Best Forex Trading Education

There are many forex trading courses and educational material that a person can find online. However how does someone go about finding the best Forex trading education information? Certainly there are huge amounts of information that will educate you about Forex trading, but not all of it will help you to achieve your goals of making a profit rather than losing. Below are some guidelines which should help you to find the best forex trading education course Point 1 - Avoid Day Trading Systems Many people when starting out in Forex trading will be enticed into thinking that the best way of making money is through day trading. Certainly if you were to ask a person who is selling a Forex trading course for details relating to their real time track record with regard to profits relating to day trading they will not be able to provide one to you. So if you are looking to produce an income from your trading then do not waste your time on day trading. Point 2 - Real Time Profit Records When buying any sort of forex education course, you need to be provided with these records. If a person selling their system does not have confidence in the abilities of their system and are not investing their own monies then why should you. Unfortunately some of these courses being offered online today are from people who have either never traded in their lives or have failed when they have used the system themselves. Point 3 - Understand It Once you find a forex trading system which either has a track record or is willing to show their real profits then there are some other things which you will need to take into consideration. It is important that you learn everything you can about the system in question so that you understand it completely. Unfortunately if you have no understanding of how the system works then you will not have the confidence to trust in it and follow the system through to a likely conclusion if you start to suffer losses. By keeping these points in mind, you will find the best Forex trading education that is suited to your kind of personality. There are literally hundreds of places on the web that can offer you an education as well as free advice on Forex trading so do some investigating and you will soon find one that is ideal for you.

Forex For The future

A non-geographical, existential market, the foreign exchange market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. Far and above the largest market in the world, the $2 billion traded every day includes trading between large banks, individual investors, corporations, governments and various other institutions.Established in 1971, Forex trading has only recently become an individually traded market. Until the present time, only major institutions could trade on this market. Retail traders are currently a small, but constantly growing, part of the Forex.Ten years ago, the Wall Street Journal estimated the daily trading volume in the forex market to be in excess of $1 trillion. Today that figure has grown to exceed $1.8 trillion a day. Based on the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1945 aimed to stabilize international currencies and prevent money fleeing across nations, the U.S. dollar became fixed at a rate of $35 per ounce of gold.Thus, the gold standard was formed and Forex trading became a possibility. But only in 1971, when the Bretton Woods Agreement was abandoned, was the Forex market established. By 1973, major currencies became free to the push of supply and demand. The power of speculators came to be.With the advent of technological innovations like computers in the 1980's, money was soon able to be traded across time zones. Within minutes, like never before, massive amounts of currency could be exchanged. Today, London holds the world's largest international financial center and the major site for Forex trading.The interbank market is beneficial for both the major commercial turnovers and large amounts of purely speculative trading that takes place on an everyday basis. Some large banks trade billions of dollars daily. While some of that trading is on behalf of the bank's customers, much is for the bank's own account. Until recently, brokers on the market did most of the business of trading for a small fee, but now individual investor's can jump in on their own.The benefits of individual investors gaining hands-on access to Forex trading really came to be when the large inter-bank units began to offer small traders the opportunity to buy or sell smaller units (or lots) on their own.At present, the Forex market is appealing because of its massive trading volume, extreme liquidity, the number and variety of traders in the market, long trading hours, factors that affect the currency exchange rates and the geographical dispersion of the market.Between April 2005 and April 2006, Forex trading increase by 38 percent and has more than doubled since 2001. This can be attributed to the increasing importance of foreign currency exchange as an asset and an increase in fund management assets. Also, the vast array of execution venues, like Internet trading platforms, has also made it easier for retail traders to trade.In May 2006, a European exchange survey company found the top 10 investors in the Forex market were mostly American banks such as Bank of American and JP Morgan Chase, as well as international investors like Deutsch Bank and Barclays Capital.Trading on the foreign exchange market is up and coming

Utilizing Stop Loss Order

A stop-loss is an order linked to a specific position for the purpose of closing that position and preventing the position from accruing additional losses. A stop-loss order placed on a Buy (or Long) position is a stop-loss order to Sell and close that position. A stop-loss order placed on a Sell (or Short) position is a stop-loss order to Buy and close that position. A stop-loss order remains in effect until the position is liquidated or the client cancels the stop-loss order. As an example, if an investor is Long (Buy) USD at 120.27, they might wish to put in a stop-loss order to Sell at 119.49, which would limit the loss on the position to the difference between the two rates (120.27-119.49) should the dollar depreciate below 119.49. A stop-loss would not be executed and the position would remain open until the market trades at the stop-loss level. Stop-loss orders are an essential tool for controlling your risk in currency trading.

Why Forex !!!

FOREX" OR "FX" MARKET The currency (foreign exchange) market is the largest market in the world. It is also called the foreign exchange market, or "FOREX" or "FX" market for short. It is the biggest and most liquid market in the world, and it is traded mainly through the 24 hour-a-day Interbank currency market - the primary market for currencies. The FOREX market is a cash (or "spot") interbank marekt. By comparison, the currency futures market is only one percent as big. Foreign Exchange simply means the buying of one currency and selling another at the same time. In other words, the currency of one country is exchanged for those of another. The currencies of the world are on a floating exchange rate, and are always traded in pairs - Euro/Dollar, Dollar/Yen, etc. In excess of 85 percent of all daily transactions involve trading of the major currencies - Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, and the U.S. Dollar. Unlike the futures and stock markets, trading of currencies is not centralized on an exchange. Forex literally follows the sun around the world. Trading moves from major banking centres of the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand, to the Far East, to Europe and finally back to the U.S. In the past, the FOREX interbank market was not available to small speculators due to the large minimum transaction sizes and often-stringent financial requirements. Banks, major currency dealers and the occasional huge speculator used to be 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.

Forex Trading and Risk-Return ratio

Forex trading is fast becoming the top method of making money on the internet and plenty of average people are trying their hand at becoming millionaires. For most people, forex trading is a much needed source of a second income, to supplement their current single income from their main profession. However, the true potential to become very wealthy is not tapped by most such investors and they earn mere pennies on the dollar, compared with what they could be earning. While everyone has their own forex currency trading system, this will be in proportion to your risk appetite and will only bring the returns that you strive for. While there are many ways to invest your money in currency, most people play safe by either investing small amounts or spreading their money very thin across the various currencies they are invested in. This makes for a very small return but practically no risk potential, since the bases are mostly covered so that if one currency depreciates, the other appreciates and the losses are minimal. However, clearly this will never make the forex trader a millionaire. Life is short, and most forex trading millionaires made their money fast off the forex market. These individuals are generally highly leveraged, because they know that money makes money, and the more money they invest, the greater the risk and the greater the potential reward. Also, betting on unlikely currencies is risky and can have a huge potential upside. So what exactly will leveraging yourself mean for you? You can start with a portfolio, meaning that you put your investment towards buying a part of the forex trading. Then, you buy shares of the forex trading the world over, depending on what countries appeal to you. The prices of these shares may rise slowly to increase your portfolio, and you are still playing safe. Once your total portfolio value goes over the 5000 dollar mark, you as a forex trader can apply for something known as a console, which now puts you in the position to act as an agent for others. At this point, you can process exchanges for small investors who want to buy and sell currencies through you. For each transaction processed, you will earn a fee of 6% and this can roll into your portfolio, increasing further, making your status as a forex trader more credible. Other than an unlikely event such as a war or natural calamity, nothing on the forex market will give you a sudden unexpected windfall. Do not expect to become a millionaire over night. You will have to plan and strategize, and most importantly, leverage yourself, to truly make a lot of money. The forex market will generally move like the stock market, in small digits and only when you have plenty of money spread out on the forex market do you stand a chance of making a great deal of profit. While this type of trading is not for the faint hearted, experience in forex trading will bring some confidence to your forex trading strategy, especially as you learn which systems work for you and which don't. As your level of confidence grows, the process will seem much less daunting. However, it is great to be cautious and be sure of any risks you take. That said, do remember that millionaires are always highly leveraged in the forex market – take calculated risks.

