Purchase Order Finance

The foreign exchange market most often called the forex market is the most traded financial market in the world. Average daily currency trading volumes exceed $2 trillion per day. That is a mind boggling number isnt it. To give you an idea it is 10-15 times the size of the daily trading volume on all the world stock markets combined.

There many players in the forex markets. Big banks, multinational companies and other institutions require foreign exchange to carry out their day to day business. While commercial and financial transactions in the currency markets represent huge nominal sums, they still pale in comparison to amounts based on speculation. By far the vast majority of the currency trading volume is based on speculation.

What is speculation? Speculation is when you invest with the sole purpose of making a capital gain from the market movement in the near future. Almost something like 90% of the volume in currency trading is speculative in nature. Traders buying and selling currencies for short term gains based on minute to minute, hour to hour and day to day fluctuations. It is the volatility in the forex market that makes it so attractive as compared to other markets.

Activity in the forex market frequently functions on regional currency bloc basis where bulk of the trading takes place between the USD bloc, JPY bloc and the EUR bloc representing the three largest economic regions. The bulk of the spot currency trading almost like 75% takes place in the so called major currencies which represent the worlds largest and most developed economies. The major currency pairs are EUR/USD, GBP/USD, JPY/USD and CHF/USD.

Liquidity represents how much faster or easier it is to buy or sell an asset. Forex markets are highly liquid. In other words, liquidity is the level of buying or selling volume available at any given moment for a particular asset or security. A highly liquid market like the forex can see large trading volumes transacted with relatively minor price changes.

The forex market is open and active 24 hours a day from the start of the business hours on Monday morning in the Asia-Pacific time zone straight through to the Friday close of business hours in New York. At any given moment, dozens of global financial centers are open such as Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo or London and currency trading desks in those financial centers are active in the market.

New York Stock Exchange is the most famous stock exchange in the world. Trading starts at the New York Stock Exchange at 9:30 AM EST and continues in the evening till 4:00 PM EST. All other financial markets have an official open and an official close. However, unlike the stock markets or the other financial markets, in the forex market there is no official starting time for trading day or week. But for all practical purposes the market kicks off when Wellington, New Zealand, the first financial center opens on Monday morning local time. It roughly corresponds to Sunday afternoon in US, Sunday evening in EU and early Monday morning in Asia.

Forex markets are open 24/5. In other words you can see around the clock action in the forex markets except on weekends. Sunday open represents the resumption of trading after the Friday close of trading in North America. This is the first chance for the forex market to react to news that may have happened during the weekend. Prices may have closed New York trading at one level. However, they may start trading at another level altogether at the Sunday open.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Develop Your Own Forex Trading System!

As someone considering trading forex options on global exchanges you will want to find an online options broker, look at the key points and decide which service provides the best value. You should find out for example if the firm has any exposure to leveraged instruments like credit default swaps and mortgage investments, as this could be an indicator of potential solvency problems at a future point in time. Also look to see if the firm cover other areas like futures, stocks and bonds.

When you ask what sort of trade volumes they handle on a daily basis, this will give you a good picture of the size of the operation. Does the broker do a half a million, a million or more contracts daily? Then a prospective trader needs to check out the margin system used by the online options broker. Do they operate in real time, including the use of automatic limits, or does the broker contact the trader at the end of the trading day? And given that options are highly leveraged, what are the minimum balances you have to maintain?

Make sure you find out exactly what type of option contracts the broker provides on their online trading platforms. With some contracts you can exit the option at any time within the expiry period, while others are set up so that you hold them to expiry or settlement. Look to see if the online options broker can offer discounts which would help you to reduce your trading costs, and find out when they would do this. It may be that a trader would have to open a special or premier account or have a higher maintenance margin to get this benefit.

As an options trader you have the opportunity to enter different markets as part of the wider options universe. One approach is going via an exotic options broker where you will trade a smaller, less liquid niche of currencies. Alternatively, go for the mainstream plain vanilla options broker using a standard, straightforward trading approach which makes use of the main clearinghouse system, where the market has relatively deep liquidity.

One important area of consideration in choosing an online options broker will be the quality of the educational support they provide to clients. New traders in particular will find a range of videos and seminars on the basics of options trading very helpful as they set up their accounts. You will also need to consider whether the videos are interactive, so that as a trader you can see the impact of your decision on your trading capital. Does the online broker provide research reports, trade alerts and newsletters with tips on better trading strategies?

Looking at the trading platform software, find out exactly what it can achieve and how user friendly the system is for a retail trader and not just for seasoned professional traders. How easy is it to follow the progress of your contracts using the platform? Can you be confident that the online options broker is able to secure a better price per contract than the industry average?

