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Do Not Lose Your Shirt With a Margin Account

Do Not Lose Your Shirt With a Margin Account

The key to the FOREX market for the average investor is the margin. Without margin trading currency trading would be beyond most investors. I will explain what the margin is and how it works.
When you have a margin account you are able to control large amounts of currency with a relatively small cash deposit. When you have a margin account with a broker you are in effect borrowing money from the broker to control a larger lot of currency. Currency is normally sold in lots with a value of %100,000. A common term used when discussing margin accounts is leverage. Leverage is how much you can control with a certain amount of money. The leverage is usually displayed as a ration such as 1:100. That would allow you to control currency worth 100 times the amount of money you have invested.
To better explain this in a FOREX exchange with a 1%PRCTG% margin account you could control %100,000 worth of a currency while only investing %1000. Margin accounts can allow you to greatly increase your profit; they also allow you to increase your risk. With a margin account it is possible for a trader to lose more than their initial investment. With a little prudence though losses can be minimized. Most brokers will terminate a trade before the losses exceed the original deposit.

Benefits
As discussed before a margin account allows you to buy more with the money you have which can greatly increase your profit on successful trades. By controlling a %100,000 worth of currency for only %1000 the potential gain is greater. When dealing with large lots of currency even small changes can produce significant results.
Currency on the FOREX market is traded in far more precise units than actual cash is. As an example the American dollar is traded down to four decimal points. So when you were to quote the dollar against another currency you will see a price like %1.7834 instead of %1.78. A PIP is the smallest unit when trading currencies, when dealing with %100,000 lots then each pip is worth about %10.
If the price of the American dollar changes from %1.7834 to %1.7934, you have a net difference of 100 pips. If you have a lot of %100,000 then that 100 pips will translate to %1000 where as if you were not using the margin your original %1000 would only show a profit of %10. Hardly what most would consider a highly profitable trade?
In short the primary benefit of using a margin account is that it can greatly increase the profit margin of a trade.

Risks
Since there is such a significant increase in profit potential when using a margin account it only stands to reason that there is also an increase. In fact it is quite possible to have your entire margin account wiped out fairly quickly. When using a 1%PRCTG% margin account a shift in the currency of a single penny will cost you %1000.
The FOREX exchange has many safety features to help you reduce the risk of this happening. One example is a stop loss order. A stop loss order will automatically close out your position in a currency if the price crosses the point you have set. This allows you to limit your losses while still having the opportunity to realize a profit.
Another risk that many people overlook is that if the price nears the point where your losses are close to being equal to the value of your margin account your broker may close out your position. If you were trying to rid out a temporary downturn that you expect to turn around soon you could find that your broker has closed it causing you to lose your entire balance and have no option to make a profit if the price moves up again.

This is a basic introduction to margin accounts and how they work, visit the website listed below to learn more about the FOREX market.

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Posted in Currency Trading

Currency markets – Spanish property 20 July 2006

Currency markets – Spanish property 20 July 2006

Summary of Overnight News:
? The FTSE-100 will open sharply higher this morning following last night’s strong gains in New York, as dovish comments by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and sliding oil prices allowed investors to put the crisis in the Middle East to one side and put a bit of blue on our screens to match the skies outside.

? US stocks surged higher on Wall Street last night after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reassured the market with his view that economic growth seems to be moderating and inflation remains contained, traders noted.

? ‘Clearly we don’t want to tighten too much to cause our economy to grow more slowly than its potential,’ Bernanke said during questioning before the Senate Banking Committee.
? Investors interpreted Bernanke’s testimony as a sign the Fed is close to ending its streak of interest rate hikes, dealers added.
? The DJIA closed 212.19 points higher at 11,011.42, its best performance of 2006, while the Nasdaq ended up 37.49 points at 2,080.71.

