The Forex Nitty Gritty

Access to foreign exchange (forex), the most extensive market on the planet, is generally through an intermediary known as a forex broker. Similar to a stock broker, these agents can also provide advice on forex trading strategies. This advice to clients often extends to technical analysis and research approaches designed to improve client forex trading performance.

Financial institutions are generally the most influential in the forex market through high-volume, large-value forex currency transactions. Historically, banks enjoyed monopolistic access to the forex markets, but through the Internet, any forex speculator can also enjoy 24 hour access to the market via a forex broker.

Secure web connections today allow many forex traders to work from home, where ready access to news and other technical advice informs decisions on what forex positions to take. Similar moves are being made by stock brokers, who are also moving out of banks and other traditional institutions.

Your needs in the market will influence your choice of forex broker. Online forex brokerage firms, known as houses, provide those new to the forex market with detailed research, advice and simulators to learn how to use their forex trading tools. The experienced online forex trader is catered to by other broking houses, with in-depth advice, but less focus on forex trading instruction based on the assumption that you are familiar with the forex market. To make an informed choice, it is advisable to trial several differing online forex broking houses and their trading tools to find the best fit for your needs.

Should new Forex traders take Forex trading courses or join a Forex training program? Definitely yes; by now you have probably heard that only 5% of traders achieve consistent profitable results when trading the Forex market. The main reason for this is the lack of education. Don’t get me wrong here, taking a Forex training program or a Forex trading course won’t guarantee profitable results, nothing can, but choosing the right Forex training program or Forex trading course will definitely put the odds in your favor.

Before spending any amount of money on any Forex trading course or Forex training program there are some important aspects you need to take in consideration. There are many training programs available, but not every one of them suits the needs of every trader.

The first thing you should be looking in a Forex training program is the content of the material. Unfortunately, most courses or training programs focus or spend most of the time on basic concepts. Though these basic concepts are important, spending most of the course on them won’t help the trader to make consistent results.

The following subjects are what I consider the most important aspects of trading and every training program or trading course should address:

Forex trading basics.

Review basic concepts such as: margin, type of orders, a little background, bid/ask, rollover, etc. You need to make sure you understand every single concept to perfection.

Main drawbacks of Forex traders.

Being aware of the common mistakes made by Forex traders and knowing how to handle them will prevent new traders from making those mistakes.

Technical and fundamental analysis.

These are the two main approaches adopted by Forex traders. Knowing how to properly apply each concept will definitely put the odds in your favor.

The three pillars of Forex trading. I consider that these three subjects have the most impact on every trader trading account.

Forex trading system development.

Having the right system is a must if you want to have consistent profitable results. Having a system that doesn’t fit you will cause a series of problems that will make your trading account vanish away (second guessing the system, not following your system, etc.)

Money management.

This is considered by many successful traders to be the most important single aspect of trading. Money management helps to increase your profits geometrically and at the same time limit your losses (i.e. a good risk reward ratio of about 2:1 will make you money in a Forex trading system that is right only 38% of the time.)

Trading psychology.

Being aware and knowing hot to handle the psychological barriers that affect every trader decision will put the odds in your favor.

Other important aspects every training program should include are:

Developing habits for success (such as discipline patience, taking responsibility of every action, commitment, etc.,) understanding and taking our trading as a business, risk and trade management.

Another important aspect you should take into consideration when choosing a Forex training program is the mechanics of it, getting to know how the training program works.

A good course will have the following:

A live conference room, where you can apply everything learned under live market conditions.

One-on-one feedback, every trader has different needs and requires special attention. For instance a trader wanting to improve the system and requires individual feedback from the instructor about it.

Online trading course, a course that could be accessible through internet. A plus is a course where you are able to access the course at the convenient time for you, so you don’t have to change your lifestyle.

A forum, where members can talk just about everything related to the Forex market and the Forex training program.

Trading the Forex market is no easy task. It requires a lot of hard work. Making the right decision will definitely put the odds in your favor. Take your time when doing your diligence because it is a big and important step in a trader’s trading career.

It is useful to have a map and be able to see where the price is relative to previous market action. This way we can see how is the sentiment of traders and investors at any given moment, it also gives us a general idea of where the market is heading during the day. This information can help us decide which way to trade.

Pivot points, a technique developed by floor traders, help us see where the price is relative to previous market action.

