Which Way to Pay For Foreign Exchange

By Xenia Rainey

When transferring a large amount of currency you need to be careful were you do it to get the best rates. Most people might think the obvious choice would be to go with the traditional high street bank at which they already have their main accounts, but in fact they could end up costing themselves a lot of money by doing this. So let's say you're looking at investing a large amount of money in buying a property abroad, so you're going to be needing to make a frequent amount of foreign transfers. Think before you act...

Choose Specialists

If you are a business or private individual wanting to move large amounts of money abroad, and you are therefore looking to make a purchase of a big amount foreign currency, think before you go looking at the high street bank as your only route to getting that large amount of foreign cash. Think about using a Commercial Foreign Exchange specialist bank. This is because a Commercial Foreign Exchange (CFX) specialist can get you a much better exchange rate and commission free transfers. Their sole focus is on the currency exchange market, and the way they make their profit is through the difference between the rate at which they buy currency and the price at which they sell to you, the client. They will also get you a rate lower than the Interbank rate.

Interbank Rates Explained

Interbank is the high-level foreign exchange market where thousands of banks can exchange different currencies. The banks can either deal with one another directly, or through electronic brokering platforms. Foreign exchange brokers and high street banks buy their currency at wholesale exchange rates close to the Interbank rate and make most of their profit from the difference between the Interbank exchange rate and the rate they offer to their customers.

Are they Regulated? When choosing a Foreign Exchange specialist, look out for their guarantee that they are authorised as a money service business by HM Revenue and Customs. That way you get protection and peace of mind when moving large amounts of money around. Note brokers are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) so it really is essential that they are HM Revenue and Customs approved. Compare CFX specialists to find the one which really suits your needs.

Which Contract There are different types of contracts when you join a CFX specialist, one of them being a forward contract. This is a useful contract in that if the exchange rate is good, the broker can fix that rate for a longer period of time (for example up to two years) even if you don't want to use that money for a while. Great if you're making plans to buy foreign property but can't guarantee when you will be making the final payment.

Tips To Choose Forex Broker

By Odrey Wise

Trading Forex requires setting up an account. Setting up an account in its turn requires choosing Forex broker. The right choice depends on the right understanding of what a broker is and what kind of services it provides. In simple words a Forex broker is a person or a company that accomplishes traders' orders. The number of brokers offering their services online is overwhelming so before making the choice you should make certain research to find out about the services available and fees charged by different brokers.

Firstly it is necessary to find out with what regulatory agencies your broker is registered. Despite the fact that Forex market is deemed to be unregulated you should check that your broker has proper registration otherwise you will not have the ghost of a chance to return your money in case of fraud or manipulation. Beware of non-regulated brokers and among the registered ones select only those with solid financial instruments.

Before opening an account in a certain broker company be sure that it provides high quality 24-hour Customer support. If you can any time day or night contact the firm by phone, e-mail or otherwise and get the necessary for you information from knowledgeable representatives you made the right choice.

Most Forex brokers provide rather comprehensive and easy Internet trading conditions for their Clients. The main feature of any trading platform is broker's ordering system. Try the options available by testing a demo account at some online brokers. The terminal should include such obligatory options: real-time rate quotes, account summary showing balance, profit, loss, and margin. Also note that a good broker always provides to enter the possibility to enter and exit the market quickly. These are minimum requirements but they should be fulfilled.

So the features and policies to look for while selecting on-line Forex broker are the following:

• Low spread i.e. the difference between buy and sell prices of any currency pair available. The lower the spread the less money gets your broker from you.

• Instant orders execution. This is essentially important when you trade for small profits as you get the price that you see and that you "click" and no other prices.

• Free technical analysis and charting should be available for active traders. Choose a broker that allows trading directly on the charts.

• Currency pairs. Good brokers offer at least seven major currencies (USD, JPY, GBP, CHF, EUR, UAD, and CAD).

And the last but not the least tip - be sure to scan fine print section of a potential broker to be completely aware of all trading nuances that may be imposed on new traders.

Newsworthy Forex market articles

A Unique But Classic Way to Trade the Currency Market

By John Templeton

Everybody is always looking for a unique way to trade the currency market. If that is the case, you might want to stop visiting all the forex forums that are out there. I am not saying their useless, but the majority of the stuff you find is completely rehashed.

If you really want something that is unique, you really have to go to the most classic way of trading the currency market (or any market for that matter). It's as old as the stock market itself. It's called Price Action.

Legendary floor traders like Jesse Livermore were using this concept to predict future price movement. It was all based on the price activity of the underlying stock.

After roughly 100 years later, not a whole lot has changed. The concept still remains alive and well today, but unfortunately too many traders have gotten so used to all the bells and whistles that we get with modern trading.

Its almost as if nobody even pays attention to price action. How could they when they have gobs of indicators on their charts? Traders use indicators that they don't even know what they are intended for. People use special indicators that supposedly tell them when to buy or sell.

It gets to the point where price is irrelevant because they are paying far more attention to their indicators than the actual price of the currency pair.

I could understand if it worked, but judging on the fact that 95% of forex traders lose money, I am guessing that's not the case.

John Templeton has been a successful forex trader after learning how to trade price action. Once he understood that all he needed to trade forex was on a plain chart with no indicators, he was able to come up with his own forex trading strategy called Trading in the Buff.

Learn Forex - Choosing Your Chart

By J. Star

There are 3 chart types most commonly used in Forex. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages. Choose the chart types that best fits with your Forex Trading System and personality.

1. The Line Chart. A line chart simply draws a line from one closing price to the next closing price. When each line is strung to the next we get the general price movement of a currency over a specific time period. This is the simplest and least comprehensive chart type available.

Advantages: Simple, easy to read, and to the point. If your system relies solely on the closing price of a currency this type of chart may work for you.

Disadvantages: Does not show the high, low of a given period. This makes it very difficult to determine Support and Resistance levels, an important factor in most Forex trading systems.

2. The Bar Chart. This type of chart also shows the closing price while simultaneously showing the high and low of a given period. The bottom of the bar is the low while the top of the bar is the high. The left hash identifies the open while the right hash identifies the close.

Advantages: Far better in determining the actual price movement of a given currency because the bar chart shows both the high and low as well as the open and close.

Disadvantages: More difficult to read. The flurry of lines has a tendency to play tricks on your eyes.

3. Candlestick Chart. The candlestick charts show the same information as the bar chart (high, low, open, close) but in a way that is much easier to read. The candlestick includes a body, an upper shadow, and a lower shadow. The body is one color if the price has increased or another if it has decreased. The lower and upper portions of the body show the price open and close while the upper/lower shadows identify the high and low.

Advantages: Far easier to read make chart analysis quick and efficient. The Japanese have studied candlestick charts for centuries and come up with patterns that forecast price trends and changes.

Disadvantages: They require more education to understand and use.

Echo FX prides itself on being an experienced, honest, disciplined, and emotion-free Forex Account Manager and quality Forex Trading Education provider. For more information about the company, their Managed Forex Account Programs, or Forex Trading preparation solutions. Visit our Managed Forex Account and Forex Education websites.

3 Advantages of Forex Trading Over Stock Investing

By Christopher Websilver

In these turbulent times, a lot of investment opportunities are fast becoming questionable sources of making your money grow. The recent stock market crisis has shown that a lot of investors are hesitant to invest in stocks and commodities because of how bad the economy has been hit. So it makes sense for investors to seek other alternatives for their investment opportunities, and if you happen to be amongst them, this article will tell you 3 advantages of Forex trading over stock investing. By the end of this article, you should seriously consider putting your money into Forex trading while the stock market recovers.

One of the similarities between Forex and stocks is that a trader would have control over a large amount of the particular currency they've invested in by putting up a small margin. The difference with Forex however is that the margin requirements for Forex is far lower than stocks. Where the margin for stock trading is 50% of the total value, Forex margin requirements only stand at 1%. This means that with Forex, a trader's money would be able to play with 50-times as much value of whatever product he might have invested in if he were to trade stocks. However, do remember that even though the requirements seem favourable to you, it is still an investment, and thus it would be prudent for you to be aware and have a full understanding of the risks involved.

Another advantage that Forex has over stock investing is that the Forex market is not susceptible to the Bear versus Bull mentality that the stock market is prone to. Because Forex trading is simply the exchange of currencies, a Forex trader will always have an investment opportunity to look forward to, because if a currency isn't performing well, it could mean that there is a likelihood of making a profit with another currency. Also, the Forex market, when compared to the stock market, is not negatively affected by fluctuations in interest rates. Typically when a country's interest rate rises, its currency would be strengthened, but conversely the rise in interest rates more than often affects the stock market adversely.

The third reason why you should consider Forex trading over stocks is the fact that keeping up with stocks can induce a headache if you were to personally keep track of your own investment portfolio, especially if you have your hand in a lot of stocks. Think about it; if you put together the stocks in both NASDAQ and NYSE, the total number of stock issues amounts to eight thousand. That is a lot of options to consider, and keeping up with all of them can be time consuming. In comparison, Forex trading only involves four major currencies and approximately around thirty-four second tier currencies that you need to consider. Not a whole lot of choices sure, but they aren't that big of a headache to keep up with either. The only thing you need to keep in mind is how those currencies are doing in relation to the health of their countries' economies.

In actuality, there are more advantages to Forex trading when compared to stock investing. If you're still not convinced after reading this article, do a more in-depth research online. You might just learn that Forex trading is far more advantageous than trading stocks, especially in today's economy.

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