June 28, 2009
How does the off-exchange currency market work?
June 25, 2009
Who regulates off-exchange foreign currency trading?
forex markets. The Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) allows the
sale of OTC forex futures and options to retail customers if, and
only if, the counterparty (the person on the other side of the
transaction) is a regulated entity. These regulated entities include
the following:
1.financial institutions, such as banks and savings
associations,
2.registered broker-dealers and certain of their affiliates,
3.registered futures commission merchants (FCMs) and
certain of their affiliates,
4,certain insurance companies and their regulated affiliates
5.financial holding companies, and
6.investment bank holding companies.
Under the CEA, the CFTC has the authority to shut down any
unregulated entity that acts as a counterparty to forex futures or
options transactions with retail customers. The CFTC also has
the authority to take action against registered FCMs and their
affiliates for violating the anti-fraud and anti-manipulation pro-
visions of the CEA in connection with OTC forex transactions
involving retail customers, but the CFTC cannot adopt rules to
regulate these transactions.
Benefits Of Forex Trading
Some of the benefits of trading the Forex market are:
Superior liquidity.
Liquidity is what really makes the Forex market different from other markets. The Forex market is by far the most liquid financial market in the world with nearly 2 trillion dollars traded everyday. This ensures price stability and better trade execution. Allowing traders to open and close transactions with ease. Also such a tremendous volume makes it hard to manipulate the market in an extended manner.
24hr Market.
This one is also one of the greatest advantages of trading Forex. It is an around the click market, the market opens on Sunday at 3:00 pm EST when New Zealand begins operations, and closes on Friday at 5:00 pm EST when San Francisco terminates operations. There are transactions in practically every time zone, allowing active traders to choose at what time to trade.
Leverage trading.
Trading the Forex Market offers a greater buying power than many other markets. Some Forex brokers offer leverage up to 400:1, allowing traders to have only 0.25% in margin of the total investment. For instance, a trader using 100:1 means that to have a US$100,000 position, only US$1,000 are needed on margin to be able to open that position.
Low Transaction costs
Almost all brokers offer commission free trading. The only cost traders incur in any transaction is the spread (difference between the buy and sell price of each currency pair). This spread could be as low as 1 pip (the minimum increment in any currency pair) in some pairs.
Low minimum investment
The Forex market requires less capital to start trading than any other markets. The initial investment could go as low as $300 USD, depending on leverage offered by the broker. This is a great advantage since Forex traders are able to keep their risk investment to the lowest level.
Specialized trading
The liquidity of the market allows us to focus on just a few instruments (or currency pairs) as our main investments (85% of all trading transactions are made on the seven major currencies). Allowing us to monitor, and at the end get to know each instrument better.
Trading from anywhere.
If you do a lot of traveling, you can trade from anywhere in the world just having an internet connection.
Some of the most important differences between the Forex market and other markets are explained below.
Forex market vs. Equity markets
Liquidity
FX market: Near two trillion dollars of daily volume.
Equity market: Around 200 billion on a daily basis.
Trading hours
FX market: 24hr market, 5.5 days a week.
Equity market: Monday through Friday from 8:30 EST to 5:00 EST.
Profit potential
FX market: In both, rising and falling markets.
Equity market: Most traders/investor profit only from rising markets.
Transaction costs
FX market: Commission free and tight spreads.
Equity market: High Commissions and transaction fees.
Buying power
FX market: Leverage up to 400:1.
Equity market: Leverage from 2:1 to 4:1.
Specialization
FX market: most volume (85%) is made on major currencies (USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, CAD and AUD.)
Equity market: More than 40,000 stocks to choose from.
Forex market vs. Futures market
Liquidity
FX Market: Near two trillion dollars of daily volume.
Futures market: Around 400 billion dollars on a daily basis.
Transaction costs
FX market: Commission free and tight spreads.
Futures market: High commissions fees.
Margin
FX market: Fixed rate of margin on every position.
Futures market: Different levels of margin on overnight positions than day time positions.
Trade execution
FX market: Instantaneous execution.
Futures market: Inconsistent execution.
All this makes the Forex market very attractive to investors and traders. But I need to make something clear, although the benefits of trading the Forex market are notorious; it is still difficult to make a successful career trading the Forex market. It requires a lot of education, discipline, commitment and patience, as any other market.June 24, 2009
What Are The Best Hours For Forex Trading?
* Forex is 24 hour market - It starts from Sunday 5pm EST through Friday 4pm EST. Rollover at 5pm EST
* Forex Trading begins in New Zealand, followed by Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America
* The US & UK account for more than 50% of the market transactions
* Forex Major markets: London, New York, Tokyo
* Nearly two-thirds of NY activity occurs in the morning hours while European markets are open.
* Forex Trading activity is heaviest when major markets overlap.
From this timing facts, it is quite visible that at any given time, somebody somewhere in the world is buying and selling currencies. As one market closes, another market opens. Business hours overlap, and the exchange continues as day becomes night and night becomes day.
The great liquidity of Forex, combined with a market that's traded 5.5 days a week around the world, offers you an exceptional independence and choices to trade Forex when you want to and not when the market wants you to do it. Trades always develop with relatively the same frequency, regardless of time. As long as the Forex market is open, there is about the same probability that you will find a trade, whenever your look for it.
During each trading day, the total Forex "volume" is determined by the number of markets that are open and the times each of these markets overlap one another.
Forex market volume of transactions remains high during the whole day, but peaks highest when the Asian market(including Australia & New Zealand), the European market and the U.S. market are open simultaneously. And these are the trading hours you must target in order to find the highest possible amount of profitable trades.
This is the breakdown of OPEN Market Times for your reference:
* New York Market trade times: 8am-4pm EST
* London Market trade times: 2am-12Noon EST
* Great Britain Market trade times: 3am-11am EST
* Tokyo Market trade times: 8pm-4am EST
* Australia Market trade times: 7pm-3am EST
If you pay attention to the last schedule you will notice that there are two times when two of the major markets overlap during trading hours; between 2am and 4am EST (Asian/European) and between 8am to 12pm EST(European/N. American).
So here you have it, if you want to find a great number of profitable trades, focus on the hours when the markets tend to make their biggest moves, i.e., during these big markets overlaps, which therefore, are usually the Best Times to Trade.
June 22, 2009
Pricing
Trade on spreads as low as 1-2 pips, with fractional pips for more precise quoting.
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Real-time prices are quoted in more precise 0.1 pip increments, displayed in a slightly raised font in the dealing box. |
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