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	<title>Forex and Trade News</title>
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		<title>Looking for Personal Indemnity Insurance</title>
		<link>http://www.forextrademag.com/personal-indemnity-insurance/</link>
		<comments>http://www.forextrademag.com/personal-indemnity-insurance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:23:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forex]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.forextrademag.com/?p=35</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Professional indemnity insurance fundamentally the amount which is to become paid out to the insured professionals. Personal indemnity insurance one thing for the men and women close to for those their private needs as well as worries that they presume will happen and therefore will create economic crisis for the kids perhaps. Since, every day [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;"><img title="Looking for Personal Indemnity Insurance" align="left" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTqtCGgzF6PwDjky1ZBYR0bpsNRZEJkJHj2NTCX4MjUN-YlZtpP" alt="personal indemnity insurance"><a href="http://www.dailystrength.org/people/833657/journal" target="_blank" title="Professional indemnity insurance">Professional indemnity insurance</a> fundamentally the amount which is to become paid out to the insured professionals. Personal indemnity insurance one thing for the men and women close to for those their private needs as well as worries that they presume will happen and therefore will create economic crisis for the kids perhaps. Since, every day life is very high-risk a person cant actually assume great and blessed days every time whether it be your individual existence or perhaps professional lifestyle comparatively.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The kind of insurance extremely important and required today to save you against every other potential opportunities which might prove to be a financial difficulty for you personally at any time. <a href="http://www.howcast.com/users/mik1tina" target="_blank" title="PI insurance">PI insurance</a> fundamentally a term described possibly <a href="http://www.professionalindemnityinsurance.com/" target="_blank" title="personal indemnity insurance">personal indemnity insurance</a> policy or specialist indemnity insurance policy as well. This can be a short-cut word used for both phrases associated with insurance as such. Once you get in touch with the insurance agent, he will be in a position to clarify all of you the actual bits inside particulars and he may also show you with all the greatest of the coverage which will be the best option to you in the methods comparatively. You will be offered excellent returns in just an average level of top quality being paid month to month and you may save through obtaining embarrassed through these insulting circumstance similarly.</p>
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		<title>Forex Damage Control</title>
		<link>http://www.forextrademag.com/forex-damage-control/</link>
		<comments>http://www.forextrademag.com/forex-damage-control/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:45:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Forex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Invest]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.forextrademag.com/?p=33</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many people around the world are now looking to Forex as a safe haven in these shaky financial times in which the future is accompanied with a big question mark. The Forex market enjoys a unique benefit, as a result of its size, that it is not affected by the recession. Traders can continue to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Many people around the world are now looking to Forex as a safe haven in these shaky financial times in which the future is accompanied with a big question mark. The Forex market enjoys a unique benefit, as a result of its size, that it is not affected by the recession. Traders can continue to profit from their trades even in these troubling times. </p>
<p>However, new traders, upon encountering Forex websites, whether it is sites belonging to brokers, auto traders, or any other Forex service, are quickly overcome with excitement at the thought of becoming wealthy overnight. There is no shortage of Forex sites promising traders immediate wealth and taking advantage of their Forex newbie status.<br />
<span id="more-33"></span><br />
Smart traders, before beginning to trade, should spend significant time reading articles and learning as much as they possibly can before risking any money. The information available to traders online is literally endless with thousands of articles uploaded daily, people sharing their trading experiences on various platforms, and tutorials popping up in every corner. As a trader, this is bound to overwhelm you, and most new traders will want to hear a few golden rules that they can use to begin trading. </p>
<p>I am not claiming that you will become a Forex expert after implementing these rules, but I do think that if you properly internalize these points and use them effectively in your trades, you can avoid the disaster most traders experience when trading with no prior knowledge. I have said this many times before, and I will continue to say it, Forex has huge potential, but the danger is just as great. </p>
<p>The following are three golden rules of Forex trading, that if implemented, will give traders a head start over their colleagues: </p>
<p>•	Do Not Depend on Luck<br />
: If you are looking to make Forex and intend it to be a serious endeavor, you need to show you are serious and make a plan. Don&#8217;t jump in without a trading strategy and money management techniques in place. Remember that no matter how good you are or how much of a natural trader you think you are, you will lose, and you will lose more than once. The big question is, and this is what separates the boys from the men, how are you going to handle those losing trades? Are you going to be forced to close your account because of 5 bad trades? If the answer is yes, you are doing something wrong. </p>
