Whether you wish to profit directly from movements in FX or simply invest internationally across asset classes, the forex market touches upon everything you do as an investor. Stay ahead of price action with access to actionable market insights, real time trade signals and more. Forex - and our entire investment universe - is accessible on our cross-asset online platforms, delivering state-of-the-art trading and analytics. Stress plays a vital part in Forex Traders. Knowing how to deal with stress is also a skill that you should develop. A good Forex Trading Education should teach you how to deal with stress and trade successfully and efficiently.
Forex contracts involve the right to buy or sell a certain amount of a foreign currency at a fixed price in U.S. dollars. Profits or losses accrue as the exchange rate of that currency fluctuates on the open market. It is extremely rare that individual traders actually see the foreign currency. Instead, they typically close out their buy or sell commitments and calculate net gains or losses based on price changes in that currency relative to the dollar over time.
Backtesting is the evaluation of a particular trading strategy using historical data. Results presented are hypothetical, they did not actually occur and they may not take into consideration all transaction fees or taxes you would incur in an actual transaction. And just as past performance of a security does not guarantee future results, past performance of a strategy does not guarantee the strategy will be successful in the future. Results could vary significantly, and losses could result.
Since forex is traded on margin, you only have to deposit a percentage of the full amount you wish to trade. Our margins start from 0.20%, which could be referred to as 500:1 leverage, as the value of the full position would be 500 times the value of the deposit required to open the trade. When trading on margin it's important to remember that your profits or losses are based on the full value of the position, not just the percentage you deposited, so you can lose more than your initial deposit.
When you trade forex, you're effectively borrowing the first currency in the pair to buy or sell the second currency. With a US$5-trillion-a-day market, the liquidity is so deep that liquidity providers�the big banks, basically�allow you to trade with leverage. To trade with leverage, you simply set aside the required margin for your trade size. If you're trading 200:1 leverage, for example, you can trade �2,000 in the market while only setting aside �10 in margin in your trading account. For 50:1 leverage, the same trade size would still only require about �40 in margin. This gives you much more exposure, while keeping your capital investment down.