Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Forex



Forex, also known as FX, involves the process of buying one currency while simultaneously selling another. Forex stands for foreign exchange and refers to an over-the-counter style of market. This type of trading involves currencies, which are traded in pairs. For example, a US Dollar and Japanese Yen pair would be displayed as this: (USD/JPY). This market is not like the stocks or futures market because trading does not occur in a centralized exchange. Forex transactions will occur on the phone or through an electronic market (for example, the internet). Traders tend to focus on the largest and most liquid currency pairs—also known as “the majors”. These include the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Euro, Australian Dollar, and the Canadian Dollar. Over 85% of daily trading in the market occurs in these major pairs. Daily trading in world currencies comes from two sources: foreign trade and speculation. Foreign trade involves companies buying and selling products in foreign companies, converting profits from foreign sales into domestic currency. A very appealing aspect to forex trading is the 24 hour availability of the market. The market opens Sunday, 5pm ET and closes Friday 5pm ET. Trading opens in Sydney and moves globally as each business day begins in different countries. This is especially useful for investors because they can respond to fluctuations immediate, unlike the other financial markets.
Which is the largest financial market in the world. Forex, also known as FX or Spot FX has a volume of over $4 trillion a day. This foreign exchange market deals with the process of simultaneously buying one currency and selling the other. These currencies, or currency pairs, are traded through a dealer or broker. For example, a Euro dollar and a US dollar would be displayed as: EUR/USD. This type of trading can become frustrating to some because the trader does not deal with anything physical. When buying a currency, you are actually buying a share of that particular market’s economy—and the economy of that country will also reflect whether the exchange rate will go up or down. FOREX trading does not occur in one central location such as the New York Stock Exchange because it deal with the trading of foreign currencies. This type of trading is considered over-the-counter trading (OTC) and it sometimes referred to as the ‘interbank’ market because the market is executed electronically through bank networks. Before the late 1990’s larger investors were the only participants in the FOREX market. This is because the FOREX market required large amounts of money to start trading—FOREX was originally designed for bankers and large investing institutions. However, the availability of the internet and the boom in FOREX trading firms allowed smaller investors to trade in the FOREX market. Some of the more popular currencies which are traded in the FOREX market are(followed by their currency symbol ): United States (USD), Europe (EUR), Japan (JPY), Great Britain (GBP), Switzerland (CHF), Canada (CAD), Australia (AUD), and New Zealand (NZD). The currency symbols for each country bus contain three letters—the firth three are the name of the country and the last is the name of the country’s currency. These currencies can be traded 24-hours a day—something very unique and ideal about the FOREX market is that it runs on a 24-hour basis. This is due to the various time zones in different countries. For example, Tokyo opens at 7:00pm in New York, but closes at 4:00 am while London opens at 3:00am and closes at 12:00pm.

No comments: