Archive for the ‘foreign exchange trader’ Category

Day trading: an exciting world of tense drama as traders make or lose a fortune every day. Day traders make split second choices based upon their analytical skills, always hoping to beat the market – the great leveler! The success of a trader depends upon his alertness, risk-taking ability and analytical skill. But in the final analysis, the successful day trader is above all else lucky!

What are the characteristics of a day trader?

Bear in mind that a day trader believes in the saying ‘all is fair in love and day trading.’ Right from holding positions on long trades (buying first at low prices to sell later at higher prices) to short selling (the exact reverse of long trades) selling first at high prices in the expectation of covering when prices fall later in the day) to speculating wildly, unworried by the fundamentals and hardly ever, giving a glance to the technical aspects of his trades.

Let us look at some more of what it takes to be a day trader:
Day Traders:
1. want to finish the day with no open deals
2. try not to listen the many rumours that float around
3. are strong in analytical skills – usually not just in their own field
4. Are not distracted by market sentiment
5. are active in both bull and bear markets and know how to profit from each
6. are good at math
7.keep abreast of the latest regulations, taxes, trading fees, , etc.
8. are not worried by the movements of financial indicators such as NASDAQ or DOW JONES). They are confident in their own skills.

Do you want to become a day trader?

Starting as a day trader is easy. You can become a day trader by opening a trading account with either a brokerage company or your own bank, if it offers trading, or even with a stock exchange. There are some legal and commercial details to deal with before you start trading on an exchange. You can become a day trader in any of the following fields.

1. Commodities – these are metals, oils, wheat etc.
2. Forex – this is foreign exchange – currency)
3. Stock – bonds and securities (shares)

Just making the decision and doing the paperwork will not really make you a day trader. Day trading is, as much as anything else, an attitude of mind. You have to be as clear minded and focused as the hunter stalking his prey. Nothing else matters but making the deal, closing and taking the profit – or if losing, in cutting losses and moving on.

What makes you buy or sell

The trader can not afford a mistake. The risks the trader takes convert into real earnings on reacting rapidly to two things:

1. Liquidity (The volume of trade that decides whether you should enter or leave)
2. Volatility (Price fluctuations to decide the number of trades on a particular stock, either to short or long sell and the price of trades)

At close of a days trading, your position should be back to zero and you either walk away in tears or with joy. And there is always tomorrow

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Give a thought to this: what makes the forex market so unique that none other like equities, commodities or even the bond market can match either individually or all put together? I think everyone who wishes to have a share worth his or her salt of action in the forex market needs to know this.

The Unique Characteristics of Forex Market
Forex market allows trading in all major world currencies seamlessly. US Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen and Great Britain Pounds are the few currencies that account for over 80% of the daily forex trade. Now let’s see what other features attribute to make this so unique.

1. There is no single exchange market for trading foreign currencies yet all of them are so closely connected to each other (‘over the counter’ trading) that the differences in values can hardly be considerable, at least, for a retail trader.

2. There is no commission involved in the foreign exchange trading although there is low transaction costs involved. One reason for this feature is you are trading currencies and not negotiable instruments which are always virtual in nature at the point of trade time.

3. Forex market has a continuous nature. Global time zones and universal nature of currencies have facilitated the continuous nature of this. When markets in Asia close European markets open and when they close there is American market to take over. The next cycle begins with the Asian markets taking over from American markets.

4. Largest daily turnover- over US Dollar 3 billion which is ten times bigger than turnovers for all equity exchange markets put together.

Ponder the point number one again; London, New York and Tokyo are the top trading markets with many smaller markets and countless banks and operators functioning across the globe in relativity and interconnection to these big three. Thanks to the continuous nature and ‘over the counter’ trading facilitates quick decision making for traders without waiting for the markets to open the next day.

‘Over the counter’ trading also brings in the benefit of arbitrage (overnight differential interest) since there is no single dollar rate over the world depending on significantly great number of factors that affect the local Dollar demand and the local economy. Beginners need to understand the mechanics of economy that play roles here. These factors include the GDP, budget, trade deficits, rate of interests and inflation amongst other macro economic issues.

An interesting piece of information: regardless of trends, US Dollar is involved in about 90% of transactions.

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Trading opportunities in the forex market deserve serious consideration as a diversification strategy for your portfolio.

While online equities and futures trading have enjoyed exponential growth and widespread notoriety over the past few years, online foreign exchange trading is only now gaining popularity among seasoned active traders, commodity trading advisors (CTAs), and other professional money managers.

Until recently, large international banks dominated the foreign exchange market, only allowing access via telephone trading to a select few such as Fortune 1000 companies, large funds, high-net worth individuals, and so on. But now, the tide has turned and finally there are established online trading firms that provide individual investors with direct access to the largest, most liquid financial market in the world.

In this market you may buy or sell currencies. The objective is to earn a profit from your position. Placing a trade in the foreign exchange market is simple: the mechanics of a trade are virtually identical to those found in other markets, so the transition for many traders is often seamless.

Here are an example of how forex trading works. Say, a trader purchases 10,000 euros in the beginning of 2004 at the EUR/USD rate was .9600. In May of 2006 the trader exchanges his 10,000 euro back into US dollar at the market rate of 1.1800. In this example, the trader earned a gross profit of $2,200.

Currencies are quoted in pairs, such as EUR/USD or USD/JPY. The first listed currency is known as the base currency, while the second is called the counter or quote currency. The base currency is the “basis” for the buy or the sell. For example, if you BUY EUR/USD you have bought euros (simultaneously sold dollars). You would do so in expectation that the euro will appreciate (go up) relative to the US dollar.

EUR/USD

In this example euro is the base currency and thus the “basis” for the buy/sell. If you believe that the US economy will continue to weaken and this will hurt the US dollar, you would execute a BUY EUR/USD order. By doing so you have bought euros in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the US dollar. If you believe that the US economy is strong and the euro will weaken against the US dollar you would execute a SELL EUR/USD order. By doing so you have sold euros in the expectation that they will depreciate versus the US dollar.

GBP/USD

In this example the GBP is the base currency and thus the “basis” for the buy/sell. By doing so you have bought pounds in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the US dollar. If you believe the British are going to adopt the euro and this will weaken pounds as they devalue their currency in anticipation of the merge, you would execute a SELL GBP/USD order. By doing so you have sold pounds in the expectation that they will depreciate against the US dollar.

USD/JPY

In this example the US dollar is the base currency and thus the “basis” for the buy/sell. If you think that the Japanese government is going to weaken the yen in order to help its export industry, you would execute a BUY USD/JPY order. By doing so you have bought U.S dollars in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the Japanese yen. If you believe that Japanese investors are pulling money out of U.S. financial markets and repatriating funds back to Japan, and this will hurt the US dollar, you would execute a SELL USD/JPY order. By doing so you have sold U.S dollars in the expectation that they will depreciate against the Japanese yen.

USD/CHF

In this example the CHF is the base currency and thus the “basis” for the buy/sell. If you think the Swiss franc is overvalued, you would execute a BUY USD/CHF order. By doing so you have bought US dollars in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the Swiss Franc. If you believe that due to instability in the Middle East and in U.S. financial markets the dollar will continue to weaken, you would execute a SELL USD/CHF order. By doing so you have sold US dollars in the expectation that they will depreciate against the Swiss franc.

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