<p>Let&#8217;s stop talking philosophy and get down to the numbers. Imagine for a second that you have decided to open an account with $10,000. You can now choose how much of that capital you are going to risk per trade. Obviously, the higher the risk, the more potential for profit, hence the famous saying “No pain, no gain”. </p>
<p>So if you decide to risk 10% of your entire account on each trade, simple math dictates that after 10 bad trades, you will be closing up shop. Now imagine you did the same thing but risked only 5% of your account per trade. You just doubled your chances of making it, or cut the chances of a margin call in half. </p>
<p>However, money management is not only about preventing margin calls, it is also an important tool in ensuring continuous and steady profits. The Forex industry is always evolving and new tools are introduced daily. Even now, as I write this, almost all Forex trading platforms offer important and useful tools that you must take advantage of, if you want to succeed. Set up Stop Losses, do not let your losses go on forever. Implement Take Profits, I know it is hard to stop the trade when you are ahead, but that is exactly what you need to do if you want to stay ahead. </p>
<p>Bottom line is, when it comes to trading Forex, you do not want to rely on your human emotions or your hunch, you want to depend on a well thought out strategy that makes sense and was custom tailored to meet your personality and trading needs. </p>
<p>•	Implement Bullet One<br />
: OK this is not just a fake point to add more meat to the article, this is real and crucial for your Forex success. Let me explain. It is easy to plan your strategy, it is a lot harder to put it into action when in the moment, and the strategy is telling you to do something that is the exact opposite of what your heart is telling you to do. </p>
<p>Studies have shown that close to 60% of Forex failures can be attributed to this one factor. People do not stick to their plans. You need to understand that Forex and emotions do not, and must not mix. If you are an overly emotional person who tends to get excited quickly or have been known to make rash decision in high pressured situations, you need to step away and let your technique do its work. Do not let your emotion dictate your Forex decisions, this will be your downfall. </p>
<p>If you are finding that you are not sticking to your trading plan and it is not the emotions getting in your way, the only other possibility is your lack of confidence in the plan itself. You need to do your research and make sure the plan you intend on using fits you perfectly. It might take some time to find, and you might feel like you want to get in and trade already, but skipping this step will almost definitely lead to your ultimate failure. It might not happen right away, but if you have no strategy, and you are trading randomly, you will eventually join the 90% of traders that fail at the Forex game. Make a plan and stick to it, no matter what. </p>
<p>•	Use Leverage Responsibly<br />
: Anyone who has ever visited a Forex website of any kind, has undoubtedly seen the words leverage and margin thrown around. First thing&#8217;s first, margin and leverage are not the same thing. Margin is your money and leverage is the broker&#8217;s. For clarity and emphasis, I am going to repeat that, leverage is not your money, it belongs to the broker and you are for all intents and purposes, borrowing that money.</p>
<p>Another important and possibly detrimental point that traders must understand when it comes to leverage is that while it increases your chances for larger profits, it also magnifies your risk and can easily lead to the destruction of your account. </p>
<p>Just to clarify, using a 100:1 leverage means you can now trade 100 times more money than you could have before borrowing that money. What is also means is that you have multiplied the speed at which you will lose that money by 100 as well. Using a high leverage is literally giving up the control of your account to someone else, namely the broker. </p>
<p>If you are sure you will win the trade, which you cannot be, use high leverage, because your profits will be multiplied. If you are unsure of the outcome of the trade, use this dangerous resource responsibly. Think of leverage, as I have said before, as the speed at which you are driving. The higher the leverage, the faster you are going. The faster you are going, the more deadly a small mistake can be. </p>
<p>There are many more tips that can be given to someone who is testing out the Forex waters for the first time, but I think it is safe to say that if the above three pieces of advice are understood properly and implemented correctly, disaster can be avoided. </p>
<p>Of course, if you want to make it big in the market, you are going to need to learn how to analyze the market, understand the fundamentals, and process the various technical indicators used in the Forex trading arena. The most important thing to do, and these three tips will assist you in doing it, is damage control, because as I explained above, no one trades Forex without experiencing losses. You are going to fall, the important questions are, are you going to get back up and are you going to learn from your mistakes?</p>
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		<title>Trading Environment</title>
		<link>http://www.forextrademag.com/trading-environment/</link>
		<comments>http://www.forextrademag.com/trading-environment/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:45:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Financial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trade]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.forextrademag.com/?p=31</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When it comes to trading, one of the most neglected subjects are those dealing with trading psychology. Most traders spend days, months and even years trying to find the right system. But having a system is just part of the game. Don’t get us wrong, it is very important to have a system that perfectly [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When it comes to trading, one of the most neglected subjects are those dealing with trading psychology. Most traders spend days, months and even years trying to find the right system. But having a system is just part of the game. Don’t get us wrong, it is very important to have a system that perfectly suits the trader, but it is as important as having a money management plan, or to understand all psychology barriers that may affect the trader decisions and other issues. In order to succeed in this business, there must be equilibrium between all important aspects of trading. </p>
<p>In the trading environment, when you lose a trade, what is the first idea that pops up in your mind? It would probably be, “There must be something wrong with my system”, or “I knew it, I shouldn’t have taken this trade” (even when your system signaled it). But sometimes we need to dig a little deeper in order to see the nature of our mistake, and then work on it accordingly.<br />
<span id="more-31"></span><br />
When it comes to trading the Forex market as well as other markets, only 5% of traders achieve the ultimate goal: to be consistent in profits. What is interesting though is that there is just a tiny difference between this 5% of traders and the rest of them. The top 5% grow from mistakes; mistakes are a learning experience, they learn an invaluable lesson on every single mistake made. Deep in their minds, a mistake is one more chance to try it harder and do it better the next time, because they know they might not get a chance the next time. And at the end, this tiny difference becomes THE big difference.<br />
Mistakes in the trading environment<br />
Most of us relate a trading mistake to the outcome (in terms of money) of any given trade. The truth is, a mistake has nothing to do with it, mistakes are made when certain guidelines are not followed. When the rules you trade by are violated. Take for instance the following scenarios:</p>
<p>First scenario: The system signals a trade.<br />
Signal taken and trade turns out to be a profitable trade.<br />
Outcome of the trade: Positive, made money.<br />
Experience gained: Its good to follow the system, if I do this consistently the odds will turn in my favor. Confidence is gained in both the trader and the system.<br />
Mistake made: None.</p>
<p>Signal taken and trade turns out to be a loosing trade.<br />
Outcome of the trade: Negative, lost money.<br />
Experience gained: It is impossible to win every single trade, a loosing trade is just part of the business; our raw material, we know we can’t get them all right. Even with this lost trade, the trader is proud about himself for following the system. Confidence in the trader is gained.<br />
Mistake made: None.</p>
<p>Signal not taken and trade turns out to be a profitable trade.<br />
Outcome of the trade: Neutral.<br />
Experience gained: Frustration, the trader always seems to get in trades that turned out to be loosing trades and let the profitable trades go away. Confidence is lost in the trader self.<br />
Mistake made: Not taking a trade when the system signaled it.</p>
<p>Signal not taken and trade turns out to be a loosing trade.<br />
Outcome of the trade: Neutral.<br />
Experience gained: The trader will start to think “hey, I’m better than my system”. Even if the trader doesn&#8217;t think on it consciously, the trader will rationalize on every signal given by the system because deep in his or her mind, his or her “feeling” is more intelligent than the system itself. From this point on, the trader will try to outguess the system. This mistake has catastrophic effects on our confidence to the system. The confidence on the trader turns into overconfidence.<br />
Mistake made: Not taking a trade when system signaled it </p>
<p>Second Scenario: System does not signal a trade.<br />
 No trade is taken<br />
Outcome of the trade: Neutral<br />
Experience gained: Good discipline, we only need to take trades when the odds are in our favor, just when the system signals it. Confidence gained in both the trader self and the system.<br />
Mistake made: None</p>
<p>A trade is taken, turns out to be a profitable trade.<br />
Outcome of the trade: Positive, made money.<br />
Experience gained: This mistake has the most catastrophic effects in the trader self, the system and most importantly in the trader’s trading career. You will start to think you need no system, you know better from them all. From this point on, you will start to trade based on what you think. Confidence in the system is totally lost. Confidence in the trader self turns into overconfidence.<br />
Mistake made: Take a trade when there was no signal from the system.</p>
<p>A trade is taken, turned out to be a loosing trade.<br />
Outcome of the trade: negative, lost money.<br />
Experience gained: The trader will rethink his strategy. The next time, the trader will think it twice before getting in a trade when the system does not signal it. The trader will go “Ok, it is better to get in the market when my system signals it, only those trade have a higher probability of success”. Confidence is gained in the system.<br />
Mistake made: Take a trade when there was no signal from the system</p>
<p>As you can see, there is absolutely no correlation between the outcome of the trade and a mistake. The most catastrophic mistake even has a positive trade outcome, made money, but this could be the beginning of the end of the trader’s career.  As we have already stated, mistakes must only be related to the violation of rules a trader trades by.<br />
