2Bull Forex Blog

There are a lot of advantages to trading currency on the foreign exchange market that stock market trading doesn’t have. Here are a few.

A twenty-four hour market - Foreign exchange markets are open to do business around the clock. Small investors who are starting out doing trades in their spare time can benefit from this, since they don’t need to juggle their schedules around opportunities to trade. This means that if you choose Forex, you can schedule trading when it works for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a night owl who wants to trade at one in the morning. There’s a bank open in Tokyo.

Low cost of transaction - Since Forex brokers don’t work on commission, and no hidden fees are lurking in the fine print, you won’t pay a lot to trade. Broker fees are directly build into the trade as the bid/ask spread. This spread is the difference between the buying price and selling price of the currency, and it’s expressed in what are called pips.

Leverage/margin - Trading on margin means that Forex traders have greater leverage in trading. It also offers the ability to make a very high profit on only a small investment. If you find a broker allowing a margin of a hundred to one, you can buy a hundred thousand dollars in currency with only a thousand dollar deposit. Remember that this leverage goes both ways and can lead to large losses if you’re not careful.

Fast trade execution/high liquidity - If you’re trading in currencies, that means you’re trading in cash - the single most liquid investment there is. Trades can be executed almost instantly, and there’s no need to sit around waiting for yours to go through.

Difficult to influence - The foreign exchange market is so large that it’s almost impossible for a single person, bank, fund, or even a government to influence it for any length of time. The stock market, on the other hand, can be influenced by things as small as a television analyst’s negative forecast.

Small sample size - Stock trading means that you have thousands of options, including international companies, large and small companies, and newly issued IPOs. It’s difficult to follow everything. In Forex trading, on the other hand, there are seven major currencies to follow. That means you can devote plenty of time to each. In fact, there are a number of successful Forex traders who don’t even trade in all seven currencies. You can just pick three or four and stick to them without a problem.

No bear markets - Because it’s possible to trade short or long, you can make money whether the prices are up or down. You just have to make the right guess.

If you’re looking for the ultimate trading market, forget Wall Street. The Forex Market is where the largest volume in trading is going on, with an incredible amount of nearly $2 billion worth of trading in a 24 hour day. Why is the Forex Market better than stocks? Why is a dollar better than a nickel? Because it’s worth a lot more. That is one of the most basic and obvious answers to this question. There is a fortune that can be made in trading Forex because the Forex market is constantly trading.

Reason 1

The Forex market trades a larger volume than any other market in the world. The stock market trades roughly $10 billion in volume a day. That’s not bad at all, but it isn’t even 1% of what the Forex market trades daily. Not even close.

The Forex market trades an average of $1.8 TRILLION dollars of currency a day. No other market in the world comes remotely close to this figure. $1.8 Trillion dollars is only the first reason that the Forex is better than stocks.

Reason 2

No Enron, no WorldCom, no Tyco. These currencies are based on the strength of an entire nation’s economy, not the reports of one company. This doesn’t mean there isn’t risk - every market has risk and Forex is no exception, but usually stable countries don’t fall overnight.

I had a friend who went to college, got into stock trading, and had a personal stock portfolio worth six figures by the time he was only 27. Not bad. But almost all of it was McCloud, Enron, and MCI WorldCom. Nearly overnight his small fortune was worth less than $20,000.

All because of false stock reports from CEOs. This can’t happen in the Forex. While economies can go up or down, there is both technical and fundamental analysis that can help you identify ahead of time the potential for a currency that is going to drop. Forex trading has risks like anywhere else, but one corrupt CEO is not one of them.
Also, when one currency goes down, the other in the pair goes up, so being on the right side can mean that one country’s misery can still makes you a fortune.

Reason 3

There’s always action. Unlike the stock market, which has a daily close to the market day, the Forex market is open every day, except Saturday. There is only one close in the Forex for an entire week, meaning almost any day, any time, you have the ability to trade. This allows a great flexibility in when, where, and how you can trade. Options are good.

These are only three of several reasons why the Forex is better than stocks, but if you want to trade where the most action is, there’s no question you want the Forex market.

The rapport amongst stock exchanges like New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and over lapping of trading at all the stock exchanges all around the world has made investors aware of the importance of listings. The internet technology has made stock broker listing an essentialist which cannot be overlooked.

Stock brokers are an indispensable lot for those who have their hands on both the purse and the pulse of the stock market. They represent the parent investor and deal with the changes taking place in stock markets in such a way that investor is safe and sound as far as returns on investments is concerned. They maintain and sustain steady relationship with the investor family.

With the spread of stock market business, investors need to identify brokers in other parts of the world who would represent their clients as if operating from their native country. Also, the local and the resident stock broker could deal with affairs stock exchanges elsewhere in the world at par with local or national conditions.

Listings are essential for investors because it provides choice and independence. Internet has come truly handy with the appropriate stock broker and stock market search box becoming available. It is a “custom search engine” by Google and covers the very best of stock market websites.

The investors can have access to highly customized stock market search results. There would be no need to go through millions of unrelated pages. Stock brokerage listing serves as a tallow page in the directory the investor is free from unwanted hassles and is more organized.

