The Best Time to Trade The Forex

We all know by now that forex is a highly dynamic market with lots of price swings in a single minute. This characteristic allows you to enter the market many times a day and gain some profit from the trades.

You can easily find out an appropriate time to enter into the forex market when the activity or the volumes of transactions are the highest. When we consider the working hours of the market, we must remember three facts:

• There are three major markets -- London, New York, and Tokyo

• The working hours are throughout the day – it starts from Sunday 5pm (EST) through Friday 4pm (EST).

• Like any other active markets, there are good times and bad times to trade in forex also. Choosing to trade when the market is at its best can increase productivity and generate significant financial benefits. It will be wise to assume that trading intermittently throughout the day will produce the best results.

Forex Trading activities are found to be heaviest when major markets overlap. Statistics says, nearly two-thirds of New York activity occurs in the morning hours when European markets are also open. So you can figure out that at any given time, somebody somewhere in the world is buying and selling currencies.

Forex Trading Offers Fantastic Liquidity

The great liquidity offered by the forex trading and a market that is open for five and a half days a week offers you an exceptional array of choices to trade when you want.

But the volume of transactions reaches its peaks when the major market hours overlap -- the time when Asian market including Australia & New Zealand, the European market and the U.S. market are open simultaneously.

A typical trading day starts with New Zealand, before moving across to Australia, Japan and Asia, Europe and North America. The UK and the US markets account for around half of the total world market, therefore the times at which both are open are particularly busy.

Let’s find out quickly what are the overlapping timings:

* New York Market trade times: 8am - 4pm EST
* London Market trade times: 2am - 12Noon EST
* Great Britain Market trade times: 3am - 11am EST
* Tokyo Market trade times: 8pm - 4am EST
* Australia Market trade times: 7pm - 3am EST

So there are two times when two of the major markets overlap during trading hours -- between 2am and 4am EST for Asian/European markets and between 8am to 12pm EST for European/U.S. markets.

The market is open 24 hours a day doesn’t mean that it is always active. You can make money when the market is moving up or when it is moving down. It will be very difficult to make profit when the market doesn’t move at all.

Forex Trading is Open 24 Hours a Day

From practical experience it has been found out that the session when the London market is open with any other major market, the volume of transaction and market movement reaches its zenith.

Another interesting fact is - from actual trading figures you can see that during the middle of the week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) the movement of all major currency pairs reaches their highest.

Choosing the right time between the start and the end of the week can also make differences to your trading success. If you are operating outside America you may have to wake up extremely early to catch the European markets and end your day extremely late to catch the Asian market.

So the time for trading is as important as your strategy for trading. If you have some preoccupation for which you can not use these hours you can go for an automated platform for the execution of the trades.

Forex Pips & Spreads - The Brokers Commission

The pip is the smallest measure of price move used in forex trading. For instance, if the currency pair EUR/USD is trading at 1.3000 and then changes to 1.3010, the pair is said to move by 10 pips. It is an acronym for Percentage in Point (pip).

In the wholesale market, currencies are quoted out to four decimal places, with the last placeholder called a point or a pip. A pip in most currencies is one/10,000th of an exchange rate or in USD/JPY, it is one/100th, likewise you can find for others.

Spread on the other hand is the difference between buy (long) or sell (short) for a currency pair. The bid/offer spread is the difference between the buying (bid) and selling (offer) price. The ask prices are the immediate execution prices for quick buyers or traders and bid prices are for quick sellers.

In Forex market you will find brokers who generally do not charge any commission from you. But they get their money by charging you a spread. As spread is the difference between the bid price and the ask price for any currency being traded, the broker will add this spread onto the price of the trade and keep it as their fee for trading.

Lower Pips & Spreads = Higher Forex Profits

Wider spreads will result in a loftier asking price versus a slashed bid price. The consequence is that you have to pay more when you buy and get less when you sell. This spread is charged only on one side of the transaction, usually on the "buy" side of the trades. To find out which brokers offer the best pips and spreads read our Forex broker reviews.

If the quote between EUR/USD is said to be 1.2222/4, the spread equals 2 pips as the difference between 2 and 4 is 2. But if the quote is 1.22225/4, the spread is 1.5 pips. So spread is the primary cost of trading for you and in differences in them makes a big impact.

Although it may not seem like much of a difference to be trading with a 5 pip spread vs. a 4 pip spread, it can add up very quickly when you multiply it with how many trades you make and how much money you're trading. You will find the difference to be as high as 25% on your trading costs.

Spreads affect the return on your trading strategy in a big way. As a trader your sole concern is buying low and transaction high. Wider spreads mean buying higher and having to sell lower. A half-pip lower spread can even affect your profitability.

Choose a Low Spread Forex Broker

Spreads can vary based on the currencies you're trading and what type of account you open. Most brokers will be offering different spreads for different currencies. For the most popular currency pairs like the EUR/USD or GBP/USD you will get the typical lowest spreads, while for currencies that have less demand will be traded with higher spreads.

The spreads will vary depending on the types of accounts. A mini account may have higher spreads than a full contract account.

It is important to realize that as the spread is the difference between bid prices and ask prices as determined by the free market they are not always guaranteed. So with a fluctuating market when the spreads widen, you will be charged with that wider spread. Spreads are tighter when there is good market liquidity but it will widen as liquidity dries up.

