There are three main types of forex trading that a potential forex trader will use in trading forex online. Although, forex brokers offer other types of account such as managed or investment forex account, but when it comes to you trading forex online, you need to use these three types of forex accounts, they are as follows:

i.                   Standard or macro forex account

ii.                 Mini forex account

iii.              Micro forex account

1.     Standard or Macro Forex AccountThe standard account is the most widely used forex trading account. These types of forex account afford you access to standard trading lots of currency, each of which is with $100,000. This does not mean that you have to put down $100,000 of trading capital in your forex account for you to trade. The rules of leverage and margin (eg 100:1or 200:1 in forex) allow you to trade in forex a standard lot which might be as little as $1,000 or  $500.This type of online forex trading account has its own pros, cons, gain potential and loss potential, that is why it is recommended for experienced forex traders who have a portion of capital to invest.

2.     Mini forex accountA mini forex trading account is a type of trading account that allows traders to make trades using smaller lot (eg 0.1). Most forex brokers offer brokerage accounts with mini lots equivalent to $10,000. Forex brokers offer this types of account to new clients that cannot trade full lot because of the big capital required. This type of forex trading account has advantages like low risk, low capital required and also flexibility. It also has its con because low risk management is equal to low reward.  

3.      Micro forex accountThis type of forex account are always smaller than minis, are also available through some forex brothers. Micro accounts trade in $1,000 lots and the pip movements are worth 10cents per pip. These accounts  are really only used by new forex traders with a very little forex knowledge and can be opened with as little as $(10-25).

Before you can start your online forex trading business, there are some basic steps you need to take to ensure success in your online forex trading business. They are as follows:

1.     Choosing a forex broker.

2.     Demo trading

3.     training and retraining,

4.     opening a real forex account & Go live

1.     CHOOSING A FOREX BROKER Before getting started with you online forex trading business, you need to first and foremost choose your forex broker, so what exactly is a forex broker?, Briefly, a forex, broker is a firm or company that deals with buy and sells orders according to the forex trader’s decisions. A broker makes money by charging fees or commission for their services. So before choosing your forex broker you need toi.       Check if they are Regulated: This entails finding which regulatory agency it is registered with, in the U.S. forex brokers should be registered with the (FCM) futures commission Merchant, (CFTC) commodity Future Trading Commission &NFA member. The CFTC and NFA were made to protect the public against fraud, manipulation, and abusive trade practices. You can visit NFA at 

www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/.ii.     Nice Customer Services:Since forex is a 24-hour market, a 24-hour support is a must! So check if you can contact this forex broker by phone, email, chat etc. Are their reps knowledgeable, fast and accurate in answering your questioniii.    Online Trading PlatformMost, if not all, forex brokers allow you to trade forex over the internet relatively easy. The backbone of any forex trading platform is their ordering system. So trading software is very important. Get a feel for the options that are available by trying out a demo account a few online forex brokers.Your forex broker’s layout should include;a.     The ability to view real-time currency exchange quotesb.     Account summary showing current profit or loss and margin available and any margin locked in open position.c.      A web based software hosted on your forex broker site that you can log in from any computer with internet connection anywhere.d.     A downloadable and installable client-based software program that can allow you to trade forex on your computer  v Don’t forget your high speed internet connection forex market is a fast moving market so it repairs a high speed internet connection (dial up does not work here).v Bells and WhistlesAny forex trader which his salt should offer you real-time quotes and allows you to quickly enter and exit forex trades.iv.  Mini/Micro AccountsMost forex brokers offer very small “Mini-accounts and even smaller “Micro-account for as little as a couple of hundred dollars.These little cute accounts are a great way to get started and test your trading skills and gain Experience. Broker’s policies Before selecting an online forex broker, you should closely examinev  Their features and policies. They are as follows: Available currency pairs, Transaction costs, margin requirement, Minimum Trading Size Requirement, Rollover charges, margin account interest Rate, Trading Hoursv  Summary of what to look for in an online forex broker /dealer: low spread, low minimum account openings, instant automatic execution of your orders, free charting and technical analysis, leverage.

2. Demo Trading          A demo account will provide you with a deeper understanding of forex trading   principles. You will have access to all forex market instruments and latest quotes without a risk of losing your real money. You can open a free forex demo account for free with most forex brokers. This account has full capabilities of a “real” forex account. Why is it free?,  It’s because the forex broker want you to learn the ins and outs of their trading platform, and have a good time trading without risk, so you’ll fall in love with them and deposit real money. The demo account allows you to learn about the forex markets and test your  trading skills will zero risk.

YOU SHOULD DEMO TRADE FOR AT LEAST 2 MONTHS BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT PUTTING REAL MONEY ON THE LINE.‘’Don’t lose your money’’ declarationPlace your head on your heat and say…  ‘’I will demo trade for at least 2 months before I trade forex with real money.’’Now touch your head with your index figure and say…‘’I am a smart and patient forex trader’’

3.  TRADING AND RETRAINING          You should practice on your forex demo account very well so as to know when to long (buy) or short (sell) your position, and also know how to minimize your forex trading loss and maximize your profit. forex trading is an extensive course, you need to train very well, you can do this by training with a qualified forex teacher or professional try to implement the various forex expert trading tips and tricks you have learning to see which works best, and try to develop your own forex trading style and ideas. Master how to read chart and other indicators, and master which decision to take at what time.

