Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Forex Trading — Understanding Commissions, Spreads and Trading Costs

The forex market is quickly becoming one of the most popular markets for trading.

Not only are the experienced traders looking to this market to maximize their trading returns, but many new, individual investors are now able to trade the Forex market — just as they do stocks and futures.
More and more individuals are seeing Forex not only as a new way to diversify their portfolio, but are also finding that it is becoming the most profitable component of their investments.
And that's because of the many advantages Forex offers over other markets like stocks or commodities. Here's what you will typically see advertized about Forex:
Unparallelled liquidity. It is the largest financial market in the world by far. Almost $2 trillion being traded daily!

Excellent leverage potential. Individual investors have access to leverage of 100:1 and even 200:1
No Commissions (more on this later on)
Low trading costs.

And yes, the Forex market really does offer all these advantages.
But the last two points above talk about costs, and that's what we'd like to focus on in this article.
Like any trading, there are costs involved, and, while these may be much lower than they used to be, it is important to understand what those are.
Let's start by looking at stock trading, something that most of us investors are pretty familiar with.
When trading stocks, most investors will have a trading account with a broker somewhere and will have investment funds deposited in that account.
The broker will then execute the trades on behalf of the account holder, and of course, in return for providing that service, the broker will want to be compensated.
With stocks, typically, the broker will earn a commission for executing the trade. They will charge either a fixed dollar amount per trade, or a dollar amount per share, or (most commonly) a scaled commission based on how big your trade is.
And, they will charge it on both sides of the transaction. That is to say, when you buy the stock you get charged commission, AND then when you sell that same stock you get charged another commission.
With Forex trading, the brokers constantly advertise "no commission". And, of course that's true — except for a few brokers, who do charge a commission similar to stocks.
But also, of course, the brokers aren't performing their trading services for free. They too make money.
The way they do that is by charging the investor a "spread". Simply put, the spread is the difference between the bid price and the ask price for the currency being traded.

ForexGen Scalping Enabled Account

Trade and scalp the market [ForexGen] has the pleasure to announce the availability of both Dealing Desk and No Dealing Desk Platforms. No Dealing option provide traders with direct access to the best bid/ask prices through multiple bank access. No re-quotes & No dealer confirmation is the main characteristic of the no dealing option made specifically for “scalpers” and active FX professionals. Absolute freedom to trade during news and economic events. The no dealing desk option allows traders to place entry orders inside the spread! Unlike competing FX firms, [ForexGen offers] traders all the advantage of a “no dealing desk” option.

Advantages of No Dealing Desk Option

* Trade the news without intervention or restrictions * Although spreads may vary in volatile market conditions, they are tried to be kept within the usually limits. * Place scalping orders without intervention or restrictions. * A client-friendly trading environment, No re-quotes. * Ability to place orders inside the spread * Competing rates from multiple banks * Spreads are variable and can move sharply * Ideal for active or professional FX traders

For more information about our current and future promotions, kindly visit this page often or contact one of our customers support agents at promotions@forexgen.com

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