The foreign exchange market (FOREX) offers many advantages to investors. But you need to know where to begin. This short guide will give you the FOREX basics, so you can quickly start participating in this fast growing market.

In the past, foreign exchange trading was limited to large players such as national banks and multi-national corporations. In the 1980’s the rules were changed to allow smaller investors to participate using margin accounts. Margin accounts are the reason why FOREX trading has become so popular. With a 100:1 margin account, you can control $100,000 with a $1,000 investment.

A Learning Curve

FOREX is not simple, though, so you’ll need some knowledge to make wise investment decisions. Although it is relatively easy to start trading on the FOREX, there are risks involved. Your first move as a beginner should be to find out as much as possible about the forex market before risking a dime.

Find A Forex Broker

FOREX traders usually require a broker to handle transactions. Most brokers are reputable and are associated with large financial institutions such as banks. A reputable broker will be registered as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as protection against fraud and abusive trade practices.

Open an Account with a forex borker

Opening a FOREX account is as simple as filling out a form and providing the necessary identification. The form includes a margin agreement which states that the broker may interfere with any trade deemed to be too risky. This is to protect the interests of the broker, since most trades are done using the broker’s money.

Once your account has been established, you can fund it and begin trading.

Many brokers offer a variety of accounts to suit the needs of individual investors. Mini accounts allow you to get involved in FOREX trading for as little as $250. Standard accounts may have a minimum deposit of $1000 to $2500, depending on the broker. The amount of leverage (how much borrowed money you can use) varies with account type. High leverage accounts give you more money to trade for a given investment.

Trades are commission-free, meaning that you can make many trades in one day without worrying about incurring high brokerage fees. Brokers make their money on the ’spread’: the difference between bid and ask prices.

Paper Trading Forex Market

Beginning traders are strongly advised get accustomed to FOREX by doing "paper trades" for a period of time. Paper trades are practice transactions that don’t involve real capital. They allow you to see how the system works while learning how to use the various software tools provided by most FOREX brokers.

Most online brokers have demo accounts that allow you to make free paper trades for up to 30 days. Every new FOREX investor should use these demo accounts at least until they are consistently showing profits.

FOREX Software

Each forex broker has its own set of software tools for making transactions, but there are a few tools that are common to all FOREX brokers. Real-time quotes, news feeds, technical analyses and charts, and profit-and-loss analyses are some of the features you can expect to see on most online brokers’ web sites.

Almost every broker operates on the Internet. To access a broker’s online services you’ll need a reasonably modern computer, a fast Internet connection, and an up-to-date operating system. Once your account is set up, you can access it from any computer just by entering your account name and password. If for some reason you are unable get to a computer, most brokers will allow you to make trades over the phone.

There are lots of ways to make money. FOREX trading is just one more potential stream of income — if you are prepared to learn and practice.

Yoy Gonna Love This..Foreign exchange markets and prices are mainly influenced by international trade flows and investment flows. The FX markets are also influenced, but to a lesser extent, by the same factors that influence the equity and bond markets: economic and political conditions especially interest rates, inflation, and political instability. Those factors usually have only a short-term impact, which makes Forex attractive as it offers some of the diversification necessary to protect against adverse movements in the equity and bond markets.Foreign Exchange prices, or quotes, include a "Bid" and "Ask" similar to other financial products:
Bid: Price at which Dealer is willing to Buy and Traders can Sell CurrencyAsk: Price at which Dealer will Sell and Traders can Buy CurrencyThe difference between the Bid and Ask is called the "Spread", which is the Trader's cost of the transaction. For more information on the Spreads offered by Forex N Trading.
Currencies are usually quoted to four decimal places, such as the Euro/US Dollar trading at 1.2400/1.2403, with the last decimal place referred to as a point or "pip". A pip for most currencies is 0.0001 of an exchange rate; the one exception is the USD/JPY quote in which each pip is equal to 0.01

In order to become an adequate participant on FOREX market – professional trader, it is necessary to cover inevitable stages and get skills and knowledge, which are essential for working on FOREX, in process.

To be a novice trader – does not mean to incur losses. Owing to the fact that the accounts of InstaForex do not have limits to the volume of minimal lot, you can start working with any sum, having the opportunity to reduce risks. With increase of your confidence you enlarge the volume of trading operations, increasing risks and the opportunity to get higher profit.

3Steps of Forex Market

1 Step. Training on DEMO-account.

Every person can open DEMO-account and learn how to operate the trading terminal and trading strategies for unlimited period of time and absolutely free. Even without having any idea about FOREX market you can try yourself as a trader, opening a DEMO-account. In spite of the fact that all deals on DEMO-accounts are virtual and are not put on FOREX, you have the full copy of all terms and conditions as the are on the live accounts. On the DEMO-account you can complete deals as well as you would do on the real account.Doesn’t matter how many questions you have – you can try to answer them using the DEMO-account, without any risks and having the opportunity to open unlimited quantity of such accounts totally free. Moreover, 24/5 support department is available by ICQ, chat, telephone or e-mail.

