This free Forex mini-course is designed to teach you the basics of the Forex market and Forex trading in a non-boring way. I know you can find this information elsewhere on the web, but let's face it; most of it is scattered and pretty dry to read. I will try to make this tutorial as fun as possible so that you can learn about Forex trading and have a good time doing it. Turnover of exchange-traded foreign exchange futures and options has grown rapidly in recent years, reaching $166 billion in April 2010 (double the turnover recorded in April 2007). As of April 2016, exchange-traded currency derivatives represent 2% of OTC foreign exchange turnover. Foreign exchange futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded compared to most other futures contracts.
So how does trading currency work? Logically, trades always come in pairs. For example, a common trade would be the United States Dollar to the Japanese Yen. This is expressed as USD/JPY. The way to quote a trade is kind of tricky, but with practice it becomes as natural as reading your native language. In a Forex quote, the first currency in the list (IE: USD in USD/JPY) is the base currency, and in the quote the base is always one. This means if (hypothetically of course) One USD was worth Two JPY, that the quote would be expressed as 1/2.
Just like stocks, you can trade currency based on what you think its value is (or where it's headed). But the big difference with forex is that you can trade up or down just as easily. If you think a currency will increase in value, you can buy it. If you think it will decrease, you can sell it. With a market this large, finding a buyer when you're selling and a seller when you're buying is much easier than in in other markets. Maybe you hear on the news that China is devaluing its currency to draw more foreign business into its country. If you think that trend will continue, you could make a forex trade by selling the Chinese currency against another currency, say, the US dollar. The more the Chinese currency devalues against the US dollar, the higher your profits. If the Chinese currency increases in value while you have your sell position open, then your losses increase and you want to get out of the trade.
Not checking other time frames to accurately predict the market - I am not about to go into my spill as to how much I hate intra day trading and the shorter time frames. However, many beginner forex traders will naturally be inclined to trade in 5, 10 or 15 minute time frames. Why? Well, I guess because profits and losses can be realized more quickly and there is a sense of achievement and immediate fulfillment when you are trading within shorter time frames. However, most of these people don't take into account the secondary trends happening with the daily and weekly charts. If you are not analyzing multiple time frames, then you will be left scratching your head when the market moves against you. Once again, it all boils down to understanding the dow theory and how it moves. If you get a clear understanding of trends then you won't fall into this pitfall.
Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen. Almost all FOREX trades are executed on the internet by someone sitting at a computer with a high-speed connection. So, if you don't like working with a computer you may as well stop reading... because... you will be left out.
