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In: Currency Trading
3 Nov 2009Trading on the Forex can be a daunting task. The following currency trading tutorial will introduce some of the areas you will need to understand in order to trade successfully in this market. To become a profitable trader, you must build your knowledge constantly.
You will need to open a trading account with a broker. The initial deposit that you make will be small in comparison to the amount of money you will be trading. Your broker will lend you a large percentage of the money you will be trading with. This leverage must be carefully managed. It can greatly enhance your gains, but it can cause your losses to be multiplied if the trade moves against you.
To begin to understand currency trading it is important to understand how they are traded. Pairs of currencies are matched together and in essence they trade against each other. The euro is paired with the dollar. The British pound is paired with the dollar. The dollar is paired with the Japanese yen and the dollar is paired with the Swiss franc.
The first currency in the pair is the base currency. The second one is the quote currency. The base currency is purchased with the quote currency. If the price is listed as 1.63 USD/CHF, it means that one dollar can be purchased for 1.63 francs. Another example is 1.46 EUR/USD, which means that one euro can be purchased for $1.46.
You will see two prices for a currency. One price is for the bid and one is for the asking price. The bid is what you receive if you are selling the contract. The asking price is what you would need to pay the broker to purchase the currency. The spread between the prices is the broker’s commission.
Making money while trading currencies can be a difficult task. There are many factors to analyse when making buy and sell decisions. If you think prices on the Swiss franc are going to drop, you would buy the USD/CHF and hope to sell in the future after the franc has dropped against the dollar. Selecting the way the market will move depends on technical as well as fundamental issues. However, after you have a good idea of the future direction, the famous saying “buy low and sell high.” Is the objective. Another exercise that will bring profits is to sell high and buy back the currency in the near term to cover the open position.
If there is one thing you take away from this currency trading tutorial it should be that you need to become an expert in two areas. The first one is to become an expert in technical analysis. Nearly all traders use this tool to help them make their trading decisions so it is very important that you use it also. There are excellent books on technical analysis, as well as high quality classes taught be experienced traders. Technical analysis will help you identify price trends and changes that are developing in those trends. This will help in making decisions to buy or sell and when. You will learn to set stop-loss-orders to limit your risk exposure. When you combine this technical analysis with fundamental analysis you are in a position to make the best decisions. Fundamental factors have a day to day affect on prices and technical analysis can help you see how these factors have moved prices in the past. Past behavior can help predict future behavior.
This currency trading tutorial should be only the first step you take in preparing for a future in the market. Competion is heavy so make sure you are prepared to meet your competion head-on.
Be SURE to read up on a currency trading tutorial before you learn international currency trading!
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