Perks of Automated Forex Day Trading

Are you interested in automated forex day trading? There are many things that you should know about automated forex trading, and this is a great place to learn about it. The idea of automated forex day trading is recently getting more and more popular. Futures exchange was the first to adopt this system and later on, the FX market followed suit and employed automated forex day trading.- EfficiencyThis system is very efficient and successful because of its capability to carry out a deal or a trade - real time. This means that there are no lags and fewer complications when trading and these results to more income generated. Achieving this level of efficiency is very hard to do by manual means especially if the decision to trade or not to trade can only be done in a time window of a few seconds. There are even instances wherein the window of opportunity is just a few milliseconds! There are instances wherein the trader is not in his desk and the opportunity suddenly presents itself, while sometimes a trader will skip deals for a while if he recently came from losing deals. These factors are eliminated by an automated system.- VersatilityAn automated system allows you to trade in diverse fields. It makes it possible for you to trade in varying markets as well as an array of time zones. Many trading models can be used by the trader since the system will be the one managing each trading model. Short term data can be analyzed by the system and this provides you with an advantage since you can use the data analyzed for making decisions based on what is currently happening in the market. Analyzing where the market will go in the next 15 or so minutes is impossible without using an automated forex trading system.- Improved liquidityLiquidity is greatly improved by the use of automated trading systems. This can be deduced by observing the behavior of the futures exchange market after employing an automated forex trading system.- SetbackTraders are foreseeing that a problem may arise when the time comes that all traders will adopt the automated system. The volume of orders may be so great that the existing bandwidth as well as current equipment used may not be able to accommodate this influx of information in real time. Existing systems might be able to carry the load and crash which will result to chaos in the market. As of now, safety controls have been created and set in place to prevent this scenario from happening.- Risk ManagementAnother big issue that concerns forex traders is risk management. Even automated forex trading systems require a risk management tool to ensure that there are no errors while trading. Risk management tools requires that before opening a position, checks should be conducted to ensure that no excessive correlation is present in already existing positions. To be 100% sure that the check is accurate and free of error, the whole system must first be synchronized. But as the technology used in forex trading progresses and evolves, these will no longer be issues to be concerned about.There are even instances wherein the window of opportunity is just a few milliseconds! There are instances wherein the trader is not in his desk and the opportunity suddenly presents itself, while sometimes a trader will skip deals for a while if he recently came from losing deals. These factors are eliminated by an automated system.These are some of the things that you should know about automated forex day trading. The information provided here will give you a better grasp and knowledge about this topic. Hopefully this will be helpful when you are deciding to try this kind of business.

Making Your First Successful Forex Trade

If you get of to a good start with Forex it will give you confidence and will encourage you to trade regularly. Follow these tips to get of to the best start possible: Making your first Forex trade can be quite an exciting event. It also is an event that requires some planning in advance, as well as doing some checking and double-checking before you ever make that first trade. Here are some suggestions for preparation that will help you to really get the most out of that first trading event. Trading currency comes with a certain amount of risk. The prudent trader will always make sure, that he or she has enough resources to be able to withstand a period where there are more losses than there are gains. From that perspective, it is important to never risk more funds than you can reasonably do without. Examine the condition of your finances carefully, and determine the amount of your resources that can be comfortably involved in the process of currency trading without creating any financial burdens. Keep in mind that the volume of your transactions will often come into play when it comes to purchasing currency. Simply put, the more you can afford to buy, the better rate you are likely to command. Your circumstances will of course dictate how much you can afford to invest in a single transaction. Individuals who are involved in currency trading will also have to keep in mind that there is the matter of that minimum margin deposit that you must be able to maintain. You may have to begin with smaller transactions that yield less return. But keep in mind that as you grow your revenue from your currency trading efforts, you will be in a position to go for the more lucrative deals. It is a very good idea to begin developing your strategy well before you make that first trade. You can get a great deal of help developing that strategy by utilizing the various reports and other sources at your disposal to try some projections of your own. Set up some test runs by structuring a currency trade on paper and watch how things would have gone had you actually made the transaction. Learn from the outcome, whether it was a win or a loss. Either outcome can help you identify some valuable tools that will help you refine your basic strategy. You may find that you need to include more sources of information in your decision making process. Perhaps your simulated trades will teach you that there is a source or two that needs to be disregarded or replaced in your roster of informative sources. The point is to refine your strategy as much as possible before you go "live" with your currency trading. Making money and having some fun in the process are what the trading is all about. When you perform due diligence before you ever begin you can ensure that your first Forex trade, will be a true example of what you are capable of accomplishing. It should be noted Forex trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors.

