Wednesday, June 3, 2009

How to Trade Forex? It's a Piece of Cake!

By Steve Maenshel

How to trade Forex? Trading Forex is a piece of cake. It is really not as hard as it seems to be. Forex trades involve entering the trade at the right time, as well as exiting also at the right time. All you have to do is select a currency pair, select the desired amount of the base currency that you wish to trade and choose whether you would like to sell or to buy. Next you will have to wait for a profitable time to exit your transaction, and there you are. In order to learn how to trade Forex and to start consistently choosing the winning transactions, you will have to practice on a demo account for several months.

Demo Account Trading

The easiest way to learn how to trade Forex is using a demo account. Any mistake that you make while trading on a demo account will not incur any losses. For example, if you buy or sell the currency at the wrong time, if you click the "wrong button" while trading, and so forth. Give your demo trading enough time. Jumping into live trades before you do your homework will merely put you among the 90% of the day traders, who fail in Forex.

Understanding Currency Pairs

There are lots of different currency pairs, and you should choose the right one. It is a good idea to choose the most traded currency pair, when you are just starting to learn how to trade Forex. This currency pair is USD/EUR. No matter what currency pair you select, you should try to learn its distinctive features well, before proceeding to trading other currency pairs. This is very important because every currency pair will have its own distinctive features as well as the reasons behind the fluctuations of this currency pair, such as various fundamental factors.

Currency Quotes

Forex trades are always based on currency quotes. Currency quotes are two-sided, consisting of the bid price from one side and the ask price from the other side. Bid represents the selling price of the base currency, when concurrently buying the counter one. Ask represents the purchasing price of the base currency, when concurrently selling the counter one. Good grasp of currency quotes is essential for learning how to trade Forex.

Base currency is any currency that is stated first in the quote and counter currency is any currency that is stated second in the quote. For example, in the most traded currency pair, the base currency is USD and the counter currency is EUR. Base currency value always equals one. The counter currency's value is calculated counter to the base currency. Forex expresses prices through pips, usually representing the fourth decimal point. How to trade Forex successfully? Understand the meaning of the currency quotes.

Margin and Leverage

In order to safeguard your capital, learn how to trade Forex without taking leverage from a broker. If you can put down a small amount of your own money (called margin), the dealer will provide you with more money (called leverage). Leverage will allow you to trade with more lots. Is margin trading good or bad? Same as bank loans and mortgages, margin trading may be both good and bad. While providing you with more opportunities, it will also tremendously increase the possibility of losses.

Dealers often act like banks - even if you lose, all they want to do is to give you more money, so you can return more to them. If you lose more, they will give you even more. Until they stop giving you anything, and now you are the one who has to give everything back to them. The result will be a disaster. As well as more money to trade with will not help you learn faster how to trade Forex. Do not fall for the leverage bait. Trade with your own money and do not go in debt.

How to trade Forex? Well, if you understand the above terms and concepts learning how to trade will be a snap. More important is: How to trade Forex successfully? Simply practice on a demo account until you start deriving profits regularly.

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