Foreign Exchange Made Easy For Everyone

Forex is the buying and the selling of foreign exchange in pairs of currencies. For example you buy US dollars and sell UK Sterling pounds or you sell German Marks and buy Japanese Yen. Why are currencies bought or sold? The answer is simple; Governments and Companies need foreign exchange for their purchase and payments for various commodities and services. This trade constitutes about 5% of all currency transactions, though the other 95% currency transactions are done for speculation and trade.

In fact many companies will buy foreign currency when it is being traded at a lower rate to protect their financial investments. Another thing about foreign exchange market is that the rates are ever-changing regularly and on daily basis. Therefore investors and financial managers track the Forex rates and the Forex market it on a daily basis.

Those who are involved in the Forex trade know that almost 85% of the trading is done in only US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar. This is because they are the most liquid of foreign currencies. Which means the US Dollar can be easily bought and sold. In fact the US Dollar is most recognizable foreign currency even in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam.

Being a truly 24 hour market, the currency trading markets opens in the financial centers of Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York in that series. Investors and speculators alike respond to the shifting transactions and can buy and sell simultaneously the currencies. In fact many operate in two or more currency market using arbitrage to gain profits.

While dealing in Forex, one should have a margin account. Quite simply put if you have $1,000 and have a Forex margin account which leverages 100:1 then you can buy $100,000 since you only need 1% of the $100,000 or $1,000. Therefore it means that with margin account you have $100,000 worth of real purchasing power in your hand.

Since the foreign currency market is fluctuating on a continual basis, one should be able to comprehend the factors that affect this currency market. This is done through Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis. These two tools of trade are used in a variety of other markets such as equity markets, stock markets, mutual funds markets etc. Technical Analysis refers to reading, summarizing and analyzing data based on the data that is generated by the market. While Fundamental Analysis refers to the factors, which influence the market economy, and in turn how it would affect the currency trading.

Of course there are other economic and non economic factors which can suddenly affect the trading of the Forex markets such as the 9/11 tragedy etc. One needs to have a intuitive acumen and a few number crunching abilities to strike gold in the Forex market.