Forex Market

What is the Forex Market?

This market, also known as the currency market and the foreign exchange is the largest and most liquid and fluid market in the world. It is purely speculative in nature and there is no actual physical exchange of currencies. When trading online in this market, trading does not take place on a regulated exchange. There is no central governing body that controls the forex market, no clearing houses that guarantee the trades and there is no panel to arbitrate any disputes. The members trade with each other based on credit agreements.  As you can see currency trading is different from trading stocks for a living.

The forex market includes various currencies that are traded day-to-day. While some trade exotic currencies the majority of traders and the beginner investor trades the most liquid currency pairs in the world. These are listed below.

* EUR/USD (Euro/dollar)
* USD/JPY (dollar/Japanese yen)
* EUR/JPY (Euro/Japanese yen)
* GBP/USD (British pound/dollar)
* USD/CHF (dollar/Swiss franc)
* AUD/USD (Australian dollar/dollar)
* USD/CAD (dollar/Canadian dollar)
* NZD/USD (New Zealand dollar/dollar)

When investing money online, it is important to know that this foreign exchange market also consists of a network of financial institutions as well as trading brokers who each have their own hours of operation. Most currency traders trade between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. in their local time zones. As traders learn how to trade forex, they learn that these hours are considered to be the active forex trading hours which makes for great trades and profits. Remember that the forex market is open 24 hours a day however trading during a slow market (off-hours) is considered to be a waste of time by many traders. Below are the hours of active operation for GMT and EST.

Forex market trading hours, trading time:

London opens 3:00 am to 12:00 noon EST/ 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. GMT
New York opens 8:00 am to 5:00 pm EST/ 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. GMT
Tokyo opens 7:00 pm to 4:00 am EST/ midnight to 9:00 a.m. GMT
Sydney opens 5:00 pm to 2:00 am EST/ 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. GMT

Martin Thomas is a peak performance trading advisor who actively works with professional fund traders, and has worked with many professional traders to enhance their performance and their profits through understanding the concepts associated with investment psychology.