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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Candlestick chart

Candlestick chart patterns are exceedingly popular in forex trading because of their dynamic features and versatility.On all charts, users can toggle between line, bar and candlestick chart view.
Candlestick Charts are usually very colorful charts as compared to conventional charts.
Different colors are used to indicate different nature of price movement.

Four prices are of utmost importance in constructing the Candlestick Chart-

High, Low, Open, and Close.

Each candle consists of two parts: the body and the shadows.The body reflects the open and closing price for the certain period.If the candle body is black the close price is below the open, and white if the close is higher than the open for the period.

On the other hand, candlestick shadows reflect the intra-period high and low prices of forex in a market.In candlestick charting the periods used are 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, daily and weekly.A long shadow reflects that the trading extended well beyond the opening or closing price, while a short shadow, shows that trading was confined closely to the open or closing price.

Each element in a candlestick pattern in forex predicts certain trends.Long white candlesticks predict strong buying pressure.The longer the white candlestick, the further the close is above the open.This indicates that prices advanced significantly from open to close and forex buyers were aggressive.

There are various patterns of candlesticks charts, which are employed in forex.
Doji, for example is a candlesticks pattern that is generated when the body of the candle is minimal as market's open and close are virtually equal.

There are others like Hammer, Inverted hammer, Gravestone, Shooting star, Three white
soldiers, Three black crows, Marubozu Black and White and many more. These candlesticks do not have upper or lower shadows and the high and low are represented by the open or close.

Candlestick charts are much more visually appealing than any other two dimensional bar charts used in forex prediction.They convey market price information in a quicker and easier manner.

Candlestick Chart became famous and acceptable to the forex traders by its amazing success story initially in the commodity market.

Candlestick Charts Tips

Few tips for candlestick charts and their interpretation in the
forex market can be:

1. A Black Candlestick -- when the close is lower than the open.
2. A White Candlestick -- when the close is higher than the open.
3. A Shaven Head -- a candlestick with no upper shadow.
4. A Shaven Bottom -- a candlestick with no lower shadow.
5. A Spinning Tops -- an equilibrium between the bulls and the bears (either white or black).
6. A Doji Line - a very close Open and Close?doj.


Some of the benefits of candlesticks in forex are:
1. Ease of reading - as the charts are composed of four price readings: open, high, low, close

2. Not only shows the direction of a trend, also shows the strength of a move in a particular time frame.
3. Can be used in conjunction with other technical indicators.

4. Provides the earlier reversal signals.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Trade in Forex?

How do I trade Forex?

You select the pair of currencies with which you wish to make a Forex deal. You determine the volume (the amount of the deal). You deposit the "margin" (collateral needed to facilitate the deal. Usually - only a very small portion of the whole deal, say: 1% or 1:100).Before you finally activate the deal, you can still "freeze" it for a few seconds.



That enables you to either change the terms, or accept it as is, or altogether regret the whole idea. The "freeze" feature is a unique service by us.When your Forex deal is running (you hold an "open position"), you can monitor its status and check scenarios online, whenever you wish. You may change some terms in the deal, or close it (and cash the profit, if any, or minimize the loss, if any).



Moreover, We lets you determine a "take-profit" rate, with which the deal will close automatically for you, when and if such rate occurs in the market. Meaning: you do not have to stay near your computer when you hold open positions.

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Friday, August 28, 2009

Profit in Forex

How does one profit in Forex?

Very simple and obvious, buy cheap and sell for more!
The profit is generated from the fluctuations (changes) in the currency exchange market.

The nice thing about the FOREX market, is that regular daily fluctuations, say - around 1%, are multiplied by 100! (in general, We offers trading ratios from 1:50 to 1:200).

If, for example, the exchange rate of "your" pair of currencies increased by 0.6% in the last 4 hours, your profit will be 60% on your investment! Such can happen in one business day, or in a few hours, even minutes.

Moreover, you cannot lose more than your "margin"! You may profit unlimited amounts, but you never lose more than what you initially risked and invested.

You can implement your choice (the pair of currencies, the volume amount) under any direction to which the market is moving, and yet make profit. It does not matter whether the exchange rate is going up or down.

You can always decide to buy Euro and sell dollar, or vice versa - buy dollar and sell Euro. You don't have to physically possess certain currencies in order to perform "buy" or "sell" with them.

Trading Forex Like A Professional

Buying/Selling
In the forex market currencies are always priced in pairs; therefore all trades result in the simultaneous buying of one currency and the selling of another. The objective of currency trading is to exchange one currency for another in the expectation that the market rate or price will change so that the currency you bought has increased its value relative to the one you sold.

If you have bought a currency and the price appreciates in value, the trader must sell the currency back in order to lock in the profit. An open trade or position is one in which a trader has either bought/sold one currency pair and has not sold/bought back the equivalent amount to effectively close the position.

Quoting Conventions
The first currency in the pair is referred to as the base currency, and the second currency is the counter or quote currency. The U.S Dollar, as the world’s dominant currency, is usually considered the base currency for quotes, and includes USD/JPY, USD/CHF, and USD/CAD.

This means that quotes are expressed as a unit of $1 USD per the other currency quoted in the pair. The exceptions are the Euro, Great Britain pund, and Australian dollar. These currencies are quoted as dollars per foreign currency.

In the wholesale market, currencies are quoted using five significant numbers, with the last placeholder called a point or a pip. In forex, like any traded instrument, there is an immediate cost in establishing a position. For example, USD/JPY may bid at 131.40 and ask at 131.45, this five-pip spread defines the trader’s cost, which can be recovered with a favorable currency move in the market.


Margin
The margin requirement allows traders to hold a position much larger than the account value. The trading platform performs an automatic pre-deal check for margin availability, and will only execute the deal if the client has sufficient margin funds in his or her account.

The system also calculates the funds needed for current positions and displays this information to clients in real time. In the event that funds in the account fall below margin requirements. This prevents clients' accounts from falling below the available equity even in a highly volatile, fast moving market.

Rollover
In the spot forex market trades must be settled in two business days. For example, if a trader sells 100,000 euros on Tuesday, the trader must deliver 100,000 euros on Thursday, unless the position is rolled over. The swap rates are determined at the Interbank level and are tradable instruments.

In any spot rollover transaction there is a difference in interest rates between the two currencies that will be reflected in the overnight loan. If the trader is long the currency with the higher interest rate in the pair, the trader should gain on the spot rollover through the premium relationship of that currency relative to the short currency.

The amount of the gain is determined by the interest rate differential between the two currencies, and fluctuates day to day with the movement of prices. For instance, on any given day, the rollover can be $2 per lot for USD/JPY and $15 for GBP/JPY.

What Every Currency Trader Should Know
The forex market is one of the most popular markets for speculation due to its enormous size, liquidity, and tendency for currencies to move in strong trends. An enticing aspect of trading currencies is the high degree of leverage available.

Knowing that even seasoned traders suffer losses, speculation in the forex market should only be conducted with risk capital funds that if lost will not significantly affect one's personal financial well being.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Choose The Right Opportunities In Forex Business

How can anybody get to do this business might be the obvious question arising in every persons' mind. Well, Forex trading is a business for anybody and everybody. All you need is a little investment and, more importantly, the right attitude. You must know to make the most of the right opportunities at the right moment and if you can do that, you are fit to be in this business.

Now, how to make the most of any given trading opportunity? Online trading sites are flooding the Internet. At the most you will have to browse a little to find a good and reliable one. Most of these sites are stuffed with ample information for novice traders. You will get to know the tactics of the business, tips, and the terms and conditions for investing. The best part is that you can start of with as low as $200!

Forex trading market is a live 24-hours open market and you can invest any time in the 5½ days a week giving you maximum flexibility. Forex market being thrice larger than the equity market you will have the advantage of unlimited liquidity.

In Forex trading while you have buy one currency you also sell another alongside. So regardless of the currency flow direction, you have an equal opportunity to reap in your profits.

The transactions take place in a rapid pace and it is just a matter of seconds, wherein your orders are executed. And as many cases the Forex prices are predictable it is easy for the trader to establish price trends and thereby avail several entry and exit points.

Below are a few suggestions on how to go about to make the most of any forex trading opportunity.

Make sure that you never add to a position that is losing. Otherwise small losses may grow large leading to the trader incurring heavy losses and never intending to trade again.

Keep yourself updated with the current market trends. Every trade must be based on the market information and the prevailing market scenario.

A successful trader will always anticipate every market move. It is wise to be alert of any slight changes in the market.

Get to know your instincts better. Sometimes this counts in the Forex trading business.

Online forex trading has a lot to offer. However, everything will depend on how one can utilize the trading opportunities to the best of their ability.

Monday, August 17, 2009

New to Forex?

Forex

The Forex market is a better way for you to be able to build a back up portfolio that may have seen better times before the world economy.

A better way for you to get started in any type of trading.

To understand the basic principles behind Forex, use your learning ability, and you will be able to become successful with your trading practices.

Principle

Principle

There is a principle that you need to understand about the market that is often. Learning Forex is not just as easy as you make deals to someone you know. That fact that Forex is a zero-sum market.

Whenever somebody places a trade on the Forex market, and equal trade is made in the opposite direction by someone else. One person is going to lose as much as the other person gains, there is never any money that is mysteriously generated in this market.

First Step

First Step

Getting started on forex can be a little bit difficult, if you're really unfamiliar with what it is that you are doing. Not to get too nervous about everything that you are about to read, and to learn.
Just follow the rules and get a basic overview, and you can begin.

Trades

Trades

In order for you to place your trades, you need to have access to a qualified broker that will place the trades for you. You can either access them directly, over the telephone or through the use of an online platform. The better choices as it allows you to make your trades in real time.

Benefits

Benefits

Benefits that you will receive by joining one of these online platforms. Many of them have plenty of tutorials that will walk you through the process of trading from the beginning through the end. Available tools on the inside which will not only help you automate many of the tasks of trading on Forex, They can also help you to gauge which direction the market is moving.

Tools

Tools

The first of these is a type of system that you can run once per day or per week in order to see which direction the Forex market is moving.

Some of these are fairly accurate but remember and always keep in mind, the Forex market can be quite volatile.

The other tools are either automated or partially automated systems which allow you to trade,
even whenever you're not sitting at the computer.

Business

Business

Using one of these automated systems, proceed with caution to use this system, the systems as many people use them with great success. Make sure you should always maintain control of your financial business, whether it is on the Forex market or in any other way. Never allow a program to run freely without some kind of input from you.

Forex Trading

Forex Trading

The forex Trading enables this currency exchange to happen, thereby allowing money to be
transferred to buyers and sellers worldwide. It's estimated that trillions of dollars are passed through the forex Trading each day. It is certainly the biggest Trading in the world. Forex trading requires an investment of both time and money to make it profitable.

Forex is open 24 hours a day. There is always some type of transaction occurring in one of the many time zones in the world. The structure of the forex Trading is different than traditional trading. Companies are offering forex alerts and forex signals to dispense this vital information.

Stock Trading

Stock Trading

This Trading offers many profit opportunities. The quickly shifting business trends of the world give traders the chance to capitalize on rising and falling Tradings.

Self-Regulation

Self-Regulation

As all we know, a vast majority of the public are not familiar with Forex. They always misinform about Forex, it is maybe because they think Forex is too risky, loose big time. So much better get away from Forex and just leave this to the professional.

How about asking ourself, is there anything else in this world that don't carry any risk ? Walking in the street, driving a car to work carries some risk. All that is happening on us carrries a some risk. Much better to considered all of this as a risky task.

Forex does carry some risk to certain extend. That is the main reason we need to prepare ourselves before we start trading. Definitely, we need to equip and prepare ourselves before we do anything. Otherwise we are inviting disaster. Failure is definite.

Preparation

Preparation

Learning Ability, money management and trading system.Find good books about Forex and read through it give us sufficient knowledge about Forex trading. It will be a good start.

Online Information

Online Information

Information that is freely available in the internet. Word of caution, not all information in the internet is good. Be a member of a forum related to Forex and ask around about good online reference. You may chose enrolling to a forum or seminar to absorb better understanding while having someone teaching in front of you.

Money management

Money management

Having good money management is essential to our survival. There is no way in Forex trading we can avoid loosing trade. And that can only be achieved with good money management
system. Good money management will limit our loss.

Trading System

Trading System

None of the existing system can guarantee 100% winning trade. Having system with proven 60-70% winning trades is good enough. As long as we are trading with a good money management system.

Forex Terminology

Forex Terminology

Ask (Offer) — The price of the offer, the price you buy for.

Bear - Negative view of a particular currency and believes that its price will decrease,
they are said to be 'bearish' about that currency.

Bid (Demand) —The price of the demand, the price you sell for.

Bull - Positive view of a particular currency and believes that its price will increase, they are said to be 'bullish' about that currency.

ECB (The European Central Bank) — The main regulatory body of the European Union financial system.

Fed (The Federal Reserve) — The main regulatory body of the United States of America
financial system, a division of which, the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee), regulates, among other things, federal interest rates.

Fundamental Analysis — A Forex trading analysis based only on news, economic indicators and global events.

GDP (Gross Domestic Product) — A measure of the national income and output for a given country's economy. It is one of the most important online forex indicators.

Limit - A placed on a trade so as to exit it after a speculator has gained the expected number of pips.

Long - Trading a currency under the assumption that its price will rise - a 'buy' trade..

Loss —The loss from closing long position at lower rate than opening or short position with higher rate than opening, or if the profit from a position closing was lower than broker commission on it.

Lot — Definite amount of units or amount of money accepted for operations handling
(usually it is a multiple of 100).

Momentum — The measure of the currency's ability to move in any given direction.

Moving Average (MA) — one of the most basic technical indicators. It shows the average rate calculated over a series of time periods.

Exponential Moving Average (EMA)

Weighted Moving Average (WMA) etc. are just the ways of weighing the rates and the periods.

Open Position (Trade) — Position on buying (long) or selling (short) for a currency pair.

Order — Order for a broker to buy or sell the currency with a certain rate.

Pip - Price Interest Point and refers to the smallest digit in any pricing, so if GBPUSD rose from 1.9443 to 1.9450, it rose 7 pips.

Pivot Point — The primary support/resistance point calculated basing on the previous trend's High, Low and Close prices.

Principal Value — The initial amount of money invested.

Profit (Gain) — Positive amount of money gained for closing the position.

Introduction to Forex

Introduction to Forex

Forex trading can help you to earn lot of money. "Forex" is the short form of Forex Exchange.
It is also referred as "Spot FX" market. Forex market is considered one of the biggest markets in the whole world.

Forex trader buy and sell world currencies, thus earning profit from the difference, between the exchange rates. Forex trading can definitely yield high profits. Anyone can do Forex trading via Forex brokers. Forex market mainly consists of currency traders that speculate on fluctuations in exchange rates. Currency traders take advantage of even the slightest fluctuation in exchange rates.

Currencies are always traded with one another. Each and every pair of currencies constitute a
product and is noted XXX/YYY. Here YYY is a currency that is always expressed in XXX currency. In addition, XXX and YYY are 3-letter international codes of the respective
currencies. For instance, EUR/USD means euro expressed in US dollar, as 1 Euro= 1.2045 dollar.

Exchange rate fluctuations are caused by monetary flows and anticipations on global economic conditions.

Advantages of Forex

Advantages of Forex

Investing in Forex market is a better option than other kinds of investments. Unlike regular stock markets, Forex is open 24 hours a day. To do Forex trading, With a small amount of $300 USD, you can enter the Forex market and open a "mini account" which will allow you trade lot of units.

Forex market has high liquidity. In Forex trading, you have complete control over your capital.
Most investments hold your money for a long time. This is a major disadvantage because you cannot use this money in case of financial difficulty. If somehow you access this capital, you will have to suffer huge loss, which is not feasible.

Forex traders can earn profit even in unfavorable market conditions.
Forex traders can make profit during down trends and uptrends.
Stock market traders cannot get profit unless the stock prices increase.

Main advantages of Forex

The main advantages of Forex

24-hour trading, 5 days a week with non-stop access.
An enormous liquid market making it easy to trade.
Volatile markets offering profit opportunities.
Standard instruments for controlling risk exposure.
The ability to profit in rising or falling markets.
Leveraged trading with low margin requirements.
Many options for zero commission trading.

Risks in Forex trading

Risks in Forex trading

If you possess self-discipline and good management skills then Forex trading can relatively be a low risk investment. Trading in Forex market can be done anytime, anywhere if you have
access to a computer.

Practice with "fake money" or "paper money". Most Forex brokers have their own demo
accounts from where you can easily download their trading stations and then practice real time
trading with paper money. By doing this, you will be better prepared to trade with your hard earned money.

What is Forex

What is Forex Trading ?

Foreign Exchange (forex) is the simultaneous buying of one currency, and selling of another currency. Daily volume in the currency market exceeds $1.4 trillion, making it the largest and most liquid market in the world. Unlike other financial markets, the forex market has no physical location or central exchange.

It is an over-the-counter market where buyers and sellers including banks, corporations, and private investors conduct business. Foreign exchange trading takes place in financial trading centers all over the world, including New York, London, and Tokyo creating one cohesive, international market.

The huge number and diversity of players involved make it difficult for even governments to control the direction of the market. The unmatched liquidity and around-the-clock global activity make forex the ideal market for active traders.

Traditionally the forex market was only available to larger entities trading currencies for commercial and investment purposes through banks. Now trading platforms, allow smaller financial institutions and retail investors access to a similar level of liquidity as the major foreign exchange banks, by offering a gateway to the primary (Interbank) market.

Goods and Services

Goods and Services

Basically, that means it's a global Trading place where goods and services are bought and sold 24 hours a day, all over the world. While forex trading can easily be done regardless of time zones, how money is exchanged between countries.

Currency Conversion

Currency Conversion

Most travelers understand both the necessity and the inconvenience of converting United States dollars into the currency of the country they are visiting. There is always a rate of exchange for the two types of money, but without this process of conversion, nothing can be purchased.

Foreign Exchange trading (also called Forex, FX or currency trading) describes trading in the many currencies of the world. It is the largest market, which provides a large amount of liquidity to traders. Each day the markets trade over $1.5 trillion, if you compare the New York Stock Exchange which trades $27 billion a day you can begin to see how massive this market really is.

Earn Profit

Currency

In the forex market a trader buy £50.00 with $ 60.00 or sell $60.00 for £50.00
Merchant exchanges currencies with the trust of gaining a benefit when the worth of the currencies changes in their favor, whether from market news or actions that happened in the world.

Dealing

Dealing

Forex dealing has been approximately for years. It is known as the biggest financial trade in the whole world. Everyday the volume of transaction in the forex market is approximately one and half trillion dollars.

The Primer

The Primer

Sydney is the place where forex market starts at first everyday, going forward around the world as the business day starts in every economic center, such as: Tokyo, London, and New York.

Trading Hour

Trading Hour

Forex permits financiers to react to currency variations caused by economic, social and political incidents instantly, at the occasion that incidents happen, day and night 24 hours. The market is closed only on the weekend.