As a definition, a pivot point is a turning point or condition. The same applies to the Forex market, the pivot point is a level in which the sentiment of the market changes from “bull” to “bear” or vice versa. If the market breaks this level up, then the sentiment is said to be a bull market and it is likely to continue its way up, on the other hand, if the market breaks this level down, then the sentiment is bear, and it is expected to continue its way down. Also at this level, the market is expected to have some kind of support/resistance, and if price can’t break the pivot point, a possible bounce from it is plausible.

Pivot points work best on highly liquid markets, like the spot currency market, but they can also be used in other markets as well.

Pivot Points

In a few words, pivot point is a level in which the sentiment of traders and investors changes from bull to bear or vice versa.

Why PP work?

They work simply because many individual traders and investors use and trust them, as well as bank and institutional traders. It is known to every trader that the pivot point is an important measure of strength and weakness of any market.

Calculating pivot points

There are several ways to arrive to the Pivot Point. One method we found to have the most accurate results is calculated by taking the average of the high, low and close of a previous period (or session).

Pivot point (PP) = (High + Low + Close) / 3

Take for instance the following EUR/USD information from the previous session:

Open: 1.2386
High: 1.2474
Low: 1.2376
Close: 1.2458

The PP would be,
PP = (1.2474 + 1.2376 + 1.2458) / 3 = 1.2439

What does this number tell us?

It simply tells us that if the market is trading above 1.2439, Bulls are winning the battle pushing the prices higher. And if the market is trading below this 1.2439 the bears are winning the battle pulling prices lower. On both cases this condition is likely to sustain until the next session.

Since the Forex market is a 24hr market (no close or open from day to day) there is a eternal battle on deciding at white time we should take the open, close, high and low from each session. From our point of view, the times that produce more accurate predictions is taking the open at 00:00 GMT and the close at 23:59 GMT.

Besides the calculation of the PP, there are other support and resistance levels that are calculated taking the PP as a reference.

Support 1 (S1) = (PP * 2) – H
Resistance 1 (R1) = (PP * 2) – L
Support 2 (S2) = PP – (R1 – S1)
Resistance 2 (R2) = PP + (R1 – S1)

Where, H is the High of the previous period and L is the low of the previous period

Continuing with the example above, PP = 1.2439

S1 = (1.2439 * 2) – 1.2474 = 1.2404
R1 = (1.2439 * 2) – 1.2376 = 1.2502
R2 = 1.2439 + (1.2636 – 1.2537) = 1.2537
S2 = 1.2439 – (1.2636 – 1.2537) = 1.2537

These levels are supposed to mark support and resistance levels for the current session.

On the example above, the PP was calculated using information of the previous session (previous day.) This way we could see possible intraday resistance and support levels. But it can also be calculated using the previous weekly or monthly data to determine such levels. By doing so we are able to see the sentiment over longer periods of time. Also we can see possible levels that might offer support and resistance throughout the week or month. Calculating the Pivot point in a weekly or monthly basis is mostly used by long term traders, but it can also be used by short time traders, it gives us a good idea about the longer term trend.

S1, S2, R1 AND R2…? An Objective Alternative

As already stated, the pivot point zone is a well-known technique and it works simply because many traders and investors use and trust it. But what about the other support and resistance zones (S1, S2, R1 and R2,) to forecast a support or resistance level with some mathematical formula is somehow subjective. It is hard to rely on them blindly just because the formula popped out that level. For this reason, we have created an alternative way to map our time frame, simpler but more objective and effective.

We calculate the pivot point as showed before. But our support and resistance levels are drawn in a different way. We take the previous session high and low, and draw those levels on today’s chart. The same is done with the session before the previous session. So, we will have our PP and four more important levels drawn in our chart.

LOPS1, low of the previous session.
HOPS1, high of the previous session.
LOPS2, low of the session before the previous session.
HOPS2, high of the session before the previous session.
PP, pivot point.

These levels will tell us the strength of the market at any given moment. If the market is trading above the PP, then the market is considered in a possible uptrend. If the market is trading above HOPS1 or HOPS2, then the market is in an uptrend, and we only take long positions. If the market is trading below the PP then the market is considered in a possible downtrend. If the market is trading below LOPS1 or LOPS2, then the market is in a downtrend, and we should only consider short trades.

