Friday, October 30, 2009

stock vs forex

When the company does well and makes a profit, the value of the stocks rise. Stock owners can sell their shares for a profit or hold on to the stock for even more gain in the future. Sometimes companies will issue dividends – part of the profits that are distributed to share holders.

Stocks are traded on stock exchanges. Most stocks are bought and sold through brokers who charge a commission or fee for this service. American stock exchanges include the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ). Most stocks are only listed on one exchange, although large companies may have listings on several exchanges.

Stocks were traditionally seen as long term investments. So called ‘blue chip’ stocks – those having proven value over many years – may form the backbone of an investment portfolio. Short term trading is a relatively new phenomenon made possible with the advent of Internet trading. Day traders attempt to take advantage of large daily fluctuations in the market by buying and selling many times in one trading period. It is relatively risky and any profits realized are reduced by broker commissions charged on each transaction.

Stocks may sometimes be bought on margin, meaning that the investor borrows money to buy the stocks. Margin rates are usually around 50% – the investor can borrow as much as half the value of the stock.
FOREX

The Foreign Exchange Market (FOREX) is quite different from the stock exchange. In contrast to the stock exchange, the FOREX is primarily a short term market. Most traders enter and exit deals within a 24 hour period – sometimes within a few minutes. Many FOREX trades can be made in one day without building up a large brokerage fee because FOREX trades are commission free. Brokers earn money by setting a spread – the difference between asking and selling prices.

The FOREX is the largest financial market in the world. It is handles transactions worth $1.5 trillion every day. By comparison, all the American stock exchanges combined handle daily transactions worth about $100 billion. The huge volume of FOREX means that it is one of the most liquid markets in the world. There is always a buyer and seller for any type of currency because the world economy relies on the movement of goods from country to country. The stock market is less liquid because participants may choose to hold their investments or move on to other markets.

The FOREX is not located in any one location. Trading markets are located world-wide and because of difference in time-zones trades can be made 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Trading begins in Sydney, Australia on Monday morning (Sunday afternoon New York time) and continues non-stop until Friday afternoon New York time.

Stock exchanges have more limited trading hours. While it is possible to trade on exchanges world-wide, each exchange is independent and operates for just 7 hours a day. There is no way to buy or sell a certain stock that is only traded on one stock exchange when that exchange is closed.

Other advantages of FOREX? It is more predictable than stocks. It follows well established trends; it allows high leverage – typically 100:1 instead of 2:1 on the stock market; and it doesn’t require a large investment – mini accounts as small as $250 can get you started in FOREX.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Basics of Forex Trading (what is forex?)

Once you become familiar with how the forex market works,and how to work with forex, and you understand to a point what is involved in trading on the Foreign Exchange Market, you would want to start to gauge market trends in order to profit from your business ventures on the open market.

The name of the game is statistics, and the first rule is that you must be aware there is no such thing as a sure thing on the forex market. While you can never be 100% sure at any given time of the next move that will be made on the market as a whole, being able to read statistics and interpret them will place you ahead of the pack in regards to “guessing” what will happen next.

Forex trading is a lot like gambling. If you can keep track of the cards that have already been played, you are more informed, statistically, regarding what is likely to be dealt next, meaning you can place a bet with greater insight than someone who has no clue what has already been played. With the forex market, if you have information as to what has already occurred over the past few days, months, or even years, you are again placed in a better position to more logically conclude what will happen next. You simply learn the pattern and follow it to the end, reaping the financial rewards.

With a lot of traders gradually becoming aware of these forex bots, many of them have attested to the marketing advantage of these forex indicators. One of the trademarks of these forex autopilots is that it facilitates the monitoring of forex market even if a trader is inactive. This calls for an incessant 24/7 monitoring with forex signals coming in real time as a means of updating a trader of the next best thing to employ.

Self study is also a good way to learn Forex basic and advanced strategies. Again, if you have chosen an excellent Forex broker, you can get lots of reading materials and online resources from it. You can still do this yourself and search for good online articles that could teach you how to trade at the Forex market. Simply visit any article database site and browse for topics about Forex. Choose the ones that provide detailed instructions on how to trade currencies. This is also the best way to learn Forex trading for free.

The next best thing to do to learn forex is to look for different forex strategies. If you’re a kind of trader who wants to put a limit to his trade, then you better employ the stop loss strategy. Those who are open for supplementary funds and resources apart from the deposited amount can go for the leverage strategy. And, those traders who are only into buying currencies when the market is at its favorable state can go for the automatic entry strategy. All these and more should be a trader’s way of dealing in this kind of market. You can also learn forex from forex brokers. However, you have to ensure that you’re dealing with a legitimate one and be wiser enough to outwit swindlers.

As a final point, you can learn forex and be rich only if you know how to appositely handle and maintain your status in the forex market. As the rule implies, know when the best time to trade to create streams of income and the time not to trade to avoid profit losses. It is as simple as that.

Forex Trading review

There are three general terms used to describe the trading of the many currencies of the world. These terms are Foreign Exchange, (Forex or FX. The Forex market is the largest trading market in the world with over 3 trillion USD traded every day.

The Forex market doesn’t operate at a centralized location like other financial markets (i.e., the stock exchange). It is a global electronic network of banks, financial institutions and individual Forex traders, all involved in the buying and selling of national currencies. The main centres for Forex trading are Sydney, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt and New York.

The main feature of the Forex market is that it operates corresponding to the opening and closing of financial centers in countries all across the world. Trading times are 24 hours a day from Sunday evening (20:00 GMT) to Friday evening (22:00 GMT). At any time, in any location, there are buyers and sellers, making the Forex market the most liquid market in the world.

Forex was originally only accessible to banks & financial institutions. Due to the advances in technology such as increased internet speeds & more user friendly online services, the Forex market is now available to individuals. Individuals can access & trade the world’s currencies right from the comfort of their own home or workplace.