Brokers have their individual skill sets and knack for controlling the stock market. Just as a person has different cooks, tailors, hair dressers, etc to suit individual requirements, an investor also need to seek advice of different stock brokers who have wisdom and experience in guiding investors.

But beware, usually it is not feasible to hire too many brokers to maintain diverse portfolio in different sectors. Thus it is a good idea to look up good stock broking firms from the broker listings available in the local yellow pages or on the internet.

Any stock broker listings and the information provided under it can be created, updated and retained till nine years. It can be refreshed and updated while confining it to a central source. This usually goes well with investors who might have stored brokers information at various sources. Thus keeping information in this manner becomes much unorganized. Moreover, it also poses a risk that the information could be stolen, tampered or affected adversely by any unknown or unexpected circumstances.
Stock broker listings at a centralized place are much safer and efficient manner. The centralized storage data centers are usually equipped with state-of-art technology.

In conclusion, these listings are constantly updated and new entrants are also constantly updated. Thus, if you look up stock brokers for any local area under these listings, you would find more update information rather than digging into your old databases.

Quite a number of shrewd American investors have been buying foreign stock these last couple of years, and made good returns in the process. It was a good decision, especially since the dollar started to fall and fall.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, and there is a whiff in the air of a change in the attitude towards the dollar. This is not without some reason albeit, that many think it is nonsensical to consider that the dollar should begin to appreciate.

The malaise with which USA has been dogged for some time now, is starting to reach the shores of other countries, notably Europe. It was inevitable that the problems of USA would affect others. The position of interest rates, falling house prices, the lot.

These consequences might be beneficial for the dollar, and those shrewd American investors may well decide to cut back on their investments abroad, and return to their currency with a profit while they can, because a rising dollar value would cut into their profit. This may be just one reason of several, to start a reversal trend.

For one thing, the British pound in particular, has been valued too highly, and whatever injections of support it has been getting, cannot last forever. Also, the high position of the euro is not easy to live with much longer.

It is well known that many factors have pointed to dollar weakness, and there are numerous people who will think the currency must weaken again in the long run.

It would certainly be nothing new, to see things turn out in a manner contrary to the book. The foreign currency game is prone to surprises. However, there are times when surprises, when put under the microscope, are in fact events which should have been seen as very real possibilities. Those, with that little extra foresight, may well be tempted and step in early by siding with the dollar.

So, is this the moment when the gamble might pay off and the dollar appreciation start?
Everybody would like to know the definite answer to that, and the best way may be is to ask the question whether the dollar has reached the bottom.

This is the point where the gambling bit comes in. The answer is not too easy this time. The prize is certainly a big one, because if caught at the right time, the dollar might earn big money. However, if caught wrongly, how much more could it fall?

So the question is, are we facing the possibility of making a lot or losing a little. Put that way, it seems that the odds favour taking a chance with the dollar albeit, with your fingers firmly crossed.

If you are going to take a plunge, make sure you get the best attention and the best exchange rates. For this, make several calls to the various foreign currency exchange companies and select the one who offers the best deal. Almost without exception, they offer better exchange rates than the High street banks, and do not charge any extras.
They will not run away with your money, as they would have nowhere to run without being instantly caught. Your money is sent to their bank and transmitted directly and at once, to your bank.

These days, movements of funds are carefully noted, because of money laundering risks, and all British companies dealing with any money transfers etc., must be licensed by H.M. Revenue and Customs, and display the Registration Number issued to them, which can be easily verified. Similarly, other countries have their own precautions in place.

If you’ve been successful trading stocks and now wish to try your hand in the Forex market, please read this article before you lose the shirt on your back. While it may be tempting to think that both markets are similar, in reality they are worlds apart.

I personally know a successful stock trader who had lost more than $150,000 in the Forex market before he admitted to himself that he didn’t know what he was doing. Don’t be like this person. In this article, I will discuss 2 of the main differences between the Forex and stock markets so you can adjust your trading patterns accordingly.

Difference 1: Trading hours

This might seem obvious to you, but you’d be surprised at the number of people who trade Forex at the wrong time of the day!

Sure, most people know that the Forex market is open 24 hours… but what they don’t know is that not every single one of those 24 hours is a favourable time to trade.

Generally, the best times to trade in the Forex market are times when liquidity is high. These are typically times during the U.S. and London market trading hours. All other trading time periods have relatively lower liquidity and can be a bad time to enter into trades.

Difference 2: Volatility

In the stock market, high volatility usually means that the price of a stock is either skyrocketing, or plunging down rapidly. Stock prices rarely fluctuate up and down in big swings.

In the Forex market however, high volatility usually means large up and down price swings. Now, I know how some people will say “but you can still profit from price swings, right?” While one can technically trade price swings, this involves a high level of expertise to accomplish. Unless you’re an expert trader or institutional trader, trading price swings is a highly risky activity. I always recommend trading with the trend instead.

Therefore, keep in mind that volatility in the stock and Forex markets often mean different things. Adjust your trades accordingly and you’ll see immediately see improvements in your trading results.