IN FINANCE, the exchange rates (also known as the foreign-exchange rate, FOREX rate or FX rate) between two currencies specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. For example an exchange rate of 102 Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) to the United States dollar (USD, $) means that JPY 102 is worth the same as USD 1. The foreign exchange market is one of the largest markets in the world. By some estimates, about 3.2 trillion USD worth of currency changes hands every day.The spot exchange rate refers to the current exchange rate. The forward exchange rate refers to an exchange rate that is quoted and traded today but for delivery and payment on a specific future date.Quotation.An exchange system quotation is given by stating the number of units of "term currency" (or "price currency" or "quote currency") that can be bought in terms of 1 "unit currency" (also called "base currency"). For example, in a quotation that says the EURUSD exchange rate is 1.4320 (1.4320 USD per EUR), the term currency is USD and the base currency is EUR.There is a market convention that determines which is the base currency and which is the term currency. In most parts of the world, the order is: EUR – GBP – AUD – NZD – USD – others. Thus if you are doing a conversion from EUR into AUD, EUR is the base currency, AUD is the term currency and the exchange rate tells you how many Australian dollars you would pay or receive for 1 euro. Cyprus and Malta which were quoted as the base to the USD and others were recently removed from this list when they joined the euro. In some areas of Europe and in the non-professional market in the UK, EUR and GBP are reversed so that GBP is quoted as the base currency to the euro. In order to determine which is the base currency where both currencies are not listed (i.e. both are "other"), market convention is to use the base currency which gives an exchange rate greater than 1.000. This avoids rounding issues and exchange rates being quoted to more than 4 decimal places. There are some exceptions to this rule e.g. the Japanese often quote their currency as the base to other currencies.Quotes using a country's home currency as the price currency (e.g., EUR 1.00 = USD 1.58) are known as direct quotation or price quotation (from that country's perspective) [1] and are used by most countries.Quotes using a country's home currency as the unit currency (e.g., AUD 0.97 = USD 1.00) are known as indirect quotation or quantity quotation and are used in British newspapers and are also common in Australia, New Zealand and the euro zone.direct quotation: 1 foreign currency unit = x home currency unitsindirect quotation: 1 home currency unit = x foreign currency unitsNote that, using direct quotation, if the home currency is strengthening (i.e., appreciating, or becoming more valuable) then the exchange rate number decreases. Conversely if the foreign currency is strengthening, the exchange rate number increases and the home currency is depreciating.When looking at a currency pair such as EURUSD, the first component (EUR in this case) will be called the base currency. The second is called the term currency. For example : EURUSD = 1.5877, means EUR is the base and USD the term, so 1 EUR = USD 1.5877.Market convention from the early 1980s to 2006 was that most currency pairs were quoted to 4 decimal places for spot transactions and up to 6 decimal places for forward outrights or swaps. (The fourth decimal place is usually referred to as a "pip.") An exception to this was exchange rates with a value of less than 1.000 which were usually quoted to 5 or 6 decimal places. Although there is no fixed rule, exchange rates with a value greater than around 20 were usually quoted to 3 decimal places and currencies with a value greater than 80 were quoted to 2 decimal places. Currencies over 5000 were usually quoted with no decimal places (e.g. the former Turkish Lira). e.g. (GBPOMR : 0.765432 - EURUSD : 1.5877 - GBPBEF : 58.234 - EURJPY : 165.29). In other words, quotes are given with 5 digits. Where rates are below 1, quotes frequently include 5 decimal places.In 2006 Barclays Capital broke with convention by offering spot exchange rates with 5 or 6 decimal places. The contraction of spreads (the difference between the bid and offer rates) arguably necessitated finer pricing and gave the banks the ability to try and win transaction on multibank trading platforms where all banks may otherwise have been quoting the same price. A number of other banks have now followed this.
Forex Account Performance Versus Real Account Performance:
Over the past several years, the popularity of online currency trading has grown substantially. Each day, online FX brokerage firms attract new investors - each of them lining up with a glint in their eye, lured in by promises of easy money. Most of these companies allow you to sign up for a free demo account which lets you place mock trades using their trading platform to get a feel for the excitement of currency trading. In the casual world of free demo accounts - many young traders find they are able to garner impressive profits without a significant amount of effort. It almost seems too good to be true. But transferring this success from a demo account to a real account is far less common. Why is this? The actual trading platform behaves the exact same way, the market doesn't care whether you're a demo or real trader - so what is different? It's you who has changed. Not your personality, not even your trading style - but the factors that affect you are different. What is the key factor to trading success? The search for the "Holy Grail" of trading has been a common theme throughout the history of markets. There are a variety of different techniques. Those whom are inclined towards number crunching and pattern recognition may prefer technical analysis, whereas those more focused on the big picture, logical macro perspective prefer fundamental analysis. Then there are specific methodologies like swing trading, trend following or even more esoteric ideas like the Elliot Wave theory. Which one is best? There are examples of very successful traders using each methodology.
FOREX success with Step by Step::
Choose an online Forex FirmWhat to look for in an online Forex Firm:
Low Spreads:
In Forex Trading the ‘spread’ is the difference between the buy andsell price of any given currency pair. The lower the spread savesthe trader money. Most firms offer 4-5 pip spreads in the MajorCurrency pairs. The best firms offer clients 3-5 pips.
Low minimum account openings:
For those that are new to trading, and for those that don’t havethousands of dollars in risk capital to trade, being able to open amini trading account with only $200 is a great feature for newtraders.
Instant automatic execution of your orders:This is very important when choosing a Forex firm. You want instantexecution of your orders and the price you see and ‘click’ is the pricethat you should get. Don’t settle with a firm that re-quotes you whenyou click on a price or a firm that allows for price ‘slippage’. This isvery important when trading for small profits.
Free charting and technical analysis:
You need a firm that gives you access to the best charting and technicalanalysis available to active traders. The firm that I recommend givesclients FREE professional charting services and even allows traders totrade directly on the charts!
High Leverage:
You want high leverage—the ability to trade a large amount with a smallmargin deposit. Some of the best firms offer .25% or 400:1 leverage.
Hedging Capability:
You want the flexibility of opening positions on the same currency pair inopposite directions without them eliminating each other and withoutmargin increase!