Best Times To Trade Currencies
Forex is a 24 hour market and there will be good setups for
profitable trades in the Asian, European and US sessions. It pays to
look at historical price data on forex charts to see what time of
the day you could be watching the market and what time you could be
doing something else. The aim is to trade when the average trading
range is worthwhile and stay out of the market when price is in a
narrow sideways range.
London Trading Session
London opens at 8 am
GMT or 3am EST. Closes at 4 pm GMT or 11am EST. The most active
pairs during this session are EURUSD with 39% of the trading volume,
GBPUSD with 23%, USDJPY with 17%, USDCHF with 6% and USDCAD with 5%.
European Session
Europe opens at 7am GMT or 2am EST, Closes at 3 pm GMT or 10
am EST. The European session is the most volatile session most of
the time.
New York Session
New York Opens at 1pm GST or 8 am EST. Closes at 8pm GMT or
3pm EST.
New York is the second largest forex market place. The
busiest time is 8am to noon EST. News releases can result in a
volatile market. Trading activity usually winds down after the U.S.
afternoon trading period.
Asian Session
The Tokyo session opens at
1am GMT or 8pm EST and closes at 8am GMT or 3am EST. Sometimes
volatility is low and sometimes good moves occur. The USDJPY is the
most active pair with 78% of the volume followed by EURUSD with 15%
and EURJPY with 5%.
Foreign Exchange (Forex)
The simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another.
Foreign Exchange Market
The market in which foreign currencies are traded ,the exchange rates are also determined here.
Spot Market
The spot market is also
called the "cash market" because prices are settled in cash on the spot
at current market prices. The spot foreign exchange market is the
world's largest and most liquid financial market.
Exchange Rate
The value of one currency quoted in terms of another. For example if
the GBP/USD exchange rate is 1.8000, one British Pound can be exchanged
for $1.8000 US Dollars.
Currency Pair
Currencies are always quoted in pairs. This pair makes up the exchange
rate. Whenever one is bought, the other is sold, and when one is sold,
the other is bought.
Base Currency
The first currency in the pair. For example: in the EUR/USD pair, the Euro is the base currency.
Counter Currency
The second currency in the pair. For example: in the EUR/USD currency pair the USD is the counter currency.
Spread
This is the difference between the bid and ask price of a currency
shown in pips. This is the cost of trading currency, a smaller spread
or difference between the bid and ask price the better it is for the
trader. For example: If the USD/CAD was quoted at 1.1217 / 1.1223, this
means the spread cost is 6 pips.
Pip
A Pip is the smallest price increment in a currency. For example, a
move in the EUR/USD from 1.2800 to 1.2801 equals one pip (a difference
of 0.0001). Alternatively in the USD/JPY, a move from 130.51 to 130.52
equals one pip (a difference of 0.01).
Pip Value
The value of a pip in terms of dollar value. To determine what a pip is
worth in dollars for a certain amount, for example 100,000 Euros, you
can use this formula:
(One pip in the proper decimal format divided by the currency exchange rate) multiplied by the amount your trading, for example a standard lot size of $100,000.
Using the EUR/USD as an example you would have: (0.0001/1.3000) ×
100,000 = 7.69 Euros. But we want the pip value in terms of USD, so to
get this we multiply 7.69 by the EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.3000: EUR
7.69 × 1.3000 = $10.
Using the USD/JPY as
the next example we would have: (0.01/130.50) × 100,000 = $0.77 (77
cents) per pip. And since the USD is the base currency in this example,
we don’t need to multiply it by the exchange rate as we did in the
previous example.
Bid
The price at which a broker/market maker is willing to buy a currency.
Ask
The price at which the broker/market maker is willing to sell a currency.
Long Position
This is the buying of a currency with the expectation that the currency will rise in value.
Short Position
This is the selling of a currency with the expectation that the currency will fall in value.
Limit Order
An order placed to take profits at a predetermined level.
Stop Loss Order
An order placed to take profits at a predetermined level.
Stop Entry Order
An order to buy above or sell below the market rate at a predetermined
level, with the belief that the price will continue in the same
direction once this level is breached.
OCO Order
An OCO order is commonly used in conjunction with a stop loss order,
and a limit order placed on either side of the current market price.
For example, an OCO order could be used with an existing long position
where a stop loss order would be placed below the market to limit loss,
and a limit order would be placed above the market to take profits.
