What is Forex?

Foreign exchange (Forex or FX) is the cross-country exchange of currencies and is, single handedly, the largest and most liquid financial market in the world. With an estimated $4 trillion in currencies traded in a single day, it eclipses the trading of other types of commodities. Unlike other commodity trading, Forex has no centralised exchange and is traded primarily through banks, brokers, dealers, financial institutions and private individuals.

Due to the ability of financial institutions to trade Forex, the Forex market is open 24 hours, 5 days a week (it closes Saturday morning). Prior to the late 1990's, Forex trading was only commonplace for institutional traders and even though retail traders had access to trade the Forex market, it has only recently become popular and more common for individuals to trade Forex in an attempt to make a profit.

Most of the world's currencies are free floating; meaning they retain an individual value and will appreciate and depreciate against other currencies. Currencies are always listed in pairs as they need another currency to benchmark against.

Why would you trade Forex?

Trading Forex has many purposes. There are many levels traded which impact on you that you would not even be aware of. For every purchase you make, the contents, ingredients, by-products, parts or materials may not necessarily all be from a domestic source. Many elements could have been bought internationally, and as such, the exchange of foreign currency would have had to have taken place.

From a financial perspective, some people may trade the Forex market for profit. By taking a cross currency pair, they may exchange currency to a foreign designation hoping for domestic currency values to depreciate, thus when you convert it back you will receive more than you initially started with.

For international importers or exporters of goods and services, there are great opportunities available through having access to the international market. However, with fluctuating international currency rates, payment can sometimes be difficult. Initially companies make a sale for an agreed price, then on the day of payment the agreed value is significantly less than agreed to, due to a currency fluctuation known as “foreign exchange risk”.

You will find all types of businesses, from large financial institutions to small retail freight forwarders will practice foreign exchange hedging. Simply put, these companies will put in place measure to ensure that their agreed payment value will represent the same value at the day of payment, regardless of currency value fluctuations.

8 major currencies

Internationally, there are 8 currencies that are traded more than other currencies. These are often referred to as “Majors”. These currencies are as follows:

• USD — Unites States Dollar
• JPY — Japanese Yen
• GBP — British Pound
• CAD — Canadian Dollar
• EUR — The Euro
• CHF — Switzerland Dollar
• AUD — Australian Dollar
• NZD — New Zealand Dollar

Trading hours

Certain parts of the world have part of their Saturday to trade, as it's still Friday in other markets.

Financial institution in these countries may be dealing with the Forex market during their work hours, the Forex market is open and trading 24 hours, 5 days a week. For someone living in the East Coast of Australia, the market hours for the corresponding markets are outlined below:

• Sydney session starts at 7:00am and ends around 4:00pm
• Tokyo session starts at 9:00am and ends around 6:00pm
• London session starts at 5:00pm and ends around 2:00pm
• New York session starts at 10:00pm and ends around 7:00pm

How does Forex trading work?

Individual (retail) traders will look to trade currency pairs by holding currencies that appreciate and converting their holdings to other currencies to avoid depreciation. However, in recent times there have been financial products developed to make money in both rising and falling markets.

These structured financial products are known as contracts and through your broker they are accessible for you to trade. Through your broker, you will have access to BUY or SELL such contracts for profit. You will not be physically buying or selling these contracts, you are executing an order to process.

The position taken to make money from a rising currency is a BUY order. The position taken to make money from a falling currency is a SELL order.

What are currency pairs?

Currency is always measured against another currency and they are referred to as currency pairs. Currency pairs are generally segregated into groups. These groups are known as Majors, Minors and Exotics. Major currency pairs are the most popular traded currency pairs, including EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD and AUD/USD.

Almost all currencies are free floated, meaning that they don't have a fixed set of prices to another currency and can rise and fall in value independently.

What is a pip?

A pip is a small measurement of change in the underlying currency. Generally, it is the forth (0.0001) decimal place of a currency price, except with the Japanese Yen, where they have no denomination for cents in their currency (in the Japanese Yen, the pip is the second decimal place).

The fourth decimal place (second decimal place for Japanese Yen) is marked red to show which decimal the pip is in reference to. If the price 0.70074 moves to 0.70084 then there was a 1 pip movement. Likewise, if the price 113.215 moves to 113.225, there was a 1 pip movement.

A pip is a good reference measure to how much a trader can make based on the volume of their trades. For example, if a trader purchases 1 standard lot (100,000) of AUD/USD, the value of each pip movement is 10 USD. If there is a 10 pips movement, it will be a profit/loss of 100 USD.

Quite often, the annotation used to measure how well a trader is doing is to mention how many “pips” they have gained in a set time period.

What is bid, ask and spread?

With currency quotes, you can either SELL or BUY them and there is always a different price for buying and selling. SELL and BUY prices are represented by Bid and Ask respectively.

If you BUY, you are buying at the ASK price. If you SELL, you are selling at the BID price. As a rule of thumb, remember that you are always BUYING with a higher price. Shown below is a list of currency pairs all showing Bid and Ask prices.

Remember, if you opened a BUY position and you wish to close it, you are essentially SELLING it back, therefore the price you will be closing the position at is the BID price and vice versa.

The spread is the difference between the BID and ASK. This denotes the price difference between buying and selling. If you were to look at the above image and refer to AUD/USD, you will notice the BID as 0.69923 and the ASK as 0.69940.

This is a spread of 1.7 pips. 0.69940 - 0.69923 = 0.00017 = 1.7 pips.

In the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform, spread is represented in points (1 pip = 10 points), which is the reason why the spread is 17 in the image shown above.

What is leverage?

Leverage is the amount that you are borrowing based on the deposit in your account. Default leverage is set at 1:100, meaning that for every 1 USD you have in your account, you have a buying power of 100 USD. If you have 1,000 USD in your account, you have a buying power of 100,000 USD.

Something to remember is 1 standard contract is 100,000 of the base currency. If you wanted to trade a full contract and you had leverage of 1:500, then you could open this position with only 200 USD in your account (200 USD x 500 = 100,000 USD). High leverage can help you take larger positions based on smaller capital in your account, but it is not without its pitfalls. Larger positions result in larger dollar movements per pip and, as such, can wipe out smaller capital amounts in a short period of time.

Case scenario

You've now learnt the basics of Forex trading. So in summary. If you were to choose a currency pair, say for example the AUD/USD and executed a BUY order of 2 standard contracts (2 lots) at the price of 0.84693.

You would have required a minimum of 2,000 USD in your account with a leverage of 1:100.

At a contract size of 2 standard contracts you will make 20 USD per pip movement. The BUY position denotes that if the AUD/USD price appreciates, then you will make money.

Say if the AUD/USD appreciates to 0.84973, you have gained 28 pips, which is a profit of 28 pips x 20 USD = 560 USD, which would equate to 659 AUD.

Taking your first step

Demo account comes in handy for beginners. You can always register and practice with a demo account, without risking your real money.

The first time logging in to the MetaTrader 4 platform can be overwhelming. However, take the time to have a look at the data available. The Market Watch window shows current prices for the currency pairs available and the charts give you a timeline based representation of the prices.

Now focus on one particular currency pair. Make a choice, a random one is perfectly fine. Say for example, you have selected the AUD/USD pair (Refer to 1 in the image above). Open an order and you will be presented with the option to "SELL" or "BUY" (Refer to 2 in the image above). We want to make a random trade now, so execute an order by clicking on the “SELL” or “BUY” button.

You have now placed your first trade on the MetaTrader 4 platform. (Refer to 3 in the image above)

You will now see that you have executed a trade. Take a moment to watch how it performs.