The psychology behind this approach is simple. We know that for some reason the market stopped there from going higher/lower the previous session, or the session before that. We don’t know the reason, and we don’t need to know it. We only know the fact: the market reversed at that level. We also know that traders and investors have memories, they do remember that the price stopped there before, and the odds are that the market reverses from there again (maybe because the same reason, and maybe not) or at least find some support or resistance at these levels.

What is important about his approach is that support and resistance levels are measured objectively; they aren’t just a level derived from a mathematical formula, the price reversed there before so these levels have a higher probability of being effective.

Our mapping method works on both market conditions, when trending and on sideways conditions. In a trending market, it helps us determine the strength of the trend and trade off important levels. On sideways markets it shows us possible reversal levels.

How to use the mapping method?

Use the mapping method in three different ways: as a trend identification (measure of the strength of the trend), a trading system using important levels with price behavior as a trading signal, and to set the risk reward ratio (RR) of any given trade based on where the is the market relative to the previous session.

Anytime that you are investing in the Forex market, you are going into the Market blind. You don’t know what point of the investing trend you are entering in at. You might be investing in a Forex stock just before the trend changes. Smart investing means you need to protect your trading float and set up a stop loss. This needs to be done before you enter a trade, so that there is no room for error, or last minute indecision. A stop loss is simply a predefined point at which you exit the stock.

Effectively, it’s like drawing a line in the sand underneath the share price, saying, “If the share price falls below this line, then the stock hasn’t done what I thought it was going to do, and I’ll exit the position.”

This allows you to protect your investing trading plan, because it cuts your losses short, and guards against an all too human tendency to want to believe you must be right.

95% of investing in an entry Forex position means you are expecting to profit from the trade. If, however, the share-investing price goes against you, you might feel the need to justify why you bought the stock by holding onto it until it turns a profit. You might have heard the idea that all big investing losses once started as small losses. Well, while the share price continues to go in the wrong direction, those losses grow in lockstep. This is why you need to have a stop loss in place – it’s like having an ejector seat that tells you when to abort the mission.

One of the most common question I’m asked when traders are introduced to a stop loss is “How wide should I set my stop?”

In other words, how much room should I give the stock to move? There are no definitive answers to this question because it depends on what time frame you’re investing in. If you’re a shorter-term investing trader, you’re going to have a stop loss that’s set closer to the share price. If you’re a longer-term investing trader, you’ll give the share price a little bit more room to move and set your stop loss lower.

Once you’ve identified what time frame you’re looking at trading, you need to be able to remove the normal market noise (volatility) in that particular time frame. You don’t want to have to close out of an investing position just because a share price moved a little bit due to its normal trading volatility.

In fact, there are some serious drawbacks to setting tight stops.

First, you’ll decrease the reliability of your system because you get stopped out more often.

Second, and probably a little bit more importantly, you dramatically increase your transaction costs, because you’re trading transaction costs make up a major proportion of your business expenses.

To give yourself a fighting chance, you want to trade a system that doesn’t chew through excessive brokerage fees. This is one of the major reasons I steer my clients into developing a trading system that runs over a slightly longer time frame. With the correct system in place, and your investing risk minimized, you are well positioned to maximize your trading profits.

The Foreign Exchange Market – better known as FOREX – is a world-wide market for buying and selling currencies.

It handles a huge volume of transactions 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Daily exchanges are worth approximately $1.5 trillion (US dollars). In comparison, the United States Treasury Bond market averages $300 billion a day and American stock markets exchange about $100 billion a day.

The Foreign Exchange Market was established in 1971 with the abolishment of fixed currency exchanges. Currencies became valued at ‘floating’ rates determined by supply and demand. The FOREX grew steadily throughout the 1970’s, but with the technological advances of the 80’s FOREX grew from trading levels of $70 billion a day to the current level of $1.5 trillion.

The FOREX is made up of about 5000 trading institutions such as international banks, central government banks (such as the US Federal Reserve), and commercial companies and brokers for all types of foreign currency exchange.

There is no centralized location of FOREX – major trading centers are located in New York, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, and Frankfurt, and all trading is by telephone or over the Internet. Businesses use the market to buy and sell products in other countries, but most of the activity on the FOREX is from currency traders who use it to generate profits from small movements in the market.

Even though there are many huge players in FOREX, it is accessible to the small investor thanks to recent changes in the regulations. Previously, there was a minimum transaction size and traders were required to meet strict financial requirements. With the advent of Internet trading, regulations have been changed to allow large interbank units to be broken down into smaller lots.