All these mistakes were directly related to the signals given by a system, but the same is applied when getting out of a trade. There are also mistakes related to following a trading plan. For example, risking more money on a given trade than the amount the trader should have risked and many more. </p>
<p>Most mistakes can be avoided by first having a trading plan. A trading plan includes the system: the criteria we use to get in and out the market, the money management plan: how much we will risk on any given trade, and many other points. Secondly, and most important, we need to have the discipline to follow strictly our plan. We created our plan when no trade was placed on, thus no psychology barriers were up front. So, the only thing we are certain about is that if we follow our plan, the decision taken is on our best interests, and in the long run, these decisions will help us have better results. We don’t have to worry about isolated events, or trades that could had give us better results at first, but then they could have catastrophic results in our trading career. </p>
<p>How to deal with mistakes<br />
There are many possible ways to properly manage mistakes. We will suggest the one that works better for us.</p>
<p>Step one: Belief change.<br />
Every mistake is a learning experience. They all have something valuable to offer. Try to counteract the natural tendency of feeling frustrated and approach mistakes in a positive manner. Instead of yelling to everyone around and feeling disappointed, say to yourself “ok, I did something wrong, what happened? What is it?</p>
<p>Step two: Identify the mistake made.<br />
Define the mistake, find out what caused the mistake, and try as hard as you can to effectively see the nature of that mistake. Finding the mistake nature will prevent you from making the same mistake again. More than often you will find the answer where you less expected. Take for instance a trader that doesn’t follow the system. The reason behind this could be that the trader is afraid of loosing. But then, why is he or she afraid? It could be that the trader is using a system that does not fit him or her, and finds difficult to follow every signal. In this case, as you can see, the nature of the mistake is not in the surface. You need to try as hard as you can to find the real reason of the given mistake. </p>
<p>Step three: Measure the consequences of the mistake.<br />
List the consequences of making that particular mistake, both good and bad. Good consequences are those that make us better traders after dealing with the mistake. Think on all possible reasons you can learn from what happened. For the same example above, what are the consequences of making that mistake? Well, if you don’t follow the system, you will gradually loose confidence in it, and this at the end will put you into trades you don’t really want to be, and out of trades you should be in.</p>
<p>Step four: Take action.<br />
Taking proper action is the last and most important step. In order to learn, you need to change your behavior. Make sure that whatever you do, you become “this-mistake-proof”. By taking action we turn every single mistake into a small part of success in our trading career. Continuing with the same example, redefining the system would be the trader’s final step. The trader would put a system that perfectly fits him or her, so the trader doesn’t find any trouble following it in future signals.</p>
<p>Understanding the fact that the outcome of any trade has nothing to do with a mistake will open your mind to other possibilities, where you will be able to understand the nature of every mistake made. This at the same time will open the doors for your trading career as you work and take proper action on every mistake made.<br />
The process of success is slow, and plenty of times it is attributed to repeated mistakes made and the constant struggle to get past these mistakes, working on them accordingly. How we deal with them will shape our future as a trader, and most importantly as a person.</p>
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		<title>Forex Auto Trading</title>
		<link>http://www.forextrademag.com/forex-auto-trading/</link>
		<comments>http://www.forextrademag.com/forex-auto-trading/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:43:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Forex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Invest]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.forextrademag.com/?p=29</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With the growing popularity of Forex trading, a new trend of forex Auto traders is gaining momentum. There are many individuals, especially in today&#8217;s shaky economy, who are looking to the Forex market for a safe investment. The problem with a lot of these people is that they have no experience in trading Forex, nor [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With the growing popularity of Forex trading, a new trend of forex Auto traders is gaining momentum. There are many individuals, especially in today&#8217;s shaky economy, who are looking to the Forex market for a safe investment. The problem with a lot of these people is that they have no experience in trading Forex, nor are they interested in spending days and weeks studying it. As a result, they turn to Forex auto trading systems. </p>
<p>A lot of these auto traders turn out to be a scam, but there are some that are very legitimate and can make a beginner trader some very serious money. We decided to review the AvaFX Auto Trader and see if it really delivers positive trading results. In this article, we will describe the process of registering for Ava FX Auto Traders, as well as some very important initial tips on how to get the most out of auto traders in general. You can also read our full review of AvaFX Auto Trader.<br />
<span id="more-29"></span><br />
