About Online Trading

The invention of the Internet has brought about many changes in the way that we conduct our lives and our personal business. We can pay our bills online, shop online, bank online, and even date online!

We can even buy and sell stocks online. Traders love having the ability to look at their accounts whenever they want to, and brokers like having the ability to take orders over the Internet, as opposed to the telephone.

Most brokers and brokerage houses now offer online trading to their clients. Another great thing about trading online is that fees and commissions are often lower. While online trading is great, there are some drawbacks.

If you are new to investing, having the ability to actually speak with a broker can be quite beneficial. If you aren’t stock market savvy, online trading may be a dangerous thing for you. If this is the case, make sure that you learn as much as you can about trading stocks before you start trading online.

You should also be aware that you don’t have a computer with Internet access attached to you. You won’t always have the ability to get online to make a trade. You need to be sure that you can call and speak with a broker if this is the case, using the online broker. This is true whether you are an advanced trader or a beginner.

It is also a good idea to go with an online brokerage company that has been around for a while. You won’t find one that has been in business for fifty years of course, but you can find a company that has been in business that long and now offers online trading.

Again, online trading is a beautiful thing – but it isn’t for everyone. Think carefully before you decide to do your trading online, and make sure that you really know what you are doing!

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Let Your Money Work for You with Automated FOREX Trading

In our modern world of luxury and ease, some financial speculators are finding it advantageous to do FOREX trading the easy way: through automated FOREX trading systems.

Automated FOREX trading is exactly what it sounds like. A highly sophisticated and complicated computer program uses mathematical algorithms to determine when to buy and sell currency, and it makes the trades for you. You put an initial investment into the account, and then let the system do all the work for you.

It may sound risky to let a computer program choose when to buy and sell currency, but automated trading can often be safer than doing it yourself. Humans are subject to error, to misreading charts, and to overlooking data. Humans can also let their emotions get in the way of making smart decisions, like the gambler who loses everything because he just can’t tear himself away from the blackjack table.

An automated trading program has none of those flaws. With the software doing it for you, it’s as if you were always watching every market, noticing every trend, instantly analyzing all available data, and making the smartest decisions.

There is a cost for this, of course. Most brokers that offer it require a minimum investment of several thousand dollars or more, and they may charge a fee on top of that.

But the benefits of automated FOREX trading can be great. Whereas manual trading requires an investor to study the market intensely before jumping in to it, automated trading requires no training at all. Learn the very basics of how the market works so you can tell what your automated system is doing for you, and that’s it. Sit back and let it make your money work for you.

Automated trading is also useful for companies and other institutions that want to diversify their assets but don’t have the time or resources to devote to FOREX trading. If a computer program can do it for you, there’s no need to have one of your employees handle it, right?

It goes without saying that automated trading systems rely on technical analysis rather than fundamental analysis. That is, the algorithms examine past market performance and general trends and base their trading decisions on that, not on external factors such as politics and environmental concerns, which may affect a nation’s currency. Nonetheless, automated trading has proven to be highly effective and accurate for many investors, freeing up their schedules to focus on other things.

Getting started in trading with a forex seminar

The world of forex trading can be baffling, especially for someone who’s new to it. While it has similarities to the stock market, there are many differences, too. And what’s even more confusing, some terminology means one thing in the forex world and something else in the stock market. So even veteran stock traders have to learn new vocabulary when they move into the foreign exchange!

Luckily, many companies offer forex seminars to help newcomers understand the complex but lucrative world they’re jumping into. Some seminars are held free of charge (in the hopes you’ll sign on with that broker) and last an hour. Others are more intensive, last longer, and require a registration fee, though obviously the training goes a bit more in depth at those particular seminars.

At a forex seminar you can expect to learn:

- The basics of forex trading -- what it is, how it works, etc.

- The differences between forex and the stock market.

- How to know when to buy and sell currencies.

To find a seminar, search the Internet for forex brokers and browse their pages until you find one offering live seminars. Most major cities host forex seminars fairly regularly, though you may be out of luck if you don’t live near a major city. In some cases, the firms offering seminars aren’t brokerage companies at all, but are simply financial training firms that teach you how to do trading and then leave it to you to find a broker to actually do it.

At a forex seminar you’ll find a variety of people. Some will have had experience in the stock market or took business classes in college. Others will be complete novices interested in diversifying their investments. Still others might not have a lot of income but are looking for a way to use the money they do have more wisely.

One of the latest innovations in forex seminars is to hold them exclusively online. This is much cheaper for the company offering the seminar, obviously, as they don’t need to rent a hotel conference room. It also allows people from all over the world to participate. Hosting online makes the seminar more useful to more people, and since anyone can ask a question, you don’t have to worry about being lost in the crowd.

Whether in person or online, a forex seminar can be an invaluable tool as you start your forex market experience.

There’s money to be had in forex trading, but it’s risky for a first-time investor

Forex trading is done on a much greater scale than any other kind of market in the world. Some 1.9 trillion dollars are handled every single day. About 73 percent of all forex trading is done by 10 international banks with names you’re familiar with: Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and so forth. National banks and other financial institutions account for another chunk of forex trading, and transactions by “day traders” -- regular individuals, people like you and me -- account for only 2 percent of all trading.

Nonetheless, many average investors do try their hand at forex trading, and there are many financials institutions who handle such transactions. It’s known as “retail forex,” and it’s handled much the same way that day trading of stocks is handled.

The downside is that unlike the stock market, the forex market is not particularly well regulated, and people inexperienced with it can be taken advantage of. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) gives several bits of advice for amateur forex traders. Among the CFTC’s tips:

- Avoid companies that predict or guarantee large profits, or that promise little or no financial risk. There is ALWAYS a financial risk in forex trading, and no one can guarantee profits when it comes to speculative endeavors.

- If someone won’t give you his background, don’t deal with him. Likewise, always check out a company’s track record before doing any trading with them.

- The Internet is a haven for shady types. Be wary of anyone wanting you to send cash.

- Above all, remember that if an opportunity sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

There are plenty of honest and reliable forex trading firms out there, including ones that operate online. But even if the trading company is legitimate, there are still risks inherent in trading. Because currency rates can fluctuate for such a variety of reasons, it’s difficult to predict what investments to make. Even seasoned professionals get blindsided sometimes.

In short, forex trading can be lucrative, but only if you know what you’re doing. Before embarking on any investing, study the details of how the market works, what causes fluctuations, how to interpret financial indicators, and all the other ins and outs of the market. Forex trading isn’t something to be entered into lightly. There is much potential for profit, but there is even greater potential for loss, both at the hands of unscrupulous trading firms, and of your own inexperience.