Pips 4 Idiots

Posts Tagged ‘Different Kinds’

What Affects Currency?

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Many of you like investing in different kinds of investments. One type of investment that you may have is foreign exchange or foreign currency trading. Do you always win the game? Or are you losing money on that? You are not a sheep that simply follow what others do. You need to setup you own foundation on currencies before you can gain your money!

In fact, currency fluctuation can be affected by a number of factors. In the broadest sense, a country’s economic situation and its macroeconomics decisions have the greatest effect on its currency fluctuation. That is why you find the analysts are really familiar with such economical statistics, news and information. Common indices that you should be aware of include Gross National Product 9GNP), interest rates and consumer price index, etc. With the grasp of such information can help you make wise decisions in the forex trading market.

International profits significantly affect the currency trend. International profits are the net amount of income and expenses on foreign economic activities. Under normal circumstances, trade deficit indicates that the demand exceeds the supply for the foreign currency/trade/imports. Under the floating rate system, market demand and supply determine the currency fluctuation. A trade deficit can cause the depreciation of local currency while appreciation of foreign currency, vice versa.

Another point to look at will be the national income. When people’s income increase, they tend to be spending more or they are willing to spend more. As they spend more, this pushes the demand of local currency up. As mentioned before, with the increase in demand, the local currency appreciates.

Even though you see that people’s income is increasing, it does not necessarily mean that the local currency must appreciate. You have to understand the real factor that drives the increase in people’s income. For example, if the increase in income is driven by a series of government policies or demand, you may not see the appreciation of local currency. Why? Usually the government demand is so big that additional foreign imports are required. In this case, the demand on foreign imports or foreign currencies induces appreciations of foreign currencies.

Inflation rate is another fundamental factor that affects currency fluctuation. If a nation has over issued its currency which exceeds the demand in product purchasing, there will be inflation. Inflation decreases the purchasing power of the people and therefore leads to currency depreciation. In general sense, the local currency depreciates means the foreign currencies appreciate.

The main factors affecting currency fluctuation are basically covered here. There are still many other factors causing currency appreciation and depreciation. You should get yourself more well prepared before invest in forex!

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Forex Trading: Are You Gaining or Losing?

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Did you know that you can find a market that is open 24 hours a day? The market is called Forex market and if you go there, you can’t find services, commodities and goods. The Forex market is the place where different kinds of currencies are traded. In every trade, two currencies are involved. For instance, you can sell your Canadian dollars for Euros; or you can pay Japanese Yen for US dollars. Forex rates or exchange rates can change unexpectedly. You need to monitor these exchange rates in order to determine if the price of a certain currency increased or decreased.

Changes in the Forex market usually occur quickly and so it is important for traders to keep track of the market. Political and economic events can influence the changes in the Forex market. If you want to determine whether you’re gaining or losing in Forex trading, this article can help you with the calculations.

The Forex investment is greatly affected by the exchange rate and in order to understand the relationship between the two, you should also be familiar with Forex quotes. Like the currency pairs, Forex quotes can be found in pairs as well. Here is a very good example:

1.Suppose the currency pair is USD (US dollar) and CAD (Canadian dollar)

The Forex quote for this pair is USD/CAD=170.50; this is interpreted as ‘every one US dollar is equivalent to 170.50 CAD. The currency found at the left side is known as the base currency and it is always equivalent to 1. The currency found at the right side is called counter currency. The stronger currency is always the base currency and in this case, the USD. The Forex quote’s central currency is USD and so you can find it in most Forex quotes.

How can you determine if you’re earning profits or not? You can use another example.

2.This time use EUR to USD. Assuming that the Forex rate is 1.0857; in this example, the USD is the weaker currency. If you bought 1,000 Euros, you will need to pay $1,085.70. After a year, the Forex rate was at 1.2083 and this means that the Euro’s value increased. If you decide to sell the 1,000 Euros now, you will get $1,208.30; now, in this transaction, you gained $122.60. What if the Forex rate a year after was 1.0576? This means that the Euro’s value weakened. If you still decide to sell the 1,000 Euros, you will only receive $1,057.60 which means that you lost $28.10; did you get it?

Forex trading involves a lot of risks just like mutual funds and stocks. The fluctuations in the exchange market are responsible for such risks. Low level risks like government bonds in the long-term can give returns but are quite low. If you want to get higher returns, you need to invest in Forex trading but you need to face higher level risks.

You must set financial goals for the short term, as well as for the long term. By doing so, it will be much easier to balance the risks involved and the security. You will be able to conduct your trades with ease and comfort. Make use of all the available Forex trading tools so that you can make wise and profitable trades. After reading this article, you can already calculate if you’re gaining profits or not.