Forex - Pound holds above 2 dollars, euro shrugs off complaints of strength

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The pound maintained its footing above the 2 usd level after a week of strong UK data ended with a somewhat mixed retail sales figures.The pound briefly fell below the 2 usd threshold as monthly sales growth in March came in slightly under expectations, but closer analysis of the figures showed that firms are confidently pushing price rises through to consumers. Expectations of a hike in interest rates in May to 5.50 pct therefore remain intact, and further rises are also a subject of speculation."The debate for the May Monetary Policy Committee meeting is likely to be between a 25 basis point hike or a 50 point hike. At this stage, we expect a 25 basis point hike in May, unless signs emerge of a further rise in inflation expectations, with another soon after," said Michael Saunders.Against this backdrop the pound is predicted to stay above the 2 dollar level.Investor attention will next turn to mortgage lending and money supply figures on Monday. Later, on Tuesday, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee will come before the Treasury committee, with the market scanning their comments for clues as to how high interest rates will go.Elsewhere, the euro remained steady against the major currencies, off earlier highs in narrowly ranged trade, with markets watching comments from a meeting of euro zone finance ministers and central bankers to assess levels of concern over the euro's strength.The buoyant euro -- which is within striking distance of its all-time high against the dollar -- has led to worries it may impact euro zone economic growth.But few concerns have been expressed so far at the Ecofin meeting, with euro group president Jean-Claude Juncker saying he is not worried about the currency's appreciation, and Portuguese representative Vitor Constancio making a reference to tight vigilance, only to seemingly contradict the comment later."Euro/dollar has remained within a tight range as comments from the Portuguese ECB member Constancio confused the market," said analysts at BNP Paribas."Within an early statement he suggested that the ECB is watching the euro exchange rate closely ... later he made it clear that the ECB is not targeting the exchange rate and the economy is still strong."In any case, they said, "as long as the ECB needs to hike interest rates euro-bearish comments will only have a minor impact."It will take a concerted effort from central bankers to make any impact on the currency market.Today's only euro zone data -- French household consumption of manufactured goods -- was above expectations, showing a 0.7 pct rise in March, rebounding from a 0.5 pct fall in February.Analysts said the data bodes well for the euro zone growth outlook, although their immediate impact on the market was negligible.Meanwhile, the yen remained weak as carry trades recovered, despite news of a 0.9 pct rise in the Japanese all-industry index, beating forecasts for a 0.3 pct fall."It would be wrong to buy the yen using the stronger economic performance as a reason -- a better Japanese economy could even prompt the yen to move lower if a stronger economy takes risk appetite up," said analysts at BNP Paribas.Finally, the dollar also stayed on the back foot, near day lows against the euro, after yesterday's weak Philadelphia Fed's survey of manufacturing activity was unchanged in April from late March, confounding expectations of a rise.London 1550 GMT London 1246 GMT
US dollar
yen 118.83 up from 118.63
sfr 1.2080 up from 1.2063
Euro
usd 1.3600 down from 1.3610
stg 0.6787 down from 0.6792
yen 161.66 up from 161.46
sfr 1.6433 up from 1.6419
Sterling
usd 2.0044 up from 2.0034
yen 238.20 up from 237.67
sfr 2.4220 up from 2.4167
Australian dollar
usd 0.8360 up from 0.8334
stg 0.4129 down from 0.4168
yen 99.34 up from 99.16

closing forex rates-----uk

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Sterling exchange rates:
Day's spread Market rate
USA
2.0196 - 2.0317 2.0219 - 2.0223
Canada
2.0167 - 2.0298 2.0238 - 2.0248
Denmark
10.6820 - 10.7170 10.6980 - 10.7050Norway11.1400 - 11.2020 11.1539 - 11.1602
Sweden
13.1356 - 13.2150 13.1560 - 13.1726
Japan
232.13 - 233.54 232.42 - 232.49
Switzerland
2.3666 - 2.3760 2.3726 - 2.3736
Euro
1.4331 - 1.4379 1.4350 - 1.4358

Forex - Yen recovers as earlier falls prove short-lived; high-yielders lower

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The yen recovered against major currencies after an earlier resumption in selling of the low-yielding unit proved short-lived.London trading began with a resumption in yen selling in a brief correction after last week's sharp gains, but the overall theme remains that of market participants continuing to reduce their risk exposure amid fears of a credit crunch."The dominating theme is that more people are taking risk off the table," said Standard Chartered analyst Marios Maratheftis.The yen rose sharply towards the end of last week as worries over the spill-over effects from US sub-prime lending troubles led to a sudden reversal in risk appetite, with carry trade positions being rapidly unwound.The carry trade is a risky strategy where investors borrow in low-yielding currencies such as the yen in order to invest in higher-yielding assets elsewhere. Its exceptional popularity prior to last week had taken the yen to record lows against the euro and multi-year lows against other major currencies.Maratheftis said the yen has been recovering across the board, though most of the gains have been against the major high-yielding currencies, such as the pound, the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar.The market is likely to remain volatile for the time being, with bouts of yen buying being temporarily being broken up from time to time as opportunistic sellers move back in at higher levels."People are looking for opportunities to get back in (to sell the yen)," he said. He added, however, that although he believes the carry trade will resume, there are no signs as yet of the current bout of risk aversion ending.Nevertheless, analysts pointed to the fact that there are still no fundamental reasons for buying the yen, with weak inflation data tying the Bank of Japan's hands as far as further interest rate rises are concerned."Interest rates are not going anywhere fast in Japan and on the return to more favourable market conditions, this fact favours the resumption of the yen's downtrend against a wide range of higher-yielding currencies," said Neil Mellor at the Bank of New York.Elsewhere, ongoing risk aversion continued to put pressure on high-yielding currencies, with the pound, the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar all resuming a downward trend after a brief respite earlier today.London 1223 GMT London 0817 GMT
US dollar
yen 118.32 down from 118.94
sfr 1.2029 down from 1.2055
Euro
usd 1.3669 up from 1.3664
stg 0.6754 up from 0.6737
yen 161.79 down from 162.54
sfr 1.6447 down from 1.6474
Sterling
usd 2.0238 down from 2.0275
yen 239.55 down from 241.19
sfr 2.4340 down from 2.4450
Australian dollar
usd 0.8481 down from 0.8529
stg 0.4190 down from 0.4207
yen 100.38 down from 101.46
New Zealand dollar
usd 0.7581 down from 0.7661
yen 89.70 down from 91.14

Swing Trading For Profit a Live Example

Swing trading is one of the best ways to make money in forex trading, it's also a lot easier psychologically than trend following.It's therefore a great way to trade for novice traders. Over the last few weeks we have looked at some live examples:Banked 4 profits, scratched one trade at break even and have one open. Let's look at it and another potential opportunity.First why is swing trading an easy way to trade?When we say is easy, we mean psychologically.You get in quick with low pre defined risk and you're normally out in 2 - 5 days with a good profit.This is much easier than long term trend following, in that you do not have to wait for months and see dips eat into your open profit.Long term trend following is highly profitable but requires a lot more discipline.We personally mix the two ways of trading to gain some diversification of style and smooth the equity curve.Swing trading basicsWe normally look for important chart support and resistance and trade contrary to it.We wait for prices to test these areas and watch for stochastic momentum to fall against resistance or rise against support.Then we know the level has held and trade off it.We also use RSI and Bollinger bands to define targets and that's it.Nice ands simple, but can be very profitable you can read more about this method in our other articles.British PoundWe are short at recent nearby highs and would look for a pop to the downside to Fridays low or near the middle of the Bollinger band.Stochastic is weak at present and odds favor a bit more to the downside.With swing trading you don't want to hang around to long, get out on specific target and that's very close now.Another opportunityLets look at another potential opportunity that's could be shaping up. The euro is trading near its highs and the spike high on the chart is resistance. Stochastic momentum is waning and a cross with bearish divergence will put the odds in favor of the bears.The important point is to wait for confirmation of the crossover - the target is then Fridays low just above the middle of the center of the Bollinger band.FinallyThe tools used swing trade are simple and easy to use, but that doesn't mean they can't make profits as we have shown.Importantly, for novice traders the discipline needed to trade this way is a lot easier.If you practice a bit and learn to spot the set ups you will soon be able to spot some great low risk high reward trades - Good Luck

How to earn in Forex

Forex, where the commodity to be traded is currency, and not stocks and shares, is a trading market which gives its investors, returns in the form of the relative value of one currency exchanged against another. Forex trading is therefore, always dealt in currency pairs with the major currency pairs being Euro/US Dollar (EUR/USD) and US Dollar/Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), to name a few. And it is with concurrent buying and selling of currencies that the trader hopes to make a profit on favorable exchange rate fluctuations. Exchange rates are always fluctuating, going down as well as up, within seconds and the whole art of trading lies in perfectly foreseeing the trend of the variation between two currencies.

