How About Currency Trading? (Part II)
Crosses enable currency traders to directly target trades to specific individual currencies to take advantage of news or events. The most active traded crosses focus on the three non USD currencies (EUR, JPY, GBP) and are known as the euro crosses, yen crosses and the sterling crosses. The most actively traded cross currency pairs are: EUR/CHF, EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY and NZD/JPY.
When you look up at the currency pairs, you may notice that the currencies are combined in a seemingly strange way. For instance, if sterling-yen (GBP/JPY) is a yen cross, why it is not being also referred to as yen-sterling (JPY/GBP)? The answer is that those quoting conventions were evolved over the years to reflect traditionally strong currencies versus traditionally weak currencies with the strong currency coming first.
The most basic convention that you need to understand is that the first currency in the currency pair is known as the base currency. For example in EUR/JPY, Euro is the base currency. Suppose you buy or sell a currency pair. It is the base currency that you are buying or selling when you buy or sell a currency pair. The second currency in the pair is known as the counter or secondary currency. In the above currency pair, Japanese Yen (JPY) is the counter or secondary currency. So if you buy 100,000 EUR/USD. You have just bought 100,000 Euros and sold the equivalent amount in dollars.
So you can say currency trading involves simultaneously buying and selling. This is the most important difference between currency trading and stock trading. In currency trading, going long means having bought a currency pair! When you are long, you are looking for the prices to go higher. It will make you a good profit if you sell at a higher price from that where you bought. You will make a loss if you are long and the price goes down.
In currency trading, going short means selling a currency pair! In other words, you have sold the currency pair, meaning you have sold the base currency and bought the counter or secondary currency. You go short in anticipation of the price going further down when you anticipate the price of a currency pair going down. This will make you a profit later when you exit your position by going long. Unlike stock trading where you had to observe the up tick rule before you could go short. In currency trading there is no such rule. In currency trading going short is as common as going long.
Its called squaring up if you have an open position and you want to close it. You need to buy or go long to square up if you are short. You need to sell or short to go flat if you are long. Having no position in the market is known as being square or flat. Selling high and buying low is the standard currency trading strategy just like in any other trading.
A clear understanding of how P&L works is especially critical to online margin trading. Profit and Loss is how traders measure success and failure. You will need to pony up cash as collateral to support the margin requirements established by your broker when you open an online currency trading account.
Profit and Loss calculations are pretty straight forward. They are based on position size and the number of pips you make or lose. A pip is the smallest increment of price fluctuation in currency pairs. Most of the currency pairs are quoted up to four decimal places except those involving JPY; they are only quoted up to 2 decimal places. Suppose GBP/USD quote is 1.2963. If the price moves from 1.2963 to 1.2983, it has gone up by 20 pips (1.2983-1.2963). Pip is the increase or decrease in the fourth decimal digit. Pips are also referred to as points. - 23217
When you look up at the currency pairs, you may notice that the currencies are combined in a seemingly strange way. For instance, if sterling-yen (GBP/JPY) is a yen cross, why it is not being also referred to as yen-sterling (JPY/GBP)? The answer is that those quoting conventions were evolved over the years to reflect traditionally strong currencies versus traditionally weak currencies with the strong currency coming first.
The most basic convention that you need to understand is that the first currency in the currency pair is known as the base currency. For example in EUR/JPY, Euro is the base currency. Suppose you buy or sell a currency pair. It is the base currency that you are buying or selling when you buy or sell a currency pair. The second currency in the pair is known as the counter or secondary currency. In the above currency pair, Japanese Yen (JPY) is the counter or secondary currency. So if you buy 100,000 EUR/USD. You have just bought 100,000 Euros and sold the equivalent amount in dollars.
So you can say currency trading involves simultaneously buying and selling. This is the most important difference between currency trading and stock trading. In currency trading, going long means having bought a currency pair! When you are long, you are looking for the prices to go higher. It will make you a good profit if you sell at a higher price from that where you bought. You will make a loss if you are long and the price goes down.
In currency trading, going short means selling a currency pair! In other words, you have sold the currency pair, meaning you have sold the base currency and bought the counter or secondary currency. You go short in anticipation of the price going further down when you anticipate the price of a currency pair going down. This will make you a profit later when you exit your position by going long. Unlike stock trading where you had to observe the up tick rule before you could go short. In currency trading there is no such rule. In currency trading going short is as common as going long.
Its called squaring up if you have an open position and you want to close it. You need to buy or go long to square up if you are short. You need to sell or short to go flat if you are long. Having no position in the market is known as being square or flat. Selling high and buying low is the standard currency trading strategy just like in any other trading.
A clear understanding of how P&L works is especially critical to online margin trading. Profit and Loss is how traders measure success and failure. You will need to pony up cash as collateral to support the margin requirements established by your broker when you open an online currency trading account.
Profit and Loss calculations are pretty straight forward. They are based on position size and the number of pips you make or lose. A pip is the smallest increment of price fluctuation in currency pairs. Most of the currency pairs are quoted up to four decimal places except those involving JPY; they are only quoted up to 2 decimal places. Suppose GBP/USD quote is 1.2963. If the price moves from 1.2963 to 1.2983, it has gone up by 20 pips (1.2983-1.2963). Pip is the increase or decrease in the fourth decimal digit. Pips are also referred to as points. - 23217
About the Author:
Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Learn Currency Trading. First Trade Your Forex Demo Account!
posted by X - Men @ 2:01 AM
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