Free Forex learning class

The Foreign exchange market is a nonstop cash market where currencies of nations are traded, typically via brokers. Foreign currencies are constantly and simultaneously bought and sold across local and global markets and traders' investments increase or decrease in value based upon currency movements. Foreign exchange market conditions can change at any time in response to real-time events.

The participants in the currency exchange markets have traditionally been the central and commercial banks, corporations, institutional investors, and hedge funds managers. In 2002, Bank of America alone made a $530 Million profit in Forex trading as stated on their annual statement under "Global Investment Income". In 1986, Caterpillar made a 100 Million profit in Forex trading and would have actually had an operating loss for the year on their normal business if it were not for that profit from Forex. In 2003, half of Daimler Chryslers 2Q operating profit was from currency trades, making more money on foreign exchange than by selling cars.

Due to its popularity and the potential for very lucrative returns on investment, many private investors have also migrated into this fast growing arena. Some of the major reasons why private investors are attracted to currency exchange market and short-term Forex trading are:

* The Forex market is open for business around the clock. Nonstop 24 hours a-day 7 days a- week access to global Forex dealers are at the disposal of the trader.
* The Forex market is the biggest market in the world. It is an enormous liquid

market, with a daily turnover of more than 2.5 trillion dollars, making it easy to trade most currencies around the clock.
* The Forex markets can be very volatile due to the interdependencies of the world economy on current events. As such, the Forex market offers opportunities for huge profit potentials that are derived from volatilities of world currency prices.
* The Forex Market contains inherent standard instruments for controlling risk exposure.
* An investor has the ability to profit in both a rising or falling market.
* The investor can maintain leveraged trading with relatively low margin requirements.
* The Forex trader has many options for zero commission trading.

Just like in any other market, the goal of the investor in Forex trading is to make profits from price movements. In Forex trading, an investor makes money by trading foreign currencies and the trading is always done in currency pairs. For example, the exchange rate of EUR/USD on Jan 15th, 2004 was 1.0757. This number is also referred to as a "Forex rate" or just "rate" for short. If the investor had bought 1000 euros on that date, he would have paid 1075.70 U.S. dollars. One year later, the Forex rate was 1.2083, which means that the value of the euro (the numerator of the EUR/USD ratio) increased in relation to the U.S. dollar. The investor could now sell the 1000 euros in order to receive 1208.30 dollars. Therefore, the investor would have USD 122.90 more than what he had started one year earlier. However, to know if the investor made a good investment, one needs to compare this investment option to alternative investments. At the very minimum, the return on investment (ROI) should be compared to the return on a "risk-free" investment. One example of a risk- free investment is long-term U.S. government bonds since there is practically no chance for a default, i.e. the U.S. government going bankrupt or being unable or unwilling to pay its debt obligation.
The whole premise behind trading currencies is that, the investor trades only when he expects the currency that he is buying to increase in value relative to the currency he is selling. If the currency he is buying does increase in value, he must sell back the other currency in order to lock in a profit. An open position is a trade in which a trader has bought or sold a particular currency pair and has not yet sold or bought back the equivalent amount to close the position. However, it is estimated that anywhere from 70%-90% of the FX market is speculative. In other words, the person or institution that bought or sold the currency has no plan to actually take delivery of the currency in the end; rather, they were solely speculating on the movement of that particular currency. Most of the remaining percentage of the forex market belongs to hedging (managing business exposures to various currencies ) and other activities.

Forex trades (trading onboard internet platforms) are non-delivery trades, i.e., currencies are not physically traded, but rather there are currency contracts which are agreed upon and performed. Both parties to such contracts ( the trader and the trading platform ) undertake to fulfill their obligations: one side undertakes to sell the amount specified, and the other undertakes to buy it. As mentioned, over 70% of the market activity is for speculative purposes, so there is no intention on either side to actually perform the contract (i.e., the physical delivery of the currencies). Thus, the contract ends by offsetting it against an opposite position, resulting in the profit and loss of the parties involved.