The History of FOREX Trading

The origin of Forex trading traces its history to centuries ago. Different currencies and the need to exchange them had existed since the Babylonians. They are credited with the first use of paper notes and receipts. Speculation hardly ever happened, and certainly the enormous speculative activity in the market today would have been frowned upon.In those days, the value of goods were expressed in terms of other goods(also called as the Barter System). The obvious limitations of such a system encouraged establishing more generally accepted mediums of exchange. It was important that a common base of value could be established. In some economies, items such as teeth, feathers even stones served this purpose, but soon various metals, in particular gold and silver, established themselves as an accepted means of payment as well as a reliable storage of value. Trade was carried among people of Africa, Asia etc through this system.Coins were initially minted from the preferred metal and in stable political regimes, the introduction of a paper form of governmental I.O.U. during the Middle Ages also gained acceptance. This type of I.O.U. was introduced more successfully through force than through persuasion and is now the basis of today's modern currencies.Before the First World war, most Central banks supported their currencies with convertibility to gold. However, the gold exchange standard had its weaknesses of boom-bust patterns. As an economy strengthened, it would import a great deal from out of the country until it ran down its gold reserves required to support its money; as a result, the money supply would diminish, interest rates escalate and economic activity slowed to the point of recession. Ultimately, prices of commodities had hit bottom, appearing attractive to other nations, who would sprint into buying fury that injected the economy with gold until it increased its money supply, drive down interest rates and restore wealth into the economy.. However, for this type of gold exchange, there was not necessarily a Centrals bank need for full coverage of the government's currency reserves. This did not occur very often, however when a group mindset fostered this disastrous notion of converting back to gold in mass, panic resulted in so-called "Run on banks " The combination of a greater supply of paper money without the gold to cover led to devastating inflation and resulting political instability. The Great Depression and the removal of the gold standard in 1931 created a serious lull in Forex market activity. From 1931 until 1973, the Forex market went through a series of changes. These changes greatly affected the global economies at the time and speculation in the Forex markets during these times was little.In order to protect local national interests, increased foreign exchange controls were introduced to prevent market forces from punishing monetary irresponsibility.Near the end of World War II, the Bretton Woods agreement was reached on the initiative of the USA in July 1944. The conference held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire rejected John Maynard Keynes suggestion for a new world reserve currency in favor of a system built on the US Dollar. International institutions such as the IMF, The World Bank and GATT were created in the same period as the emerging victors of WWII searched for a way to avoid the destabilizing monetary crises leading to the war. The Bretton Woods agreement resulted in a system of fixed exchange rates that reinstated The Gold Standard partly, fixing the USD at $35.00 per ounce of Gold and fixing the other main currencies to the dollar, initially intended to be on a permanent basis.The Bretton Woods system came under increasing pressure as national economies moved in different directions during the 1960's. A number of realignments held the system alive for a long time but eventually Bretton Woods collapsed in the early 1970's following president Nixon's suspension of the gold convertibility in August 1971. The dollar was not any longer suited as the sole international currency at a time when it was under severe pressure from increasing US budget and trade deficits.The last few decades have seen foreign exchange trading develop into the world's largest global market. Restrictions on capital flows have been removed in most countries, leaving the market forces free to adjust foreign exchange rates according to their perceived values.The European Economic Community introduced a new system of fixed exchange rates in 1979, the European Monetary System. The quest continued in Europe for currency stability with the 1991 signing of The Maastricht treaty. This was to not only fix exchange rates but also actually replace many of them with the Euro in 2002. London was, and remains the principal offshore market. In the 1980s, it became the key center in the Eurodollar market when British banks began lending dollars as an alternative to pounds in order to maintain their leading position in global finance.In Asia, the lack of sustainability of fixed foreign exchange rates has gained new relevance with the events in South East Asia in the latter part of 1997, where currency after currency was devalued against the US dollar, leaving other fixed exchange rates in particular in South America also looking very vulnerable.While commercial companies have had to face a much more volatile currency environment in recent years, investors and financial institutions have discovered a new playground. The Forex exchange market initially worked under the central banks and the governmental institutions but later on it accommodated the various institutions, at present it also includes the dot com booms and the world wide web. The size of the Forex market now dwarfs any other investment market. The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world. Approximately 1.9 trillion dollars are traded daily in the foreign exchange market. It is estimated that more than USD 1,200 Billion are traded every day. It can be said easily that Forex market is a lucrative opportunity for the modern day savvy investor......

Forex Links

Forex Market Information
Forex Related Sites
Economic Calendars
Central Banks & Regulatory Agencies
News
Other Useful Links
Forex Market Information Federal Reserve Banks' "All About the Foreign Exchange Markets in the United States" Forex Related Sites Babypips.com ForexCentral.net Forex Directory Forex Factory FXstreet Economic Calendars Bloomberg Economic Calendar Briefing.com Economic Calendar Yahoo U.S. Economic Calendar Central Banks & Regulatory Agencies Bank of Canada Bank of England Bank of International Settlements Bank of Japan Commodity Futures Trading Commission European Central Bank Federal Reserve Bank Reserve Bank of Australia Swiss National Bank News Bloomberg CNNfn Reuters FX Week Other Useful Links CONSENSUS National Futures & Financial Weekly - CONSENSUS is one of the largest ONLINE sources of in-depth research for trading the markets. The investment newspaper used daily by stock and futures traders. Your research library ONLINE. For over 30 years, CONSENSUS has published market letters with fundamental and technical buy/sell advice from over 100 top national and international sources. FierceFinance - free daily email briefing for investment bankers, venture capitalists, CFOs and other financial industry leaders. ForexForum.net - A leading forex forum. Forexpredictions - daily and weekly high/low currency forecasts. FuturesWeb - Futures and Options portal offering FREE charts & quotes, news, research, software, books, futures directory and more! Go Forex - Your Guide to Foreign Exchange Trading Momentum - Provides links to over 5,000 investor related sites. Online Trading Academy - Online Trading Academy is a cutting-edge training firm focusing on day trading training products and services. Our professional trainers will teach you to trade in any market condition! Link Exchange Program Email meand let us know if you would like us to consider your link.