USA

Figures out Today:
13:30 US jobless claims (w/e 15/7) k Prev 332
13:30 CA wholesale sales (May) %PRCTG%m/m Prev 0.1
15:00 US leading indicators (Jun) %PRCTG% Prev -0.6
17:00 US Philadelphia Fed (Jul) Prev 13.1
19:00 US Minutes of 29 Jun FOMC Meeting

? Yesterday?s 0.3%PRCTG% rise in the US June core CPI tipped the balance to another 25bp rate hike on 8 August. But a less hawkish than expected and fairly noncommittal testimony from Chairman Bernanke added a fraction more ambiguity to the chance of an imminent rate hike, with the focus seemingly more on the longer term impact on inflation from moderating growth. His testimony, which gave strong boost to US and European share prices and Treasury bonds, came as the Fed released forecasts suggesting that it is prepared to bring US inflation down gradually, to minimise the damage to the real economy.

UK

Figures out Today:
09:30 Retail sales (Jun) %PRCTG%m/m Exp 0.2 Prev 0.5
09:30 Retail sales (Jun) %PRCTG%y/y Exp 2.7 Prev 4.0
09:30 PSNB (Jun) ?m Exp 7000 Prev 6583
09:30 PSNCR (Jun) ?m Exp 13000 Prev 16246
? UK retail sales (09:30) are forecast to have edged up during June, by around 0.2%PRCTG%. Overall, the quarterly performance of the retail sector should have improved considerably in Q2 which should underpin tomorrow?s release for GDP, expected to have grown 0.7%PRCTG% in Q2, inline with the MPC?s central projection.

Japan

Figures out Today:
06:00 JN BoJ Monetary Policy Minutes
EURUSD @ 1.2590 GBPUSD @ 1.8435 GBPEUR @ 1.4640 USDJPY @ 116.85

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Posted in Currency Trading

Currency Trading or Dogs-of-the-Dow.

Currency Trading or Dogs-of-the-Dow.

Have you ever heard of the Dogs-of-the-Dow system. It?s a well known system in the stock and trading business. There are several stock brokers who have earned a lot of money by working with this system. They are using at for several years now. They think it?s a safe way to let your money grow slowly but consistently.

If you know the Dogs-of-the-Dow system you know that the system makes yearly a better percentage then the index.

If you have started using the system several years ago and used it properly for those years you would have earned a nice percentage each year. Double figures are more then ones made. A high yield income of 17.7 %PRCTG% average annual return since 1973 has been made.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average overall return was 11.9 %PRCTG% during that same periode.
So you would have made almost 6 %PRCTG% more each year. Not bad at all.

If you never heard about it let me explain how that system works.
At some point in the year, mostly early January, you take a look at all the companies that gives you the highest dividend payment.

You make a basket (several companies added together) then you decide how much percentage you will spent on each company. Next you buy stocks of each company to a curtain amount of money you have available and wait until the year passes.
When the year has passed you make op the balance and see how much you have earned.

If you don?t want to trade frequently the Dogs-of-the-Dow system is a very relaxing and defensive and profitable way of money investment.

If you want to make a higher profit, trading is a better and faster way. Foreign currency trading in particular. Foreign currency trading requires little more than just knowing the currency course rate.
You have to understand some basics techniques of how the market trades those currencies.

With the right knowledge and techniques you can easily turn % 50 into % 1000.
Trading then isn?t just making money it?s also fun.
The fun is that it can be done 24 hours a day. When one market closes the other opens up. So you go from New York to Amsterdam to Tokyo to Sydney and back to New York.

Want to hear about the benefits of trading foreign currency instead of other money investment products.

Find out and http://www.powerfulltradingcourse.com

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Posted in Currency Trading

FOREX Beats the Stock Market

FOREX Beats the Stock Market

Companies issue stocks to raise capital for expansion, equipment and other projects. Stocks have been a very popular form of investment for years. Each share of a stock a person owns represents a small ownership of the company.

Stock values fluctuate based on the fortunes of the company. When the company is doing well the stock price will increase, at this time the investor can sell their stock to capture the profit or they can continue to hold it in hopes of greater profits in the future. Some companies will pay dividends on stocks; dividends are a small share of the profit per each share of stock.

To buy and sell stocks you must use a broker and go through one of the stock exchanges. In the US there are two exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ). Some very large companies may have stocks on multiple exchanges but most companies will sell their stocks on one or the other.

Until recently the stock market was seen as a long-term investment strategy. Most portfolios would have a large number of “Blue Chip” stocks. These are stocks that have proven their value over a long period of time. With the addition of internet trading we are seeing what is typically known as day trading. Day traders attempt to take advantage of the daily fluctuations in the market by making multiple trades during the day. This is a fairly high-risk method of investment and is further hindered by the large number of commissions charged for each transaction.

In some cases stocks can be bought on margin. In the stock exchange your margin rates are usually about 50%PRCTG%, which means you need half the cost of the stock to be able to buy it.

FOREX

The FOREX exchange is significantly different than the stock exchange. On the FOREX exchange almost all trades are short-term trades, in fact a trader may only hold a currency for a few minutes before moving it again. Since there are no brokers fees in the FOREX exchange you can make numerous trades in one day without racking up large commission fees.

With over %1.5 trillion in trades every day the FOREX exchange is the largest financial market in the world. To put this in perspective all of the American stock markets combined only handle about %100 billion worth of trades a day. This huge volume causes the FOREX exchange to be the most fluid market in the world. Because so much of the world economy is dependent on moving currency from country to country there is always a buyer and a seller for every currency combination. The stock market on the other hand is not nearly as liquid, you may not always find a buyer for the stock you want to sell or a seller for the stock you want to buy.

The FOREX market is not located in a single place but is worldwide. Due to time zone changes the FOREX market is open 24 hours a day 5 days a week.

Stock exchanges are normally only open for 7 hours a day, you can not buy or sell a stock if the exchange that it is listed on is closed at the time.

FOREX is more predictable than the stock market as well. It follows well-defined patterns, you can also leverage better in FOREX than the stock market. Margin accounts in FOREX run as high as 100:1 which means you only need %1 to buy %100 worth of currency.

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Posted in Currency Trading

FOREX: Foreign Currency Exchange Market at your fingertips

FOREX: Foreign Currency Exchange Market at your fingertips

Dear Friend,

Have you ever heard of FOREX? FOREX stands for Foreign Currency Exchange Market. This is a fascinating new way of making money in the trading market. With FOREX you can learn powerful techniques that will let you turn %200 to %3,000. You will learn to focus on what trades are the good ones and the most profitable. FOREX is an amazing tool to learn to use. Not only will you profit big, you will also have more confidence when deciding what to trade or not to trade.
The beauty of FOREX is that it?s not only for expert traders, but also for beginners. As a beginner, FOREX teaches the basic terminology used, concepts, and knowledge that will allow you to join the FOREX trading market. FOREX literally points you in the right direction of where to start your trading. It?s as if you?re being held by your hand and being taken to where the money is. FOREX is great, because if you sign up you?ll receive a FREE ebook with training materials that will teach you everything about trading FOREX and how to get started. This is a great course that will really teach you step-by-step in how to make intelligent trades in the trading market. One of the best features about FOREX is it doesn?t cost thousands of dollars like most competitors and you?ll probably end up making much more money with FOREX than these competitors.
FOREX is also beneficial for expert traders. So for you experts out there, you?ll just fall in love with this from the start. You already know the basics and now you?ll become perfectionist in basically making money. Who wouldn?t love this talent? FOREX is a great tool that basically let?s you know when the major market moves will happen and in what direction. It?s as if you?re waiting for someone to give you the go ahead of trading and knowing that it will be profitable. This is just too good to be true. Well with FOREX it?s just that good! Learning these precision techniques will surely help you in achieving HUGE PROFITS.
There are always risks with trading. However, with FOREX the techniques that you will learn will teach you to trade with the smallest risk possible (between 10 to 20 pips). The purpose of FOREX is for you to be amazingly profitable. Like mentioned above, this is not only for experts but for beginners as well. This new powerful tool is feasible that even a child can learn. You?ll see dramatic changes in your income and feel more confident in knowing when and how to trade. You?ll enjoy this new way of living! Just think, you wake up start your day and do a little trade here and there and then that?s it! You basically did your work for the day and then you?re free to enjoy the rest of your carefree day. This type of lifestyle is waiting for you! Just remember FOREX is the place to be.

Best of Success!
Thanks,
Stephanie

This is one of the many remarkable trading techniques taught at:

Http://www.4exonline.com

You?ll learn precision techniques that will make huge profits

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Posted in Currency Trading

Currency Trading Tips! Get Rich!

Currency Trading Tips! Get Rich!

What are you really selling or buying in the currency market?

The short answer is nothing. The retail FX market is purely a speculative market. No physical exchange of currencies ever takes place. All trades exist simply as computer entries and are netted out depending on market price. For dollar-denominated accounts, all profits or losses are calculated in dollars and recorded as such on the trader’s account.

The primary reason the FX market exists is to facilitate the exchange of one currency into another for multinational corporations who need to trade currencies continually (for example, for payroll, payment for costs of goods and services from foreign vendors, and merger and acquisition activity). However, these day-to-day corporate needs comprise only about 20%PRCTG% of the market volume. Fully 80%PRCTG% of trades in the currency market are speculative in nature, put on by large financial institutions, multi-billion dollar hedge funds and even individuals who want to express their opinions on the economic and geopolitical events of the day.

Meaning of Trading in Pairs

Because currencies always trade in pairs, when a trader makes a trade he or she is always long one currency and short the other. For example, if a trader sells one standard lot (equivalent to 100,000 units) of EUR/USD, she would, in essence, have exchanged euros for dollars and would now be short euro and long dollars. To better understand this dynamic, let’s use a concrete example. If you went into an electronics store and purchased a computer for %1,000, what would you be doing? You would be exchanging your dollars for a computer. You would basically be short %1,000 and long 1 computer. The store would be long %1,000 but now short 1 computer in its inventory. The exact same principle applies to the FX market, except that no physical exchange takes place. While all transactions are simply computer entries, the consequences are no less real.

Great Returns in Currency Trading

The opportunities for unmatched returns and investment protection in the brave new world of foreign currency investing are second to none. In Foreign Currency Trading, financial executives Russell Wasendorf, Sr., and Russell Wasendorf, Jr., describe foreign currency trading in plain terms, and help you understand the risks, benefits, and operational requirements that you will need to take advantage of this market?s tremendous potential. Look to Foreign Currency Trading for clear explanations on the mechanics of foreign currency trading, in-depth discussion of all pertinent foreign exchange rules and regulations, and a comprehensive glossary with literally hundreds of terms essential to forex trading. With formerly imposing currency trading restrictions having been struck down in recent court rulings, the world of foreign currency trading is an exciting and rapidly-expanding field.

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Posted in Currency Trading

Electronic Currency Exchange: Trading Digots for a profitable living

Electronic Currency Exchange: Trading Digots for a profitable living

First of all, if you’re just finding out about electronic currency exchange trading, then probably you’re still asking “what in the world does this electronic currency business is”, and most importantly, “how do I make money from it?”

Well, you are reading this at the right time, because electronic currency exchange is a business that is expanding and offering new ways to profit from it. This means that in the next months learning how to trade digots will prove to be more profitable than it is today.

But what does “digot” mean?

Digot is the value of a given currency when using the electronic currency exchange system. So if your account is in dollars, then a digot will stand for a dollar. If you are reading this, it means you are interested in making more money, and I must congratulate you, because electronic currency exchange is a fantastic vehicle to make money without much work required. This is why some people call this opportunity the anti-business.

If you like the old saying “the less you work, the more you make” then you will love the electronic currency exchange business. Let me explain how it works:

You get started with whatever amount of money seems reasonable to you. I got started with %200, but I’ve heard of people getting started trading digots with amounts ranging from %50 to %10,000 so it’s entirely up to you and what you can afford. Keep in mind that the more you start with, the faster you will see profits, so it may be worth not buying that new PC to put in as much as you can from the start.

After you have the electronic currencies set up, every 24 hour period you will generate from 2 to 4 percent of your investment.

What makes this system so profitable, is that you have the option of reinvesting your profits, so that you gain interest of what you gained interests the day before AKA “Compounded interest” over your digots. It’s very easy to see how your money can have the snowball effect and turn into a truly automatic cash machine.

When I was looking to get started, I started with an online course, so I had no learning curve. This is the path I recommend, but if you are short of money, you can also exchange your time and efforts and research online for how to trade ecurrencies.

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Posted in Currency Trading

Forex: No psychological limitations

Forex: No psychological limitations

Back when I first started learning about investing, I decided to start from the beginning and read basic books on personal finance as well as ?guides? for understanding all of the investment world in a nut shell. Most of these authors were very knowledgeable and informative, but their investment advice was far too conservative for my taste. They would literally write chapter after chapter talking about the differences between conservative investing, which according to them generally yields somewhere around 5%PRCTG% PA, as opposed to ?risky? investing which usually meant a diversified stock/mutual fund portfolio yielding (in my mind) only slightly higher averages. What kind of returns can you expect in the stock market? Well they say the market has gone up an average of 10%PRCTG% a year since Adam and Eve. Popular indexes like the DOW and the now more popular S&P500 have always, like real estate, ?gone up over time.?

Now, these market averages are almost worshiped like golden calves. Repeatedly drilled into my brain was the concept that there were hundreds (if not thousands) of fund managers and other ?professionals? out there with Harvard degrees, decades of experience, millions of dollars under management, and they were all spending 15 hours a day consuming every single bit of market information in the hopes of beating these golden calves by a few points.

What chance did I have? If Dr. Fund Guru Jr. who eats, sleeps, breathes the markets and has more credentials than I have individual hairs on my body can?t consistently make 20%PRCTG% a year…well…forget it kid…your chances are slim to none. I guess I?ll buy some shares of XYZ fund and accept the scraps off the table from the stock gurus.

NOT!

The foreign exchange market offers many benefits that the stock market does not have. Most of these have been beaten to death on various forums, blogs, articles, e-books, etc. However, it?s always good to reiterate the positive (my own personal reason is last):
- Forex offers unprecedented liquidity. With over two trillion dollars transacted per day on the market, it makes filling any buy/sell order virtually instant. That equates to less slippage and more profitability. ?Paper trading? stocks vs actually trading stocks is very different, because orders may not be filled in a timely manner. The difference between trading a forex demo accout and an actual account is virtually nill.
- Forex is available 24 hours a day 5.5 days a week, as opposed to the daylight trading hours of the stock exchanges.
- Forex is uncontrollable by large entities. Large net worth individuals, banks and fund managers who throw their weight around in the stock market can often have huge effects on price action. Because of the immense volume of foreign currency traded per day, the market is unmoved by ?heavy hitters.? Not even central banks can control the Forex market.
- Forex offers up to 200:1 leverage as opposed to 2:1 stock leverage.
- Forex has no restrictions for selling short, as opposed to the stock market?s ?uptick? rule
- Forex can actually be traded INSIDE of an IRA or Roth IRA account.
- Forex gains are taxed at the preferred 60/40 rate, no matter what trading style you use (intra-day, swing, position) as opposed to the tax penalties for holding stocks for short periods of time.

The list does go on, but for me the biggest advantage is a psychological one. I know it probably sounds silly, but fear and intimidation can sometimes subconsciously defeat us before we even begin. I don?t like the idea of having to live up to, and in a way, compete with ?professional managers? who have more knowledge of the fundamentals of the markets than I ever will. It?s almost as if Forex, in some way, levels the playing field. I don?t have to psychologically compete against anyone?s idea of what kind of returns are ?acceptable and realistic? and what kind of returns are ?pure fantasy.? I only have to trade until I can find an acceptable reward to risk ratio, and consistent profitability thereof. The only one I compete against is myself.

-Joshua White

http://www.consistentforextrading.com

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Posted in Currency Trading

A Short Explanation Of ?Buying? and ?Selling? In Forex Trading.

A Short Explanation Of ?Buying? and ?Selling? In Forex Trading.

These days everyone is talking about a new profitable activity called Forex trading and the great opportunity this activity represents for people willing to brake free from the corporate world and start working from home or any where else without losing their current lifestyle and even improving it.

Most experienced traders consider that the best and most profitable of the capital markets is the Forex market. For many years Forex trading was the sole domain of major banks, large financial institutions and countries central banks; for example the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. But these days, thanks to the internet the market has been opened to everyone willing to learn the best techniques in forex trading and with the intention of making substantial profits as the institutions mentioned above that annually and consistently make pretty high profits from trading in the Foreign Exchange market.

You have many advantages when trading the forex markets, for example; you don’t have to worry about fees you may have to pay to your broker; there are also none of the usual fees to which futures and equity traders are accustomed to pay always; no exchange or clearing fees, no NFA or SEC fees.

The forex market has five major currencies: US Dollar, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Euro and the Swiss Franc. It is due to their great popularity in world’s commerce transactions and its high activity that these five currencies account for over 70%PRCTG% of North American trading. Of course there are other tradable currencies; they include the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Dollars. These minor currencies account for 4%PRCTG% – 7%PRCTG% of the total market volume. Together, all this five majors and minors currencies constitute the backbone of the Forex market.

The concept of ?Buying? in Forex refers to the acquisition of a particular currency pair to open a trade and ?Selling short? refers to the selling of a particular currency to open a trade, i.e, just the opposite. When you Buy, you are expecting the price of the currency pair to increase with time, i.e., you buy cheap to sell high; which is easy to understand. In the case of Selling short, it looks a bit more complicated. Here the way to make money is to initially sell a currency pair that you think will lose value in a given period of time and then, once it happened, you will buy it back at the new price but now you can sell it at the previous greater price the currency had when you opened the trade, so you earn the difference in prices. It may seem kind of tricky when you are starting, but once you are in front of your trading station it will look much simpler.

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Posted in Currency Trading

Advantages of Floor Traders – and How to Get Them

Advantages of Floor Traders – and How to Get Them

Traders who make their living on the floor of an exchange have some things that I think are advantages. You see floor traders can draw from their senses. What I mean by this is they can use sight, sound, and speech. These are advantages that they add to their arsenal when trading. The pit on a trading floor looks very chaotic but there is a simplistic ebb and flow to what is going on there. I will explain how this is an advantage.

When you trade on a computer you are only watching the price movements on a chart and you base your trading decisions accordingly. On the floor the action of people moving around can often tip traders to which markets are about to go higher. Just like all people, traders will gravitate to where the action is happening.

Trading on a computer does not allow for the noise of the action to influence you. Traders who are on the floor can hear the crowd noise rise and fall. This is much like a football game. If you were busy and not watching the game you could still have an idea of how it is going by listening to others in the crowd who are cheering or not according to the action on the field. This is particularly an advantage if you are in a position and looking for a good place to exit. You can judge momentum of the current market direction and get a feel for when to exit.

The advantage of speech is obvious. You are spending your day surrounded by others that make a living in the same business. Information and strategy can be discussed with peers and better understood. When breaking news hits you will hear first hand what other market movers think about it.

These are a few of the advantages that I feel the floor trader has on his side. some of these can be replicated and taken advantage of by traders based at home.

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Posted in Currency Trading