by Jack Sawyer
We will look at foreign exchange basics or the Forex market. There are many things you need to know about the foreign exchange market. In order for you to become a successful Forex trader, you will need to understand how it works as well as take practical steps to reach your goal.
The foreign exchange market is known by many names, including the Forex and FX as well as the foreign currency market, the currency trading market, the currency market and various others. They refer to the same international market where individuals and large companies are trading or exchanging different world currencies.
There is no specified location for the Forex market. Nearly every country takes part in the marketplace; therefore, almost every country trades in currencies. The market is open 24 hours daily on five days of the week, for this reason. The week begins in Sydney, Australia on Monday morning, which is 5 pm Sunday EST in the USA. The week ends on Friday in New York at 4pm EST. You can trade currencies somewhere in the world during this period.
Surprisingly, the Forex market is a new phenomenon. Until the 1970?s, world currencies seemed stable in comparison with one another since WWII. In relation to the US dollar, every currency had a value that was called the ‘gold standard’. In order to maintain a stable economy, this system was introduced.
However, in the early 70s the USA abandoned the gold standard and the values of the different currencies began to change. Banks immediately began to exchange currencies for profit, buying low and selling high, instead of only making exchanges when they needed to transfer money from one country to another. In effect, each currency became a tradeable commodity. This was the beginning of forex trading.
In a sense the value of a currency is the value of that nation who the currency belongs to, therefore, similar to the stock exchange companies, when a nation is successful the value of its currency increase. Consequently, if the nation falls into a crisis the value of its currency drops. These fluctuations are vast and fast. There may be huge sums involved. The average of the total values of transactions today on the Forex market ranges to nearly $2 trillion dollars daily.
Large financial institutions, such as major corporations, international and investment banks as well as others are involved with these exchanges. It is possible, however to trade as a private individual while using a broker. Another popular media of trading is online using the internet. Today there are multitudes of individuals who involve themselves in Forex trading via their home computers. However, they only account for about 2% of the total Forex market, since their trades are in smaller sums than those of other institutions.
Most often exchanges involve the US dollar against other currencies such as the Euro, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Swiss franc and the British pound. However, it is possible to trade any currency against another. Many individual traders may use automated Forex robots to concentrate on lesser currency pairs such as the Euro against the pound.
The foreign exchange market is vast; some individual traders may feel outnumbered by large corporations. However, with a little capital to risk anyone can get in on the market for trading. You may start with as little as $250 when you work with a broker. However, you really should practice with a Forex demo account while you are learning the foreign exchange basics before actually investing any real money.