We are not going to tell you which trading strategy to choose but all of the information in this post as well as the following articles is based on our choice of trading with a “solid” trading strategy and taking minimal risks. The first thing you need to do before trading with an auto trader is decide what kind of trader you are. In fact, this is something you should do even if you are trading Forex the “old fashioned” way. Are you a trader who is willing to take risks with the chance of making a huge profit in one position? Alternatively, are you interested in making smaller profits while taking much smaller risks? These are some questions you need to ask yourself before even opening up an auto trading system. Every decision you are going to make from here on in will be based on this initial decision. </p>
<p>After you determined who you are as a trader, there are two very crucial points you need to understand before trading. The first point is that Auto Traders are composed of what is known as systems. These systems are programmed and distributed by individuals. They are for all intents and purposes the same thing as strategies. You need to decide based on your initial decision of what kind of trader you are, what kind of strategy you would like to accompany your trades. For example, in our case, we decided to trade with a “Solid” technique, so we were looking to make smaller profits while taking minimal risks. In our case therefore, we defined that our system would be one that has not lost more than a certain number of pips in one trade. It would have to display a graph that when looking at its progress over a defined period of time is moving upwards in a stable manner. Again, this is based on your decision of what kind of trader you want to be. </p>
<p>Another important factor you need to understand before auto trading, is that you are not going to be trading Forex, but rather letting the auto trader trade for you. What you need to do is simply apply basic statistics and filter out the systems that do not match your personal trading style. You do not choose pairs when auto trading, you choose systems. Whatever system matches your needs should be selected and a trade opened based on that system. The pair that is supported by the system you chose will be the pair that you trade. You do not choose pairs, you choose systems. This is of course assuming you do not want to choose a system based on its pair, maybe one would do this if they do not have faith in one currency or another. </p>
<p>Once you understood and implemented the above fundamental principles of auto trading, you need to begin the actual process. The first step is choosing your systems. You do this by defining the basic parameters for choosing a system and applying a filter to the entire list of available systems. This should include the system&#8217;s maximum drawdown in one position, number of months since the system became profitable, and the number of trades with a minimum of 30 (less than 30 is not enough statistical information in order to accurately analyze the information). It is important to remember that these are the basic filters, but to achieve the best results, you should apply the more complex statistical checks as well. </p>
<p>At this point, you need to compare between the results of your previous filter. One of the primary factors by which you should compare is percentage of profitable positions. So, if for example, a certain system has a 30% profit rate, meaning it produces a loss in 70% of its trades, this is generally not a system you want to choose. That is of course unless the other systems have even worse ratios. </p>
<p>Once you determined which one of the systems left in your list has the highest ratio of profitable positions, you should check how many positions this system can open simultaneously. If for example, this system can open 4 positions at the same time, you have four times the exposure of a system that only opens one. </p>
<p>Once you have narrowed down the relevant systems for your trading needs, you need to examine them one by one. The first step is a detailed examination of this system&#8217;s chart. You can view the direction of the chart in a defined period of time. This is of utmost importance because if you chose to be a “solid” trader like we have, you do not want a system for which the chart displays extreme movements. You want to ensure that the chart is always moving upwards and in small increments. </p>
<p>After you view the system&#8217;s chart, you could go into the screen displaying detailed information about every position opened using this system. You can see all the details about its past and present transactions. How long were they open, the date on which the position was opened or closed, and other very useful information on how this system trades. Here you will have to apply some common sense based on your personal preferences. </p>
<p>Once you have completed the selection process and have decided on the system that matches your needs, there are two things you need to remember. The first is, just like in regular Forex trading, once you choose a system, stick to it. Do not let emotion take over, let the system do the trading for you. Having said that, define a period of time after which you perform the above filters again. Just because a certain system matched your criteria this week or this month, does not mean it will next month as well. Alternatively, just because a certain system did NOT meet your requirements this time around, does not mean it won’t next time. </p>
<p>Perform this filter once every week or month depending on your own personal configuration. This is the second article in the Auto Trading series. The next article will include concrete examples as well as screen captures of our personal experience with the auto trader we used.</p>
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		<title>Forex Structure</title>
		<link>http://www.forextrademag.com/forex-structure/</link>
