Top 20 Terms You Have To Know In Order To Trade Forex
Sunday, July 4th, 2010Here’s a quick list of the terms of the trade. You many consider this to be forex basics, but keep in mind that it never hurts to have a good refresher of those basics. Happy Trading! ~Mac
Top 20 Terms You Have To Know In Order To Trade Forex
I know many individuals, especially older people, who think that they will never be able to grasp computers, because the terminology sounds like a foreign language. The same can be said for Forex, so I am going to clarify my top 20 terms to trade Forex that I think you need to know.
Ask, Offer – the price at which a trader will buy a currency; it is the seller’s price
Base Currency – the currency that all trades are quoted in. This will usually be the USD, but some systems allow the trader to choose
Bear – someone who believes that the market or position will fall
Bull – someone who believes that the market or position will go up
Broker – the person who places and deals with the trade for the trader. In FX there are no charges as such, as they are dealt with by the spread.
Cable – dealers’ slang for the USD/GBP exchange rate
Currency Risk – the risk of incurring losses resulting from an adverse change in exchange rates.
Day Trading – refers to opening and closing the same position or positions within one day’s trading (day trader)
ECB – the European Central Bank
Forex, FX or Foreign Exchange – the concurrent buying of one currency and selling of another. The currencies are written in pairs such as USD/GBP.
GTC – ‘good till cancelled’ – this means that an order is left with the dealer to buy or sell at a price pre-set by the trader. When the price is met the trade will be automatically carried out.
Initial Margin – this is the initial deposit of collateral required in order to enter into a position. It is a guarantee on future performance
Margin – clients must deposit funds as security to cover any possible losses from unfavorable movements in currency prices
Market Maker – is a dealer who offers prices and is prepared to buy or sell at those stated bid and ask (offer) prices. A market maker keeps a trading book
Open Position – this refers to any deal which has not been sorted out by monetary payment or reversed by an equal and opposite deal for the same value date.
Pip or Points – in currency markets refer to the smallest move an exchange rate can make. This could be 0.0001 in the case of EUR/USD, GBD/USD, USD/CHF or 0.01 in the case of USD/JPY
Resistance – is the level at which charts suggest that selling will take place
Spread – this is the difference between the bid and offer (ask) prices. It is used to measure market liquidity, narrower spreads often signify higher liquidity
Stop Loss Order – an order to buy or sell when a particular price is reached, either above or below the price that prevailed when the order was given
Technical Analysis – is an attempt to predict future market activity by analyzing historical market data. It is usually represented in the form of charts, price trends and volume graphs.
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