Forex V/S Stock

What is the Difference Between Forex and Stock?

The Forex market has a lot of advantages compare to stock market:
A Forex trader could make profit through the market no matter if it is bearish and bullish which is different from the capital market, Forex has no strict regulation in speculation, no matter whether it is a long-term or a short-term transaction there is still a hidden profit, moreover, Forex market is a double-transaction market which means Forex traders could make profit through both upward and downward trend.
Forex traders could obtain a much larger transaction compared to the stock market, through the Forex trading, Forex traders could obtain 100 times larger transaction compared to the stock market. According to the present US situation, if a Forex trader invests $1,000 in the stock market, the trader may obtain $2,000 of stock domination property with a proportion of 2:1, but through Forex trading, a Forex trader can do transaction with a proportion up to 100:1.
Forex trader may make profit from the ordinary news, like the interest rate change, Forex market is closely related to various countries' politic, economy and culture, Forex traders could also obtain profit from other kinds of news, for example interest rate level change, will influence the interest of the Forex deposit.
Forex traders could do 24 hours trading. The stock market can only be traded during daytime at a specific time, generally from 9:30a.m. to 4:00p.m.. If you too have your own full time job, then you will face the dilemma - either to give up your full time job or forgo the trading opportunity. But Forex market can be traded 5 days a week and 24 hours a day, Forex traders can trade during their free time which is normally at night after working hour.
If a trader analyze based on technical analysis, Forex trading would be much more suitable for such traders because the Forex market has a very large trading volume. Currently the Forex market has daily trading volume of 190 billion Dollar, such giant market will completely digest a fore trader's transaction cash, under such situation the accuracy of the technical analysis would be much higher then any financial market, the chances of using technical analysis to make profit would be much more higher.
In the stock market there are hundred and thousand kinds of stocks, then choosing stock will be a very difficult matter. But in the Forex market, the currency combination is extremely limited, this may enable Forex traders to concentrate on these currencies combination, and could follow the trend quickly.

Foreign Market Existence

Presently, there are various kinds of financial market, it is divided into: Stock market, interest market (including bond, commercial bill and so on), gold market (including gold, platinum, silver), futures market (including grain, cotton and kapok, oil and so on), option market and foreign exchange market or forex market and so on. The foreign exchange market is a place to trade foreign exchange currency, or it is also a place for the transaction of all foreign currency. The foreign exchange market therefore is existence, because of:
Trade and investmentImport and export business, people pays one kind of currency when doing business, but when earns another kind of currency when receive the commodity. This means that, when settling account, business people will pay and receive different currencies. Therefore, they must convert the currencies that they received into the currencies that they could buy commodities. With this similar, when buying a foreign property a company must use the concerned country's currency to make payment, therefore, it needs to convert the domestic currency is concerned country's currency.
Speculation Currencies exchange rates could fluctuate according to the demand and supply between two currencies. A Forex trader buys up one kind of currency in an exchange rate, but up casts this currency in another more advantageous exchange rate, he may gain. Speculation has occupied most of the Forex market.
Hedging Due to the fluctuation between two currencies, those companies who owns foreign asset (for example factory), when these companies convert these properties into cost country currencies, there consist of certain risks. When the value of a foreign asset which is estimated based on foreign currencies remained unchanged, if the exchange rate changes, when converting this property value according to the domestic currency, there could be profit and loss. The company may eliminate such hidden risk through hedging. This carries out a foreign currency trading, its transaction result just counterbalances the foreign currency property profit and loss which produces by the exchange rate change.
Forex Market Development The history of the Forex market as an international capital speculation market is much shorter compared the stock, the gold, the stock, the interest market, but it is developing in an astonishing speed. Today, the foreign exchange market daily trading volume has amounted to 150 billion US dollars, it’s scale has gone far beyond the stock, the stock and other finance commodity markets, it has became the world's most biggest sole finance market and the also the speculation market. Since the birth of the foreign exchange market, the fluctuation of the exchange rate of the Forex market is becoming bigger. In September 1985, 1 US dollar exchanged 220 Japanese Yen, but in May 1986, 1 US dollar only could exchange 160 Japanese Yen, in 8 months, the Japanese Yen has revalued 27%. In recent years, the foreign exchange market wave amplitude has been bigger, on September 8, 1992, 1 pound exchanged 2.0100 US dollars, on November 10, 1 pound exchanged 1.5080 US dollars, in the short two months, the pound exchanged US dollar exchange rate to fall more than 5,000, depreciated 25%. Not only that, presently, everyday the fluctuation of the exchange rate of the Forex market enlarges unceasingly, within a day the rise and drop 2% to 3% is commonly seen. On September 16, 1992, the pound exchanged US dollar from 1.8755 to fall to 1.7850, the pound on first lowers 5%.
Due to the large fluctuation of the Forex market, it has created more opportunities for the investor, attracted more and more investors to join this ranks.