2 Step. Trading on the live account.

Having got the hand in working with terminal and learning the main trading strategies, you can try yourself on the real account, limiting your risks. Owing to the absence of limits on minimal deal’s volume you can trade according to the principle “risk=profit”, when you define the volume of your investments.The work on the live account lets you to understand and learn more in comparison with DEMO-account, doesn’t matter how serious you take the virtual trading. Working with real, even minimal funds, you start to feel the connection between your profit and currency movements. This experience is very important for raising to the next level of trader’s development.


3 Step. Professional work.

After having got all necessary knowledge, trader is able to work independently on the currency market, using his own or borrowed trading strategies for getting profit on currency movements. Professional trader indicates the style of his trading and chooses trading tools which are more suitable for his strategy.Not all the new coming traders are able to reach this level, but InstaForex company guaranties that our team bends every effort in order to help every client to go forward and get the full support when any problems exist.

There are several external factors that affect Forex currency trading. These factors include trade reports, GDP, unemployment, international trade, manufacturing etc. The growth or decline in these factors affects a country’s currency value.Foreign exchange is a continuous global market, providing a 24-hour market access to its players. Since it is open only 5 days a week, so weekend is the closing period. Although foreign exchange is the most liquid of all markets, the fact that it is an international market and trading 24-hours a day, the time of day can have a direct impact on the liquidity available for trading a particular currency.The major centers and time zones are that of Sydney, Tokyo, London, and New York. Therefore, forex alerts must consider which players are in the market, since in the modern interconnected financial world, events that occur at any hour, in any part of the globe, can affect some or all parts of the investment community.In forex trading, you are not ignorant like one remains in stock for a considerable period of time about the news affecting the liquidity of a stock. In stock market, you come to know about inside trading, revision in earnings only after the market has reacted upon it.But in forex currency trading, this is not the case. Here you get various forex signals. Significant information affecting a particular currency becomes known to everyone in the trade instantaneously. There isn’t anything as insider trading in a forex market.There are many online forex trading startegy sites. They all maintain a global economic calendar. This calendar indicates the major forthcoming economic, financial and business related events all over the world and which can have important bearing on foreign exchange market. What you have to do is to keep a track of all important events and news.Certainly, it will not be an easy task to watch constantly all the factors affecting foreign exchange trading market. They change in importance over time and condition. But the information is available to anyone and for use to one’s benefit. A currency trader has got a chance to react immediately to any new information.Unlike stock market, another important advantage forex trading offers is that you can do foreign currency trading almost from anywhere from the world. There are so many online forex trading signal platforms available to get instant information and to act within time.Most important GDP figures that affect forex trading are of USA, Japan, Canada, Australia and Britain. China is also expected to be a major force in online paper trading in near future.Central banks play a significant role in the forex market because they have the responsibility of changing the country’s “base” interest rate. A central bank has to maintain growth in the economy in accordance with inflation, so it creates a good balance in interest rates. The bank’s decisions on whether to raise, cut, or hold the interest rate fuels speculation in the forex market, where the value of a currency, or group of currencies, changes in real time. Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and militarily actions in a sensitive region can have a significant impact on the forex market as they create a disturbance in the world.

In financial markets, the retail forex (retail off-exchange currency trading or retail FX) market is a subset of the larger foreign exchange market. This "market has long been plagued by swindlers preying on the gullible," according to The New York Times. Whilst there may be a number of fully regulated, reputable international companies that provide a highly transparent and honest service, it's commonly thought that about 90% of all retail FX traders lose money.
It is now possible to trade cash FX, or forex (short for Foreign Exchange (FX)) or currencies around the clock with hundreds of foreign exchange brokers through trading platforms The reason that the business is so profitable is because in many cases brokers are taking the opposite side of the trade, and therefore turning client capital directly into broker profit as the average account loses money. Some brokers provide a matching service, charging a commission instead of taking the opposite site of the trade and "netting the spread", as it is referred to within the forex "industry."
Recently forex brokers have become increasingly regulated. Minimum capital requirements of US$20m now apply in the US, as well as stringent requirements now in Germany and the United Kingdom. Switzerland now requires forex brokers to become a bank before conducting FX brokerage business from Switzerland.
Algorythmic or machine based formula trading has become increasingly popular in the FX market,with a number of popular packages allowing the customer to program his own studies.
The most traded of the "major" currencies is the pair known as the EUR/USD, due to its size, median volatility and relatively low "spread", referring to the difference between the bid and the ask price. This is usually measured in "pips", normally 1/100 of a full point.
According to the October 2008 issue of e-Forex Magazine, the retail FX market is seeing continued explosive growth despite, and perhaps because of, losses in other markets like global equities in 2008.

The foreign exchange market (currency, forex, or FX) is where currency trading takes place. It is where banks and other official institutions facilitate the buying and selling of foreign currencies.[1]FX transactions typically involve one party purchasing a quantity of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another. The foreign exchange market that we see today started evolving during the 1970s when worldover countries gradually switched to Floating Exchange Rate from their erstwhile exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system till 1971.
Presently, the FX market is one of the largest and most liquidfinancial markets in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks currency speculators, corporations,governments, and other financial institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Traditional daily turnover was reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements.[2] Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.[3]
The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as US Dollars, Euros, Japanese yen, Pounds Sterling, etc., and the need for trading in such currencies.

The foreign exchange market is unique because of
its trading volumes,
the extreme liquidity of the market,
its geographical dispersion,
its long trading hours: 24 hours a day except on weekends (from 22:00 UTC on Sunday until 22:00 UTC Friday),
the variety of factors that affect exchange rates.
the low margins of profit compared with other markets of fixed income (but profits can be high due to very large trading volumes)
the use of leverage

Main foreign exchange market turnover, 1988 - 2007, measured in billions of USD.
As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the idealperfect competition, notwithstandingmarket manipulation by central banks. According to the Bank for International Settlements,[2]average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion. Trading in the world's main financial markets accounted for $3.21 trillion of this. This approximately $3.21 trillion in main foreign exchange market turnover was broken down as follows:
$1.005 trillion in spot transactions
$362 billion in outright forwards
$1.714 trillion in foreign exchange swaps
$129 billion estimated gaps in reporting
Of the $3.98 trillion daily global turnover, trading in Londonaccounted for around $1.36 trillion, or 34.1% of the total, making London by far the global center for foreign exchange. In second and third places respectively, trading in New York accounted for 16.6%, and Tokyo accounted for 6.0%.[4] In addition to "traditional" turnover, $2.1 trillion was traded in derivatives.
Exchange-traded FX futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts.
Several other developed countries also permit the trading of FX derivative products (like currency futures and options on currency futures) on their exchanges. All these developed countries already have fully convertible capital accounts. Most emerging countries do not permit FX derivative products on their exchanges in view of prevalent controls on the capital accounts. However, a few select emerging countries (e.g., Korea, South Africa, India—[2]; [3]) have already successfully experimented with the currency futures exchanges, despite having some controls on the capital account.
FX futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, and accounts for about 7% of the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe (5/5/06, p. 20).
Top 10 currency traders [5]% of overall volume, May 2008
Rank
Name
Volume
1
Deutsche Bank
21.70%
2
UBS A
15.80%
3
Barclays Capital
9.12%
4
Citi
7.49%
5
Royal Bank of Scotland
7.30%
6
JPMorgan
4.19%
7
HSBC
4.10%
8
Lehman Brothers
3.58%
9
Goldman Sachs
3.47%
10
Morgan Stanley
2.86%
Foreign exchange trading increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001. This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The diverse selection of execution venues have made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. In 2006, retail traders constituted over 2% of the whole FX market volumes with an average daily trade volume of over US$50-60 billion (see retail trading platforms).[6] Because foreign exchange is an OTCmarket where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading centre is the UK, primarily London, which according to IFSL estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 31.3% in April 2004 to 34.1% in April 2007. The ten most active traders account for almost 80% of trading volume, according to the 2008 Euromoney FX survey.[3] These large international banks continually provide the market with both bid (buy) and ask (sell) prices. The bid/ask spreadis the difference between the price at which a bank or market makerwill sell ("ask", or "offer") and the price at which a market-maker will buy ("bid") from a wholesale customer. This spread is minimal for actively traded pairs of currencies, usually 0–3 pips. For example, the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.2200/1.2203 on a retail broker. Minimum trading size for most deals is usually 100,000 units of base currency, which is a standard "lot".
These spreads might not apply to retail customers at banks, which will routinely mark up the difference to say 1.2100/1.2300 for transfers, or say 1.2000/1.2400 for banknotes or travelers' checks. Spot prices at market makers vary, but on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (i.e., 0.0003). Competition is greatly increased with larger transactions, and pip spreads shrink on the major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.
Forex is a new way to make money in the global currency market. Making money in forex is very similar to stocks. You will be provided with a list of currency pairs each is coming along with graphs which you can select and trade. The object of Forex trading is to exchange one currency for another. Currencies are always quoted in pairs, such as GBP/USD or USD/JPY. The reason they are quoted in pairs is because in every foreign exchange transaction you are simultaneously buying one currency and selling another.Thousands of people trade on the Forex market, not only multinational corporations, governments, banks or other financial institutions but also individuals. You can easily find the basic rules and expert advice on how to make money in Forex on the internet. There are numerous online tutorials which can train you on forex trading. The proper training is the first step towards becoming successful in the forex market. It is important that anyone who is wondering how to make money in Forex seeks a professional Forex training.The earning potential in forex is limitless, but the entire field can seem confusing to beginners. It is always preferable to start off with demo accounts. Once they gain sufficient knowledge of the field they can then use real account. Patience is the key to making money in the Forex market. With experience and a little bit of help almost anyone can make money in Forex. A lot of help is available through the software technology. There are various software tools helping you read forex charts and helping you make the right decision during Forex trading. There are many online resources that answer the question how to make money in forex.When you buy a currency in the forex market, you are selling one currency and buying the other. You have known what currency you are betting for/against, as opposed to the stock market where you only need to know one stock. Unlike stock trading, most online forex firms don't charge commission. They make money by giving you a worse spread then they get and by charging you interest on margin. This spread is usually two or three pips.Margins are huge in currency trading; you can easily be accepted for 200 to margin on-line. Some Forex firms will give you up to 400:1 margin. To be honest, there is very little regulation in this industry. Profits in Forex are measured in "pips" or "points." A pip is 1/1000 of dollar. Buying cheap and selling expensive or selling expensive and buying cheap is the base of making money in Forex. The question is how you can know the best time to buy and how you can know that if you buy, the price will go up and you will make a profit. There are some ways to know the optimum time to buy and sell to make money with Forex. These ways are technical analysis and fundamental analysis.In technical analysis you analyze the price chart with the help of some special tools that are called Indicators. Forex fundamental analysis is a ,
fundamental strategy of trading widely used by online trader of forex. This strategy contains different basic criteria that are taken into consideration during currency trading. The economic conditions in the currency native country along with a number of other factors are the obligatory elements of the fundamental analyses. There are two schools of thought like in stocks about how to make money in forex trading. On one side you have the technical, which are basically charts and other statistical methods that used to try and guess the market. On the other side you have the fundamentals, which study things like countries domestic product, interest rates, economic output. The best answer is always in the middle, using a combination of graphs and charts along with real world knowledge of political events and economic statistics to make the market more predictable for you.Many new traders often fail to make money trading Forex because they are confused over the hundreds of indicators and Forex financial terms. With tons of data it can be difficult for new traders to see the trends and that will lead to poor trading decisions. Most new traders often lose sight of the big picture and concentrate on recent trends. They get too caught up with the latest news believing easy money is made by chance. That is not true.Another mistake some new traders make is believing there are insider secrets or information that can make them rich. In forex market it is almost impossible to have any kind of insider information, there is no chance of even an insider secret. The first thing you need to trade is a broker. Register with any of them and they will provide you a software platform that equip with a list of currency pairs, graph, technical indicators free to use. The broker usually provides you free practices by providing virtual money for you to practice enhance your skills and teach you how ti make money with Forex trading.Foreign exchange is a great money making opportunity for those who know their way around, for a beginner it can be quite hard. There are a lot of companies and individuals over the internet and offline willing to help you earn money from the Forex trading system but only a few of them can actually help. You will need help initially

Forex, which means that the foreign, is a liquid market. It is much more liquid for the stock, as a matter of fact, the fluidity of the market. What is superfluous? Well, that is, there are many more transactions as well as for any other market in whichWorld. There are more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, through the market every day! This means that there are many ways to cash in the currency markets. There is a lot of work and countless hours trading on a demo account, to think, be admitted to trading on an account.

Also according to these guidelines, many traders lose their entire account of the first attempt at a real account. There are many reasons, but two of the main reasons why people lose in the foreign currency is that they are and do not have the right mentality and the psychology of negotiation.

If we of capital, we are talking about the money in your Forex broker. Many people begin their careers in foreign currency are not enough money in your account. What is enough? It depends on your business strategy. If you have tickets for long-term, as every day or every week, you have much more capital, if you use the fifteen minutes or sixty minutes graphics. Always in the position to take the loss and not the half of your account at a store. The management of money is very important in all negotiations.When we speak of the psychology of stress and the mentality that we in the course of services. It is difficult, in the trade, while in a demo-account, because there is not really money. Therefore, you should try to make a demo-account or trade with real money. So many market participants can not bear stress, in a loss position and decide to leave or give him time, to turn and go in the right direction.