Understanding Forex Quotes

Quoting Foreign Currency

Currencies are always quoted in pairs. Each pair of currencies thus constitutes an individual product and is traditionally noted XXX/YYY, where YYY is the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currency into which the price of one unit of XXX currency is expressed.

The first currency in the quotes act as the 'base currency'.

For example USD/JPY, EUR/GBP, and GBP/AUD, in such cases, USD, Euro Dollar, and Britain Pound are acting as the base currency. Base currency in a Forex quote will always has a value of 1. USD/JPY indicates how much Japanese Yens you can buy with 1 United States Dollar; similarly EUR/GBP indicates the exchange rate of Great Britain Pound with 1 Euro Dollar.

FX Quoting: Bid/Ask and Spread

There are sometimes that you can only see one price but often currency exchange price are display in pairs with 'bid price and ask price'.

For example EUR/USD 1.2385/1.2390, 1.2385 is known as the bidding price, while 1.2390 is the asking price. Bidding price is the price that you sell the base currency (EUR in our case here); asking price is the price that you buy the base currency. The different of the bidding and the asking price is called 'spread'.

You might notice that bidding price is always lower than the asking price. Ever wonder why? The different of the bid-ask price (socall 'spread') is how currency brokers make profits without charging commissions to their clients (sell high and buy low in the same time.)

What's a pip?

A pip is the smallest value in a Forex quote. Take our example earlier on EUR/USD. If the exchange rate goes from 1.2385 to 1.2386; that's one pip. In mathematical definition, a pip means the last decimal place of a quotation.

Note that as each currency has its own value, the value of a pip is different from one another. Say USD/JPY rate at 120.75, a pip would be 0.01 (the second decimal place); while for EUR/USD 1.2385, a pip would be 0.0001 (the fourth decimal place).

Example of Forex Quotes

Confused about the quotes? Don't worry too much about it, you'll get used to them as soon as you move on and start your trades.

For the beginners, here are some quick examples. Try not look at the answer and determine the value of bid price, ask price, spread value, and the pip value.

EUR/USD 1.2385/1.2390

• Base currency= Eur
• Bid price= 1.2385; Ask price= 1.2390
• When selling Euros, 1 Euro = USD$1.2385; when buying Euros, USD$1.2390 = 1 Euro.
• Spread = 1.2385 - 1.2390 = 0.0005
• Pip value= 0.0001

EUR/JPY 127.95/128.00

• Base currency= Eur
• Bid price= 127.95; Ask price= 128.00
• When selling Euros, 1 Euro = JPY127.95; when buying Euros, JPY128.00 = 1 Euro.
• Spread = 127.95 - 128.00 = 0.05
• Pip value= 0.01

GBP/USD 1.7400/10

• Base currency= GBP
• Bid price= 1.7400; Ask price= 1.7410
• When selling Pound, 1 Pound = USD$1.7400; when buying Pound, USD$1.7410 = 1 Pound.
• Spread = 1.7400 - 1.7410 = 0.001
• Pip value= 0.0001

USD/JPY 119.8

• Base currency= USD
• No bid-ask price is displayed, spread value not available.
• Pip value= 0.1

Getting used to the quotes now? Well, don't feel down if you're still slow... you'll be picking up on reading them as you move along.

Article source: http://www.golearnforex.net/

Learn How to Trade in Forex Market from the Basics

Forex trading is well known as a lucrative way to make money online. It has become an essential part for investor’s portfolio as you can gain thousands in minutes by trading currencies. For those who are new to the forex trading, Forex means Foreign Exchange Market where it involves buying and selling the different currencies of the world. Profits are made through the difference of selling and buying price - you earn when you buy-low and sell-high.

Forex market is a 24-hour market. The trade begins each day in Sydney, and moves around the globe to Tokyo, London, and then New York. Unlike any other financial market, investors can respond to money-value fluctuations caused by economic, social and political events at the time they occur - day or night. Major currencies traded nowadays are U.S. dollars, Australian Dollars, Japanese Yens, British Pounds, Swiss Francs, Canadian Dollars, and the Euro Dollars.

In the past, small speculators are not allowed to trade Forex freely as it is now. The minimum required business sizes are large and the financial requirements for trading foreign currencies are strict. Only huge multi-national cooperation and banks are able to fit into the business. In fact, large international banks are still the main players in currency exchange market. Deutsche Bank is one of the top currency traders; along with other major banks like UBS, Citi Group, HSBC, Barclays, J. P. Morgan Chase, Coldman Sachs, ABN Amro, Morgan Stanley, and Merril Lynch; these banks are said to be responsible for more than 70% trades in currency market. Forex trade is not open to the publics until year 1998, where big sized inter-bank units are sliced into smaller pieces and offered to individual traders.

It is simple to get started in Forex trading, an funded Forex account and a computer connected to the Internet is more than enough to get started. However, to start trading and become a successful Forex trader are totally different. Trading Forex is a high risks game and traders should always follow certain principals, listed below are a few of must-do’s when trading in Forex market.

1. Educate yourself before trading in Forex market

As in any trading markets, building up your trading skills and knowledge is the very first step that you must take. To further your learning in Forex trading, seminars, workshops, video tutorials, online learning, or even books are handful to help us learn from the professional.

2. Having a trading plans

A good trading plan is needed no matter you are a beginner or an expert in Forex trading. The Forex market itself is just a vehicle, to go to your desired destination, which is to gain profit and achieve financial freedom in our case, you have to drive your vehicle with maps and navigations. How much do you want to earn from the trades? How much you can afford to lose if things go wrong? What is the amount of capital you are putting in? Answer the questions to yourself when you are setting your trading plan. If you fail to plan, you are indeed plan to fail.

3. Mature mindsets and discipline trading

Trading Forex with discipline is very important. Success in Forex trading could not be achieved by only plotting out the best trading plan. It is also depends on implementing the trading plan. Be disciplined, trade according to your plan and never trade with your emotion. Greed will stop you from taking profit at predetermined level; while fear will stop you from making the nice kill in the market.

Without a doubt, Forex is getting more and more popular. There are less restrictions in FOREX market. No limited market access, no liquidity issues-after market hours, zero commission fees, low capital requirements, and no restrictions on short selling. However, the risks in Forex trading should not be taken for granted. As you can always trade in margin, you might lose a lot more than you can afford if you don’t plan your investment wisely. Seminars, e-Books, Internet, papers, plus video courses are all you need first before getting involved in the market.

Article source: http://www.golearnforex.net/