When one of these orders are executed, the other is cancelled. Hence
the name “One Cancels the Other” (OCO)
Broker
A company that matches buyers and sellers together for a fee. In the
case of the forex market, this fee is in the form of a spread
Counterparty
One of the other participants involved in an exchange deal
Manual Execution
An order which is manually executed by human intervention
Automatic Execution
This type of order is executed automatically without human intervention
Rollover
Most trading in forex occurs in the spot market. Any transactions done
here, are due for settlement in two business days. This date is also
referred to as the value date, or delivery date. On this date the
counterparties take delivery of the currency they have bought or sold.
Any positions still open at this time are automatically rolled forward
to the next value date. Most brokers will do this for you
automatically. This must be done so the actual delivery of the currency
can be avoided, since most of the time you are only interested in
making a profit from the price changes, not actually wanting that
currency delivered.
Market Maker
A Market Maker provides liquidity in a financial market, and stands
ready to buy or sell currencies, by displaying a bid and ask price.
This is called ‘making a market’. In terms of forex trading, a broker
would be considered a market maker.
Standard Account
A standard account allows you to trade a contract size of 100,000 units, 10 times the amount offered in a mini account.
Mini Account
The mini account allows you to trade in smaller contract sizes of
10,000 units which is 1/10th the size of the standard account. The mini
account allows traders to become familiar with trading currency with
less overall risk.
Volatility
The rate at which the price moves up and down. If the price of say the
EUR/USD moves up and down rapidly over a short period of time, you
could say it has volatility. On the other hand if the price of the
EUR/USD moves a very little amount up or down mostly staying still,
then you could say it has low volatility
Bullish
A belief that a currency will rise in value
Bearish
A belief that a currency will fall in value
Margin
This is the amount needed, much like a deposit, to ensure against
trading losses. Different brokers have varying margin requirements.
Margin is directly related to leverage, as the amount of leverage a
broker offers defines the amount of margin you will have to provide to
take a position in the market. For example: in the leverage ratio of
50:1, the “1” signifies the amount of capital the trader has invested
of his own money known as margin. And the number “50” in this ratio
signifies the amount a trader has borrowed in relation to how much they
have provided in margin.
Liquidity
Liquidity generally refers to the ease in which a trader can buy and
sell a currency. A higher level of trading activity will give you more
liquidity. In general, the higher the liquidity of a currency, the
easier and faster it is to have your orders executed at current market
rates.
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Where to Get Forex Training
For
those of you who are interested in forex trading, you may want to start
off by getting some good forex training. Forex training is a necessity
for anyone with this interest. This is because a lot of money is
involved in forex trading. If you don't get some forex training, you
are bound to lose a lot of money.
Some of you may not even know what forex trading is. If you don't
know this, you defiantly need some forex training. Forex stands for
foreign exchange. Forex trading is basically the exchange of one
countries currency for another countries currency. This is done
simultaneously in hopes of gaining a profit.
You can get forex training from several different places. The
first place you should get forex training from is online. There are
many websites that offer free forex training. The forex training these
websites offer is both reliable and accurate. The forex training on
these websites often offers a free demo account to teach you how to
trade without actually using any real money. A second place to get Forex training is at your local college
campus. Forex training courses at college are usually inexpensive and
very thorough. The forex training courses offered should also include
hands on experience with trading, to help you get the edge. You can
also get some books on forex training or research forex training at
your local library. The best place to get forex training is from
someone who is already involved in forex trading. The forex training
these individuals provide will be more realistic for you and give you
different aspects of the forex trading game.
The forex training you get should first start with learning how
the foreign trade market works. The trade market is always changing, so
you need to understand it first. The second part of your forex training
should be about risk control. You never want to invest more than you
can afford. The right forex training should teach you how to cut your
losses and have less risks of failure. Next, your forex training should
teach you how to open and manage a forex trading account. But this
should be done with a demo account. All forex training should be done
this way first, before you try the real thing.
With all of this in mind, you should be able to find some good
forex training. Learn the ropes of forex trading and take the time to
learn it well. Be sure to try a demo forex trading account before you
start a real account. With the right forex training, you will soon be
on your way to a profitable way to supplement your income.
Forex
trading, or foreign currency trading, has become a bit of a craze of
late, especially since it is something available to anyone who owns a
computer. And anyone who is willing to put in some training time can
profit from forex trading.
The forex market finds traders from all around the globe
monitoring currency fluctuations, not unlike the way a day trader may
monitor a stock's fluctuation on the Dow Jones.
In forex trading, a trader will pair two types of currency, for
example the U.S. dollar and the British pound. As