Getting Started in Forex

Getting Started in Forex offers an overview of forex trading, including key concepts, ideas, and market terminology. In this webinar you'll learn:

• About the major currencies and how to interpret currency quotes.
  
  
• How to place trades and understand order types, as well as managing positions.
  
  
• How to read charts and perform basic technical analysis using ForexCharts by eSignal, our professional charting program.
  
  
• Plus a live Q&A session.

Getting Started in Forex

Getting Started in Forex offers an overview of forex trading, including key concepts, ideas, and market terminology. In this webinar you'll learn:

• About the major currencies and how to interpret currency quotes.
  
  
• How to place trades and understand order types, as well as managing positions.
  
  
• How to read charts and perform basic technical analysis using ForexCharts by eSignal, our professional charting program.
  
  
• Plus a live Q&A session.

Weekly Market Call

Join Brian for a 45 minute interactive discussion that will prepare you for the upcoming trading week.

• Review upcoming economic releases, along with market expectations
  
  
• Discuss major market "themes" that will likely drive price action in the next five trading days
  
  
• Analyze short-term charts for emerging patterns and important support & resistance levels
  
  
• Interact with Brian in a live Q&A session

Brian will cover topics from his Weekly Strategy & The Week Ahead research reports. In the wrap up Q&A period, Brian will be available to personally respond to your questions.

Orders and Trades

Generally speaking, there are three types of Forex orders:

1. Market order – an order to buy or sell a currency

2. Limit order – an order to capture gains from advantageous market movements

3. Stop order – an order to forego further losses from disadvantageous market movements

If a trader believes the value of a base currency will increase relative to its pair, the trader should place a Market Order to buy the currency at its “Ask” price. However, in order to protect against the risk of significant losses, a prudent trader will simultaneously place a Stop Order to sell the currency if the “Bid” price drops to a certain level. In addition, in order to capture profits, a trader will often place a Limit Order to sell the currency if the “Bid” price rises to a certain level.

Currency Quotes

Reading a foreign exchange quote is simple if you remember two things:

1. The first currency listed is the base currency

2. The value of the base currency is always 1

A currency pair quote is comprised of a bid/ask price expressed in the following format:

EUR/USD: 1.2836 / 1.2839 or EUR/USD: 1.2836/39

The first number in the series represents the bid price, the cost of selling the Euro against the Dollar, or going ‘short' on the Euro.

The second number represents the ask price, the cost of buying the Euro against the dollar, or going ‘long’ on the Euro.

Currency Quotes

Reading a foreign exchange quote is simple if you remember two things:

1. The first currency listed is the base currency

2. The value of the base currency is always 1

A currency pair quote is comprised of a bid/ask price expressed in the following format:

EUR/USD: 1.2836 / 1.2839 or EUR/USD: 1.2836/39

The first number in the series represents the bid price, the cost of selling the Euro against the Dollar, or going ‘short' on the Euro.

The second number represents the ask price, the cost of buying the Euro against the dollar, or going ‘long’ on the Euro.

The difference between the ask price and the bid price is called the pip spread.

FOREX Basics

"Forex" stands for foreign exchange; it is also known as FX. It is the buying and selling of currencies. Unlike stocks or futures, there is no centralized exchange for Forex. All transactions happen via phone or electronic network. Because of this, Forex is among the most liquid of trading instruments. In fact, the daily trading volume of currencies is $ 3.2 Trillion – which is more than all other world market exchange trading combined!

More than 85% of Forex trading volume occurs in the “Major” currencies: US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar.

In a Forex transaction, currencies trade in pairs. Therefore, a trader buys one currency while simultaneously selling its pair. That is, a trader exchanges the sold currency for the one being bought. So when a trader trades Euro-US Dollar (EUR/USD), the trader is actually exchanging the Euro for the US Dollar or vice versa. And when a trader trades US Dollar / Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), the trader is actually exchanging the US Dollars for Japanese Yen or vice versa.

The chart below displays some major and minor currency pairs and their associated trading terminology.

Symbol		Currency Pair		Trading Terminology
GBPUSD		British Pound / US Dollar		"Cable"
EURUSD		Euro / US Dollar		"Euro"
USDJPY		US Dollar / Japanese Yen		"Dollar Yen"
USDCHF		US Dollar / Swiss Franc		"Dollar Swiss", or "Swissy"
USDCAD		US Dollar / Canadian Dollar		"Dollar Canada"
AUDUSD		Australian Dollar / US Dollar		"Aussie Dollar"
EURGBP		Euro / British Pound		"Euro Sterling"
EURJPY		Euro / Japanese Yen		"Euro Yen"
EURCHF		Euro / Swiss Franc		"Euro Swiss"
GBPCHF		British Pound / Swiss Franc		"Sterling Swiss"
GBPJPY		British Pound / Japanese Yen		"Sterling Yen"
CHFJPY		Swiss Franc / Japanese Yen		"Swiss Yen"
NZDUSD		New Zealand Dollar / US Dollar		"New Zealand Dollar" or "Kiwi"
USDZAR		US Dollar / South African Rand		"Dollar Zar" or "South African Rand"
GLDUSD		Spot Gold		"Gold"
SLVUSD		Spot Silver		"Silver"