Possible Problems with Forex

Although on-line Forex trading is a popular activity, here are many potential problems waiting for the newbie traders. Even more experienced traders can get a strong hit from something they’ve never encountered. Here is the list, compiled by ForexNigeria.org, of the possible problems you can encounter in your Forex trading endeavor:

1. Scam Forex brokers — a number one problem for a starting trader and some experienced traders that want to move from one broker to another. Be advised that there are many on-line brokers that will just steal your money, or will hunt your stop-losses to bankrupt your account, or will provide no support at all. Just stay with the brokers that are reputable and trustworthy until you learn to detect Forex scams yourself.

2. Overtrading — sometimes you will start to lose money on trading just because you stay in the market for too long. Don’t overtrade, set daily goals for profit, limit for loss and don’t trade past them. Overtrading is one of the major psychological barriers in Forex trading.

3. Wide spreads on high volatility — some Forex brokers increase their spreads for all currency pairs during the hours of high volatility (i.e. news releases). That can damage the whole trading strategy, so you must be aware if your broker uses such tactics and avoid losing money because of it.

4. Following wrong Forex signals — sometimes you may find yourself losing, because you follow someone else’s Forex trading signals. Actually it is a good idea not to follow any signals at all (except for the ones, generated by your trading system), especially the paid ones. Trading your own Forex strategy brings in your sole responsibility for all your trades. If someone’s providing paid Forex signals, chances are they are not very accurate. Why would one sell them if he could earn money with just trading?

5. Lack of knowledge — the lack of required knowledge to trade Forex will dump your trading account very fast. Educate yourself; don’t let your emotions control yourself and trade only when you are sure about its success. There are plenty of free educational materials available on-line, don’t be lazy and learn whenever you have a time for it.

The Use of Requote in the Forex Market

The Forex market holds the largest financial market trading in the world. There are more than $3 trillion value trades per day. Did you know that everyone plays a vital role in the trade of currency? Being a citizen of your country that has a currency automatically makes you as an investor of your countries currency. You decide whether you will hold on with the currency of your country or you want to trade it to other foreign currency. Currency trading is done at the Foreign Exchange market otherwise known as Forex or simply FX market.

The Forex market operates in a global electronic network which consists of financial institutions, banks and Forex traders which all involved in buying and selling national currencies. Unlike the stock exchange, the Forex market does not have any central location instead it involves an inter-bank system of trading. The Forex market transactions are done in real time which operates 24 hours a day. With a colossal number of traders around the world, the Forex is the busiest trading market in the world. Trades are made over an electronic network worldwide or by telephone. Sydney, London, Tokyo, New York and Frankfurt are the main centers of trading.

During the earlier years of the Forex market, access to trading was only made available for large business institutions and banks but later was made available for individual Forex traders and money managers. Traditionally, access to the Forex market has been made available only to banks and other large financial institutions. However, with advances in technology over the years along with the industry's high leverage options, the Forex market is now available to money managers and individual Forex traders. This was made possible through the use of computers and internet connection. Currency trading is basically instantaneous buying and selling of one currency to another. Example of trade are; Euro – US Dollar, GB Pound – Japanese Yen. This process is called cross trading.

Another type of trading which can be done is in the spot market which involves the largest volume and the most important trading in the Forex market. These trades are done on the spot which means that it doesn’t take two banking days. There are many advantages in trading in the Forex market compared to other trading systems. The major advantage is that trades can be made 24 hours a day which allows traders to immediately decide and react on breaking news which greatly affects the market price. Another great advantage for investors is that trades which are done in the Forex market do not charge any commission. With the Forex market there are always opportunities to gain a profit. Currencies sometimes weaken and sometimes strengthen. When you trade currencies, they exactly work against each other. For example, if you think that the Euro will decline against the US Dollar or vice versa, you would sell your Euro and later buy Euro again at lower price to earn a profit.

However requotes occur which may lead to decrease of profit and even lose of your investment. Requotes happen when a broker quotes one price but then quotes another. Brokers might even fill your order at a different price commonly higher when you attempt to trade. So before investing your money, make sure to check the policy of the broker regarding requotes.

