What is forex trading?
Forex trading is the means through which one currency is changed into another. When trading forex, you are always trading a currency pair – selling one currency while simultaneously buying another.To get more news about FXBTG大旗金融, you can visit wikifx.com official website.
Each currency in the pair is listed as a three-letter code, which tends to be formed of two letters that stand for the region, and one standing for the currency itself. For example, USD stands for the US dollar and JPY for the Japanese yen. In the USD/JPY pair, you are buying the US dollar by selling the Japanese yen.
Some of the most frequently traded FX pairs are the euro versus the US dollar (EUR/USD), the British pound against the euro (GBP/EUR), and the British pound versus the US dollar (GBP/USD).
Because forex trading requires leverage and traders use margin, there are additional risks to forex trading than other types of assets. Currency prices are constantly fluctuating, but at very small amounts, which means traders need to execute large trades (using leverage) to make money.
This leverage is great if a trader makes a winning bet because it can magnify profits. However, it can also magnify losses, even exceeding the initial amount borrowed. In addition, if a currency falls too much in value, leverage users open themselves up to margin calls, which may force them to sell their securities purchased with borrowed funds at a loss. Outside of possible losses, transaction costs can also add up and possibly eat into what was a profitable trade.
On top of all that, you should keep in mind that those who trade foreign currencies are little fish swimming in a pond of skilled, professional traders—and the Securities and Exchange Commission warns about potential fraud or information that could be confusing to new traders.
Perhaps it’s a good thing then that forex trading isn’t so common among individual investors. In fact, retail trading (a.k.a. trading by non-professionals) accounts for just 5.5% of the entire global market, figures from DailyForex show, and some of the major online brokers don’t even offer forex trading.
What’s more, of the few retailer traders who engage in forex trading, most struggle to turn a profit with forex. CompareForexBrokers found that, on average, 71% of retail FX traders lost money. This makes forex trading a strategy often best left to the professionals.
While the average investor probably shouldn’t dabble in the forex market, what happens there does affect all of us. The real-time activity in the spot market will impact the amount we pay for exports along with how much it costs to travel abroad.
If the value of the U.S. dollar strengthens relative to the euro, for example, it will be cheaper to travel abroad (your U.S. dollars can buy more euros) and buy imported goods (from cars to clothes). On the flip side, when the dollar weakens, it will be more expensive to travel abroad and import goods (but companies that export goods abroad will benefit).
If you’re planning to make a big purchase of an imported item, or you’re planning to travel outside the U.S., it’s good to keep an eye on the exchange rates that are set by the forex market.
