BASICS OF FOREX

What is Forex Trading?

Foreign Exchange (forex) is the simultaneous buying of one currency, and selling of another currency. Daily volume in the currency market exceeds $1.4 trillion, making it the largest and most liquid market in the world. Unlike other financial markets, the forex market has no physical location or central exchange. It is an over-the-counter market where buyers and sellers including banks, corporations, and private investors conduct business. Foreign exchange trading takes place in financial trading canters all over the world, including New York, London, and Tokyo creating one cohesive, international market. The huge number and diversity of players involved make it difficult for even governments to control the direction of the market. The unmatched liquidity and around-the-clock global activity make forex the ideal market for active traders. Traditionally the forex market was only available to larger entities trading currencies for commercial and investment purposes through banks. Now, specialized Forex trading platforms allow smaller financial institutions and retail investor’s access to a similar level of liquidity as the major foreign exchange banks, by offering a gateway to the primary (Inter bank) market.

What is Buying/Selling:

In the forex market currencies are always priced in pairs; therefore all trades result in the simultaneous buying of one currency and the selling of another. The objective of currency trading is to exchange one currency for another in the expectation that the market rate or price will change so that the currency you bought has increased its value relative to the one you sold. If you have bought a currency and the price appreciates in value, the trader must sell the currency back in order to lock in the profit. An open trade or position is one in which a trader has either bought/sold one currency pair and has not sold/bought back the equivalent amount to effectively close the position.

Quoting Conventions:

The first currency in the pair is referred to as the base currency, and the second currency is the counter or quote currency. The U.S Dollar, as the world’s dominant currency, is usually considered the base currency for quotes, and includes USD/JPY, USD/CHF, and USD/CAD. This means that quotes are expressed as a unit of $1 USD per the other currency quoted in the pair. The exceptions are the Euro, Great Britain pound, and Australian dollar. These currencies are quoted as dollars per foreign currency.