How to Calculate Rollover Interest?

In the Foreign Exchange Market or Forex market, Rollover is a method of stretching the arranged clearing date or what is known as the settlement date of an open position. Mostly, in common currency trades, trades ought to be completed in two business days and traders who wish to stretch their positions with no intention of settlement must close their positions before 5:00 in the afternoon Eastern Standard Time on the date of settlement day, plus re-opening of them the next trading day. This means by rolling over the position, this at the same time closes the existing positions at the daily close rate and again coming into a new opening rate at the next trading day. This precisely means that the trader is indirectly extending the settlement day by one more day.

This is also known as tomorrow next strategy, it is functional in forex due to many traders have no purpose of getting delivery of the currency they buy but instead they have the intention of getting profit from fluctuating exchange rates. Since rollovers shove out the settlement by another two trading days, it may cause a gain or a cost to the trader depending on the existing rates.

Apparently, Rollover is when you reinvest funds from a mature security into a new issue of the similar security or same security. You are transferring the holdings of one retirement plan to another without the agony of tax effects. Plus a charge is incurred by Forex investors who extend their positions on the following delivery date.

Rollover interest is the net effect of the money borrowed by an investor to purchase another currency and such interest is paid on the borrowed currency and earned on the purchased currency. To calculate this interest, you should get the short-term interest rates on both currencies, the existing exchange rate of the currency pair and the number of the currency pair purchased. For instance, an investor possesses 15,000 CAD/USD. The present rate is 0.9155, the short term interest rate on the Canadian dollar (base currency) is 4.50% plus the short term interest on the US dollar (quoted currency) is 3.75%, so the interest would be $33.66 [{15,000 x (4.50% - 3.75%)} / (365 x 0.9155)].

If on the contrary, the short term interest rate on the base currency is lower than the short term interest rate of the borrowed currency, the interest rate would result into a negative number which may reduce the value of the investor’s account. Such interest can be avoided by taking a closed position on the currency pair. If an option is about to expire is quite favorable to grip, you can either buy or sell the later expiring option. Always note the interest rate that is paid by a currency trader or he may received in the course of these forex trades is considered by the IRS as ordinary interest income or expense. For taxation, the trader of the currency should always keep track the interest received or paid, separate from regular trading gains or losses.

Why Forex Trading

If you want to know why the Forex trading market is superiors to other investor options such as Equities or the futures market, then you can rest assure that you'll find the answer in this page.

The best way to clarify the advantages of the Forex market is through a real example. In 1929, the stock market collapsed, causing many people and businesses from around the world to go broke. This also happened when the high tech bubble burst. The fear of a market crash is a concern that constantly dwells in the minds of investors, both professional and beginner ones.

In the online Forex trading market, There is no way for the market to crash. If you have read about what is the Forex trading market, then you know that when you buy a certain currency, you are at the same time selling another currency. When some currencies' price false, others' price rise.

So this is the most important advantage of Forex day trading. Unlike other markets, where in some cases all traders lose money, with Forex trading there are always traders that make a profit, at any given time.

Here are some other advantages of the Forex trading market:

* No commissions. Only in the Forex trading market are there no government fees, brokerage commissions, exchange fees and other unnecessary losses of cash. There are also low transaction costs between the bid and ask price.
* No middlemen. In this market there are no investors that take a percentage of the investment or the profit, and you transact directly with the pricing market agent.
* You can choose the size of your investment. The Forex trading lot is dynamic, and is set according to your preference. This lot can vary between large lots worth $10,000 to mini lots worth $25.
* High liquidity. In the Forex trading market you can buy and sell your currency at any time and place, regardless of the currency position, when the trade itself is done almost instantaneously.
* Trading in the margin. Forex trading consists of margin investments that increase your chances for higher profits by increasing your money's worth.
* Opened 24 hours a day. Because it's worldwide and operates in several time zones, the Forex trading market is the only market that you can trade in 24 hours a day.

With all of these wonderful advantages, there is no wonder more and more investors choose Forex trading as there main fund for investment. Because all transactions can be done online, you don't even have to leave your house!

Tania Raven, Market Analyst