A Detailed Overview of Forex Market

Introduction
The following facts and figures relate to the foreign exchange market. Most of the information comes from the Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity conducted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in April 2004, and published in March 2005. 52 central banks and monetary authorities participated in the survey, collecting information from approximately 1200 market participants.
Structure
Decentralised, over-the-counter market, also known as the 'interbank' market
Main participants: Central Banks, commercial and investment banks, hedge funds, pension funds, corporations & private speculators
The free-floating currency system began in 1973, and was officially mandated in 1978
Online trading began in the mid to late 1990's

Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004
Trading Hours
24 hour market
Sunday 5pm EST through Friday 4pm EST. Rollover at 5pm EST
Trading begins in New Zealand, followed by Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America

Size
Largest market in the world
$1.9 trillion average daily turnover, equivalent to:
More than 10 times the average daily turnover of global equity markets 1
40 times the average daily turnover of the NYSE 2
$300 a day for every man, woman, and child on earth
An annual turnover more than 10 times world GDP 3
The spot market accounts for about one-third of daily turnover
1. About $167 billion - World Federation of Exchanges aggregate 2004 2. About $46 billion - NYSE 2004 3. About $36 trillion - World Bank 2003

Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004
Major Markets
The US & UK account for more than 50% of turnover
Major markets: London, New York, Tokyo
Trading activity is heaviest when major markets overlap
Nearly two-thirds of NY activity occurs in the morning hours while European markets are open 4 4. NY Federal Reserve
Average Daily Turnover by Country
Concentration in the Banking Industry
16 banks account for 75% of turnover in the U.K.
11 banks account for 75% of turnover in the U.S.
11 banks account for 75% of turnover in Japan
Note: The reference here is to individual banking offices rather than banking organisations.
Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004
Trading
An estimated 95% of transactions are speculative
More than 40% of trades last less than two days
About 80% of trades last less than one week
Brokers research: 90% of traders lose money, 5% break even, 5% make money
Technical Analysis
Commonly used technical indicators:
Moving averages
RSI
Fibonacci retracements
Stochastics
MACD
Momentum
Bollinger bands
Pivot point
Elliott Wave
Currencies
The US dollar is involved in approximately 90% of all foreign exchange transactions, equivalent to over $1.5 trillion a day
Currency Codes
USD = US Dollar
EUR = Euro
JPY = Japanese Yen
GBP = British Pound
CHF = Swiss Franc
CAD = Canadian Dollar
AUD = Australian Dollar
NZD = New Zealand Dollar
Average Daily Turnover by Currency

N.B. Because two currencies are involved in each transaction, the sum of the percentage shares of individual currencies totals 200% instead of 100%.
Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004
Currency Pairs
Majors: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF
Dollar bloc: USD/CAD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD
Major crosses: EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF
Average Daily Turnover by Currency Pair
Source: BIS Triennial Survey 2004

Forex Trading

Forex trading isn’t strange words for those who looking forward to make quick profit in the financial market. Most investors will have at least hear or read about Forex trading. If Forex is a new term to you, please do read the Introduction to the Forex market before proceed reading this Forex trading article.
Forex trading is said to be the highest risk with highest return investment (or speculation game to be more accurate) in the financial market. The amount traded in the Forex market is much larger than any stock market or even combining few stock markets. Forex trading is simply a world wide trading market running 24 hours from Monday to Friday.
Everyday, there are new Forex traders entering into trading Forex. Some of them don’t even fully understand how Forex is traded but have already trading Forex. They are not idiot who want to burn their hard earned money, it’s just because Forex market is simply too lucrative market to enter with extreme high return. Any Forex traders can easily make a double return just in few minutes time trading Forex.
Forex trading is the trading of buying or selling certain currency. For example, buying US Dollar, then selling it later at a higher price to gain profit. Forex traders may also first sell US Dollar and later on buy it back at a lower price with the same gaining profit. It’s simple strategy of selling price minus buying price to make profit. In Forex trading, we just treat currency as a good, buy it and sell it.
You might now think how can Forex trading make huge profit just by selling and buying currency? Forex is traded using margin, Forex traders don’t need to full amount to buy any currency. For example, Forex traders just need 1000 Dollar to buy up 100,000 Dollar. This allows any Forex traders to make huge profit with little money.
Another important factor that any Forex traders can make huge profit is the high fluctuation for currency. Every day every seconds, the currency exchange rate is moving up and down, the Forex exchange rate fluctuate more heavily whenever there is any important economic data being released.
Forex trading is simply sounds too easy for anyone to make profit in very short time. But before you committed into Forex trading, it is strongly advised to have full understanding in Forex trading. Do read up other Forex trading articles in this website and share Forex trading knowledge in the Forex forums.

Forex Existence

Presently, there are various kinds of financial market, it is divided into: Stock market, interest market (including bond, commercial bill and so on), gold market (including gold, platinum, silver), futures market (including grain, cotton and kapok, oil and so on), option market and foreign exchange market or forex market and so on. The foreign exchange market is a place to trade foreign exchange currency, or it is also a place for the transaction of all foreign currency. The foreign exchange market therefore is existence, because of:
Trade and investmentImport and export business, people pays one kind of currency when doing business, but when earns another kind of currency when receive the commodity. This means that, when settling account, business people will pay and receive different currencies. Therefore, they must convert the currencies that they received into the currencies that they could buy commodities. With this similar, when buying a foreign property a company must use the concerned country's currency to make payment, therefore, it needs to convert the domestic currency is concerned country's currency.
Speculation Currencies exchange rates could fluctuate according to the demand and supply between two currencies. A Forex trader buys up one kind of currency in an exchange rate, but up casts this currency in another more advantageous exchange rate, he may gain. Speculation has occupied most of the Forex market.
Hedging Due to the fluctuation between two currencies, those companies who owns foreign asset (for example factory), when these companies convert these properties into cost country currencies, there consist of certain risks. When the value of a foreign asset which is estimated based on foreign currencies remained unchanged, if the exchange rate changes, when converting this property value according to the domestic currency, there could be profit and loss. The company may eliminate such hidden risk through hedging. This carries out a foreign currency trading, its transaction result just counterbalances the foreign currency property profit and loss which produces by the exchange rate change.
Forex Market Development The history of the Forex market as an international capital speculation market is much shorter compared the stock, the gold, the stock, the interest market, but it is developing in an astonishing speed. Today, the foreign exchange market daily trading volume has amounted to 150 billion US dollars, it’s scale has gone far beyond the stock, the stock and other finance commodity markets, it has became the world's most biggest sole finance market and the also the speculation market. Since the birth of the foreign exchange market, the fluctuation of the exchange rate of the Forex market is becoming bigger. In September 1985, 1 US dollar exchanged 220 Japanese Yen, but in May 1986, 1 US dollar only could exchange 160 Japanese Yen, in 8 months, the Japanese Yen has revalued 27%. In recent years, the foreign exchange market wave amplitude has been bigger, on September 8, 1992, 1 pound exchanged 2.0100 US dollars, on November 10, 1 pound exchanged 1.5080 US dollars, in the short two months, the pound exchanged US dollar exchange rate to fall more than 5,000, depreciated 25%. Not only that, presently, everyday the fluctuation of the exchange rate of the Forex market enlarges unceasingly, within a day the rise and drop 2% to 3% is commonly seen. On September 16, 1992, the pound exchanged US dollar from 1.8755 to fall to 1.7850, the pound on first lowers 5%.
Due to the large fluctuation of the Forex market, it has created more opportunities for the investor, attracted more and more investors to join this ranks