Forex Trader Charts

Traders seeking a robust, yet easy-to use charting tool will find FOREXTrader Charts to be a comprehensive technical analysis package. Powered by a third-party composite rate feed, FOREXTrader Charts is fully integrated into both FOREXTrader and FOREXTrader.web.
Some features include:
Ability to overlay multiple indicators for advanced technical analysis
Auto trend line & indicator continuation on charts
Easily save, export, print or email charts
Customize your charts to your individual preferences, including chart type, colors, intervals and more
FOREX Trader Charts' unique modal candlestick and modal bar, which show the price most heavily transacted for the current bar's time interval.
FOREXTrader Charts' impressive array of over 18 technical indicators includes simple and exponential Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, Relative Strength Index (RSI), Parabolic SAR, Stochastics, MACD, GANN Lines, Keltner Channels and Fibonacci studies. Choose from 11 intervals, including 8 intra-day charts. Intra-day chart types include candlestick, line and bar. Daily, weekly and monthly charts also include additional chart types, such as FOREXTrader Charts' unique modal candlestick and modal bar, which show the price most heavily transacted for the current bar's time interval......

Speculation vs investment

It is very important that the individual wanting to trade foreign exchange be aware of the very marked difference between speculation and investment. Forex trading is by nature a speculative occupation. Foreign exchange markets are amongst the most volatile markets in the world. When traded on a margined basis they effectively become the most volatile in the world. Day trading in foreign exchange can be extremely profitable and high-risk profile traders can generate huge percentage returns even overnight. Day trading is however a mentally and psychologically challenging activity and is by no means meant for everyone. Day trading is essentially speculation and day traders essentially only do that: day trading. Most people who trade foreign exchange are not professional day traders however.
Often the contractors of foreign exchange brokerage services are professionals in some capacity or other. These people do not day trade but take the occasional position from time to time. This is also speculation and should not be confused with making an investment.
The conclusion here is that the nature of foreign exchange trading not lend itself as much to investment as it does to speculation and hedging (hedging may be performed in forward instruments). It is possible in a sense to make an investment in foreign exchange over a long-term period but this necessitates a large account value and low leveraging.

Market dynamics

The breadth, depth, and liquidity of the market are truly impressive. It has been estimated that the world's most active exchange rates like EURUSD and USDJPY can change up to 18,000 times during a single day.
Somewhere on the planet, financial centers are open for business, and banks and other institutions are trading the dollar and other currencies, every hour of the day and night, aside from possible minor gaps on weekends. In financial centers around the world, business hours overlap; as some centers close, others open and begin to trade.
The foreign exchange market follows the sun around the earth. Each business day arrives first in the Asia-Pacific financial centers; first Wellington, New Zealand, then Sydney, Australia, followed by Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. A few hours later, while markets remain active in those Asian centers, trading begins in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Middle East. Later still, when it is late in the business day in Tokyo, markets in Europe open for business. Subsequently, when it is early afternoon in Europe, trading in New York and other U.S. centers starts. Finally, completing the circle, when it is middle or late afternoon in the United States, the next day has arrived in the Asia-Pacific area, the first markets there have opened, and the process begins again.
The graph underneath displays not only the currency trading time cycle but also the average 'depth' of trading at different times during the day in the various business hours.
1. Spot rate
A spot transaction is a straightforward (or outright) exchange of one currency for another. The spot rate is the current market price or 'cash' rate. Spot transactions do not require immediate settlement, or payment 'on the spot'. By convention, the settlement date, or value date, is the second business day after the deal date on which the transaction is made by the two parties.
2. Bid & ask
In the foreign exchange market (and essentially in all markets) there is a buying and selling price. It is important to perceive these prices as a reflection of market condition.
A market maker is expected to quote simultaneously for his customers both a price at which he is willing to buy (the bid) and a price at which he is willing to sell (the ask) standard amounts of any currency for which he is making a market.
ACM quotes very competitive spreads to customers, to site an example if a trader is interested in a transaction in EURUSD then he can trade on a bid/ask of say 0.9150 / 0.9153. This means that ACM is willing to buy from him a pre-determined amount at 0.9150 or inversely to sell to him at 0.9153.
Generally speaking the difference between the bid and ask rates reflect the level of liquidity in a certain instrument. On a normal trading day, the major currency pairs EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF and GBPUSD are traded by a multitude of market participant every few seconds. High liquidity means that there is always a seller for your buy and a buyer for your sell at actual prices.
3. Base currency and counter currency
Every foreign exchange transaction involves two currencies. It is important to keep straight which is the base currency and which is the counter currency. The counter currency is the numerator and the base currency is the denominator. When the counter currency increases, the base currency strengthens and becomes more expensive. When the counter currency decreases, the base currency weakens and becomes cheaper. In telephone trading communications, the base currency is always stated first. For example, a quotation for USDJPY means the US dollar is the base and the yen is the counter currency. In the case of GBPUSD (usually called 'cable') the British pound is the base and the US dollar is the counter currency.
4. Quotes in terms of base currency
Traders always think in terms of how much it costs to buy or sell the base currency. When a quote of 0.9150 / 53 is given that means that a trader can buy EUR against USD at 0.9153. If he is buying EURUSD for 1'000'000 at that rate he would have USD 915'300 in exchange for his million Euro. Of course traders are not actually interested in exchanging large amounts of different currency, their main focus is to buy at a low rate and sell at higher one.
5. Basis points or 'pips'
For most currencies, bid and offer quotes are carried down to the fourth decimal place. That represents one-hundredth of one percent, or 1/10,000th of the counter currency unit, usually called a 'pip'. However, for a few currency units that are relatively small in absolute value, such as the Japanese yen, quotes may be carried down to two decimal places and a 'pip' is 1/100th of the terms currency unit. In foreign exchange, a 'pip' is the smallest amount by which a price may fluctuate in that market.
6. Euro cross & cross rates
Euro cross rates are currency pairs that involve the Euro currency versus another currency. Examples of Euro crosses are EURJPY, EURCHF and GBPEUR. Currency pairs that involve neither the Euro nor the US dollar are called cross rates. Examples of cross rates are GBPJPY and CHFJPY. Of course hundreds of cross rates exist involving exotic currency pairs but they are often plagued by low liquidity. Ever since the Euro the number of liquid cross rates have decreased and have been replaced (to a certain extent) by Euro crosses.

Main forex markets

Foreign exchange is traded essentially in two distinctive ways. Over an organized exchange and 'over the counter'. Exchange traded foreign exchange represents a very small portion of the total foreign exchange market the great majority of foreign exchange deals being traded between banks and other market participants 'over the counter'.
1. Exchange traded currencies
In the case of an organized exchange like the Chicago Mercantile exchange (CME) in the US, standardized currency contract sizes that represent a certain monetary value are traded in the International money market (IMM). A central clearing house organizes matching of transactions between counter-parties. There are various disadvantages to trading currency futures as outlined in the chapter Advantages of trading FX.
2. Forex market
In comparison the over the counter market is traded around the world by a multitude of participants and price quality, reputation and trading conditions determine who a participant wishes to trade with. It is probably the most competitive market in the world and brokers like ACM must insure they live up to the highest standards of service and be compliant with market standards and practices if they want to acquire new customers and retain their existing ones. In 1998 a survey under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), global turnover of reporting dealers was estimated at about USD 1.49 trillion per day. In comparison, currency futures turnover was estimated at USD 12 billion.
Among the various financial centers around the world, the largest amount of foreign exchange trading takes place in the United Kingdom, even though that nation's currency, the British pound is less widely traded in the market than several others. As shown in the graph underneath, the United Kingdom accounts for about 32 percent of the global total; the United States ranks a distant second with about 18 percent, and Japan is third with 8 percent.

