Finance concessionaire

Since the advent of the Internet in the mid-1990s, literally millions of small
investors now include some form of FOREX trading as part of their chosen
investment strategy. However, unlike maybe stock market investments, trading in
the FOREX market can, initially, be a little daunting. So what is the foreign
exchange market, and how can you include this as part of you investment
strategy? To Learn Forex, you'll need to start by taking some education.

Possibly the easiest way to explain FOREX trading is to ask if you have ever
travelled overseas on holiday and needed to change money? If so, without
necessarily knowing it, you have been involved in a foreign exchange transaction
– you have sold one currency in exchange for another. Forex Trading deals with
trading currencies in set pairs.

Although on a larger scale than walking into your local bank and asking to
change some of your hard earned Dollars for British Pounds or Euros to go on
holiday with, as an over-the-counter market the foreign exchange market is no
different. As a FOREX trader you will need to study your FOREX strategy and
determine whether or not you think a currency will appreciate or depreciate
against another currency.

Once you have determined this, if you are a bullish
trader you will then need to instruct your broker to either purchase more of your
base currency if you think this currency will appreciate. If, on the other hand, you
think your base currency will depreciate, as a bearish trader, you will instruct your
broker to sell this currency. The trader will then offer your currency for sale on
the foreign exchange market looking for a counter-trader(s) who wants to buy/sell
in your currencies.

After the sale/purchase has been transacted, your foreign
exchange account portfolio with your foreign exchange broker will be adjusted to
show this transaction.

One thing to keep in mind with forex currency trading is that unlike other
types of exchanges, such as stock exchanges or commodity exchanges, foreign
exchange trades do not occur an a trading floor but rather are transacted
between brokers either electronically or via the telephone.

As such, there is no transient exchange that you can easily identify with. Nevertheless, all major
business centres around the world trade daily in huge amounts of foreign
currencies and as such the FOREX market can possibly consider itself to be the
only truly global exchange market in operation today.

Currency trading online has opened forex markets to more traders than ever before and I read a lot about how it has made trading easier – Rubbish! It's no easier to make money and probably harder than ever before.

If you don't know why read on and find out.

First, let's start with a simple observation:

The ratio of winners to losers remains the same as it did 50 years ago and the percentage of novice traders losing is higher than ever before.

The fact is that currency trading is easier to do – minimums are lower and on the face of it looks easier so more people who are unprepared try it and get hammered.

Let's look at a trading currency online myth.

Myth – The Amount of Information Makes It Easier

There is certainly a vast amount of free information that can help you learn to trade but this was always available for a minor cost by going to your local bookstore.

There are numerous courses and currency trading systems sold by vendors with ridiculous claims of easy profits, temping novice traders to open trading accounts and the vast majority are junk.

There is a lot more news available to, but since when did currency traders make money trading news stories?

The fact that news is available online means that everyone has it in seconds and it's discounted instantly. Furthermore, it has increased volatility and dealing with volatility, is the really hard part of forex trading.

On the face of it, it would seem the internet has made trading easier (and it has in terms of trading and opening an account) but in terms of making money it has not.

More novice traders are lured into trading than ever before by the promise of easy riches and promptly lose all their money.

Accept this fact – trading is hard

The internet has made no difference in terms of increasing your chances of success; it has only made opening an account easier.

If you want to engage in currency online trading then ask yourself this simple question:

Why should I be a winner when 95% of novice traders lose?

If you are like most novice traders who have bought a $100 e-book or currency trading system from a vendor and think that will help you - the bad news is you are going to lose.

If you intend to trade using the vast amount of online news (you've guessed it already) you're going to lose.

The odds are against you!

The odds of novice traders making money in forex trading are slim and most are deluded in terms of what it takes to win.

If you want to win you need a forex trading strategy that gives you an edge – if you don't know what your edge is in terms of how you can beat the odds you don't have one!

What you have to content with is huge volatility in all currencies. Spotting trends is not that hard holding them or entering them with wild price swings is the hard part and to a degree the internet has helped increase it.

Unlike many article writers who have never traded and write about how easy trading is, I have been a trader for 27 years and if you asked me:

Would I rather trade before the internet or after? – The answer would from profit point of view be a resounding yes.

If you want to become a successful forex trader, then be aware of the challenges that you face in terms of achieving success in currency trading online, or get ready to lose your money.