After a break, you will notice that your trade has now either taken a profit, or taken a loss. (Refer to 4 in the image above)

Regardless of the position of this random trade, you now know how you can make money and, also potentially, how to lose it. Don't worry if your trade took a loss, this was a random trade and the exercise was to place a trade. Choosing the right directions of trading will come later in developing a strategy.

Having executed this exercise you have completed the first steps towards learning how to trade. You can close this trade if you wish, or you can keep it open and continue to watch it.

Line chart

The easiest to read of the charts is the Line chart. It simply shows a line graph of time vs. price.

Bar chart

The next chart to decipher is the Bar chart. Bar charts not only show price, but also show the entry price per period, the exit price at the end of the period and the high and low of that period. Each horizontal line represents one time period. The period is selected by you to represent 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, a day, a week or a month.

Let's take a closer look at one of these bars. Each tip in the bar chart represents the price as indicated. So Open is the opening price, Close is the closing price, High is the highest price and Low is the lowest price during that time frame.

Candlestick chart

Candlestick charts are similar to bar charts but with additional information of each bar being red (price gone down) or green (price moved up) coloured. This is done to allow a trader to easily visualise a period bar to have moved in a positive or negative direction from its entry price.

Let's take a closer look at one of these candlesticks. Each tip in the bar chart represents the price as indicated. So Open is the opening price, Close is the closing price, High is the highest price and Low is the lowest price during that time frame.

Still confused? No worry, just read on and we'll show you how to interpret them in the next section.

How to read the chart?

Now that you know how line charts, bar charts and candlestick charts look like, how do you interpret them?

Firstly, you have to understand that each of these individual bars or candlesticks represents one time frame. Depending on your preference, the time frame can be one minute, thirty minutes, one hour, one day or even one month. Have a look at the following example to see that each bar represents one hour.

The x-axis represents the time interval and the y-axis represents the currency pair price. So, each hour is represented by one candlestick. In each hour, the price fluctuates, goes up and down to form the candlestick with High, Low, Open and Close price.

Each candlestick can be represented in all sizes and lengths.

• Longer candlestick indicates there was a big difference between the high and low.
• Short candlestick indicates not much movement in the market.
• For example, there was more movement at 2am as compared to 3am

What are shadows?

When accessing the types of bars or candlesticks, “shadows” is the term given for the portion of the bar or candlesticks where they have reached a high or low, but have not ended the period at the high or low. You will be able to see the shadows of each bar or candlestick where there were highs or lows for that period. In the image below, the shadows are circled in purple.

What is support?

By being able to see the shadows, it gives an indication that the market at that time period may have reached a high, but the market retracted and closed at a lower point. This may show that when the underlying asset (the currency pair) reached a certain point where there was resistance by other market participants in offering a higher price than the high shown.

On the other side, it can be said that there was support in pushing the price in the other direction if you see several shadows in one direction, ie. several consecutive bars or candlesticks with shadows in one direction.

Support refers to prices (illustrated as the straight line above) that tend to act as a floor by preventing the price of currency pairs from being pushed lower than the support price.

What is resistance?

In the following image, you will see that the bars reach a certain high, but seem to struggle to beat a ceiling mark.

The horizontal line indicates that there is an imaginary level where market participants feel that they should not push the currency past. As opposed to support, this is known as resistance. Both support and resistance have to be analysed and drawn by traders themselves.

What are trend lines?

Trend lines are lines that are usually drawn on charts to determine a direction the market is moving. A person sitting in front of a chart will physically draw a line from one point to another point to determine the general direction the market is moving.

The two “x” points, which the line is following, are the low points of two time periods over a distinct time span. The two points are 36 time frames apart (the gap between periods can be any number and not necessarily 36 time frames), the trend line was drawn from the two low points at the “x”. The line is a very clear upward trend. Trend lines are useful with trending strategies.

Trend lines are useful to help determine current market direction. To have a confirmed trend support or resistance you need two points to make it a line.

What are channel lines?