Introduction to Foreign Exchange

Being the main force driving the global economic market, currency is no doubt an essential element for a country. However, in order for all the countries with different currencies to trade with one another, a system of exchange rate between their currencies is needed; this system, is formally known as foreign exchange or currency exchange.
In the early days, the system of currency exchange is supported solely by the gold amount held in the vault of a country. However, this system is no longer appropriate now due to inflation and hence, the value of one’s currency nowadays is determined through the market forces alone. In order to determine the value of a currency’s exchange rate, two main types of system is used which is floating currency and pegged currency.
For floating exchange rate, its value is determined by the supply and demand of the global market where the supply and demand is bound by all these factors such as foreign investment, inflation and ratios of import and export. Normally, this system is adopted by most of the advance countries like for example UK, US and Canada. All of these countries have a similarity where their market is well developed and stable in economic terms. These countries choose to practice this system due to the reason where floating exchange rate is proven to be much more efficient compared to the pegged exchange rate. The reason behind this is because for floating exchange rate, the market itself will re-adjust the exchange rate real-time in order to portray the actual inflation and other economic forces. However, every system has its own flaw and so does the floating exchange rate system. For instance, if a country suffers from economic instability due to various reasons such as political issues, a floating exchange rate system will certainly discourage investment due to the high risk of suffering from inflationary disaster or sudden slump in exchange rate.
Another form of exchange rate is known as pegged exchange rate. This is a system where the value of the exchange rate is fixed by the government of a country and not the supply and demand of the market. This system is called pegged exchange rate because the value of a country’s currency is fixed to another country’s currency. As a result, the value of the pegged currency will not fluctuate unlike the floating currency. The working principle behind this system is slightly complicated where the government of a country will fixed the exchange rate of their currency and when there is a demand for a certain currency resulting a rise in the exchange rate, the government will have to release enough of that currency into the market in order to meet that demand. However, there is a fatal flaw in this system where if the pegged exchange rate is not controlled properly, panics may arise within the country and as a result of that, people will be rushing to exchange their money into a more stable currency. When that happens, the sudden overflow of that country’s currency into the market will decrease the value of their exchange rate and in the end, their currency will be worthless. Due to this reason, only those under-developed or developing countries will practice this method as a form to control the inflation rate.
However, the truth is, most of the countries do not fully practice the floating exchange rate or the pegged exchange rate method in reality. Instead, they use a hybrid system known as floating peg. Floating peg is the combination of the two main systems where one country will normally fixed their exchange rate to the US Dollars and after that, they will constantly review their peg rate in order to stay in line with the actual market value.
The Foreign exchange market, or commonly known as FOREX, is the largest and most prolific financial market because each day, more than 1 trillion worth of currency exchange takes place between investors, speculators and countries. From this, we can deduce that the actual mechanism behind the world of foreign exchange is far more complicated than what we may already know, and that, the information mentioned earlier is just the tip of an iceberg.