There has never been a better time to learn Forex currency trading online. Although there are many Forex training materials available online there are very few that will actually produce measurable results for most people. In the Forex trading industry there are many different approaches and strategies being taught and used. A few people are having extraordinary results with consistent profit and today's technology enables any Forex trading entrepreneur to have access to the knowledge that those traders are willing to share.

A good place to start learning for free is in a forum. However, it has been my experience that some of the most popular Forex trading forums are inhabited by some of the more negative minded people in the industry. Newcomers who even make a slightly positive comment about Forex trading will sometimes be attacked by the obviously unhappy people who resent the idea that it is possible for others to easily succeed. Most forums will actually damage your ability to succeed rather than help. That is why our Forex trading forum was formed with the intention of helping and encouraging only. Negative comments are simply deleted and users who consistently display negative attitude are permanently banned.

A Forex video training course is one of the most effective learning tools for enabling students to master the art of trading. As opposed to live seminars which are also more expensive, Forex training videos can be viewed at any convenient time and replayed again and again. There may be sections that warrant repeated viewing while other sections can be viewed briefly or skipped. The video format for learning has proven to be extremely effective for learning trading principles quickly.

Live web conferences are another amazing tool for aiding the process of learning Forex trading. In a live web conference or webinar participants can interact in real time hearing the presenter speak and seeing her screen while explaining or demonstrating Forex trading entry signals. The presenter can also pass the screen sharing feature to any participant so that he can ask questions about what he is seeing on his charts. This medium has accelerated the learning process tremendously for many Forex trading students. It is this kind of technology that makes learning Forex currency trading online a very enjoyable and effective process.

Learn Forex Currency Trading Online

In general terminology the abbreviation "pip" may refer to many things like Protective Industrial Products, Picture-in-Picture, Personal Identity Provider, Partners in Protection, Preferred Internet Provider, Performance Index Paper etc.

In currency trading "pip" stands for "percentage in point". This is the smallest increment of change in forex trade. It is the smallest number in quotation of a currency.

In foreign exchange market, rates are quoted to the fourth decimal point. For example, if the price of a burger in the market is $1.22, in forex market the same burger will be quoted as 1.2200. Under this example, the 4th decimal point will constitute one pip and normally equals 1/100th of 1%.

The above is the general rule. Exception to this is the quotation in USD/JPY which is only up to 2 decimal points. This is because Japanese Yen has not been revalued since Second World War. Thus in case of Yen, the quotation is only up to 1/100th of yen as against 1/1000th with other major currencies.

All other currencies in relation to Yen will be quoted up to 2 decimal points. The usual pairs will be AUDJPY, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURJPY, GBPJPY etc.

Other factors that go in the understanding of a pip are trading size, extent of leverage and rate of a currency pair. In case of USD, with a leverage of 1:100 and trading volume of one lot, one pip will have a value of $10.

The above will be the minimum incremental value by which USD will fluctuate. Thus, if there is a one pip change, that means one has gained or lost $10.

One pip value for one lot in USD will be equivalent to $10 in case of all currency pairs not involving JPY. Where JPY is the other currency in a pair, one point value will be equivalent to $1000 / USDJPY rate.

Closely associated with pips is the "spread". This is the difference between bid price at which a forex broker is willing to buy the first currency of a pair and the offer or sell price at which he is willing to sell the first currency of a pair. The difference between bid and ask prices is the spread.

If EUR/USD is quoted as 1.4205/1.4207, the spread will be equivalent to EUR 0.002 or 2 pips. The size of a spread depends upon the popularity of a currency pair. The more popular a pair, smaller the spread and vice versa.

Pip spread may be better for major players which trade in large quantities as compared to retail or individual traders. Spot prices on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (0.0003). With increased competition, pip spreads have shrunk on major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.

Finding a good forex online broker trading service can be an extremely difficult task, but is essential if you want to ensure that you make as much profit as possible from your trades. Hiring the wrong company could lead to devastating results as if you were actually doing the trading on your own without any training or assistance.

When looking for any firm to assist you with your Forex trading, you should be extremely diligent and carry out as much research as possible with regard to those you would like to handle your investment portfolio.

Look for those firms which will provide you with details of those clients who are willing to provide information with regards to their services and how successful they have been. A reputable firm will have plenty of client testimonials which will indicate to you that they are have a strong knowledge and background relating to this type of trading. However these testimonials should not be used as the way of making a decision in relation to which firm you are going to be using.

