Foreign Exchange (Forex) Trading

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fox_terrier

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Post Number: 26
Registered: 10-2003

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Friday, November 14, 2003 - 04:31 pm:

I am about to spend a couple of grand on doing a forex trading course with a company called Forex Pacific.

Interested to know if anyone has been involved with either forex trading or more specifically Forex Pacific.

Cheers
fox_terrier

create

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Post Number: 84
Registered: 12-2002

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Saturday, November 15, 2003 - 03:36 pm:

Hi Foxy..

Before you commit yourself to such an expensive course.

Did you know you could trade the forex by way of a demonstration account (which is completely free of charge and done online in a matter of minutes)?

There are several FX currency trading platforms available to you. Most offer a free period of two weeks to 30 days.

I have found one that allows me unlimited time to learn at oanda.com (hope I am allowed to mention it here??)

Warning... It is addictive... and trading the forex is not for the faint hearted and many traders loose their shirts trying!!

IMO it (the demo account) is a wonderful learning tool for putting your TA skills to the test.

Good luck in your endeavours.
Create

fox_terrier

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Post Number: 27
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Saturday, November 15, 2003 - 04:01 pm:

Hi Create

Thanks for your reply.

I will look up the site you recommended. Forex Pacific also offer a demo account.

Thanks again for your help and opinion
Fox_terrier

drdiablo

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Registered: 11-2003

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Monday, November 17, 2003 - 09:32 pm:

Yep I agree- Oanda is brilliant (I looked at all the others, but this seemed the best for the small trader) - and a free, no time-limit demo game.

Question- Does incrediblecharts do forex too??

Thanks
Diablo

drdiablo

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Post Number: 2
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Monday, November 17, 2003 - 09:49 pm:

ps the oanda charts have an annoying gap for the weekends, making long-term TA difficult. Does anyone know good forex chart sites?

create

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Post Number: 91
Registered: 12-2002

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Monday, November 17, 2003 - 10:36 pm:

Hi Foxy,

You're welcome, glad to help.

Drdiablo,

You can remove the weekend gap by clicking the drop down tools menu
>> user preferences
>> hide weekend data

cheers,
Create

drdiablo

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Post Number: 4
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Monday, November 17, 2003 - 11:02 pm:

Thanks Create- (but there's still that annoying gap on the chart, which has been discussed ad nauseam on the oanda message board- no fix in sight).
Do you know where to find weekly forex charts that can be printed off? (Netdania/fxtrek can't be printed)
Thanks.
DrDiablo

create

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Post Number: 92
Registered: 12-2002

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Monday, November 17, 2003 - 11:07 pm:

Hi again Drdiablo,

Sorry you are right anything below the one day chart and the weekend data shows up. It is annoying from a TA perspective. I do not know of any other FX data providers that give unlimited demo time though.

Create

drdiablo

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Post Number: 5
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Monday, November 17, 2003 - 11:15 pm:

Create
I see you are a full-time trader. Can I pick your brains?
I am moving from UK to Melbourne soon (yippee)- how tradeable is the forex market in Aus timezone? presumably it's still good liquidity because of Tokyo?

DD

create

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Post Number: 93
Registered: 12-2002

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Votes: 1


Monday, November 17, 2003 - 11:20 pm:

Drdiablo,

Have you tried your "print screen" which essentially takes a snap shot of your screen you can then paste it into Word, save and print.

cheers,
Create

create

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Post Number: 94
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Monday, November 17, 2003 - 11:28 pm:

I do not know all that many forex traders.. those I do know trade the AUS/YEN during the day for liquidity and the EUR/GBP/USD at night.

I suppose it depends on your trading style and your willingness to be up at night etc.

cheers,
Create

forextdr

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Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 12:35 pm:

Before you spending 2K, try this site:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?clickforex/daytrade4x

and one of the best trading site is:
http://www.cms-forex.com
they offer unlimited time demo with one of the best trading application

check it out

simon_s

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Post Number: 2
Registered: 09-2003

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Thursday, January 15, 2004 - 09:39 am:

I've been trying to trade forex for a while now, I've lost far more than 2k trying to work it out. I know there is demo account which I am resigning back to now.

Please let me know how the training course goes.

As was said here it's addictive, and I feel I've lost so much money that the only way to get it back is to master trading forex....before I completely lose my shirt trying I will see how the demo account goes for a while.

