The industry is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA).1 Anyone considering opening a forex account can research the available brokers through the NFA website or through Investopedia’s broker reviews.
Forex brokers are compensated two ways. The first is through the bid-ask spread of a currency pair. For example, when the Euro-U.S. Dollar pair is priced as 1.20010 bid and 1.20022 ask, the spread between these two prices is .00012, known as 1.2 pips. When a retail client opens a position at the ask price…
Opening a forex trading account these days is quite simple and can be done online. Before trading, the forex broker will require a customer to deposit money into the new account as collateral. Brokers also provide leverage to customers so they can trade larger amounts than they have on deposit. Depending on the country the trader is…
Most foreign exchange transactions are between pairs of the currencies of the 10 nations that make up the G10. The nations and their currencies include the U.S. dollar (USD), the Euro (EUR), the pound sterling (GBP), the Japanese yen (JPY), the Australian dollar (AUD), the New Zealand dollar (NZD), the Canadian dollar (CAD), and the…
The foreign exchange market is by necessity a global and 24-hour market. The clients of a forex broker include retail currency traders who use these platforms for speculation on the direction of currencies. Their clients also include large financial services firms that trade on behalf of investment banks and other customers. Any individual forex broker…
A forex broker is a financial services company that provides traders access to a platform for buying and selling foreign currencies. Forex is short for foreign exchange. Transactions in the forex market are always between a pair of two different currencies. A forex broker may also known be as a retail forex broker or a…
While it is possible to make money in technical analysis, it takes a high degree of expertise and sophistication to use chart strategies profitably. Individual traders need to exercise strong self-control and avoid emotional trading. They will also need enough starting capital so that they will not go broke after a few bad trades.
There are many ways to learn technical analysis, including through books and online courses such as Investopedia Academy. Once you have a solid foundation, you can start testing your trading skills through paper trading before you start investing real money.
Trading can be challenging, which means it’s important to do your homework beyond the above points. Some other key considerations include:
Traders may require different levels of functionality depending on their strategy. For example, day traders will require a margin account that provides access to Level II quotes and market maker visibility. But for our example above, a basic account may be preferable as a lower-cost option.