Each lot is worth about $100,000 and is accessible to the individual investor through ‘leverage’ – loans extended for trading. Typically, lots can be controlled with a leverage of 100:1 meaning that US$1,000 will allow you to control a $100,000 currency exchange.

There are many advantages to trading in FOREX, including:

- Liquidity: Because of the size of the Foreign Exchange Market, investments are extremely liquid. International banks are continuously providing bid and ask offers and the high number of transactions each day means there is always a buyer or a seller for any currency.

- Accessibility: The market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The market opens Monday morning Australian time and closes Friday afternoon New York time. Trades can be done on the Internet from your home or office.

- Open Market: Currency fluctuations are usually caused by changes in national economies. News about these changes is accessible to everyone at the same time – there can be no ‘insider trading’ in FOREX.

- No commission Fees: Brokers earn money by setting a ’spread’ – the difference between what a currency can be bought at and what it can be sold at.

How does the foreign currency exchange market work?

Currencies are always traded in pairs – the US dollar against the Japanese yen, or the English pound against the euro. Every transaction involves selling one currency and buying another, so if an investor believes the euro will gain against the dollar, he will sell dollars and buy euros.

The potential for profit exists because there is always movement between currencies. Even small changes can result in substantial profits because of the large amount of money involved in each transaction.

At the same time, it can be a relatively safe market for the individual investor. There are safeguards built in to protect both the broker and the investor and a number of software tools exist to minimize loss.

“Easy money” is the allure that captivates many beginning FOREX traders. FOREX websites offer “risk-free” trading, “high returns”, “low investment.” These claims have a grain of truth in them, but the reality of FOREX is a bit more complex.

Mistakes Of The Beginning Trader

There are 2 common mistakes that many beginner traders make: trading without a strategy and letting emotions rule their decisions. After opening a FOREX account it may be tempting to dive right in and start trading. Watching the movements of EUR/USD for example, you may feel that you are letting an opportunity pass you by if you don’t enter the market immediately. You buy and watch the market move against you. You panic and sell, only to see the market recover.

This kind of undisciplined approach to FOREX is guaranteed to lose money. FOREX traders must have a rational trading strategy and not make trading decisions in the heat of the moment.

Understanding Market Movements

To make rational trading decisions, the FOREX trader must be well educated in market movements. He must be able to apply technical studies to charts and plot out entry and exit points. He must take advantage of the various types of orders to minimize his risk and maximize his profit.

The first step in becoming a successful FOREX trader is to understand the market and the forces behind it. Who trades FOREX and why? This will allow you to identify successful trading strategies and use them.

Accountability

There are 5 major groups of investors who participate in FOREX: governments, banks, corporations, investment funds, and traders. Each group has its own objectives, but 1 thing all groups except traders have in common is external control. Every organization has rules and guidelines for trading currencies and can be held accountable for their trading decisions. Individual traders, on the other hand, are accountable only to themselves.

Large organizations and educated traders approach the FOREX with strategies, and if you hope to succeed as a FOREX trader you must follow suit.

Money Management

Money management is an integral part of any trading strategy. Besides knowing which currencies to trade and how to recognize entry and exit signals, the successful trader has to manage his resources and integrate money management into his trading plan.

There are various strategies for money management. Many rely on the calculation of core equity — your starting balance minus the money used in open positions.

Core Equity And Limited Risk

When entering a position try to limit your risk to 1% to 3% of each trade. This means that if you are trading a standard FOREX lot of $100,000 you should limit your risk to $1,000 to $3,000. You do this with a stop loss order 100 pips (1 pip = $10) above or below your entry position.

As your core equity rises or falls, adjust the dollar amount of your risk. With a starting balance of $10,000 and 1 open position, your core equity is $9000. If you wish to add a second open position, your core equity would fall to $8000 and you should limit your risk to $900. Risk in a third position should be limited to $800.

Greater Profit, Greater Risk

You should also raise your risk level as your core equity rises. After $5,000 profit, your core equity is now $15,000. You could raise your risk to $1,500 per transaction. Alternatively, you could risk more from the profit than from the original starting balance. Some traders may risk up to 5% against their realized profits ($5,000 on a $100,000 lot) for greater profit potential.

These are the kinds of strategic tactics that allow a beginner to get a foothold on profitable trading in FOREX.

As we all know, there are many important areas to be considered in the process of relocating. From the physical removal of household goods, to settling children into new schools, there seem to be an endless number of items to check off on a relocation ‘to-do’ list. Yet as a currency specialist we continually find that the all important purchase of the employees local currency is often overlooked.

Whether transferring a lump sum to purchase an over seas property, or simply forwarding a US Dollar salary abroad every month, we have experienced that general corporate practice is to stay somewhat removed from this aspect of an international assignment or permanent move. Simply allowing employees to blindly use their banks to make their own decision on how they are going to move their Dollars abroad, however, can be a costly mistake!

Volatility in the currency markets is an undeniable and unavoidable daily occurrence. With a daily turnover in excess of $1.5 billion and an uncountable number of factors playing into which way the market will move, it is impossible to forecast currencies with 100% accuracy. While large corporations employ market professionals to manage billions of dollars worth of currency risk, private individuals are often left at the whim of this massive market feeling uneducated and at risk.

So why should this be a concern?

If you imagine yourself in the shoes of an international employee, it is quite simple to see how the currency market and exchange rates directly affect your life: While your employer is, for example, a US based company; you will more than likely receive your salary in US Dollars (USD). This income may be deposited into your US account every month or possibly into an international account that has been set up in your new country. Either way, you will usually need to exchange your USD income into the local currency in order to buy groceries, pay bills and maintain a standard of living.

The process of using your bank can be frustrating and may also be expensive. Think of it this way; every month you will need to contact your bank in order to initiate the exchange from your USD account into your local account. You will more than likely speak with a different person every time you call and you will most definitely receive a different exchange rate every month. On top of all that your bank will charge you a wire transfer fee ranging from $15-$30 per transaction. While the cost of wiring these funds on a regular basis will certainly add up over time, the inherent risk you face not knowing what rate you will receive in the future is MUCH more concerning.

To illustrate let us assume that you were transferring USD$5,000 in wages to Canada on a monthly basis. In May of 2005, your USD$5,000 would have converted into roughly CAD$6,350 at a rate of 1.27. By February of 2006, that same USD$5,000 would have purchased you just CAD$5,700, a difference of CAD$650 every month. Assuming that you were using your bank, you would have also been receiving a wire transfer fee for each transaction totaling somewhere around $300-$400 in bank charges alone.

The solution is simple; if you want to protect against currency risk, receive better rates of exchange and avoid needless fees, don’t use your bank! Most private individuals in this situation do not realize there is alternative to their bank, but using a currency specialist like HIFX can in fact remove the stress and hassle of these such requirements all together. HIFX’s Private Client Services include the securing exchange rates for up to 24 months, the setting up of direct debits which will avoid all transfer and bank receipt charges, and a simple, friendly service that is designed to put clients at ease.

Whether your employees need to make regular transfers abroad or are moving larger sums of money for their international purchases, it is worth knowing that you can point them in the direction of a world renowned currency specialist which completely understands the relocation process.

Anyone who is serious about trading needs to have a Forex Trading System that is tailored to them, but there is no reason to start constructing your Forex trading system from scratch.

Why try and reinvent the wheel when you can benefit from other traders years of experience and borrow your trading system’s ideas and concepts?

It’s easy to do, and there are some pretty good Forex trading systems out there for you to work with. Some of them are free and some are very expensive, but the price tags don’t always reflect the actual value of the Forex trading systems. But, many of these systems won’t work for you, and I am not talking about out-right dishonesty here, which can be a big problem when trading. What I am talking about is your ability to effectively trade with the system that you may be considering using or buying.

You need to use a system that matches your life style and personality. If you have a day job (not trading), a Forex Trading System that requires you to stare at a screen all day wouldn’t be appropriate. You would be distracted at work and miss the opportunities to make money, or even worse, you will not close a trade effectively and could lose money.

Some Forex trading systems have a potential to lose 20, 30 or 40% of your money before they are profitable. Can you handle a system that can drop your trading capital to half before making money? Or, are you prepared to have a string of 8 to 10 loses in a row before you have a winning trade? Some of the best traders in the world lose money on more than 50% of their trades. These are all important points to consider when you are creating your Forex Trading System. Choose aspects of the different systems that are out there that fit your trading style best, and then build your Forex trading system.