In managing your options trading you will want access to technology which lets you analyse price and risk in real time. Also look to see if the broker platform provides statistics on interest rates, volatility and other key variables to help you decide which options to trade at a given moment. After doing all your due diligence on choosing an online options broker, remember that when you trade in options and other derivatives, there is a chance of significant loss of capital.

The author, William Davies, edits articles for a website on trading commodities, a helpful educational resource for investors wanting to learn more about options, commodities and futures. Find a suitable online options broker for your trading style.

Fibonacci Price Retracements: The important question in every trades mind is how far the retracements will penetrate into the previous movement. Suppose the price action bounces back from a resistance level down. How do you identify a possible support level once the market pulls back from a high? Fibonacci price retracements are run from a prior low to high swing using the ratios 0.382, 0.50, 0.618 and 0.786 to identify possible support levels as the market pulls back from a high.

Similarly suppose the price action bounces up from a support level. You need to identify possible resistance levels when the price action bounces back from a low. Retracements are run from a prior high to low swing using these same ratios looking for resistance as the market bounces from a low. Most basic technical analysis software will run the Fibonacci retracement levels for you when you choose the swing you want to run them from.

If you want to understand how to calculate the Fibonacci price retracements yourself, multiply the length of the swing (from low to high or high to low) by the retracement ratios and then subtract the result from the high if you are running low to high swings or add the results to the low if you are running high to low swings.

Fibonacci Price Extensions: Why you need to know the possible price extensions? You maybe of the opinion that the price action will extend beyond the previous support or resistance level! It is important to know possible price extensions to make stop loss and take profit decisions. Fibonacci price extensions are almost similar to the Fibonacci Price retracements in that they are run from the prior highs to lows using only two data points to run the price relationship or the prior lows to highs.

There are times when a pullback can retrace beyond the original starting point and exceed 100 percent of the initial wave or trend. So a Fibonacci extension is essentially a correction that exceeds the low of the initial trend. What is the difference between the Fibonacci Price Extensions and Fibonacci Price retracements? The difference between the Fibonacci price extensions and the Fibonacci price retracements is that we are running the relationship of a prior swing that are less than 100% or retracing the price move whereas with the extensions we are running the relationships of a prior swing that are extending beyond 100% of it.

Fibonacci Price extensions are run from prior low to high swings using the ratios 1.272 and 1.618 for potential support. They are run from prior high to low swings using the ratios 1.272 and 1.618 for potential resistance. These two techniques are named differently to indicate whether the price relationship is occurring within the prior swing or extending beyond it.

Fibonacci Price Projections: We use 1.00 and 1.618 ratios to run the projections. Fibonacci price projections are run from three data points and are comparing swings in the same direction. They are run from a prior low to high swing and then projected from another low for possible resistance or they are run from prior high to low swing and projected from another high for possible support.

Price clusters identify key support and resistance zones that can be considered to be trade setups. A price cluster is the coincidence of at least three Fibonacci relationships that come together within a relatively tight range.

A price cluster can also develop with a coincidence of more than three price relationships. Three is just the minimum number required to meet the definition. You may see five to ten price relationships come together in a relatively tight range. There are times when you see these large clusters develop not too far from the current market activity and they tend to act like a magnet for price.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Know Forex Rebellion!

EUR/USD is the most liquid currency pair in the currency markets. There are four currency pairs that are known as the major currency pairs namely EUR/USD, GBP/USD, CHF/USD and JPY/USD that are heavily traded in the global currency markets. The rest of the currency pairs dont have the liquidity to trade big volumes as these four pairs do. Almost like 90% of the global currency exchange is in these pairs. Out of these four pairs, EUR/USD has the most liquidity and is the most popular among the currency traders all over the world. EUR/USD is the most heavily traded currency pair in the global currency markets at the moment. Most of the currency traders are in fact speculators. Trading currencies can be exciting and lucrative. Its a great market because of the way politics affect the trends. Elections, strikes, and sudden developments, both good and bad, can lead to significant trading profits if you stand ready to trade the EUR/USD is a convenient currency pair because it encompasses the policies and the economic activity and political environment of a volatile but predictable part of the world: Europe.

In the United States, where the free-market approach and a usually vigilant Federal Reserve make more frequent adjustments on interest rates. France, Italy, and Germany, the largest members of the European Union (EU), normally operate under high budget deficits and tend to keep their interest rates more stable.

