Forex Facts! Did you KNOW?

Forex Facts! Did you KNOW?

The Foreign Exchange Market was established in 1971 with the abolishment of fixed currency exchanges. Currencies became valued at 'floating' rates determined by supply and demand. The FOREX grew steadily throughout the 1970's, but with the technological advances of the 80's FOREX grew from trading levels of $70 billion a day to the current level of over $2.3 trillion.

The FOREX is made up of about 5000 trading institutions such as international banks, central government banks (such as the US Federal Reserve), and commercial companies and brokers for all types of foreign currency exchange.There is no centralized location of FOREX – major trading centers are located in New York, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, and Frankfurt, and all trading is by telephone or over the Internet. Businesses use the market to buy and sell products in other countries, but most of the activity on the FOREX is from currency traders who use it to generate profits from small movements in the market.

Even though there are many huge players in FOREX, it is accessible to the small investor thanks to recent changes in the regulations. Previously, there was a minimum transaction size and traders were required to meet strict financial requirements. With the advent of Internet trading, regulations have been changed to allow large interbank units to be broken down into smaller lots. Each lot is worth about $100,000 and is accessible to the individual investor through 'leverage' – loans extended for trading. Typically, lots can be controlled with a leverage of 100:1 meaning that US$1,000 will allow you to control a $100,000 currency exchange.
The advantages to trading in FOREX

• Liquidity - Because of the size of the Foreign Exchange Market, investments are extremely liquid. International banks are continuously providing bid and ask offers and the high number of transactions each day means there is always a buyer or a seller for any currency.
• Accessibility – The market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The market opens Monday morning Australian time and closes Friday afternoon New York time. Trades can be done on the Internet from your home or office.
• Open Market – Currency fluctuations are usually caused by changes in national economies. News about these changes is accessible to everyone at the same time – there can be no 'insider trading' in FOREX.
• No commission – Brokers earn money by setting a 'spread' – the difference between what a currency can be bought at and what it can be sold at.

How does it work?

Currencies are always traded in pairs – the US dollar against the Japanese yen, or the English pound against the euro. Every transaction involves selling one currency and buying another, so if an investor believes the euro will gain against the dollar, he will sell dollars and buy euros.

The potential for profit exists because there is always movement between currencies. Even small changes can result in substantial profits because of the large amount of money involved in each transaction. At the same time, it can be a relatively safe market for the individual investor. There are safeguards built in to protect both the broker and the investor and a number of software tools exist to minimize loss.
Forex has been called 'the ultimate asset class.'

It has never ever experienced an across-the-board bear market. It can't!

In fact, it is completely crash-proof!

Nor has it ever been sullied by corporate corruption.

The Last Sanctuary From the Excesses of the Greenspan Era.
Greenspan's liquidity super cycle has made the markets an expensive, over-extended and dangerous place to shop. After a devastating market crash in 2001, blue-chip stocks are once again at or near all-time highs. Commodities - from copper to coffee...from sugar to silicon...from oil to gold – have risen 100-500% in the last five years.

Emerging markets from India to Indonesia...from Russia to Argentina have soared. Housing markets from Beijing to Boston...from London to LA are sky-high. Even yields on T-bills have almost doubled in the past few years. In a world of bubbles, there has never been a more important time for this exclusive asset class.
Even though it is one of the oldest, biggest, most liquid (and fastest growing) on the planet, and even though it is far less volatile than stocks, and is infinitely easier to read, to predict and to play...it is still very new to the mainstream investor.

Always a Bull Market!
The currency market also has many unique advantages not shared by any other asset class. In fact, it boasts a secret advantage that makes the opportunities that lie in it shine above all the rest.
For example, currencies (as an asset class) are:

• The Most Liquid Market on Earth! It's the shop that never closes. And you'll always find a buyer - and a seller - even when the broader market's getting blown to bits! As the president and CEO of Global Forex Trading, Gray Tilkin recently said: The currency market -- open 24 hours a day, six days a week -- "is the best speculative market to trade in because it's got more liquidity than other markets."
• The Last Truly Great FREE Market! Unlike other financial markets, the FOREX market has no physical location, no central exchange. It operates through a global network of banks, corporations and individuals trading one currency for another.

That's why it can operate 24 hours a day. Prices are set on computer screens. Because of this, and because of its sheer size it's difficult for any one government, central banker or big player to fiddle with its price. In other words, it's hard to get duped in the currency markets. And while government and central banks do intervene in the markets at times, these are often golden opportunities to rake in easy gains.

• Always in a Bull Market! While other markets experience booms and busts, the FOREX market can't. You'll always find a bull somewhere. Many, in fact! For every currency that's going down, there's always another that's going up. By definition, if the Swiss franc is appreciating against the U.S. dollar, then you could say that the Franc is in a bull market, and the U.S. dollar is in a bear market. BUT what if the yen is plummeting even harder than the dollar? Then the dollar is still in a bull market in comparison to the yen. And even if you live in the U.S., and already have all your assets in dollars, you can still benefit from a rising dollar as easily as buying a stock.
• It's the only market in the world that's always full of bulls! They're everywhere.
• Safeguard Against Crashes! Currencies rarely ever lose more than 1% in a day. Compare that to stocks where individual companies can see 50% of their stock price wiped away in a day, and where 5-10% can be wiped off the entire market in a week! The currency markets, on the other hand, are crash proof. In essence, they are a zero-sum game.

If one currency falls, another must rise. You'll experience no Meltdown Mondays or Panic Fridays in the FOREX market. While individual currencies can crash, these crashes are easy to spot...and in fact, it's at these times that you can make explosive profits.

• So Much Easier to Play than Stocks! While there are tens of thousands of securities to choose from, there are only 175 major currencies. And even if you are lucky enough to find a stock or a sector that looks promising these days - there are still so many uncalculated risks one needs to be wary of. Corporate corruption. Shady accounting practices. Rogue CEOs. New technological risks. Commodity risks. Overwhelming competition. And too many other risks, that it's impossible for any one person to calculate them all. Currencies on the other hand are easy to follow and easy to read - despite what the experts might have you believe. By playing the currency markets, you can say goodbye to the infinite complexities and risks of the broader market – and enter a whole new trading universe.

The Currency Market's Greatest Secret
One of the most widely proliferated myths surrounding currency trading is that it is a very risky game and far too complicated for the average investor, and that it should only be left to the professionals. But nothing could be further from the truth. And it's this kind of herd mentality that may get a lot of investors into serious trouble in the years ahead. In fact, it's risky not to be invested in foreign currencies, and it's risky not to follow them ... While short-term currency trading can be highly risky, that's not what I'm talking about here.

I'm talking about currencies for the long run.
Despite what the traders on TV might have you believe, there's no simpler, surer game in global markets.
While short-term currency movements are extremely difficult to predict, long-term movements are the exact opposite. And while traders and bank analysts on TV may offer up all manner of excuses why a currency moved the way it did i.e. oil price spikes, turmoil in the Middle East, Central bank intervention, soaring deficits etc. - you can forget all that! It's just white noise. .

Currencies are 'The Gold of the New Wild West'
Currency markets boast one major advantage that sets them apart from all other markets on Earth today. While currencies may have been traded for over 4,000 years - as an asset class - they have been overlooked! Most people still see currencies as an external threat, and one that lies beyond their reach and control. It is largely only central banks, Fortune 500 companies, the billionaires and professional traders that participate in the enormous $2.3 trillion-a-day currency markets. And only a small portion of this volume is made up of speculators trading for profits. The rest is merely day-to-day transactions from business-to-business and bank-to-bank.
The masses on the other hand have ignored currency markets. Slighted them. Even feared them! This has rewarded the bold players who have marched into them extraordinary opportunities to profit.

They are venturing across uncharted trading territory that is saturated with gold.

Yet where are the prospectors? They are all in stocks chasing the next big thing. While there are over 90 million stock market investors in the U.S. today, by comparison there are only a handful of currency traders.

Stocks, historically, have been looked upon as the ultimate path to riches. The end-all, be-all. For over two centuries, they have been analyzed, charted, studied, torn apart and put back together. Tens of thousands of economists have dissected them. Thousands of important books have been written about them. Billions of man-hours have been devoted to unlocking the secrets of the securities markets.

This means that stocks are well understood. The punters know how to evaluate them. Wall Street and Main Street are ripe with opinions on what's cheap, and what's not, what's hot, and what's not. Yet ask them about currencies, and they wouldn't have a clue.
While thousands of books have been written about stocks, only a hand-full have been written about currencies. Few have analyzed them. Few have traded them. And because very few punters know how to value a currency, they tend to get completely out of whack with their true valuations. It's because the traders don't understand the fundamentals, so all they have left to act on is their own emotions.