An excellent trading method, which was made famous by Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt and is sometimes referred to as Turtle Trading, is one of the best Forex trading systems that I know of. They get returns in excess of 20 to 100% per year using this system. But, could most traders trade their system? Not a chance! Dennis and Eckhardt also loose on over 60% of their trades.

Once you know what sort of Forex Trading System will work best for you, look at the components that make it work. Face it; if you are a new, or even a fairly serious, trader how likely are you to come up with a totally new concept? There are some very smart and wealthy traders out there. Why not use their ideas. Consider Dennis and Eckhardt’s turtle trading, their system is based on a “breakout” method. I know most traders could not trade using their exact method, but they could take parts of it, such as the breakouts, to confirm a trend.

You can also use other Forex trading systems to give you an outline of what parts a system has to have for it to make money. All great Forex trading systems have these three basics:

1. Entry Rules,

2. Money Management Rules and

3. Exit Rules.

Study and learn from the Forex trading systems out there, borrow their concepts, and steal their ideas. It will put you on the track to the system that will make you a successful trader.

Many people have mixed up the terms “ Investor ” and “ Trader ” to mean the same thing. They can’t be more wrong. It is exactly the mixing up of these 2 very important terms that led to many people starting on the wrong foot in the capital markets.

An Investor is a person who puts his money where it can potentially generate a return. He does not usually get involved in the money making process. Investors include buyers of investment real estate and buyers of funds.

A Trader is a person who fights in the capital markets front line personally in order to generate equity. He is the one who personally chooses the investment instrument (e.g option trading), makes an opinion on it and executes a series of trades in order to make money out of it.

Too many people have mixed being a trader for being an investor. This has led to a lot of misunderstanding. The misunderstanding comes from the wide spread teaching that anyone can choose to break out of the “rat race” by choosing to be an investor rather than a worker. That person then turns to exploring option trading or forex or such instruments “as an investor” and completely finds that not everyone can excel in those areas.

While it is true that anyone can be an investor by putting your money in a well diversified portfolio, not everyone can be a successful trader. Active trading requires far more skill and finesse to master and to make consistent money for income replacement. This is especially true when a lot of the strategies that are available today are highly subjective.

However, only by being a trader will anyone be able to generate the legendary returns that they yearn so much. And being a trader is exactly the hardest to do unless you have a proven system to follow or someone to mentor you.

Therefore, before you take the plunge into the capital markets, make sure you know what you are really into. If you have decided to become a trader, make sure you keep your full time job while you look for a proven system to learn. A proven system is something like the Star Trading System which I have followed with great success for years.

Historically, the FX market was available most to major banks, multinational corporations and other participants who traded in large transaction sizes and volumes. Small-scale traders including individuals like you and I, had little access to this market for such a long time. Now with the advent of the Internet and technology, FX trading is becoming an increasingly popular investment alternative for the general public.

The benefits of trading the currency market:

It is open 24-hours and it closes only on the weekends;

It is very liquid and efficient;

It is very volatile;

It has very low transaction costs;

You can use a high level of leverage (borrowed money) with ease; and

You can profit from a bull or a bear market.

Continuous, 24-Hour Trading

The currency exchange is a 24-hour market. You may decide to trade after you come home from work. Regardless of what time-frame you want to trade at whatever time of the day, there would be enough buyers and sellers to take the other side of your trade. This feature of the market gives you enough flexibility to manage your trading around your daily routine.

Liquidity And Efficiency

When there are a lot of buyers and a lot of sellers, you can expect to buy or sell at a price that is very close to the last market price. The currency market is the most liquid market in the world. Trading volume in the currency markets can be between 50 and 100 times larger than the New York Stock Exchange (Source: Oanda.)

When you are trading stocks, you may have experienced events where one piece of news accelerates or decelerates the price of the underlying stock you may have bought into. Perhaps a director has been kicked out by the shareholders of a company or the company has just released a new product and big investors are buying the shares of a particular company. Share prices can be drastically affected by the actions or inactions of one or a few individuals. So if you are relying on television reports and newspapers to get your news, most of the opportunities or warnings will have come too late for you to take advantage by the time you get them.

The value of currencies on the other hand is affected by so many factors and so many participants that the likelihood of any one individual or group of individuals drastically affecting the value of a currency is minute. Because of its sheer size, the currency market is hard to manipulate. The ability for people to engage in ‘insider trading’ is virtually eliminated. As an average trader, you are less disadvantaged. You are likely to be playing on relatively equal ground along with all the other traders and investors whom you are competing against.

