Introduction to Forex or Foreign Currency Market



Forex or Foreign Currency Market involves trading one currency for another. For instance, you can exchange US Dollars for the Japanese Yen. Foreign currency transactions take place on foreign exchange or forex market.

Forex market is the biggest, highly liquid trading market worldwide with trillions of dollars getting exchanged by traders. It is not centralized and runs on an electronic network of financial institutions, brokers, and retail traders.

Know all about Forex

The market regulates the value of the currency, also called an exchange rate. Forex can be as simple as swapping one currency for another at any financial institute.

Trading currencies are always listed in pairs such as EUR/JPY, AUD/CAD, and USD/INR. They showcase the Euro versus the Japanese Yen or the Australian Dollar versus the Canadian Dollar or the United States Dollar versus the Indian Rupee.

So, if the USD/CAD pair price is 1.3055, it means you have to use 1.3055 to purchase one USD. And, if the price rises to 1.4400, then it means it costs 1.4400 CAD to purchase one USD. It means that the value of USD has increased because now it costs more CAD to buy it.

When trading in forex, you have to trade in lots, such as micro, mini and standard lots. While a mini lot is 1000 value of a particular currency, a mini lot is 100 and a standard lot is 100,000.

The forex market is different for many reasons, majorly because of its great volume. And, the biggest trading centers are London, New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Singapore.

Trading in Forex Market

The foreign currency market is open round the clock for five days a week. It means you can purchase and sell currencies at any time. And, there are different avenues a trader can use to execute trades. You can trade currencies with just a mouse click, without any issue. Most investment companies give retail traders a chance to open accounts and trade currencies.

When you trade in forex market, you purchase and sell currencies of specific nations, but there isn’t any physical money exchange.

A trade opens a position in a particular currency, hoping that it will make some upward movement and gain strength in the opposite currency that they have purchased (or weak if they want to sell) to earn profit.

·         Long and short

A forex trader can trade both ways. You can earn profit regardless of whether the market is going up or down. So, if a movement is triggered, forex traders don’t care if a currency is rising or falling, and they can make a profit by going long or short.

·         Leverage

Leverage allows a trader to take a position bigger than their original investment. It is a major reason why traders choose forex for trading. For instance, in equity trading, you get maximum leverage of 1:2 however, in forex trading, you can get leverage up to 1:100.

More leverage means you can earn significant profits with small investment even from a small movement in the market.

How does forex market differ from other trading markets?

There are some fundamental differences between foreign currency exchange and other markets. You don’t have short hours, centralized bodies to look after the forex market which means investors are not bound by rigid regulations as in stocks, futures, and equity trading. Also, there are heavy fees or commissions involved as in traditional exchanges. You don’t have a cutoff time, apart from weekend holidays; you can work any time of the day. Lastly, its high liquidity makes access to trading easier.





 

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