Forex Basics

What is Forex?

The largest financial market in the world, Foreign Exchange market, Forex or FX market, all the terms are used to describe the business of trading of the world's various currencies, with more than $2 trillion changing hands every day. Being an international foreign exchange market, Forex is a market where money is sold and bought freely. FOREX was launched in the 1970s, to become the biggest liquid financial market today, dealing in more than hundred times the daily trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

FOREX is a perfect market to invest in, as it is free from any external control and free competition. Mostly, all Forex trading are tentative and unlike the stock market trading, the Forex market is not conducted by a central exchange, but on the “interbank” market, which is thought of as an OTC (over the counter) market. The trading takes place between the two dealers, either over the telephone or through Internet, all over the world. The major trading centers are the ones at Sydney, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and New York, making Forex a 24-hour market.

Forex Trading requires the employing fundamental as well as technical analyses. These analysis help a trader to foresee and determine the development in the price trends of currencies, based on which, he attempts to predict market changes and make profits. Fundamental analysis can be said to use techniques to analyze the value of a state’s currency with the help of its economic indicators, quality markets and political events and associations. Political stability also influences the exchange rate at Forex. Its not just that Forex trading is intutive, rather it's technical.

While Technical analysis engages the study of patterns of price trends and movements, making it easier for the trader to predict the path of the future developments in the Forex market. The primary data for a technical analysis are values, be it the highest or the lowest values, the price of opening and closing in a definite period of time, and the amount of transactions taking place. Any factor, be it economic, political or psychological, having little or some influence on the value or the price, has already been measured by the market to be included in the price.