What Is Forex Trading Market
The word Forex is a combination of two simpler words Foreign Exchange . The simple meaning of Forex Trading is exchange of foreign currencies.Forex Trading Definition For Beginners
Foreign exchange, commonly known as ‘Forex’ or ‘FX’, is the exchange of one currency for another at an agreed exchange price on the over-the-counter (OTC) market.
Forex is the world’s most traded market, with an average turnover in excess of US$5.3 trillion per day.
Forex Market is where currencies are traded to make profit. Fx Trading market is like any other market where goods are traded.
The only difference between the Fx Trading market and any other market is that goods are bought and sold in other markets whereas currencies are bought and sold in the Fx Trading Market .
For example, you can buy euro by paying AUD (Australian Dollars) or you can buy JPY (Japanese Yen) by paying US dollars.
Currencies are treated like goods in the Fx Trading market. Now you know a little What Is Forex but its not enough, continue below.
Forex Market Hours
Forex Trading is done in the first five days of the week starting from Monday and do not stop for a second till the end of Friday.It means Fx Trading is done 24 hours in all five days. The Best Forex players in Fx Trading market are large banks, large international corporations and financial institutions.
Different Types Of Currency Pairs
The main concept of the Online Forex market is the “free-floating” currencies. “Free-floating” currencies are those currencies that are not supported by any specific materials like gold or silver.The profit and loss in Fx Trading market is based on the changes in the value of currencies.
The two widely traded currencies of the Fx market are the US dollar and the Euro. These two currencies are considered as the king of the currencies.
Some other reputed currencies of the Fx Trading market are the Japanese Yen, the Canadian Dollar, the Australian Dollar and the New Zealand Dollar.
Currency Trading Leverage
Foreign exchange is a leveraged product, which means that you are only required to deposit a small percentage of the full value of your position to place a Forex trade.This means that the potential for profit, or loss, from an initial capital outlay is significantly higher than in traditional trading.
In Forex, traders use leverage to profit from the fluctuations in exchange rates between two different countries.
The leverage that is achievable in the Forex market is one of the highest that investors can obtain.
Leverage is a loan that is provided to an trader by the Forex broker that is handling his or her Forex account.
When an investor decides to invest in the Forex market, he or she must first open up a margin account with a broker.
Usually, the amount of leverage provided is either 50:1, 100:1 or 200:1, depending on the broker and the size of the position the investor is trading.
Standard trading is done on 100,000 units of currency, so for a trade of this size, the leverage provided is usually 50:1 or 100:1. Leverage of 200:1 is usually used for positions of $50,000 or less.
To trade $100,000 of currency, with a margin of 1%, an trader will only have to deposit $1,000 into his or her margin account.
The leverage provided on a trade like this is 100:1. Leverage of this size is significantly larger than the 2:1 leverage commonly provided on equities and the 15:1 leverage provided by the futures market.
Although 100:1 leverage may seem extremely risky, the risk is significantly less when you consider that currency prices usually change by less than 1% during interaday trading.
If currencies fluctuated as much as equities, brokers would not be able to provide as much leverage.
Foreign Exchange Pricing
All FX is quoted in terms of one currency versus another. Each currency pair has a ‘base’ currency and a ‘counter’ currency.The base currency is the currency on the left of the currency pair and the counter currency is on the right.
For example, in EUR/USD, EUR is the ‘base’ currency and USD the ‘counter’ currency.
Forex price movements are triggered by currencies either appreciating in value (strengthening) or depreciating in value (weakening).
If the price of EUR/USD for example was to fall, this would indicate that the counter currency (US dollars) was appreciating, whilst the base currency (Euros) was depreciating.
When trading Forex prices, you would buy a currency pair if you believed that the base currency will strengthen against the counter currency.
Alternatively, you would sell a currency pair if you believed that the base currency will weaken in value against the counter currency. Some examples of major currency pairs are:
EUR/USD (The value of 1 EUR expressed in US dollars)
USD/CHF (The value of 1 USD expressed in Swiss francs)
Forex Trading Pips
Pip stands for Percentage in Points. Most of our currency pairs are quoted to 5 decimal places with the change from the 4th decimal place (0.0001) in price commonly referred to as a ‘pip'.For example, if the price of the EUR/USD Forex pair moved from 1.33800 to 1.33920, it is said to have climbed by 12 ‘pips’ (92-80=12).
Spread
The difference in the BID/ASK of the currency pairs is referred to as the 'spread'. An example would be EUR/USD dealing at 1.33800/1.33808 (in this case the spread is 0.8 pips or 0.00008).
The exceptions to this are the JPY pairs which are quoted to just 2 decimal places. A USD/JPY price of 97.41/97.44 displays a 3 pip 'spread'.