Understanding Forex - #1 - What is Forex?

This is a series of articles about The Foreign Exchange Market. You will learn here what Forex is , how it works and how profitable it can be. The whole series contain the following articles . . .

1. What is Forex

2. Technical analysis

3. Fundamental analysis

4. Money management

5. Compound interest

What is Forex?

The word Forex is an acronym for The Forex Exchange Market. This is the most liquid market on the world where you can trade or exchange one currency for another. For example, if you think that the Euro will appreciate in value and you have US dollars, you can trade the dollars for the Euros. If you are right and the Euro appreciates in value in relationship with the dollars, then you can close the position realizing a profit.

That’s the basic idea behind the Spot Forex Market. This is an interbank system which means that it is not centralized. There is no central exchange where currencies are traded. It is a global market. You can trade Forex online 24 hours per day, 6 days per week.

This market emerged at the beginning of the 70's decade. The reason was that currencies where not backed up by gold anymore. They began floating freely. Their value depended on forces of supply and demand due to economic factors, speculation, etc. This originated the Forex Market.

You can trade Forex on the Internet as I said above. There are many brokers like www.oanda.com that allow you to open an account with just $300 to $500 and start trading online. You can also get a demo account first and trade with play money just to “test the waters” and see if you like this market or not.

Demo accounts are free with most brokers. Some brokers offer demo accounts which expire within 30 days while others never expire. It is important to trade on paper, because you can test your strategies and see if they work or not.

Trading Forex is risky, but it can be very profitable too. You can trade at anywhere from 20: 1 to 400: 1 leverage. This means that the broker will lend you more money than you have on the account to trade.

For example, let’s say that a broker allows you to trade at 100: 1 leverage. If you use all the leverage, for every dollar that you have on the account you can trade 100. Let’s say that you have $1,000. With $1,000 at 100: 1 you can trade $100,000 worth of dollars in exchange for other currencies. You multiply your trading potential a lot. This allows you to realize bigger profits, but you also incur in bigger risks.

Let me show you an example. Let’s say that you have 100: 1 leverage on the account and you trade at full leverage with $1,000. The EUR/USD pair (Euro/US Dollar) is trading at 1.2500. So, you enter a position on this pair.

Let’s say that you are long. If the market moves in your favor by just one cent (1.2600), you will double your money and end up with $2,000 on the account. If the market moves against you by just one cent (1.2400), you will lose all the money that you have on the account or most of it depending on the broker you are trading with.

This can happens really quick. The market can move this much in a matter of minutes or hours. This is what makes Forex very profitable, but also very volatile. I don’t know if novice traders can understand the magnitude of what I am saying here. Many people get into Forex trading only seeing half of the truth. They get pulled into this market by all the hype flying around it.

I do believe that no other market in the world offer the opportunity to make money like this market does. On the other hand, there are some risks involved. It is important for new traders to trade on paper first before compromising real capital. We learn doing. I didn’t learn many basic concepts about this market until I started trading with a demo account.

Now, let me explain other important facts. The Spot Forex Market is traded in currency pairs. Whenever you enter a position you trade one currency for another. For example if you buy EUR/USD you are buying Euros and selling US Dollars. If you sell EUR/USD you are selling Euros and buying US Dollars.

When you enter a position, you can not trade other currency pairs unless you have additional funds on your account, but you can trade several currency pairs at the same time as long as you have enough margin/funds to trade. If you have never traded Forex before, you can see how all this works when you practice with a demo account.

Another thing that you would like to know is that Forex is traded in pips. Your profit on every trade depends on many aspects. One of those aspects are pips. Another one is how much leverage you are using per trade. A pip is the minimum unit that the price of a currency pair can move.

For example, in the case of the EUR/USD a pip is equal to 0.0001. If the price is at 1.2500 and it moves to 1.2501, it moved one pip. If it moves from 1.2500 to 1.2600 it moves 100 pips, like in the example above.

Now, how much you make on every trade depends on how many pips you make and how much money you invested on that trade. Also, what is the leverage for that account. If you trade at full leverage with a 100: 1 leverage account and you trade $1,000, if the market moves 50 pips in your favor, then you will make $500. This can happen within just a few minutes after you enter your order.

Most experienced traders wouldn’t recommend you to trade this way though. The reason is that if the market moves against you, then you could lose everything within minutes. It is better to have lower profit goals for every single trade and compound your profits over time.

Money management principles stay that it is better to never risk more than 1% - 3% of your capital, specially if you are an inexperienced trader. This is something that I will explain more under other article of this series.

Well, I hope this information have been helpful to you. This was an introduction to the Forex Market. You can read more about Forex on my other articles.




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Understanding Forex - #4 - Money Management.

This is a series of articles about The Foreign Exchange Market. You will learn here what Forex is , how it works and how profitable it can be. The whole series contain the following articles . . .

1. What is Forex

2. Technical analysis

3. Fundamental analysis

4. Money management

5. Compound interest

Money Management.

This is one of the most important aspects of a good trading system. Even if your market forecasts are accurate, you may still not be profitable in the long run unless you implement proper money management techniques.

Money management refers to how you manage your trading capital. It has to do with how much money you invest on each trade. Also, how much do you expect to make on each trade compared to how much you are risking. Furthermore, you can also use different kinds of orders that allow you to manage your trades automatically like stop loss, limit order and trailing stop.

In my opinion the two more important aspects of money management are position sizing and expectancy. Position sizing refers to the size of your positions. You should not risk more than 1% - 2% per trade.

Expectancy refers to how much do you expect to make vs how much you are willing to lose. The expectancy should be always positive. For example, if you enter a position and you expect to realize a 50 pips profit while you are willing to lose only 15 pips, that’s positive expectancy.

The example above means that you can be wrong three times in a row and still be profitable the fourth time. A method to implement positive expectancy on your trading strategies is by using trailing stops. I will explain this now and the other orders that I mentioned above.

Let’s start with a stop loss order. This one helps you automatically close a losing position and prevent it from decreasing your total trading capital. Why you need stop orders? Many things could go against you and make you lose big time.

The platform you are treading on could freeze. The place/computer you are trading from could go off power. Market news could drive the price of currencies mad quickly. Do you get the point? Many people use stop loss orders just as an “insurance” against these events taking place.

Something else a stop loss order could be good for is to establish an automatic trading system. Some trading systems do not require you to be in front of your computer all day. You can set them on autopilot and let the market/platform do its thing. If the market moves against you, the stop loss will be triggered and your losing position will be cancelled automatically.

The second order mentioned above is the limit order. This one is good to automatically take a profit once the price of the currency pair has moved to a desired level. You can use a limit order for the same purpose you use a stop loss order. It is good to automate your trading in general. Once the target price is reached, the limit order will be triggered canceling your winning position and preventing it from turning into a losing position.

Now, something very important about trading “cut your loses short, let your winners run.” Most traders do this the other way around. That’s why they lose in the long run.

Some of the easiest ways you can implement this technique is by using a trailing stop. These kinds of orders let you get positive expectancy, which is one of the most important aspects about money management as mentioned above.

A trailing stop is like a limit order and a stop order at the same time. For example, let’s say that you enter a position and the market moves in your favor. Then notice what happens.

With a trailing stop you have a chance that you don’t have with a limit order. If the market keeps moving in the direction you expected, the trailing stop order will move with the market. This way there is no limit to how much profits you can get. On the other hand if after moving in your favor the trend retraces a certain percentage, the trailing stop will be triggered canceling the position and preventing it from turning into a losing trade.

These are common techniques used in most successful trading systems. You can learn other important aspects about Forex like technical analysis and fundamental analysis from other articles on this series.




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