The general tendency of the Fed is to make the dollar trend for very long periods of time in one general direction. Here are some general tendencies of the euro on which you need to keep tabs aside from the technical analysis:

- The European Central Bank is almost fanatical about inflation, given Germanys history of hyperinflation in the first half of the 20th century and the repercussions of that period, namely the rise of Hitler. That means that the European Central Bank raises interest rates more easily than it lowers them.

- The European Central Banks actions become important when all other factors are equal, meaning politics are equally stable or unstable in the United States and Europe, and the two economies are growing. For example, if the U.S. economy is slowing down, money slowly starts to drift away from the dollar. In the past that meant money would move toward the Japanese yen; however, because the market knows that Japans central bank will sell yen, the default currency when the dollar weakens is often now the euro.

3) EUR/USD currency pair is heavily influenced by the political developments in the Eurozone. Especially when the European economy is slowing The flip side is that the market becomes jittery and often sells the euro during political problems in the region.

As usual, you want to closely monitor major currencies and the cross rates. Its okay to form an opinion and have some expectations, but the final and only truth that should make you trade is what the charts are showing you. The direction that counts is the one in which the market is heading.

It is always best to choose only two or three currency pairs and become a specialist in them. Fundamental analysis can help you determine the strong/weak currency pair. Use fundamental analysis to determine if USD is expected to lose value and EUR is expected to gain more strength that means that the currency pair EUR/USD is perfectly timed for swing trading. Use technical analysis to make the entry and exit decision. Combining fundamental analysis with the technical analysis can give you the edge as a forex trader.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Know Forex Rebellion!

Currency trading volumes in the Asia Pacific session account for about 21% of the total daily global volume. The financial centers active during the Asia Pacific session are Wellington, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. The currency pairs traded are USD/JPY, EUR/JPY and AUD/JPY.

In terms of the most actively traded currency pairs during the Asia Pacific trading session that means news and data reports from Australia, New Zealand and Japan are going to be hitting the market during the session.

Much of the action during this session is focused on the Japanese Yen currency pairs because of the size of the Japanese market and the importance of Japanese data to the market. The Japanese financial centers are most active during this session so you can get a sense of what the Japanese market is doing based on price movements.

European trading session is very important for currency traders. European financial centers and London represent over 50% of the total global trading volume. European financial centers begin to open up and the market gets to its full swing about midway through the Asian trading day.

London, Bonn, Paris, Zurich and Geneva are important financial centers that are active during the European trading session. The forex market interest and liquidity is at its peak during the European session The European session overlaps with half of the Asian trading day and half of the North American trading day.

As a result some the biggest moves and the most active trading takes place in the European currencies (EUR, GBP and CHF) and the euro cross currency pairs (EUR/CHF and EUR/GBP). London is the global forex center with the highest volume of foreign exchange transactions. GBP is still the most liquid currency in the world and favorite of currency traders.

The European trading session is the most important for currency traders. EUR/USD is the most heavily traded currency pair. This pair is influenced by the European as well as US economic and political news. The trading volumes are much bigger in the European Session because of the overlap between the North American and European trading sessions. Some of the biggest and most meaningful directional price movements take place during this crossover period.

The North American Session basically comprises New York and Chicago as financial centers. The North American trading session accounts for roughly the same share of the global trading volume as the Asia Pacific market, or about 22% of the daily global trading volume.

Nonfarm Payroll Figures are very important for those currency traders who heavily trade USD. Since USD is the global reserve currency that means almost all the currency traders give utmost attention to the US economic and political news. Most US data reports are released around 8:30 AM EST with others coming out later at around 9 AM and 10:00 AM EST. The North American morning is when US key economic data are released and the forex market makes many of its significant decisions on the value of USD.

However, there are some US economic reports that come out at noon or at 2:00 PM EST livening up the New York afternoon market. Canadian economic data reports are also released between 7 and 9 AM EST. Most of this news affects the CAD/USD pair. There are news traders who try to trade around these specific times and take benefit from the volatility caused in the markets by the release of this news.

The London or European close can bring volatile flurries of activity. London and European financial centers begin to wind down their daily trading operations around noon eastern time each day.

Market liquidity and interest falls off significantly in the New York afternoon on most trading days. This is the best time for scalping as the market is moving sideways. Scalping is done when a trader enters and exits a trade within a few minutes in order to make just a few pips per trade. The ideal time for scalping is when the markets are moving sidways with very low volatility. On quiet days, the generally lower market interest typically leads to stagnating price action. This can make for challenging trading conditions but not for the scalpers.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Know Forex Rebellion!