Forex: CAD rises against USD on better than expected Canadian retail sales

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - USD/CAD has fallen around 100 pips after the Canadian retails sales data, from 1.2412 to 1.2316.Since the beginning of the European session, USD/CAD has been traded between the 1.2400/1.2300 range. Currently, USD/CAD is trading around 1.2360/80. Next support would be 1.2300, below there, 1.2222 and 1.2200. On the upside, 1.2400 will be resistance. Above there, 1.2432 and 1.2480.Retail sales has posted a monthly increase of 1.9% in January against the 5.4% decreases posted in December. Excluding autos, Canadian retail sales has risen 1.3% in January, better than 3.2% falls posted in December. New Car sales has jumped up 5.5% in January from the 14.8% decreases published in December.According to Tatsuya Kawanishi, Junior Adviser at FXstreet.com, Commodity pair will rise against USD: "The situation has become in a state of uncertainty where investors look for resource values.The commodity prices soared. Oil prices went back above 50 USD level since January, gold price got the highest gain since last September as FOMC announced that it would buy 300 billion dlr of gov debit.Thus, those increasing commodity prices suggest inflationary pressure in the near term."

Forex: EUR/USD: Dollar recovery halts; Euro back testing 1.3615

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) – Dollar recovery has been capped at 1.3535, and the Euro has bounced up reaching levels above 1.3615, previous intra-day low.If the Euro manages to remain above here, it could attempt a new attack to 1.3725/35 high. Above here 1.3795 (8 Jan high) would come into focus, and then 1.3854 (61.5 retracement of the December March decline). On the downside, reversal from current levels could trigger return to 1.3410, and below there, 1.3325 (Jan 28 high). Once below there, 1.3160 and 1.3078. According to Valeria Bednarik, collaborator at FXsttreet.com, the Euro is prone for further depreciation: “Hourly charts are confirmer further downside correction for the pair, after breaking a short term flag to the downside. Low volume as traders await American opening, price is under the 20 SMA that is slowly turning down. 60 and 200 EMA the most, should hold the downside.”

Forex: GBP/USD: The Pound bounces up at 1.4395, advances towards 1.4495

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) – The Pound has broken 1.4450 resistance level on a bullish reaction after hitting 1.4395, and advances towards 1.4595 intra-day high.Hourly indicators point out to a rather strong upside move. If the pair breaks minor resistance at 1.4511, 1.4595 comes next, and above there, next resistance levels lie at 1.4665 (Feb 23 high) and then 1.4700/10, and Feb 9 high at 1.4970.On the downside, In case of breaking below here 1.4395, the Pound could find support at 1.4335 (Mar 18 high) and below there 1.4233 the area at 1.4160/75 before 1.4140 (Mar 17 high).

Forex: USD/JPY rises above 96.00

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - The USD recovery continues against the JPY in the Friday's American session. The USD/JPY has risen more than 100 pips from 95.19 to 96.26 in the last hour. Currently, the pair is trading around 96.10/20.Above 96.55, next support level would come at 97.00 and 97.60. Once above here, 98.50. On the downside, below 95.65 the Dollar could find supports at 94.64 (Jan 6 low), 93.55, intra-day low, and Feb 23 low at 92.75.According to Valeria Bednarik, today USD/JPY close will be fundamental to define next week bias: "Japanese yen continues losing ground against greenback, quoting above the 96.00 zone after reaching as low as 93.54 Thursday. Measuring this two-day fall with Fibonacci, the pair already retraced the 50% of the fall. Technical confirmation above 96.20 could send the pair to test the 61.8% of the mentioned rally at 96.70 also important resistance zone. 4 hours charts suggest further upside bias, yet far from confirmations; however daily charts indicators remain quite bearish. Today close will be fundamental to define next week bias. If under 96.00, the pair will find a first support at 95.50 (200 EMA in four hours charts, also 38.2% of the mentioned rally) that should hold the downside for today. Clear break under that point is required to see the pair falling to 95.10 zone and finally 49.82."On the other hand, Tatsuya Kawanishi, Junior Adviser at FXstreet.com, says that USD/JPY would rise further in April: "USD/JPY would rise further after the start of the new fiscal year on April. Nikkei Ave is still struggling at a low level though, USD/JPY 100 level could be seen in the mid term."