Fixed Spread Forex Trading Helps Secure Profitability

Forex spreads are only meaningful when they are supported with good execution. For example, when you find a tight spread, but your trade is filled a few pips in the wrong direction, or your transaction is rejected, you are in trouble.

It means that your broker is showing tight spreads but in effect delivering wider spreads. Be aware of such rejected trades, and delayed execution, which are strategies to deceive the traders.

It should now be clear that the lower the pip and spread a broker is offering then the more chance you have of achieving profitable Forex trading.

The Forex Currency Pairs

Foreign Exchange trading is in general the trading of many currencies of the world. It is emerging as the largest and least regulated market providing the greatest liquidity to investors.

This trading is always done in pairs – Currency Pairs, one currency is bought and the other is sold. Together, they make up what is known as the "exchange rate".

For example, you may buy Euros with Dollars, anticipating that the Euro to increase in value relative to the Dollar. If the Euro rises relative to the Dollar, you sell the position and can earn a profit.

Most commonly traded currencies or the “majors” are:

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

Most commonly traded currency pairs are:

US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY)
Euro and US Dollar (EUR/USD)
US Dollar and Swiss franc (USD/CHF)
British Pound and US Dollar (GBP/USD)

While quoting currency pairs, the first currency is referred to as the base currency and the second as the counter or quote currency. The base currency is always equal to 1 monetary unit of exchange, for example, 1 Dollar, 1 Pound, 1 Euro.

Trading Forex Currency Pairs for Maximum Profit

It is also known as domestic currency or accounting currency and sometimes also referred to as the primary currency of a Forex currency pair. The price represents how much of the quote currency is needed to get one unit of the base currency.

When a currency is quoted against US Dollar, it is known as direct rate. Any currency not against the US Dollar is called a cross rate.

The quote currency is translated into a certain number of units of the base currency. This is also referred to as the foreign currency, secondary currency or counter currency. For example, if you find that a quote of USD/JPY is at 1.30, it says that for every 1 US Dollar, you get 1.30 Japanese Yen. When you quote for AUD/JPY of 67.73, it says that for every 1 Australian Dollar, you get 67.73 Japanese Yen.

Currency pairs are generally traded as 100,000 units of the base currency. For example, if you were buying EUR/USD at 0.95 you would be paying Dollars for Euros as follows:

100,000 x .95 = $95,000 for 100,000 Euros

When you find a quote going up, it means that the value of the base currency is rising or in other words, it is getting stronger. If a quote is going down, it means that the base currency is weakening.

The dominant base currencies are:

Euro - EUR/USD, EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF, EUR/JPY, EUR/CAD
British Pound - GBP/USD, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY, GBP/CAD
US Dollar - USD/CAD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF

The currency pairs are usually traded and quoted with a ‘bid’ and ‘ask’ price. The ‘bid’ is the price at which you are willing to buy and the ‘ask’ is the price at which price you are willing to sell.

For example, if the USD/EUR currency pair is quoted as - USD/EUR = 1.5 and you purchase the pair, this means that for every 1.5 euros that you sell, you get US$1. If you sold the currency pair, you receive 1.5 euros for every US$1 you sell.

The key to successful trading lies in selecting one or two pairs of currencies that you wish to trade in as a beginner. As you gain confidence, you may wish to add more pairs in your trading portfolio. But for a new trader or investor it is always advised to have limited pair just to ensure simplicity.

orex Market Terminology - Understanding The Basics

When you first start trading the Forex market you can become overwhelmed with the amount of information there is to consume.

One of the hardest parts for a new trader is learning the lingo. Some of the terms used in currency exchange are self-explanatory, whereas others are not. In this section I provide brief definitions of some of the most common Forex trading terms.

Spot Deal

A deal taking part between two parties who can deliver a certain amount of different currencies to each other within 2 business days of each other (excluding Canadian dollar where the trade is executed within 1 business day)

Market Order

This is the execution you make when deciding to buy a currency. In other words you see a currency exchange rate quote on screen and you place a ‘market order’ when you click the button to execute the trade.

Entry Orders

This is basically and advance order, you decide at what price you want to buy or sell a currency and you place an ‘entry order’. As soon as the currencies reaches this rate your trade is executed.

Stop-Loss Order

This is a function offered by some brokers which is aimed at reducing your risk, you can decide the maximum and minimum amount of profit or loss you want to exit a trade at. In other words if you decide you are happy to make $1,000 from one trade but don’t want to lose anymore than $1,000 should the trade go the other way you can place this safety net on your trade.

Bid

This is the currency rate that you wish to buy or sell at.

Offer

This is the currency rate you will actually get when buying or selling

Spread

The difference between the bid and offer rates

Pip

This is the last decimal of the exchange rate with the exception of the Japanese Yen where it is the second decimal.

Lot

The amount of units of the base currency when you enter the market.

Margin

The minimum amount of money you need for each lot to trade, for example the margin may be 1 lot for $100 and therefore you would need $300 in your account to trade 3 lots.

Trend

The direction the market is currently moving in.

Long Position

This is used to describe a market in a long-term buy trend