There are many reasons why millions of traders across the world want to trade the Forex Markets, but we are going to focus on the top benefits:
Ability to go long or go short
While you can go short on other markets by using derivative products, such as CFDs, short selling is an inherent part of trading forex. This is because you are always selling one currency (the quote currency) to buy another (the base currency). The price of a forex pair is how much one unit of the base currency is worth in the quote currency.
For example, in the forex pair EURUSD, EUR is the base currency and USD is the quote currency. If EURUSD is trading at 1.12156, then one EURO is worth 1.12156 USD. If you think that the EUR is going to increase against the USD, you would buy the pair (going long). If you think that the EURO will decrease in value against the USD, you would sell the pair (going short). Your profit or loss will depend on the extent to which you get your prediction right, meaning it is possible to profit whichever way the market moves.
Forex market hours
The foreign exchange market is open 24 hours a day, five days a week – forex can be traded from 9pm Sunday to 10pm Friday (GMT). These long hours are because forex transactions are completed between parties directly, over the counter (OTC), rather than through a central exchange. And because forex is a truly global market, you can always take advantage of different active session’s forex trading hours.
It is important to remember that the forex market’s opening hours will vary in March, April, October and November, as countries shift to daylight savings on different days.
Does forex trade on weekends?
The forex market closes on Friday night at 10pm (UK time) and does not open again until 9pm (UK time) on Sunday evening. However, because the market is only closed to retail traders (not central banks and related organisations), forex trading actually does take place over the weekend. This means that there can be a difference in price between Friday close and Sunday open – known as a gap.
Traders need to be highly aware of the weekend forex trading hours and alter their positions accordingly. If you do not want to expose your position to the risk of gapping, you may want to consider closing your position on Friday evening or placing stops and limits to manage this risk.
High liquidity in forex
The FX market is the most liquid market in the world, meaning there are a large number of buyers and sellers looking to make a trade at any given time. Each day, over $6 trillion dollars of currency is converted by individuals, companies and banks – and the vast majority of this activity is intended to generate a profit.
The high liquidity in forex means that transactions can be completed quickly and easily, so the transaction costs – or spreads – are often very low. This creates opportunities for traders to speculate on price movements of just a few pips.
Average global daily trading volume
As of 2020 the average daily forex trade exceeded 6.4 trillion USD
Forex volatility
The high volume of currency trades each day translates to billions of dollars every minute, which makes the price movements of some currencies extremely volatile. You can potentially reap large profits by speculating on price movements in either direction. However, volatility is a double-edged sword – the market can quickly turn against you, so it’s important to limit your exposure with risk-management tools.
Leverage can make your money go further
Brokerages offers a way to trade foreign exchange pairs using CFDs. CFDs are leveraged, which can make your money go further. Leverage in forex enables you to open a position on the currency market by paying just a small proportion of the full value of the position up front.
The profit or loss you make will reflect the full value of the position at the point it is closed, so trading on margin offers an opportunity to make large profits from a relatively small investment. However, it can also amplify any losses, meaning losses could exceed your initial deposit. For this reason, it’s important to consider the total value of the leveraged forex position before trading CFDs.
Trade a wide range of currency pairs
Forex trading gives you the opportunity to trade a wide variety of currency pairs, speculating on global events and the relative strength of major and minor economies.
You can choose from over 90 currency pairs, including:
· Major currency pairs, eg GBP/USD, EUR/USD, and USD/JPY
· Minor pairs, eg USD/ZAR, SGB/JPY, CAD/CHF
· Emerging currency pairs, eg USD/CNH, EUR/RUB and AUD/CNH
· Exotic pairs, eg EUR/CZK, TRY/JPY, USD/MXN
These pairs are all available to trade from the same account via a single login.
Hedge with forex
Hedging is a technique that can be used to reduce the risk of unwanted moves in the forex market, by opening multiple strategic positions. Although volatility is part of what makes forex so exciting, hedging can be a good way of mitigating loss or limiting it to a known amount.
There are a variety of strategies you can use to hedge forex, but one of the most common is hedging with multiple currency pairs. By choosing forex pairs that are positively correlated, such as GBP/USD and EUR/USD, but taking positions in opposite directions, you can limit your downside risk. For example, a loss on a short EUR/USD position could be mitigated by a long position on GBP/USD.
Alternatively, you could use forex to hedge against loss in other markets, such as commodities. For example, because the USD/CAD generally has an inverse relationship with crude oil, it is commonly used as a hedge against falling oil prices.
Access tools to help you trade
Range of trading platforms on web, mobile and tablet, as well as specialist platforms for those looking to take their trading to the next level. You can get access to a range of features designed to help improve your trading, including risk management tools – like stops and limits – as well as interactive charts and integrated news feeds like in the MT5.
You can Now Learn this and much more in our Module 1
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