Trading Accounts
Forex trading, also known by the name of currency trading or FX trading, refers to buying a particular currency while selling another in exchange. Trading currencies always involves exchanging one currency for another.
The ultimate aim can vary and can be any of the below but not limited to the below:
- Exchanging currency A (e.g. USD) to currency B (e.g. EUR) for travelling purposes;
- Exchanging currency A (e.g. USD) to currency B (e.g. EUR) for trading purposes;
- Exchanging currency A (e.g. USD) to currency B (e.g. EUR) for speculative purposes, with the goal to make a profit.
Due to all the above, and not limited to the above, the forex trading market is today the world’s most liquid and most volatile market, with over $5 trillion traded daily.
Forex trading is in essence trading currencies for one another. As such, an GLFX client sells one currency against another at a current market rate.
In order to be able to trade, it is required to open an account and hold currency A and then exchange currency A for currency B either for a long term or a short-term trade, with the ultimate goal varying accordingly.
Since FX trading is performed on currency pairs (i.e. the quotation of the relative value of one currency unit against another currency unit), in which the first currency is the so-called base currency, while the second currency is called the quote currency.
For example, the quotation EUR/USD 1.2345 is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, which means that 1 euro equals 1.2345 US dollars.
Currency trading can be carried out 24 hours a day, from 22.00 GMT on Sunday until 22.00 GMT on Friday, with currencies traded among the major financial centers of London, New York, Tokyo, Zürich, Frankfurt, Paris, Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong.
There is an endless number of factors that all contribute and influence the prices in forex trading (i.e. currency rates) daily, but it could be safe to say that there are 6 major factors which contribute the most and are more or less the main driving forces for forex trading price fluctuation:
- Differentials in inflation
- Differentials in interest rates
- Current account deficits
- Public debt
- Terms of trade
- Political and economic stability
In order to best comprehend the above 6 factors, you will have to keep in mind that currencies are traded against one another. So when one falls, another one rises as the price denomination of any currency is always stated against another currency.