Also, what time frame is best for TA on which pair in your opinions?

squiresk

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Post Number: 77
Registered: 03-2003

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Friday, January 16, 2004 - 05:07 pm:

something that may be of interest, from the fool.co.uk

http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=8297675&sort=whole

credit to Mr Angry.

Foreign exchange (FX) is widely recognised as one of the largest financial markets in the world. Yet despite its size, FX has long been a mystery to most investors. Currency trading may have attracted many legendary speculators - the profits and losses George Soros, Joe Lewis and even Robert Maxwell are well-documented -but for most people, FX has remained an enigmatic and almost totally inaccessible asset class.

Of course, most people will have read recently about the strength of the euro and the weakness of the pound. But it is probably not too fetched to say that the only time most of us really think about currencies is when we go on holiday or make a cross-channel shopping trip. And in the past, many investors, both institutional and retail, have even paid scant regard to currencies when they have put their money into overseas assets, despite the potential impact FX moves may have on the value of the underlying portfolio.

A decade ago, there were many reasons why the FX market was so inaccessible. Unlike equities, trading generally did not take place in a centralised location and so the FX market was relatively opaque. Unless an investor had access to numerous counterparties, there was nothing to stop the institution on the other side of a deal from shading the price or quoting a wide spread.

But over the last 10-years, the advent of electronic broking systems in the professional interbank market has completely changed the way FX, particularly spot, trades. The arrival of the 'machines', as EBS and Reuters, the two dominant interbank spot brokers are known, has introduced massive transparency. This has rapidly filtered down to the retail sector.

Derek Taylor, a former professional FX trader and broker who is now the managing director of Financial eLearning, a company that produces interactive training CDs for private investors, says there is now a real demand for knowledge about FX from retail players. “We are selling more of our FX training courses than any other; it looks like private investors have realised that there is a vast, liquid market that is the perfect vehicle for short-term and sometimes long-term investment and they want to know how it works,” he says.

Improvements in the speed and reliability of the Internet means retail investors can access the FX market in ways that were impossible even five years ago. And more advanced technology, like straight-through-processing, has lowered the cost of the FX deal chain to the point where even very small trades are viable. These developments have led to a host of non-bank FX providers appearing on the scene.

These include spread betters, as well as quasi-exchanges, like Oanda, IFX, CMC and Saxo Bank. Another development includes the re-emergence of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which offers currency futures. Retail investors who want to trade FX have never had as much choice.

Oanda, IFX and CMC effectively quote the same rates as the big banks that dominate the professional market. Oanda's prices are good for as little as a single dollar to $10 million, while IFX says its rates are good for up to $25 million.

Richard Olsen, the CEO of Olsen Limited and its sister company Oanda, says that Oanda processes around 15,000 trades a day over its online platform. Steve Pryor, head of FX Institutional and Corporate Sales at IFX, says that typically 700 clients are logged on at the same time to his company's trading site.

So what is FX? Quite simply, it is the sale of one currency for the purchase of another. When people talk about FX, they are normally referring to the spot market, where trades are usually settled in two working days time. But there is more to FX than just spot.

Forwards, or swaps, actually account for the majority of daily FX transactions in the professional market. In a forward transaction, a currency is bought and then sold back at a later date against another one. Effectively, one currency is borrowed and another lent. The price reflects the interest rate differential between the two currencies for the period, or the cost of carry. This needs to be considered carefully for any longer-term positions. There is also a large FX options market, and as mentioned above, currency futures are also available and easy to access.

Investors can trade numerous different currency pairs, though the vast proportion of activity is concentrated in deals between the five 'majors'. These are the US dollar, euro, pound, yen and Swiss franc. According to figures in the Triennial Central Bank Survey of 2001 published by Bank for International Settlements in Basle, daily turnover in the global FX market is around $1,200 billion. About a third (31.1%) of this business takes place in London. In comparison, the value of turnover in equities at the London Stock Exchange is in the region of $20 billion a day.

Size is not the only difference between the FX and equity markets. Ostensibly, FX is far less volatile. When an investor buys an equity investment, it may well be with the expectation of making a 20, 30, 40 or higher percentage gain. An FX speculator, especially day traders, which most are, will happily settle for a move of less than 1%.

In the past, many fund managers and investors may have chosen to ignore the potential impact of FX, perhaps because of its seeming lack of volatility. But the way currency risk is managed c