Also another way of testing out the reliability of any firm that is providing services for people to trade Forex online is the amount of information that they make available to their clients. Also what sorts of literature and any training that they are willing to provide to those who become clients with them.

So the more that a Forex broker trading firm is willing to do for you then this will then provide you with a way to better understand Forex trading systems and so will make you in to a much more competent trader yourself.

A great way of searching out a reputable and good brokerage firm is through friends and family. Ask them if they can suggest anyone and if they do you will still need to carry out your own investigations with regards to their qualifications and knowledge base before you commit to any type of formal agreement with them.

Finally another thing you will need to consider when looking for a good Forex online broker trading firm is to see what margin of return they are offering to their clients. Avoid those that are offering very low margins of return. It is important to remember that these people are providing a service to their customers and if you find that the firms you are considering are not returning your calls within a reasonable amount of time then it is best that you carry on searching for the ones that will.

Make money trading currencies on-line. Currencies are the most actively, heavily traded financial instruments in the world. The liquidity of the forex market directly translates into several critical benefits for traders that can gain an understanding. There are companies and trading schools that you can find on the Internet that will train you for a fee or others that you can sign up with and become a member and many will try and show you the ropes. Some companies offer free demo's to help train you. Its like using play money until you get the hang of it. All anyone really needs is a computer. So you should be able to operate with a very low overhead. With excess to a phone line or an internet wireless computer card you should be all set. And you can start with very little cash. I know people who have started in this game with as little as $300.00. And I'm sure there is still others who have started with even less. The public has just in the last few years been able to participate in this trade. It wasn't very long ago this turf was exclusively for governments and large international and prime bankers.

Forex trading generates around $1.9 trillion per day in volume, making it by far the world's largest, most liquid market. Serious traders know that the futures and equities markets provide only limited liquidity when compared with the spot currency market.

In addition, though there are obviously many currencies around the globe, roughly 80% of all daily trading is concentrated in the major G-7 currencies. By contrast, the futures market is fragmented among hundreds of types of commodities listed at dozens of exchanges, and equities market volume is spread across some tens of thousands of listed stocks.

Order Execution


The deep liquidity of the forex market ensures that bid/ask spreads are typically very tight, and the market can absorb large trades quickly and easily. Learn More…
24-Hour Trading no matter where you are located
You get consistently tight bid/ask spreads, day or night, because the currency market offers around-the-clock liquidity. As a trader, this allows you to react to economic and political events immediately. Learn More…

Risk Management


The forex market's size and nearly non-stop activity means that it tends to trade in a more orderly fashion than futures markets. Dangerous trading gaps and limit moves are all but eliminated. You'll ordinarily be able to get in and out of positions with ease.

No Market Manipulation


Thin stock and futures markets can be pushed up or down by specialists, market makers, commercials, and locals. Given the sheer size and depth of the spot FX market, however, real buying/selling by banks and institutions is required to move prices. Any attempt to manipulate the forex market usually is futile.

Trade FX and Lower Your Transaction Costs


Every trader should know that transaction costs can reduce profits or exaggerate losses. Due to the decentralized, electronic nature of the FX market, transaction costs are far less than the costs associated with trading either stocks or futures.

No Exchange Fees


The absence of any centralized exchange, such as the NYSE or the CME, means that there are no exchange fees with FX. Whereas equity and futures markets take small pieces of each transaction, FX is an over-the-counter market, which means that participants deal directly with one another, typically via the Internet.

No Commissions


FX costs are further reduced by the efficiencies created by a purely electronic marketplace that allows clients to deal directly with other traders or a dealer, thereby eliminating middlemen, brokers, commissions, and ticket charges. There are no commissions charged when you trade FX.

High Transparency


Every financial market has a spread between the bid price and the offer price. In futures and option markets, current bids and offers often aren't displayed, so the real cost of the trade is hidden. By contrast, in the FX market, you can always see current bids and offers, so you'll always know the true cost of the trade.

Tight Bid/Ask Spreads


Because the FX market is global, continuous, and always liquid, traders benefit from tight, competitive pricing both day and night, making this an excellent market choice for aggressive short-term traders and longer-term position traders alike.

