Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Forex Basics: How Foreign Exchange Currency can make Big Profits

By Berke Amateau

There are two different prices in the Forex market. The bid price and the ask price. The prices do not favor you but the broker. This is the way the broker makes his money so the prices are in his favor. The ask price is always higher than the bid price. Unlike the stock market, when you are trading on the Forex market, you generally buy high and sell low to take advantage of trending markets.

If you want to purchase a currency pair, you will pay whatever the asking price is. For example, if you look at GBP/USD and you think that the pound will become stronger than the dollar, you would try to buy the pound at a lower rate and sell the dollar since you are predicting it will weaken as against the pound. The pound is considered as the "base currency" and will control the trade, which is called a long position.

The price that you sell at is called the bid price. Using the GBP/USD example, if you predict that the dollar will come back and eventually become stronger than the pound, you would take a short position and sell the pound and buy the dollar. The base currency will still control the direction of the trade.

At the time of buying the cross currency or USD in the GBP/USD pair, the signals are reversed. This will result in reduction of the currency pair price. Because you are a seller, your interest is in a decrease in the price of the currency pair you sold, so that you are able to make a profit when you buy them back.

Calculations of the number of pips you earn over a short trade are the same as in a long trade to determine your actual profit. It is best to ignore the purchase or sale price and just figure out the difference between the higher number and the lower number, which will give you your gain or loss.

Ask prices always exceed bid prices. This difference in price is called a spread. This is what the broker will earn as his commission. Brokers make their money based on the volume of trades accomplished and not through individual large commissions.

Spreads are very competitive. The smaller the spread, the more money you get to keep. Brokers try to keep their spreads small to attract customers. Spreads among the more commonly traded currency pairs are usually smaller than others. Trading among the commonly traded pairs is what is known as Sticking with the majors.

About the Author:

No comments: