Forex trading

Forex prices are always quoted in currency pairs. This is because you are effectively buying one currency while selling the other. Each currency in the pair is known by a three letter currency code, such as AUD/USD.

The first currency listed in a pair is known as the base currency and the second currency is known as the quote currency. A forex price indicates how much one unit of the base currency will buy of the counter currency.

Forex trading enables you to speculate on the relative strength of one currency against another. The large number of traders and immense quantity of currency traded on a daily basis give the forex market exceptionally high liquidity. This means it’s a very easy market for anyone to access – you can normally buy a currency on demand, because another trader somewhere will be willing to sell, or vice versa.

In trading forex you generally only need a small margin to get started, there are low transaction costs, and you can take advantage of high levels of leverage. It should always be kept in mind that leverage not only magnifies your potential profits but also your potential losses. It is possible to lose much more than your initial margin if the market turns sharply against you.

Depending on your view, you can either buy (‘go long’) or sell (‘go short’) in the forex markets.

Let’s say you have been keeping an eye on the euro and you think it will increase in value. In this situation, you would go long EUR/USD. In other words, you would buy euros and simultaneously sell dollars.

If you thought the euro was destined to decrease in value, you would go short EUR/USD. That would mean selling euros and buying dollars.