Whether you call it the forex, FX, currency or foreign exchange market, it’s the biggest investment market in the world. So, if you’re at all interested in investing, forex trading is definitely worth your attention. This article is going to look at what this exciting market is all about and explain how you can get involved – and how you can be successful.
The Global Currency Market
The forex market is the global market in which traders buy, sell, exchange and speculate on currencies. In terms of advantages, it can give you:
- High liquidity, in that the trading volume is incredibly high and so you should be able to buy and sell easily;
- 24-hour trading, because the currency market is open round the clock for five days a week, allowing you to trade when it suits you;
- Leveraging, giving you the ability to trade more money on the market than you have in your account;
- Going short or long, allowing you to profit from rising or falling prices in currency pairs.
Entering the Forex Market
If you’re interested in forex investment, the first place to start is with a trading account from a reputable online broker. The best brokerage account is one that offers you a powerful platform for implementing your trading strategies.
Becoming a Successful Forex Trader
In order to truly take advantage of the forex market, it is worth developing and sticking to trading strategies. These require confidence and discipline, along with the ability to adapt when required in order to meet the shifting demands of the market. These are just some of the strategies which can be employed:
- Price action, in which traders focus on recent and historic price movements in order to discover patterns;
- Positional trading, capitalising on large shifts in prices over the long term;
- Swing trading, in which positions are held for several days at a time to profit from short-term movements;
- Day trading, in which trades are exited at the end of a certain period to manage risks;
- Scalping, in which quick trades are executed in order to earn just a few points of profit at a time.
The Characteristics of a Successful Forex Trader
Along with the ability to implement strategies, a successful forex trader also needs to have an active interest in global currencies and how they relate to each other. If all of this sounds like it could be of interest to you, it is always worth reading further, because the more knowledge you have of the market, the better.
