How To Be A Foreign Exchange Trader
Being a forex or foreign exchange trader no longer means you have to work for a
bank in one of the world's financial centers. These days you can trade on your own
behalf, from anywhere.
Since the rise of the internet many people are doing this from their own homes,
making money in their spare time or even making a full time income. But what is
forex trading and how does it work?
A foreign exchange trader deals in currencies. He or she will sell one currency
that seems to be falling in value, to buy another that seems to be rising. There
are always two currencies involved in a trade (a currency pair) because when you
want to buy dollars you have to have another currency to exchange for them.
In the beginning it is best to be involved with just one currency pair. Most people
start out trading in the EUR/USD market, that is the euro against the US dollar.
This is the biggest forex market. There is plenty of information available for this
market and it tends to have lower costs and be relatively stable.
Nevertheless forex is a very volatile market. This means that the prices can rise
and fall steeply and quickly. The risk is high. It is easy to lose money. In fact,
some losses are inevitable, so you should manage your account so that you never
risk too much on one trade. You can use stop losses so that your broker will automatically
sell if the price goes a certain way against you. The aim is not to have no losses,
but to make sure that your profits are higher than your losses so that you end up
with a net gain.
You will need access to a computer with a high speed internet connection any time
that you want to trade. Unless you use a robot to control your currency trading,
you will also need time where you can concentrate on learning a profitable system
and then on trading itself. You pretty much need to be able to lock yourself away
in a room to do this, at least for a couple hours a day. It is no good trying to
trade from your desk at your day job with your boss interrupting you, or using a
computer in the family den with kids climbing on your knees wanting to play games.
You must be fully concentrated on the movements in the market or you could miss
the right moment to either open or close a trade.
If you are a cautious person who likes a solid investment with predictable low returns,
you should not become a currency trader. Forex traders are people who enjoy risk
and love the challenge of trying to turn a profit in a fast moving market.
It helps if you are strongly focused on your goals and not easily swayed by emotion.
It is important not to let fears of losses or dreams of huge wealth divert you from
your strategy. You also need to stay aware of financial news, not only in your own
country but in all of the major world powers, because this will affect the forex
markets. With these characteristics and a good trading system in place, a foreign
exchange trader can reap substantial gains from his or her investment.
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