		<comments>http://www.forextrademag.com/forex-structure/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:42:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Forex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Invest]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.forextrademag.com/?p=27</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The forex is unique among financial markets in a number of ways. One of these is that it was not traditionally used as an investment vehicle. It had, and still maintains to some extent, a somewhat more utilitarian purpose. In today’s globalized economy, most businesses have some international exposure, creating the need to exchange one [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The forex is unique among financial markets in a number of ways. One of these is that it was not traditionally used as an investment vehicle. It had, and still maintains to some extent, a somewhat more utilitarian purpose. In today’s globalized economy, most businesses have some international exposure, creating the need to exchange one currency for another in order to complete transactions. For example, Honda builds its cars in Japan and exports them to the United States, where an eager American buyer exchanges his dollars for a brand new Honda. Some of this money has to make its way back to Japan to pay the factory workers that built the car, but first those dollars have to be exchanged for Japanese yen, since that is the currency the Japanese factory workers are paid in. </p>
<p>Transactions such as this are facilitated by international banks and are done through a mechanism known as the foreign exchange market, or forex. Since banks are used to facilitate these cross-border transactions, they naturally want to be paid for their services. This payment comes in the form of a bid/ask spread – offering to buy the desired currency at a slightly lower price than they are willing to sell it at, and pocketing the difference. Considering the fact that more than $3bn moves through the forex market daily, these seemingly small fees can add up to a significant sum.<br />
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Since the 1970’s most of the world’s major currencies have been on a (mostly) free-floating exchange mechanism, allowing for exchange rates to be determined by market forces, that is, supply and demand. I say “mostly” because there have been times when major central banks have intervened in the market to manipulate exchange rates by either buying or selling large amounts of their currency, but normally this only takes place in extreme situations. There are also other central banks that choose to manage their currencies much more strictly, but these are a minority in the developed world.</p>
<p>So in most cases, this free-floating exchange rate mechanism allowed currencies to fluctuate against one another much more, and this in turn opened the door to speculation on the future movement of exchange rates. The banks’ intimate knowledge of the forex market, and their high level of capitalization allowed them to be the first to speculate in the forex market, and to significantly increase their profits by doing so. An unfortunate consequence of this speculation however was that liquidity at certain times became scarce, and some necessary transactions could not be completed. In order to solve this problem, banks turned to expanding the number of participants in the market to include non-banks, thereby generating sufficient order flow (liquidity distribution) to complete clients’ transactions, and also to profit from these newer and less knowledgeable market participants. These less experienced forex market participants first included large funds (such as the legendary Quantum Fund), but nowadays also include your local retail forex dealer.</p>
<p>Another unique feature of the forex market is that it is an over-the-counter (OTC) market, meaning that there is no central exchange (like a stock exchange) where transactions take place. Instead, top-tier transactions are made in the “interbank market”, which is a collection of the world’s largest money center banks, all free to trade currencies amongst each other at whatever rate they can agree on. Of course, it may be difficult to find your way around such a maze, so the brilliant minds at the leading banks developed the Electronic Broking System (EBS) to enable participants to easily see at what rates all the other participants are willing to deal at. A competing system was also developed by Reuters (D2). </p>
<p>Today, one is preferred over the other mostly on the basis of which currency pair you want to trade, with EBS used mostly for EUR/USD, USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, USD/CHF and EUR/CHF, and Reuters D2 used for all other currency pairs. In 2006, EBS was acquired by ICAP. It should be noted that while these services provide a centralized structure for pricing information, they DO NOT constitute a centralized exchange. The forex is still very much an OTC market.</p>
<p>The 2nd tier of the market is made up of smaller bits of larger multinational institutions. This is when, for example, a bank branch in the US deals with another branch of the same bank in, say, Japan. So when you walk into your local branch and want to exchange currency, they will give you a quote which is not exactly representative of the interbank exchange rate. You are free to shop around for a better quote, and you would often be wise to do so, as rates can vary significantly from one bank to another.</p>
<p>Most retail forex brokers are a part of the 3rd tier, as they often deal with only a single 2nd tier liquidity provider. This is not always the case, as some retail brokers offer direct access to multiple liquidity providers, and are therefore themselves a part of the 2nd tier. This is particularly true of Electronic Communication Networks (ECNs), who normally route retail traders’ orders directly to the interbank market.</p>
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