Welcome to the tradersdna Academy! This is a series of videos presented by Wayne Walker, managing director of Global Capital Markets Solutions and a foremost authority on the topics of forex education and management. Throughout the series, Wayne will be explaining all the basics of forex trading, taking in topics such as choosing a broker, setting up trades, margin trading, developing a trading strategy, and a range of different analysis techniques to help you predict price movements.
Forex Trading: The Basics
What is Forex Trading?
First things first: let’s ensure that you truly do have a good understanding of what exactly forex is.
At its most basic, the concept behind forex is that you convert your money in one currency into another. As you already know, currencies are always constantly changing in their value relative to other currencies. Changes in currency value are typically indicative of the economic success of the country in which the currency is used.
For instance, if America’s economy begins to plummet and the Federal Reserve has to print more money to pump the economy back up, then the value of the dollar will correspondingly decrease. Consequently, if all your money was in dollars at the time, your money loses value.
But if you had converted your money into euros, which instead improved against the American dollar because the European Union’s economy was doing just fine, then you just managed to significantly improve your net worth.
How Does Forex Trading Work?
There are three ways in which you can complete a forex transaction.
The first way is called spot trading. In this method, you complete a transaction converting money from one currency to another at a specified rate at the exact time that the deal is made.
The second method of trading is known as the forward forex market. In this method, you create a contract that stipulates the transaction between two currencies at a specific price. The date for the transaction can either be a specific future date, or it can be a range of dates.
If the markets move in your favour, then you could make a killing by purchasing currency at a price that differs from the market price. However, the converse could also very easily happen.
The last method of forex trading is known as the futures forex market. This operates similarly to the forward forex market, except futures are traded on an exchange, while forwards are private contracts between individuals or institutions.
Tradersdna Academy: Forex Trading Education Complete Series
Part 1 – tradersdna Academy – Forex Trading Education by Wayne Walker – Why Trade Forex?
Wayne Walker is a highly sought-after trading educator, having given talks and training sessions on the topics of trading and management in countries around the world. Originally from New York, he moved to Copenhagen to pursue a career in finance, and held management roles at several major investment banks before taking on his current role as the managing director of trading education experts Global Capital Markets Solutions (GCMS). He is the author of the “Reality Based Trading Guide“, a practical guide to forex and equities trading, and also headed up the Trader Training programme at Copenhagen-based investment bank and brokerage Saxo Bank.