Note about price gaps:

For those people who have already traded other markets, you probably know about price ‘gaps’. ‘Gaps’ occur when prices ‘jump’ from one price level to another without having taken any incremental steps to get there. For example, you may be trading a share that closes at $10 at the end of today but due to some event that happens overnight; it opens tomorrow at $5 and continues to go downwards for the rest of the day.

Gaps bring about another degree of uncertainty that may meddle with a trader’s strategy. Probably one of the most worrying aspects of this is when a trader uses stop-losses. In this case, if a trader puts a stop-loss at $7 because he no longer wants to be in a trade if the share price hits $7, his trade will remain open overnight and the trader wakes up tomorrow with a loss bigger than he may have been prepared for.

After looking at a couple of forex charts, you will realize that there are little price ‘gaps’ or none at all, especially on the longer-term charts like the 3-hour, 4-hour or the daily charts.

Volatility

Trading opportunities exist when prices fluctuate. If you buy a share for $2 and it stays there, there is no opportunity to make a profit. The magnitude of level of this fluctuation and its frequency is referred to as volatility. As a trader, it is volatility that you profit from. Large volume transactions and high liquidity combined with fewer trading instruments generate greater intra-day volatility in the currency market that can be exploited by day-traders. The high volatility of the currency market indicates that a trader can potentially earn 5 times more money from currency trading than trading the most liquid shares.

Volatility is a measure of maximum return that a trader can generate with perfect foresight. Volatility for the most liquid stocks are between 60 to 100. Volatility for currency trading is 500. (Source: Oanda.)

In this respect, currencies make a better trading vehicle for day-traders than the equity markets.

Low Transaction Costs

A currency transaction typically incurs no commission or transaction fees. For a forex trader, the spread is the only cost he or she needs to cover in taking on a position. In addition, because of the currency market’s efficiency, there is little or no ‘slippage’ costs.

‘Slippage’ is the cost involved when traders enter the market at a price worse than the level they wanted to get into. For example, a trader wants to buy a share at $2.00 but by the time, the order gets executed, his gets to buy the shares at $2.50. That fifty cents difference is his slippage cost. Slippage cost affects large-volume traders a lot. When they buy large quantities of a commodity, it oversupplies the market with buy orders. This applies a pressure for the price to go up. By the time they get to buy all the quantities they wanted, the average price they got their commodities would be higher than the price they intended to get them for. Conversely, when they sell large quantities of a commodity, they oversupply the market with sell orders. This applies a pressure for the price to go down. By the time they finish selling all their commodities, their average selling price is less than what they initially intended to sell them for.

Due to lower transaction costs, minimum slippage and strong intra-day volatility, individuals can trade frequently at small costs. As an approximate, you may only expect to have a spread of 0.03% of your position size. To give you an example, you can buy and sell 10,000 US Dollars and this will only incur a 3-point spread, equivalent to $3.

Leverage

There are not a lot of banks or people who would lend you money so that you can use it to trade shares. And if there are, it would be very hard for you to convince them to invest in you and in your idea that a certain share is going to go up or down. Therefore, most of the time, if you have a $10,000 account, you can only really afford to buy $10,000 worth of stocks.

In currency trading however, because you use ‘borrowed money’, you can trade $10,000 of a currency and you only need anywhere between fifty (For a margin lending ratio of 200:1) to two hundred dollars ( For a margin lending ratio of 50:1) in your trading account. This makes it possible for an average trader with a small trading account, under $10,000 to be able to profit sufficiently from the movements of the currency exchange rates. This concept is explained further in The Part-Time Currency Trader.

Profit From A Bull And Bear Market

When you are trading shares, you can only profit when the price of a stock goes up. When you suspect that it is about to go down or that it is just going to be moving sideways, then the only thing you can do is sell your shares and stand aside. One of the frustrations of trading shares is that an individual cannot profit when prices are going down. In the currency market, it is easy for you to trade a currency downward so that you can profit when you think it is going to lose value. This is easy to do because currency trading simply involves buying one currency and selling another, there is no structural bias that makes it difficult to trade ‘downwards’. This is why the currency market has been occasionally referred to as the eternal bull market.