The FX Market: The Facts

The forex or FX market is the currency trading market where foreign currencies are exchanged. It is not located in just one place. By its very nature it is a global market and trading happens all over the world.

In a sense there is a separate market for each currency pair. Every possible combination of currencies has its own price. Although these are related in some ways there is not necessarily a direct connection between them. Obviously if a country is doing very badly in economic terms, then its currency is likely to fall in comparison with most other countries. But another country might be doing even worse and then the opposite would show on that particular currency pair market. For example the dollar could be falling against the euro while at the same time it is rising against the yen.
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Forex Trading Training: Get What You Need

If you want to become a successful currency trader, then no matter what background you have, you will need forex trading training. Currency trading has its own rules and even if you have experience of day trading on the stock exchange there are a few things you will have to learn. So how do you go about finding training that is right for you?

One factor that you will want to take into account is the cost of your training. There is a huge range here from free information available on the internet to private mentoring from a successful trader that could cost you a thousand dollars a month or more.

Clearly, mentoring will only be of value to you if you intend to trade full time. Private coaching is most useful for people already profiting from forex trading but wanting to make more. Those people are also likely to be in a position where they can judge which coach or mentor will be most suitable for their own trading style. If you are just starting out, you would be better off covering the basics in some other way.
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Forex Market Analysis: Which Type is Better?

There are two types of forex market analysis: fundamental analysis, which considers economic, social and political forces and how they influence the currency markets, and technical analysis which uses charts to identify trends and patterns in the movement of prices.

So which one is better? If you check out forums and websites you will find many traders strongly supporting one or the other. Those who like to rely on charts will tell you that the only way to make money with forex trading is to identify trends and jump onto them as early as possible.

At the same time the advocates of fundamental analysis will argue that it is the economic factors that drive the changes in currency prices and this is undoubtedly true, at least most of the time. From that position they will reason that any patterns you might find on a chart are nothing more than coincidental.
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Forex Trading Forum Hints and Tips

A forex trading forum is a popular place for beginners to go when they are just getting into forex trading. There are many internet forums and you can discuss any aspect of currency trading there. But should you trust the answers that you get? Are these online discussion sites really a valuable source of information, or just a drain on your time?

Forums began in the time of the Roman empire. At that time they were a physical space in the middle of the city a little like a market place but without a market. The men of the city would meet there to hear and debate matters of importance such as politics and the law.
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Candlestick Charts for Forex Traders

Among the many types of technical analysis available to forex traders, the single most useful and popular are probably candlestick charts. These were originally developed in Japan during the 18th century by a prominent commodity trader who used them to chart the fluctuations in the price of rice. For this reason they are often known as Japanese candlestick charts, and many of the patterns that they form have Japanese names.

Simple line graphs plotting the price of a commodity at regular intervals in time had been used for centuries, but traders were in need of something that could plot more variables within a two dimensional graph. The bar chart showing the opening, high, low and closing prices of a commodity was useful and helped traders to predict future price movements in a more reliable way than line charts, but candlestick charts were even better.
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Forex Mini Account Trading

Forex mini accounts are ideal for just about anybody who is starting out in forex trading. You would have to be very rich or very confident to start right out with a standard account if you are a retail trader (i.e. somebody trading on their own account from home). A mini account lets you get started without risking so much money and this makes it a very attractive option for most people.

Mini forex trading accounts generally allow you to trade with just one tenth of the normal lot size. This usually means 10,000 units of currency instead of 100,000.

Of course you do not have to have this much in your account. Currency trading works with leverage. If you are using 100 times leverage then you need $100 to control $10,000 in your mini account or $1,000 to control $100,000 for a standard account.
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