Free Streaming Quotes


Because FX is a decentralized marketplace, real-time, streaming prices are absolutely free. Real-time, streaming futures data, in particular, has always been exorbitantly priced, and as more futures exchanges convert from membership organizations to for-profit public enterprises, it is reasonable to assume that such costs may increase. This trend is likely to make the FX market's cost advantage even more pronounced.

24-Hour Currency Trading


Currency trading essentially follows the sun around the world, so you can buy and sell currencies 24 hours per day. If there's a market-moving event, day or night, you can take advantage of it.

- Somewhere around the world, there's always a major financial center open where banks, hedge funds, international corporations, and individual speculators are trading currencies. If you're an event-driven trader, the 24-hour nature of the currency market allows you to react to virtually any important development, regardless of when it occurs.


- By contrast, the centralized exchanges in the stock and futures markets effectively close at the end of each business day, and after-hours market liquidity can be thin and occasionally treacherous.


- Nearly continuous trading and deep liquidity mean there are fewer dangerous gaps in the currency market, so you won't have to endure the unfortunate surprise of a market that closes one day and reopens the next at a drastically different price.


- Stock and futures traders who carry positions overnight are exposed to the very real risk that positions may not be able to be immediately liquidated, should that become necessary or desirable. When trading resumes the following day, prices may have moved substantially from the previous afternoon's close.

Major Financial Center Chicago Time GMT


Tokyo Open 6:00 PM 00:00


Tokyo Close 3:00 AM 09:00


London Open 2:00 AM 08:00


London Close 11:00 AM 17:00


New York Open 7:00 AM 13:00


New York Close 4:00 PM 22:00

Forex Market Overview


Many active traders have come to love forex because of its strong advantages and exciting opportunities. Not sure how the forex market works? Here's a quick overview to help you get started.

Factors Effecting the Market


Currency prices are affected by a variety of economic and political conditions, such as interest rates, inflation, and political stability. Moreover, the central banks of various governments occasionally intervene in the forex market to influence the value of their currencies, either by flooding the market with their domestic currency in an attempt to lower the price, or conversely, by buying in order to raise the price. Any of these factors, as well as large market orders, can cause high volatility in currency prices. However, the size and depth of the forex market makes it practically impossible for any single market participant to "drive" the market in one direction for any length of time.

Economic Growth


Investors want to be sure that they are investing in a solid economy that is achieving steady growth. Currency traders looking to assess the economic growth of a country will look at unemployment, trade, and GDP data.

Interest Rates


Money tends to follow interest rates. If interest rates go up, money will flow into the country from all over the world as investors seek to capitalize on higher returns. To determine whether interest rates will rise or fall, investors pay attention to economic inflation indicators, as well as speeches by influential figures. Generally, the timing of interest rate moves is known in advance. They take place after regularly scheduled meetings by the Bank of England, The U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, and other central banks.

Political Stability


Election turmoil, changes of government, high unemployment and international conflict all make investors cautious to put their money in a given country. Investors will watch for major news that comes out of a country.

Forex is a Decentralized, OTC Market


The forex market, unlike other financial markets, has no physical location or central exchange. Rather, it's an over-the-counter (OTC) or "Interbank" market, due to the fact that participants deal directly with one another via the telephone or an electronic network. The forex market is unique in that there's live, active, continuous trading 24 hours per day for most of the week. Somewhere around the world, there's always a major financial center open where banks, hedge funds, international corporations, and individual speculators are trading currencies. Essentially, foreign exchange trading follows the sun around the world, allowing traders to buy and sell currencies whenever it's convenient, or whenever the need arises. The world's currencies are on a floating exchange rate and are always traded in pairs, such as Euro/Dollar or Dollar/Yen. Forex transactions always involve the simultaneous purchase of one currency and sale of another – in other words, in every open position, an investor is long one currency and short the other.
FX traders express a market position in terms of the first currency in the pair. For example, a trader who has bought Dollars and sold Yen (USD/JPY) at 103.99 is considered to be "long" the USD/JPY (pronounced "Dollar/Yen"). Quoting convention is to display one unit of the first currency in the pair expressed in terms of the second currency in the pair. By way of example, if the USD/JPY pair is quoted as 1.6433, this means that $1 is the equivalent of 1.6433 Japanese Yen.

Regulation of the Forex Market


The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) placed responsibility for overseeing and regulating the foreign exchange market with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Generally, if a brokerage company offers over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange trading to retail customers, it must be registered as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) is subject to strict capital requirements.