Channel lines are drawn to show the general direction taking into consideration also any bar “shadows” containing support and resistance.

Drawing channels clearly show the channels that trading generally trades between. This is particularly useful when using the “ranging strategy” and also for assessing opportunities for “break out strategies” which we’ll be discussing in the next section.

Trending strategy

The trending strategy is to follow the market in the direction that it is clearly following over an extended period of time. Currency pairs often take either “bullish” (up) or “bearish” (down) trend.

By following the trend of a particular currency pair, you are banking on the fact that the currency continues its existing direction and you are taking in a profit by following the market direction. This strategy is by far the most popular strategy method for trading currency.

Trends can be long or they can be short, meaning that there are short-term trends and there are long-term trends. An example would be that during a 6-month period, there was a bullish trend for the AUD/USD, however, in between this 6-month period there were 2 short periods where it took a bearish trend. The following is a graphical representation of the example.

If you held a buy position from the start of the 6 months to the end, you would be well in profit. Be careful when you look for your trends. Sometimes when you look at a chart and it shows a very clear trend, if you were to expand your chart to include more data it could very well show you the opposite. As such, if you are looking for trends, make sure you view the time frames of all charts.

Ranging strategy

The Ranging Strategy occurs when a currency is trading between a set upper and lower limit and seems to constantly bounce up and down between the high and low limit. Traders take the opportunity to sell when it is at the upper limit and to buy when it is at the lower limit.

Represented in the image below, you will see a sideway trend. This marks the opportunity for people who follow a ranging strategy.

Breakout strategy

The Breakout Strategy is the breakout of a sideway trend. Usually, momentum is greatest on breakout points. A lot of traders take advantage of the breakout strategy when sideways moving prices break the upper or lower limits.

Below represents a few breakouts following some periods of sideways trending.

News release trading strategy

News traders trade off economic news releases. The Forex market is particularly reactive to economic news, in particular, interest rate news from the G8 countries, as well as unemployment news for each corresponding country.

News traders will have to bear in mind that the Forex market movements have already taken into consideration existing and expected economic news. The sharp movements you see due to economic news are corrections due to unexpected news, either better than expected or worse than expected.

Another consideration to take to heart for potential news traders is that during negative sentiment news reports, currency movements generally favours lower yielding and 'safer' currencies; USD and JPY in particular.

A good grasp of economics is generally recommended for traders wishing to start news releasing trading.

An economic news calendar is highly recommended. Forex Economic calendars show the release date for important economic news such as “non-farm payroll”, GDP figures and interest rate news.

Below is an example of what an economic calendar shows.

Forex calendars will show what forecasted data should be and what it was previously. If at the news release the actual data released was worse than expected, you can expect the underlying currency of that country to react negatively.

Managing your emotions

Quite often, the greatest opponent you have while trading is not the market but yourself. When trading, greed and fear often limits the potential returns from profiting trades and on the opposite side of the spectrum can result in greater losses than necessary or turn potentially profitable trades into losing trades.

All traders (successful and unsuccessful) can attest to holding on to losing trades for far too long for no other reason than the “hope” that they become positive again. This is otherwise known as being too greedy.

Alternatively, the fear of taking profits too early or closing at a small loss when they can potentially be profitable is also another emotional response that needs to be adjusted. Good traders strictly follow a complete trading plan that incorporates money and risk management, entry, exit rules and do not let emotions influence their trading.

From Demo to Live account

The transition of when to move from a demo to a live trading account is a question that is often asked by many new traders. Most important is that you have a risk management and trading strategy in place which you are comfortable with.

As great as demo accounts and “virtual money” is for learning, all too often an emotional detachment is developed to the trading losses incurred on a demo account. You will never develop the keen senses to close out losing trades. It's all too often that serial demo users lose their account balance and continue to deposit considerable amounts of funds.

Once you feel you have a comfortable grasp of strategy, control over your emotional misgivings to trading, you can begin your live trading with real funds.