Part I
Getting Started with
Currency Trading
In this part . . .
✓ Get a comprehensive overview of the forex market and how it
works.
✓ Find out what moves currencies.
✓ Get acquainted with the main players in the forex market.
✓ Understand the motivations behind trading decisions and
simple strategies to get started.
✓ Find out why the world’s biggest market is the most fascinating
market.
✓ Get an introduction to trading plans.
Chapter 1
Currency Trading 101
In This Chapter
▶ Looking at currency trading as a business
▶ Getting a sense of what moves currencies
▶ Developing trading strategies to exploit opportunities
▶ Implementing the trading plan
The forex market has exploded onto the scene and is the hot new financial
market. It’s been around for years, but advances in electronic trading
have now made it available to individual traders on a scale unimaginable just
a few years ago.
We’ve spent our professional careers in the forex market and we can’t think
of a better traders’ market. In our opinion, nothing quite compares to the
speed and exhilaration of the forex market or the intellectual and psychologi-
cal challenges of trading in it. We’ve always looked at our work as essentially
doing the same thing every day, but no two days are ever the same in the
forex market. Not many people can say that about their day jobs and we
wouldn’t trade it for the world, no pun intended.
What Is Currency Trading?
At its heart, currency trading is about speculating on the value of one currency
versus another. The key words in that last sentence are speculating and cur-
rency. We think that looking at currency trading from those two angles — or
two dimensions, if you allow us to get a little philosophical — is essential.
On the one hand, it’s speculation, pure and simple, just like buying an individ-
ual stock, or any other financial security, in the hope that it will make a profit-
able return. On the other hand, the securities you’re speculating with are the
currencies of various countries. Viewed separately, that means that currency
trading is both about the dynamics of market speculation, or trading, and the
factors that affect the value of currencies. Put them together and you’ve got
the largest, most dynamic and exciting financial market in the world.