So good luck and have fun and hopefully make some money.

If you want to make money from forex trading and achieve currency trading success you need to make sure your forex trading strategy is objective as possible and keeps subjectivity out.

Many traders make the mistake of including to much subjectivity in their trading plan and lose; lets look at why this can be fatal.

Why Subjectivity will ensure you lose.

Many traders need to make a lot of subjective judgements about their trading signals before executing them – The problem is, the subjectivity that they have in their judgements sees their emotions come into play and they lose.

Let's look at an example.

Elliot wave and cycles are supposed to objective yet you have to spot the set ups and make subjective judgements.

This means that you can be tempted to over ride signals, take signals you shouldn't and generally let your emotions dictate your forex trading strategy.

The same goes for those traders who want to trade by following online news wires.

They need to decide how much the news has been discounted and how valid it is – this is difficult or near impossible and again, emotions come into play and the trader losses.

Be objective! and Create Rules

A better way to trade is to create a set of objective rules for your currency trading system, which mean you do NOT have to make subjective judgements – you simply follow the rules.

This keeps you focused and disciplined and keeps your emotions out of trading.

Here us a simple system that is an objective set of rules and consist of three main components.

1. Look For Valid Support or Resistance

This is support and resistance tested several times, that line up on the weekly and daily charts at the same critical levels.

2. Look For Tests of the Above

When the price moves towards the support and resistance – You should then have a timing indicator to either indicate it will hold or fail.

3. Timing a Trade

If price momentum falls into the levels using the stochastic and Relative strength Index (RSI) a short trade is taken.

If the support or resistance is broken and confirmed by the previous two indicators then a long trade on the breakout is taken.

That's it no guessing or subjective judgement used, this currency trading strategy is a simple set of rules that are followed

Trading signals are executed in line with the trading rules.

Sounds simple?

It is! Most traders can't do this they want to subjectively decide if the trade looks good and impose their own judgements upon the trade - in forex trading this is fatal!

Discipline goes out the window and emotions dictate the trading strategy and trading equity is lost.

Destructive Emotions

The enemy of any trader is his or her emotions. This is why most novice traders lose, they can't get an objective plan and set of rules they can follow with discipline.

If you want to achieve currency trading success, make sure your currency trading system is objective as possible and keeps subjective judgements and emotions out or you will lose to.

The popularity of online Forex trading has grown significantly over recent years and has drawn a following of investors from all walks of life, from all over the globe. This system of trading has made it incredibly easy for neophyte investors to become involved. The online foreign exchange trading system is available worldwide, 24 hours a day, which enables an unrestricted playing field. With that in mind, there are several tips that can significantly increase the chances of success and financial goals.

Risk taking is the first area to approach when dealing with the online Forex trading market due to the fact that most greenhorns actually create an environment that guarantees them failure. This happens most often when the trader puts a strangle hold on their trading hence restricting the risks to a point that it is virtually impossible to create any gains. If there is anything to be learned while playing the online foreign exchange trading markets, it is that playing in any markets is largely based upon taking deliberate and calculated risks.

Along with putting enough leverage on the risk taking is the point in case that becoming a wealthy individual practically overnight isn't going to happen. Accept the risks that are associated with online Forex trading and keeping pragmatic financial goals to accomplish through the process are logical steps that make smart business sense. A step in fact, that will actually attribute to the various successes gained in the online foreign exchange trading market. Actions that are not well planned and executed by the seat of the pants typically end up wiping out the investor so make selective trades with an accepted percentage of risk.

The common scenario is that the online Forex trading investor has the money in a margin account and has turned a bit of a profit. Now that the investor is seeing some financial gains within the Forex market and inevitably takes the profits back out. This is the most common downfall of beginners in the online Forex market because they don't realize that taking out profits too early causes them to lose when all is said and done. Investors in the online foreign exchange trading systems that are successful are largely successful because they accept and understand normal market fluctuations. In order to secure longer-term financial gains, it is inherently necessary to take short-term hits against equity.

There are several intrinsic worth characteristics that a successful online Forex trader must demonstrate but among the most important are patience and discipline. A disciplined Forex trader is patient and allows the market to take its natural course while observing trends and patterns that are emerging in the currency pair that is invested. Momma had more than one good saying and along with money can't buy love is; you can't hurry the financial markets of any kind!