Would you like to start trading forex but feel like success depends on finding the alchemist’s stone? Do currency quotes, technical indicators, economic data sound like Merlin’s Book of Magic to you? Forex trading involves significant risk, and learning takes time. This course will get you started and give you a better understanding of the fundamentals of currency trading. Our educational material will guide you through the jungle of pips, lots and chart patterns and aspires to introduce you to the markets. Our main purpose is to hasten the learning process by supplying you the most useful information in the simplest manner possible. With the power you’ll gain by the knowledge in these pages, you’ll be more prepared to meet the markets. Stick around to see our Forex Trading for Beginners course.
Part 1: How to Read a Currency Quote
Forex trading is a form of commodity trading. In the commodity market traders buy and sell assets like oil or gold in exchange for currencies. In the forex (currency trading) market the assets bought and sold are currencies themselves. As a result, unlike in the commodity, each currency’s value is determined relative to another. For example, when the currency trader buys an ounce of gold, he must pay for it with the US dollar, which creates a quote in which the price of the metal is defined in terms of a currency which is another asset class. But when the forex trader buys or sells the Euro, he must pay for it with another currency (Australian dollar, Swiss Franc, etc) in which case the quote created has the same asset class on both sides. The result of this is that it is impossible to speak of absolute value in the forex market because it is possible to value the Euro in dollars, Francs, or Yen, each being a valid choice as a value indicator. In the case of stocks, or commodities, the value can only be indicated in USD; therefore it is possible to speak of an absolute value.
How to Read and Understand a Currency Quote
Upon downloading and opening the software of your chosen forex broker, the first concept that you will encounter is the forex price quote. The quote is simply the record of a previous transaction in which a currency pair changed hands. When two financial actors exchange currencies, the price at which the transaction occurred is called a quote. Let’s see this with an example.
EUR/USD 1.3524
In the above quote, the currency on the left side is the currency which was bought by us, while the one on the right is the one that we sold to finance our purchase. The number signifies the value at which the currencies were exchanged. Or to put it in a short and simple mathematical form, when we bought 1 Euro, the value of one Euro was equal to 1.35 USD, and we had to pay that much to buy the currency.
Upon executing the trade, we are now long the Euro, and short the dollar (we bought the Euro, and sold the dollar.), in other words, we have an open position. The principle of profit in currency trading is the same as in all other kinds of trading activity: to buy cheap, and to sell expensive is our purpose. Consequently, we will wait for the value of the Euro to rise above 1.35, to for instance, 1.38, where we will be able to close our position by selling the Euro and buying back the dollars, and making a profit. Since our base currency is the dollar, our profit will also be measured in dollars.
Let’s solidify this with an example:
We buy 1,000 EUR for 1,350 USD, with the quote at 1.35. We wait until the quote is at 1.38, when we close our position by selling our 1,000 Euro at 1,380 USD. Since our initial trade was worth 1,350 USD, the difference between 1,380 and 1,350, that is, 30 dollars, becomes our profit.
Next, part 2 >> What are Pips, Lots, Margin and Leverage >>
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