Currency trading is one of the most attractive markets for both new and experienced traders. Access to real-time market data is conditioned on acceptance of the exchange agreements. Professional access differs and subscription fees may apply. See our commission and brokerage fees for details. Forex itself is a legitimate endeavor. Forex trading is a real business that can be profitable, but it must be treated as such.
One way to deal with the foreign exchange risk is to engage in a forward transaction. In this transaction, money does not actually change hands until some agreed upon future date. A buyer and seller agree on an exchange rate for any date in the future, and the transaction occurs on that date, regardless of what the market rates are then. The duration of the trade can be one day, a few days, months or years. Usually the date is decided by both parties. Then the forward contract is negotiated and agreed upon by both parties.
The average spreads shown here are calculated throughout the day. They tend to be narrower under normal market conditions. However, spreads may widen following important news announcements, during political uncertainty, unexpected events leading to volatile market conditions or at the close of the business day and on weekends when liquidity is lower. When you trade with us Trading Point is your counter-party. Your trades are matched and any next exposure above predefined thresholds is hedged with our partner banks (our liquidity providers) at the current market spread. However, during volatile and illiquid market conditions our liquidity providers quote larger than normal spreads. At such times Trading Point is forced to pass on some of the spread increases to its clients.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) warn that off-exchange forex trading by retail investors is at best extremely risky, and at worst, outright fraud. A second option is to subscribe to a forex signals service. If you go to your favourite search engine and search for 'forex signals' or 'forex signal providers', for instance, you will find lots of different providers.
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.
