Entries tagged with “Forex basics”.



by Randall Tavinosh Berke Tavinosh Randall Amateau

There are two different prices in the Forex market. The bid price and the ask price. The prices do not favor you but the broker. This is the way the broker makes his money so the prices are in his favor. The ask price is always higher than the bid price. Unlike the stock market, when you are trading on the Forex market, you generally buy high and sell low to take advantage of trending markets.

If you want to purchase a currency pair, you will pay whatever the asking price is. For example, if you look at GBP/USD and you think that the pound will become stronger than the dollar, you would try to buy the pound at a lower rate and sell the dollar since you are predicting it will weaken as against the pound. The pound is considered as the “base currency” and will control the trade, which is called a long position.

The bid price is the price of the currency pair when you wish to sell or go short. Using the GBP/USD example, if you think the dollar will rebound and go higher against the pound, you would essentially be buying the dollar and selling the pound. The pound is the base currency and determines the direction of the trade.

When you are purchasing the cross currency, the one that is not controlling the trade, all of the signals are reversed in a short sale. The price of the currency pair will then decrease. As you sold the currency pair, you want the price to decrease and will only earn a profit if the price of the pair declined.

What you need to do is to calculate the number of pips that you would earn in a short trade in the same manner as in a long trade. You need not pay any attention to the purchase or sale price, but the crux is to calculate the difference between the higher and lower number that will enable you to make a gain.

The spread is the difference between the bid price and ask price. This is the amount the broker will take as his commission. The broker makes money on the large volume of trades and not by charging large commissions.

Spreads can be quite competitively priced. When the spread is small, the trader will have more profit. Keeping the spread smaller helps the brokers to attract more traders. Spreads are usually tiny among the widely traded currency pairs, also referred to the majors.

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by Randall Tavinosh Berke Tavinosh Randall Amateau

There are what is known as the bid price and ask price in the Forex market. As you can imagine, the ask price will always be higher than the bid price. The broker makes his money off the difference in pricing and because of that they will always be in his favor. Trades in Forex are different from stock trades because more profitable trades are made when buying high and selling low with fast moving currency pairs.

If you want to purchase a currency pair, you will pay whatever the asking price is. For example, if you look at GBP/USD and you think that the pound will become stronger than the dollar, you would try to buy the pound at a lower rate and sell the dollar since you are predicting it will weaken as against the pound. The pound is considered as the “base currency” and will control the trade, which is called a long position.

The bid price is the price of the currency pair when you wish to sell or go short. Using the GBP/USD example, if you think the dollar will rebound and go higher against the pound, you would essentially be buying the dollar and selling the pound. The pound is the base currency and determines the direction of the trade.

When you are purchasing the cross currency, the one that is not controlling the trade, all of the signals are reversed in a short sale. The price of the currency pair will then decrease. As you sold the currency pair, you want the price to decrease and will only earn a profit if the price of the pair declined.

What you need to do is to calculate the number of pips that you would earn in a short trade in the same manner as in a long trade. You need not pay any attention to the purchase or sale price, but the crux is to calculate the difference between the higher and lower number that will enable you to make a gain.

The spread is the difference between the bid price and ask price. This is the amount the broker will take as his commission. The broker makes money on the large volume of trades and not by charging large commissions.

Spreads can be quite competitively priced. When the spread is small, the trader will have more profit. Keeping the spread smaller helps the brokers to attract more traders. Spreads are usually tiny among the widely traded currency pairs, also referred to the majors.

About the Author: