by Steve Maenshel
How to trade Forex? Trading Forex is actually quite simple. Forex trading involves merely choosing a currency pair, the amount of the base currency and the buy or sell action. Next you place your order and wait for the favorable time to perform a counter transaction to derive profits. How to trade Forex and make profit? Learn to place your orders correctly by trading on a demo account for a period of time.
Trading with a Demo Account
The easiest way to learn how to trade Forex is using a demo account. Any mistake that you make while trading on a demo account will not incur any losses. For example, if you buy or sell the currency at the wrong time, if you click the “wrong button” while trading, and so forth. Give your demo trading enough time. Jumping into live trades before you do your homework will merely put you among the 90% of the day traders, who fail in Forex.
Currency Pairs
Currency pairs represent two currencies paired together against one another. Which currency pair to choose from the multitude of currency pairs? Its probably a good idea to start with the most traded currency, which is nowadays USD/EUR. Try to first understand the traits, which are unique, particularly for this currency pair. How does this currency fluctuate? What may be the reasons of the fluctuations? Which currency in this pair seems to be going up and which seems to be going down, and why? Every currency pair has different reasons for fluctuations. It is better to learn one currency pair before advancing to the next one. Study the currencies and currency pairs, and you will be well on the way to learning how to trade Forex.
Currency Quotes in Forex trades
Learn to understand the currency quotes, because Forex trades are done in terms of quotes. Quotes are two-sided, and involve two prices: Bid price (price at which base currency will be sold, simultaneously buying the counter currency) and Ask price (price at which base currency will be bought, simultaneously selling the counter currency). Understanding of Bid/Ask is one of the first steps in learning how to trade Forex.
First currency in the quote is the base currency, and second currency is the counter currency (also called quote currency or terms currency). In the example of the USD/EUR currency pair, USD is the base currency and EUR is the counter currency. The value of the base currency is always 1. The value of the counter currency is calculated against the base currency, i.e., 1 USD = 0.7422 EUR. Prices in the terms of quotes are expressed through pips, which are usually the 4th decimal point. Once you understand the currency pairs, you will be well on your way in the process of learning how to trade Forex.
Margin and Leverage
Leverage is what your dealer is willing to give you based on the amount of your margin. Trading on margin often sounds very appealing for the novice Forex traders since in this case, leverage would allow you to make substantially larger profits. However, you should realize that your losses in the case of trading on a margin may also become colossal. Dealers often offer 100:1 ratio of leverage to margin. Such a large leverage would allow you to trade with a lot of lots at the same time raising your chances of both profits and losses 100 times. How to trade Forex and stay calm? Do not trade on a margin.
Dealers often act like banks – even if you lose, all they want to do is to give you more money, so you can return more to them. If you lose more, they will give you even more. Until they stop giving you anything, and now you are the one who has to give everything back to them. The result will be a disaster. As well as more money to trade with will not help you learn faster how to trade Forex. Do not fall for the leverage bait. Trade with your own money and do not go in debt.
To learn how to trade Forex, understand currency pairs, currency quotes, and trade on a demo account for a few months. How to trade Forex without large losses? Do not trade on margin and only use the money that you can afford to
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