Market participants

In the last years, the foreign exchange market has expanded from one where banks would execute transactions between themselves to one in which many other kinds of financial institutions like brokers and market-makers participate including non-financial corporations, investment firms, pension funds and hedge funds.
Its' focus has broadened from servicing importers and exporters to handling the vast amounts of overseas investment and other capital flows that currently take place. Lately foreign exchange day trading has become increasingly popular and various firms offer trading facilities to the small investor.
Foreign exchange is an 'over the counter' (OTC) market, that means that there is no central exchange and clearing house where orders are matched. Geographic trading 'centers' exist around the world however and are: (in order of importance) London, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Frankfurt, Geneva & Zurich, Paris and Hong Kong. Essentially foreign exchange deals are made between participants on the basis of trust and reputation to deliver on an agreement. In the case of banks trading with one another, they do so solely on that basis. In the retail market, customers demand a written legally accepted contract between themselves and their broker in exchange of a deposit of funds on which basis the customer may trade.
Some market participants may be involved in the 'goods' market, conducting international transactions for the purchase or sale of merchandise. Some may be engaged in 'direct investment' in plant and equipment, or may be in the 'money market,' trading short-term debt instruments internationally. The various investors, hedgers, and speculators may be focused on any time period, from a few minutes to several years. But, whether official or private, and whether their motive be investing, hedging, speculating, arbitraging, paying for imports, or seeking to influence the rate, they are all part of the aggregate demand for and supply of the currencies involved, and they all play a role in determining the exchange rate at that moment.

Origins of foreign exchange

In order to gain a complete understanding of what foreign exchange market is, it is useful to examine the reasons that lead to its existence in the first place. Exhaustively detailing the historical events that shaped the foreign exchange market into what it is today is of no great importance to the fx trader and therefore we happily will omit lengthy explanations of historical events such as the Bretton Woods accord in favor of a more specific insight into the reasoning behind foreign exchange as a medium of exchange of goods and services.
Originally our ancestors conducted trading of goods against other goods this system of bartering was of course quite inefficient and required lengthy negotiation and searching to be able to strike a deal. Eventually forms of metal like bronze, silver and gold came to be used in standardized sizes and later grades (purity) to facilitate the exchange of merchandise. The basis for these mediums of exchange was acceptance by the general public and practical variables like durability and storage. Eventually during the late middle ages, a variety of paper IOU started gaining popularity as an exchange medium.

Advantages of trading forex

Although the forex market is by far the largest and most liquid in the world, day traders have up to now focused on seeking profits in mainly stock and futures markets. This is mainly due to the restrictive nature of bank-offered forex trading services.Advanced Currency Markets (ACM) offers both online and traditional phone forex trading services to the small investor with minimum account opening values starting at 5000 USD.There are many advantages to trading spot foreign exchange as opposed to trading stocks and futures. Below are listed those main advantages.
1. Bid/Ask Spread rates
Spread rates have tightened dramatically in the last years. Most online forex brokers offer a spread of 5 pips on EURUSD which is the most widely traded and liquid currency pair. ACM offers a 3 pip spread on EURUSD. In stock trading, only liquid stocks offer tight spreads. Those spreads often represent on average between 0.04% and 0.06% of the value of the stock. In comparison ACM offers a 3 pip spread on all major currencies, this equates to approximately between 0.02% and 0.03% on the underlying dollar value.
Exact percentages at current rates (May 2002)
EURUSD 3 pips 0.03%GBPUSD 3 pips 0.03%USDJPY 3 pips 0.023%USDCHF 3 pips 0.018%
In the futures market spreads can vary anywhere between 5 and 9 pips and can become even larger under illiquid market conditions (which tends to happen substantially more often in futures currencies).
2. Commissions
ACM offers foreign exchange trading commission free. This is in sharp contrast to (once again) what stock and futures brokers offer. A stock trade can cost anywhere between USD 5 and 30 per trade with online brokers and typically up to USD 150 with full service brokers. Futures brokers can charge commissions anywhere between USD 10 and 30 on a round turn basis.
3. Margins requirements
ACM offers a foreign exchange trading with a 1% margin. In layman's terms that means a trader can control a position of a value of USD 1'000'000 with a mere USD 10'000 in his account. By comparison, futures margins are not only constantly changing but are also often quite sizeable. Stocks are generally traded on a non-margined basis and when they are, it can be as restrictive as 50% or so.
4. 24 hour market
Foreign exchange market trading occurs over a 24 hour period picking up in Asia around 24:00 CET Sunday evening and coming to an end in the United States on Friday around 23:00 CET. Although ECNs (electronic communications networks) exist for stock markets and futures markets (like Globex) that supply after hours trading, liquidity is often low and prices offered can often be uncompetitive.
5. No Limit up / limit down
Futures markets contain certain constraints that limit the number and type of transactions a trader can make under certain price conditions. When the price of a certain currency rises or falls beyond a certain pre-determined daily level traders are restricted from initiating new positions and are limited only to liquidating existing positions if they so desire. This mechanism is meant to control daily price volatility but in effect since the futures currency market follows the spot market anyway, the following day the futures market may undergo what is called a 'gap' or in other words the futures price will re-adjust to the spot price the next day. In the OTC market no such trading constraints exist permitting the trader to truly implement his trading strategy to the fullest extent. Since a trader can protect his position from large unexpected price movements with stop-loss orders the high volatility in the spot market can be fully controlled.
6. Sell before you buy
Equity brokers offer very restrictive short-selling margin requirements to customers. This means that a customer does not possess the liquidity to be able to sell stock before he buys it. Margin wise, a trader has exactly the same capacity when initiating a selling or buying position in the spot market. In spot trading when you're selling one currency, you're necessarily buying another.

Forex Glossary

Accrual The apportionment of premiums and discounts on forward exchange transactions that relate directly to deposit swap (Interest Arbitrage) deals, over the period of each deal.Actualize The underlying assets or instruments which are traded in the cash market.Adjustable Peg An exchange rate system where a country's exchange rate is "pegged" (i.e. fixed) in relation to another currency. The official rate may be changed from time to time.Adjustment Official action normally by either change in the internal economic policies to correct a payment imbalance or in the official currency rate or.Agent Bank A bank acting for a foreign bank. In the Euro market - the agent bank is the one appointed by the other banks in the syndicate to handle the administration of the loan.Aggregate Demand Total demand for goods and services in the economy. It includes private and public sector demand for goods and services within the country and the demand of consumers and and firms in other countries for good and services.Aggregate Risk Total amount of exposure a bank has with a customer for both spot and forward contracts.Aggregate Supply Total supply of goods and services in the economy from domestic sources (including imports) available to meet aggregate demand.Agio Difference in the value between currencies. Also used to describe percentage charges for conversion from paper money into cash, or from a weak into a strong currency.Aggressor A trader dealing on an existing price in the market.Appreciation A currency is said to 'appreciate' when it strengthens in price in response to market demand. Describes a currency strengthening in response to market demand rather than by official action.Arbitrage Profiting from differences in the price of a single currency pair that is traded on more than one market.Arbitrage Channel The range of prices within which there will be no possibility to arbitrage between the cash and futures market.Around Used in quoting forward "premium/discount". "Five-five around" would mean five points on either side of the present spot value.Ask Price Sometimes called the Offer Price, this is the market price for traders to buy currencies. Ask Prices are shown on the right side of a quote - e.g. EUR/USD 1.1965 / 68 - means that one euro can be bought for 1.1968 US dollars.Asset An item having commercial or exchange value.Asset Location Dividing instrument funds among markets to achieve diversification or maximum return.At Best An instruction given to a dealer to buy or sell at the best rate that is currently available in the market.At or Better An order to deal at a specific rate or better.Authorized Dealer A financial institution or bank authorized to deal in foreign exchange.Average Rate Option A contract where the exercise price is based on the difference between the strike price and the average spot rate over the contract period. Sometimes called an "Asian option".Back Office The office location, or department, where the processing of financial transactions takes place.Balance of Trade The value of a country's exports minus its imports.Bank Notes Paper issued by the central bank, redeemable as money and considered to be full legal tender.Bank Rate The rate at which a central bank is prepared to lend money to its domestic banking system.Bar Chart A type of chart used in Technical Analysis. Each time division on the chart is displayed as a vertical bar which show the following information - the top of the bar is the high price, the bottom of the bar is the low price, the horizontal line on the left of the bar shows the opening price and the horizontal line on the right of bar shows the closing price.Base Currency In terms of foreign exchange trading, currencies are quoted in terms of a currency pair. The first currency in the pair is the base currency. The base currency is the currency against which exchange rates are generally quoted in a given country. Examples: USD/JPY, the US Dollar is the base currency; EUR/USD, the EURO is the base currency. Bear Market An extended period of general price decline in an individual security, an asset, or a market.Bid Price is the price a trader can sell currencies. The Bid Price is shown on the left side of a quote - e.g. EUR/USD 1.1923 / 68 - means that one euro can be sold for 1.1923 US dollars.Bid/Ask Spread is the difference between the bid price and the ask price in any currency quotation. The spread represents the broker's fee, and varies from broker to broker.Big Figure The first two or three digits of a foreign exchange price or rate. Examples: USD/JPY rate of 108.05/10 the big figure is 108. EUR/USD price of .8325/28 the big figure is .83Bretton Woods The site of the conference which in 1944 led to the establishment of the post war foreign exchange system that remained intact until the early 1970s. The conference resulted in the formation of the IMF. The system fixed currencies in a fixed exchange rate system with 1% fluctuations of the currency to gold or the dollar.Broker An agent, who executes orders to buy and sell currencies and related instruments either for a commission or on a spread. Brokers are agents working on commission and not principals or agents acting on their own account. In the foreign exchange market brokers tend to act as intermediaries between banks bringing buyers and sellers together for a commission paid by the initiator or by both parties. There are four or five major global brokers operating through subsidiaries affiliates and partners in many countries.Bull Market A market which is on a consistent upward trend.Bundesbank Central Bank of Germany.Buy On Margin The process of buying a currency pair where a client pays cash for part of the overall value of the position. The word margin refers to the portion the investor puts up rather than the portion that is borrowed.Buy Limit Order An order to execute a transaction at a specified price (the limit) or lower.Candlestick Chart A chart that displays the daily trading price range (open, high, low and close). A form of Japanese charting that has become popular in the West. A narrow line (shadow) shows the day's price range. A wider body marks the area between the open and the close. If the close is above the open, the body is white (not filled); if the close is below the open, the body is black (filled).Central Bank A bank, administered by a national government, which regulates the behavior of financial institutions within its borders and carries out monetary policy.Chartist A person who attempts to predict prices by analyzing past price movements as recorded on a chart.Closing a Position The process of selling or buying a foreign exchange position resulting in the liquidation (squaring up) of the position.Commission The fee that a broker may charge clients for dealing on their behalf.Cross Currency A currency pair that does not include US dollars - e.g. EUR/GBP.Currency Money issued by a government. Coins and paper money. It is a form of money used as a unit of exchange within a country.Currency Pair Two currencies involved in a Forex transaction - e.g. EUR/USD.Currency Risk The risk that shifts in foreign exchange rates may undermine the dollar or any other foreign currency value of overseas investments.Day Trade A trade opened and closed on the same trading day.Day Trading Refers to a style or type of trading where trade positions are opened and closed during the same day.Day Trader A trader who buys and sells on the basis of small short-term price movements.Dealer An individual or firm that buys and sells assets from their portfolio, acting as a principal or counterpart to a transaction.Depreciation A fall in the value of a currency due to market forces.Desk Term referring to a group dealing with a specific currency or currencies. selling of a currency.

How To Choose a Forex Trading System That Works and Suits You

There are so many different trading systems you could use to trade the forex market, some better suited to certain people than others. For example some people may find it easier to comprehend and take into account fundamental factors as opposed to looking at a screen covered in technical indicators, and vice-versa.
The first logical step in determining what type of trading system would best suit you is actually being aware and understand the widely known methods of analysis used in trading the currency market. Once you are aware of the tools that are available, you can generally tell what type of analysis suits you. For example some of the main technical analysis methods which are popular include:
Pivot points
Chart patterns
Fibonacci retracements
Candlestick patterns
And some fundamental factors which are widely used include analyzing:
Interest rates
Trade balances
Unemployment rates
Gross domestic product (GDP)
You may now actually be able to develop your own system by combining certain methods of analysis together, giving you a method which you are comfortable with. On the other hand you may decide that you would like to trade someone else’s system, either way, that brings us to the next step which is determining the profitability of a trading system.
Determining Profitability
Most people would think that back testing is the best way to determine a systems profitability. However back testing doesn’t always give you a true idea of how profitable a system is. The reason for this is because when you’re back testing your system on historical charts, you are only seeing the obvious setups which have occurred, and not always seeing the ones that are less obvious. These less obvious ones sometimes can produce losses, which is why back testing isn’t always the best method to implement.
A better method of determining profitability is by trading your system in real-time with a demo account. This would give you a true understanding of what your system is capable of. This would also allow you to familiarize yourself with your trading platform at the same time. When determining profitability you must look at it in terms of expectancy and opportunity.
Expectancy & Opportunity
These two factors together will be able to tell you what you could expect to make over a period of time. Expectancy is calculated with the following formula:
(Probability of winning × average win) – (Probability of losing × average loss)
This will give you a figure which is the average amount you can expect to make per trade. This shouldn’t be a negative amount, if it is you should look at some other method of trading since you cannot make money on a system that produces a negative expectancy. Obviously the higher this figure is the better. Now to the opportunity factor.
The opportunity factor is how often you are able to trade using your system. By multiplying your expectancy figure with your opportunity factor it will tell you how much you could expect to make over a period of time. The more opportunity you have to trade, the more money you should expect to make. This now brings us to the last component of a trading system, money management.
Money Management
Without proper money management you will end up as a statistic. In other words one of those 90%+ of traders who loose their money. Money management tells you how much of your account balance to risk per trade. The whole point of money management is to ensure your survival over the long term, and to preserve your capital.

