High leverage
Leverage is, of course, a double-edged sword, and we will get into this in further detail later on in the course. Nevertheless the current state of play reflects what traders have been demanding of their brokers, and one of these demands has been for ever-increasing leverage ratios. Compared to other instruments where leverage is limited, Forex boasts the highest leverage in retail trading. It is now commonplace for traders with modest trading account balances to leverage their capital up to 500:1 and command far larger positions than they ever would have been able to in the past. Also, it should be noted that interest is not charged on leverage in Forex. This is because, in essence, you are not buying or selling, but rather agreeing to do so at a future date. This means that in Forex leverage is not borrowed capital as it is in stock trading, which does involve paying interest on the capital used to leverage your positions (more on this later).
Negative balance protection
One of the criticisms levelled at Forex brokers, is that by offering highly leveraged trading accounts they expose their clients to the risk of losing more than they invested in the first place. This is not so. While using leverage carries with it the risk of exacerbating losses in the same way as it provides the potential of amplifying returns, it is now standard practice for all reputable brokers to offer their clients negative balance protection. What this means is your trading account will never fall below zero. You will receive margin calls if your margin level drops below a certain percentage of your equity, depending on the platform you are trading on. Should it continue to drop your broker will begin automatically closing any open positions you have so as to protect you from incurring losses beyond the capital you have in your account.
No suspensions or de-listings
Unlike stocks the foreign exchange markets are live 24/5, irrespective of the underlying market conditions. This means that no-matter what is happening you as a trader can take the appropriate position and potentially profit. Stock trading can be suspended during times of high market volatility in order to curb dramatic changes in price, only to reopen with a gap between closing and opening prices. Also if a company fails to meet an exchange’s regulations and financial criteria it can be delisted entirely from the exchange it is traded on, which can be catastrophic for an investor holding shares in it. In contrast the foreign exchange markets suffer from no such issues; currencies are always available for trading, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Instant execution
The online Forex industry has had to be very technically resourceful in order to address the fact that Forex is an entirely decentralized market, meaning that trades are not made over an exchange. The way traders, brokers and the inter-bank network are dispersed across the globe has required the development of advanced trading platforms that can provide traders with up to the second price quotes in a constantly changing environment, and to facilitate transactions between parties that can be separated by entire continents.
These technological advances have led to Forex traders enjoying better trade execution speeds than almost any other form of online trading.
Feel free to drop your comments. For more information on Forex, visit www.fxpro.com
Leverage is, of course, a double-edged sword, and we will get into this in further detail later on in the course. Nevertheless the current state of play reflects what traders have been demanding of their brokers, and one of these demands has been for ever-increasing leverage ratios. Compared to other instruments where leverage is limited, Forex boasts the highest leverage in retail trading. It is now commonplace for traders with modest trading account balances to leverage their capital up to 500:1 and command far larger positions than they ever would have been able to in the past. Also, it should be noted that interest is not charged on leverage in Forex. This is because, in essence, you are not buying or selling, but rather agreeing to do so at a future date. This means that in Forex leverage is not borrowed capital as it is in stock trading, which does involve paying interest on the capital used to leverage your positions (more on this later).
Negative balance protection
One of the criticisms levelled at Forex brokers, is that by offering highly leveraged trading accounts they expose their clients to the risk of losing more than they invested in the first place. This is not so. While using leverage carries with it the risk of exacerbating losses in the same way as it provides the potential of amplifying returns, it is now standard practice for all reputable brokers to offer their clients negative balance protection. What this means is your trading account will never fall below zero. You will receive margin calls if your margin level drops below a certain percentage of your equity, depending on the platform you are trading on. Should it continue to drop your broker will begin automatically closing any open positions you have so as to protect you from incurring losses beyond the capital you have in your account.
No suspensions or de-listings
Unlike stocks the foreign exchange markets are live 24/5, irrespective of the underlying market conditions. This means that no-matter what is happening you as a trader can take the appropriate position and potentially profit. Stock trading can be suspended during times of high market volatility in order to curb dramatic changes in price, only to reopen with a gap between closing and opening prices. Also if a company fails to meet an exchange’s regulations and financial criteria it can be delisted entirely from the exchange it is traded on, which can be catastrophic for an investor holding shares in it. In contrast the foreign exchange markets suffer from no such issues; currencies are always available for trading, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Instant execution
The online Forex industry has had to be very technically resourceful in order to address the fact that Forex is an entirely decentralized market, meaning that trades are not made over an exchange. The way traders, brokers and the inter-bank network are dispersed across the globe has required the development of advanced trading platforms that can provide traders with up to the second price quotes in a constantly changing environment, and to facilitate transactions between parties that can be separated by entire continents.
These technological advances have led to Forex traders enjoying better trade execution speeds than almost any other form of online trading.
Feel free to drop your comments. For more information on Forex, visit www.fxpro.com
No comments:
Post a Comment