Advantages

Advantages

An advantage of forex trading is that it is not actually issue to the similar kinds of rolls in the market that stocks are matter to. Certainly if you always trade with the same currencies then there will be market swings. However, there are hundreds of currencies available.

Investing

Investing

Forex trading does not demand large amounts of money to start. Traders can begin this business investing a little amount of 300 dollars. Transaction costs are commonly least. Frequently agents will present you with the tools and information's you require to make trades without any cost. Huge numbers of traders are available all selling the same products.
Information is free-flowing and there are a small number of blockades to involvement.

Traders

Traders

Forex trading is also known as OTC market or over-the-count market. This means that the traders don't need to meet in central locations to make exchanges. As an alternative transactions are completed over the phone, fax, and email or through the websites of agents focusing in this market.

Currencies are all time traded in couples. Transactions always include selling
one currency and buying another.

Profits

Profits

If a trader believes the pounds would increase against the dollar the trader would sell dollars and buy pounds, your money is not seized up for long period. You will gain full control of your money, With planning, a superior system to track, strong money supervision skills, and self-regulation.

Investment

Investment

Forex trading can be comparatively low risk and fairly profitable. You can choose when to sell or buy. Also, because of high instability in the currency market, traders frequently make five times more than in dealing liquid shares. A person desiring to trade in currencies does not require a big amount of money to spend. This is a perfect venture opening for the investor with a little amount of money.

Players

Players

The spot Forex market trades are settled within two banking days. Most of the trades are done electronically. Done by the Banks, Hedge Funds and financial organisations. With new rules and introduction of Trading Platforms across the internet almost anyone can now start trading Currencies.

Currencies

Currencies

Trading currencies are traded in pairs. One currency is bought and the other sold.
The Major pairs in The Forex Market are;

US Dollar (USD)
Japenese Yen (JPY)
Swiss Franc (CHF)
Australian Dollar (AUD)
Canadian Dollar (CAD)
British Pound (GBP)
Euro (EUR)

Popular Currency Pairs

Popular Currency Pairs

These Currencies can be traded in most order but the most popular pairs are;

US Dollar Against the Japenese Yen Shown as USD/JPY.
Euro against the US Dollar (EUR/USD).
British Pound against the US Dollar (GBP/USD).
British Pound against the Euro (GBP/EUR).
US Dollar against the Swiss Franc (USD/CHF).

Buy Currencies For Profit

Buy Currencies For Profit

When quoting currency pairs, the first currency is known as the base currency and the second as the quote, if you think the US Dollar is going to be stronger than the Japenese Yen, you would buy the base (USD) Hoping that it would rise and sell the USD when you wanted to exit the trade. When you see a quote of USD/GBP1.75 means that for every 1 US Dollar, you get 1.75 British Pounds.

One great advantage of trading currencies is you can profit in up and down markets, it is just acceptable to trade to the down side (Short) as it is to the upside (Long).

As in All types of trading Buying and selling Currencies brings with it a degree of risk,
don't ever trade with money you cannot afford to lose. Never enter a market without a good trading plan.

The Forex Market

The Forex Market

The Forex market is a non-stop cash market where currencies of nations are traded,
typically via brokers. Foreign currencies are constantly and simultaneously bought and
sold across local and global markets and traders' investments increase or decrease in value
based upon currency movements. Foreign exchange market conditions can change at any timein response to real-time events.

Investors Goal

Investors Goal

The investor's goal in Forex trading is to profit from foreign currency movements.
Forex trading or currency trading is always done in currency pairs.

For example, the exchange rate of EUR/USD on Aug 26th, 2003 was 1.0857.
This number is also referred to as a "Forex rate" or just "rate" for short.

If the investor had bought 1000 euros on that date, he would have paid 1085.70 U.S. dollars.
One year later, the Forex rate was 1.2083, which means that the value of the euro
(the numerator of the EUR/USD ratio) increased in relation to the U.S. dollar.

The investor could now sell the 1000 euros in order to receive 1208.30 dollars.
Therefore, the investor would have USD 122.60 more than what he had started one year earlier.
However, to know if the investor made a good investment, one needs to compare this
investment option to alternative investments.

At the very minimum, the return on investment (ROI) should be compared to the return on
a "risk-free" investment. One example of a risk-free investment is long-term U.S. government bonds since there is practically no chance for a default, i.e. the U.S. government going bankrupt or being unable or unwilling to pay its debt obligation.

Liquid Currency Pairs

Liquid Currency Pairs

A currency pair depicts a quotation of two different currencies.

The first currency in the pair is the base currency (or transaction currency).

The second currency in the pair is labelled quote currency (payment currency, counter currency).
Such a quotation depicts how many units of the counter currency are needed to buy one unit of the base currency.

For example:

The quotation EUR/USD 1.2500 means that one euro is exchanged for 1.25 US dollar.
If the quote moves from EUR/USD 1.2500 to EUR/USD 1.2510, the euro is getting stronger and the dollar weaker.

On the other hand if the EUR/USD quote moves from 1.2500 to 1.2490 the euro is getting weaker while the dollar is getting stronger.

Forex Currency Pairs

Forex Currency Pairs

* EUR/USD, the Euro and the U.S. dollar * USD/CHF, the U.S. dollar
*The Swiss franc (sometimes called "the Swissie") * GBP/USD,
*The pound sterling of Great Britain and the U.S. dollar (sometimes called "the cable") * USD/JPY,
*The U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen * USD/CAD,
*The U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar * AUD/USD,
*The Australian dollar and the U.S. dollar

These pairs account for 80% of all trades in the Forex market.
They all involve the U.S. dollar, because it's still the biggest economy in the world and one of the most inviting to trade. But this is also a holdover from the Bretton Woods .

Accord of 1944, which pegged all currencies to the U.S. dollar as a benchmark.
Although the Accord was abandoned in the early 1970s, some of its effects are still evident in the market.

Base Currency

Base Currency
The first currency in the pair is known as the base currency, and it's the important one.
Its value is always one in the exchange rate, and it controls the direction of
the trade and the chart. The second currency is called the cross.

For example:

In the GBP/USD, the British pound is the base currency and the U.S. dollar is the cross.
If the price on this pair is 1.7609, that means that one pound is worth 1.7609 U.S. dollars.
If the chart goes up, that means the pound is strengthening against the dollar;
if it goes down, the dollar is strengthening against the pound.

Because a purchase automatically includes two currencies, one being traded against the other,
it's just as possible to make a profit in a bear market as a bull market. For the same reason,
there's no prohibition against selling short in Forex trading as there is in the stock market;
it's built into the system.

Pip

Pips
Prices are measured in pips, which is an acronym for Price Interest Point,
and it's the smallest digit in the price.

This is an important point, because not all pips are created equally, they reflect the base currency of the pair.

If the U.S. dollar is the base currency, then one pip equals one dollar in a mini account or ten dollars in a standard account.

If you place a trade with one of these currencies and
earn fifty pips, that would be a profit of $50 in a mini account or $500 in a standard one.

Value of Pips

Value of Pips
But if the base currency is not the U.S. dollar, then the value of one pip is equal
to one unit of the base currency. In the GBP/USD, because the pound sterling is the base currency,
one pip is equal to one pound; in the AUD/USD, one pip equals one Australian dollar.
Therefore, when you take profits in these currencies, you're taking them in the base currency,
which then must be exchanged into the U.S. dollar at the current exchange rate.

A gain of fifty pips in the GBP/USD equals not U.S. $50, but £50.
If the exchange rate was still 1.7609, then the profit after conversion would be around U.S. $88.

But a gain of fifty pips in the AUD/USD equals AU $50, and the exchange rate is more likely
to be around 0.7467. So the profit would be closer to U.S. $37.