About Forex

To buy foreign goods or services, or to invest in other countries, companies and individuals may need to first buy the currency of the country with which they are doing business. Generally, exporters prefer to be paid in their country's currency or in U.S. dollars, which are accepted all over the world.
The foreign exchange market, or the "FX" market, is where the buying and selling of different currencies takes place. The price of one currency in terms of another is called an exchange rate.

The market itself is actually a worldwide network of traders, connected by telephone lines and computer screens there is no central headquarters. There are three main centers of trading, which handle the majority of all FX transactions United Kingdom, United States, and Japan .

Forex Resources

The live forex charts can be used to track ten currency pairs in real time and click on forex rates for a pop-up window of ten currency pairs with live rates for the EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, USD/CAD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD, EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP and EUR/CHF, including the daily highs and lows from 17:00 EST. For a selection of free ebooks, trial offers, calculators and tutorials, visit free downloads. For a current snapshot of the foreign exchange market, use the market monitor to display time zones for several key markets, as well as live forex rates, a sentiment indicator and an economic calendar in a detachable window. Use the online money management calculator to calculate the correct position size for your trade based on your risk profile. Browse the selection of forex books on offer in forex books which includes special sections on technical analysis and general trading. There is a great number of forex related resources to be found in the categorised forex directory to help you find a particular niche or service.

what is forex?

FOREX (FOReign EXchange market) is an international foreign exchange market, where money is sold and bought freely. In its present condition FOREX was launched in the 1970s, when free exchange rates were introduced, and only the participants of the market determine the price of one currency against the other proceeding from supply and demand.As far as the freedom from any external control and free competition are concerned, FOREX is a perfect market. It is also the biggest liquid financial market. According to various assessments, money masses in the market constitute from 1 to 1.5 trillion US dollars a day. (It is impossible to determine an absolutely exact number because trading is not centralized on an exchange.) Transactions are conducted all over the world via telecommunications 24 hours a day from 00:00 GMT on Monday to 10:00 pm GMT on Friday. Practically in every time zone (that is, in Frankfurt-on-Main, London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc.) there are dealers who will quote currencies.FOREX is a more objective market, because if some of its participants would like to change prices, for some manipulative purpose, they would have to operate with tens of billions dollars. That is why any influence by a single participants in the market is practically out of the question. The superior liquidity allows the traders to open and/or close positions within a few seconds. The time of keeping a position is arbitrary and has no limits: from several seconds to many years. It depends only on your trading strategies. Although the daily fluctuations of currencies are rather insignificant, you may use the credit lines, that are accessible even to currency speculators with small capitals ($ 1,000 - 5,000), where the profit may be impressive. (You can learn more about it in the section: The main principles of trading.)The idea of marginal trading stems from the fact that in FOREX speculative interests can be satisfied without a real money supply. This decreases overhead expenses for transferring money and gives an opportunity to open positions with a small account in US dollars, buying and selling a lot of other currencies. That is, on can conduct transactions very quickly, getting a big profit, when the exchange rates go up or down. Many speculative transactions in the international financial markets are made on the principles of marginal trading.Margin trading is trading with a borrowed capital. Marginal trading in an exchange market uses lots. 1 lot equals approximately $100,000, but to open it it is necessary to have only from 0.5% to 4% of the sum.For example, you have analyzed the situation in the market and come to the conclusion that the pound will go up against the dollar. You open 1 lot for buying the pound (GBP) with the margin 1% (1:1000 leverage) at the price of 1.49889 and wait for the exchange rate to go up. Some time later your expectations become true. You close the position at 1.5050 and earn 61 pips (about $ 405). For the calculation of 1 pip click here.Everyday fluctuations of currencies constitute about 100 to 150 pips, giving FX traders an opportunity to make money on these changes.In FOREX, it's not obligatory to buy some currency first in order to sell it later. It's possible to open positions for buying and selling any currency without actually having it. Usually Internet-brokers establish the minimum deposit such as $ 2000, for working in the FOREX market, and grant a leverage of 1:100. That is, opening the position at $100,000, a trader invests $1,000 and receives $99.000 as a credit. The major currencies traded in FOREX, are Euro (EUR), Japanese yen (JPY), British Pound (GBP), and Swiss Franc (CHF). All of them are traded against the US dollar (USD).In order to assess the situation in the market a trader has to be able to use fundamental and/or technical analysis, as well as to make decisions in the constantly changing current of information about political and economic character. Most small and medium players in financial markets use technical analysis. Technical analysis presupposes that all the information about the market and its further fluctuations is contained in the price chain. Any factor, that has some influence on the price, be it economic, political or psychological, has already been considered by the market and included in the price. The initial data for a technical analysis are prices: the highest and the lowest prices, the price of opening and closing within a certain period of time, and the volume of transactions.A technical analysis is founded on three suppositions:Movement of the market considers everything;Movement of prices is purposeful;History repeats itself. That is, technical analysis is a statistical and mathematical analysis of previous quotes and a prognosis of coming prices.A number of technical indicators have been installed into the PRO-CHARTS trading system. Analyzing the indicators one can come to the conclusion about further movements of the quoted currencies. For a more detailed description of the indicators, analyzing price charts and volumes of trading, click here.Fundamental analysis is an analysis of current situations in the country of the currency, such as its economy, political events, and rumors. The country's economy depends on the rate of inflation and unemployment, on the interest rate of its Central Bank, and on tax policy. Political stability also influences the exchange rate. Policy of the Central Bank has a special role, as concentrated interventions or refusal from them greatly influence the exchange rate.At the same time one should not consider fundamental analysis just as an analysis of the economic situation in the country itself. A far bigger role in the FOREX market belongs to the expectations of the market participants and their assessment of these expectations. Various prognoses and bulletins, issued by the participants, have a strong influence on the expectations. Very often an effect of the so-called self-filfilling prophecy occurs when market players raise or lower the exchange rates according to the prognosis. But a deep and thorough fundamental analysis is available only for big banks with a staff of professional analysts and constant access to a wide field of information.In spite of these different approaches, both forms of analyses complement one another. Traders who act on the basis of a fundamental analysis, have to consider some technical characteristics of the market (the main rates of support, such as resistance and resale), and supporters of the technical approach to the market must track the main news (interest rates, important political events).