some training time can profit from forex trading. The...

Home Based Business Opportunity: Secrets Of Success In Home Based Business Opportunity, Exposed
Do you have a home based business opportunity or program? Are you doing any affiliate program? What type of home based business opportunity are you doing? Are you a shining success in the home business opportunity that you’re doing? Are...

How To Choose A FOREX Broker
Most investors who trade FOREX stocks use a broker. A broker is an individual or a company, who buys and sells stocks according to the investor's wishes. Brokers earn money by collecting commissions or fees for their services. You should check that...

Money Laundering in A Changed World
If you shop with a major bank, chances are that all the transactions in your account are scrutinized by AML (Anti Money Laundering) software. Billions of dollars are being invested in these applications. If you shop with a major...

Short Introduction to Elliot Waves as a Resource in Forex Trading.
The Forex market has the largest volume of trades per day among all the capital markets you can trade. This characteristic together with it's high leverage and around the clock trading schedule makes Forex very attractive for traders around...

Trends and Profitable Trading In The Forex Markets.
The basis behind using technical analysis is to find trends when looking at the forex charts and be aware of when they first develop so you can ride the trend until it ends. The foreign exchange market is a very strong trending market, lots of ups...

What is a Forex Broker?
The Currency / Foreign Exchange market is the world’s largest and most dynamic market. Nearly $1.8 trillion is traded every day. The word Forex is derived from the words Foreign Exchange. A Broker is an individual or firm that acts as an...

 
 
 
What Is Forex Trading?

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 advancements have made it so that small traders can also take advantage of the many benefits of forex trading just by using the various online trading platforms to trade.

The currencies of the world are on a floating exchange rate, and they are always traded in pairs. About 85 percent of all daily transactions involve trading of the major currencies. Four major currency pairs are usually used for investment purposes. They are: Euro against US dollar (EUR/USD), US dollar against Japanese yen (USD/JPY), British pound against US dollar (GBP/USD) and US dollar against Swiss franc (USD/CHF).

If you think one currency will appreciate against another, you may exchange that second currency for the first one and be able to "stay" in it. If everything goes as you plan it, eventually you may be able to make the opposite deal in that you may exchange this first currency back for that other and then collect profits from it. As a note bear in mind that no dividends are paid on currencies.

Transactions on the FOREX market are performed by dealers at major banks or FOREX brokerage companies. FOREX is a necessary part of the worldwide market, so when you are sleeping in the comfort of your bed, the dealers in Europe are trading currencies with their Japanese counterparts. Therefore, the FOREX market is active 24 hours a day and dealers at major institutions are working 24/7 in three different shifts. Clients may place take-profit and stop-loss orders with brokers for overnight execution. Price movements on the FOREX market are very smooth and without the gaps that you face almost every morning on the stock market. The daily turnover on the FOREX market is somewhere around $1.2 trillion, so a new investor

 


can enter and exit positions without any problems.

The fact is that the FOREX market never stops; even on September 11, 2001 you could still get your hands on two-side quotes on currencies. The currency market is the largest and oldest financial market in the world. It is also called the foreign exchange market or FX market for short. It is the biggest and most liquid market in the world, and it is traded mostly through the 24 hour-a-day inter-bank currency market.

When you compare them, you will see that the currency futures market is only one per cent as big. Unlike the futures and stock markets, trading currencies is not centered on an exchange. Trading moves from major banking centers of the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand, to the Far East, to Europe and finally back to the U.S. it is truly a full circle trading game. In the past, the forex inter-bank market was not available to small speculators because of the large minimum transaction sizes and strict financial requirements. Banks, major currency dealers and sometimes even very large speculator were the principal dealers. Only they were able to take advantage of the currency market's fantastic liquidity and strong trending nature of many of the world's primary currency exchange rates.

Today, foreign exchange market brokers are able to break down the larger sized inter-bank units, and offer small traders like you and me the opportunity to buy or sell any number of these smaller units. These brokers give any size trader, including individual speculators or smaller companies, the option to trade at the same rates and price movements as the big players who once dominated the market.

About the author:

David Morrison gives you a handy, easy to understand intro to the wonderful, profitable world of forex trading. This article is free to publish - more information can be found at www.ForexTrader123.com