4.     Open a real forex account and go liveOpening a new forex online trading account with a forex broker can be done in three easy steps:

i.                   Registration

ii.                 Selecting an account type

iii.              Activating your accounti.                   

Registration: you will have to submit paper work in order to open a forex account and the forms will vary from one forex broker to the order. They are usually provided in PDF format and can be viewed and painted using adobe acrobat reader program.ii.                 

Selecting an account type: when you are ready to open a live forex account you have the choice of opening a forex trading account under your personal name or a business name. Also, you will have to decide whether or not you want to open a ‘standard’’ forex account or a ‘mini’’ forex account (or ‘mini’’ forex account if available).  Inexperienced forex  traders or traders with a small amount of capital to trade should always open a mini forex account only experienced traders with lots of money should open a standard accountAccount activation: once the forex broker has received all the necessary paper work, you should received and email with instruction on completing your account activation. After these steps have been completed, you will receive a final email with your username, password, and instruction on how to fund your trading forex account.    

     Interest Rates.We use two methods to profit from the difference in countries interest rates:

     ii.            Interest Income

  iii.            Capital Appreciation    i.               

Interest Income: This implies that if the interest rate of country A is at 5.25% while the interest rate of country B is set at 0.25% you could have taken advantage of this rate difference by borrowing a large sum of country B currency, country exchanging it for country A and using that to purchase bonds or CDS at the country 5.25% rate. In other words, you could have borrowed money at 0.25%, lent it out at 5.25%, and made a 5% return. Or you could sure yourself all the hassle of becoming a money lender by simply trading the currency pair to effect the same transaction.  ii.         

Capital Appreciation: – this is a situation where by between two currency pairs like USD /JPY spread 05/06, as the US interest rates stayed higher than Japan’s the dollar continued to increase in value. Investors who traded the dollar gained form interest income as well as the US dollar  capital appreciation.    

Economic Growth: In forex, Economic growth is best measured by a looking at EUR/USD country’s gross domestic products, or GDP, the United States and Eurozone running at $13 trillion and $11 trillion respectively. (2005-2016). the difference in growth rates between these two major economic power US & Eurozone was clearly reflected in currency movements (forex).If the Eurozoneis lagging significantly behind the United States in economic growth, averaging an anemic 2.5% rate throughout the year while the US expanded at a healthy 5% rate. Consequently, investment capital will flow Europe to the US causing EUR/USD to drop, a reverses of the above will also causes the EUR/USD to appreciate and verse versa.3.     

Geo-Politics: In foreign exchange trading (forex), geo –politics can be a veritable tool in predicting and winning forex trades.Example, using the USD/CAD as a case study, if there is a political news or political instability like a “No –confidence vote” in CANADA for instance, it will cause the Canadian dollar to weaken against the dollar, and also a survival of this can cause the Canadian dollar to strengthen.Geo-Political risk can also mean wars, terrorist attacks, or missile launches, but it can also relate to milder yet still politically powerful events such as G7 meetings and OPEC announcements.4.     

Trade & Capital flow: in forex trading, trade and capital flow can be a very crucial way to winning in forex trading. For Example, on the surface, the US currency, with its record multi-billion dollar trade deficit and near & $1trillion current account deficit should depreciate significantly. However, that has not been the case as the US has been able to attract more than enough surplus capital from the rest of the world to offset the negative effects of its massive trade deficits. For the time being, trade-flow deficits do not matter to the dollar. However, should the US become unable to attract enough capital flow to offset its deficits, the currency may weaken.Also the issuance of bonds by a high interest paying country like New Zeland can cause the NZD/USD or NZD/JPY to strengthen or weaken as a result of trade flowing into the country.5.      Merger and Acquisition: can be a very powerful tool to profit from forex trading. When a country’s capital assets such as equities, suddenly find favor from the rest of the world, they indirectly affect pricing in the foreign Exchange market as deal makers first have to buy the country’s currency before they can by the stock. But a reverse can also be devastating in the currency.

In order to succeed from the fascinating world of forex trade, we must understand the basic factors that effect a currency’s value.
When making forex trades we analyze the following five key factors, they are:

(1) Interest rate
(2) Economic growth
(3) Geo-politics
(4) Trade and capital flows
(5) Merger and Acquisition Activity.

*Note:if you can predict how each of these factors affect your forex trades, you have the foundation to make serious returns or forex gains.

(1) Interest rates
   We use two methods to profit from the difference in        countries interest rates:
   (a) Interest income
   (b) Capital appreciation

(a) Generating interest income.
Every currency in the world comes attached with an interest rate that is set by its country’s central bank. All things being equal, you should always buy currencies from countries with high-interest rates and finance these purchase with currency from countries with low-interest rates.

(b) Generating income from capital appreciation.
Just as a country’s interest rate increases, the value of the country’s currency also increases. This phenomenon gives you a chance to profit from yours currency’s increased value or capital appreciation.

(2) Economic growth
The next factor that is considered when predicting a country’s currency movements is its economic growth. The stronger the economy, the greater the possibility that the central bank will raise its interest rate to tame the growth of inflation. And the higher a country’s interest rates, the bigger the likelihood that foreign investors will invest in a country’s financial markets. More foreign investors means a greater demand for the country’s currency. A greater demand results in increase in a currency value.

(3) Geo-politics
This involves the use of both political and economic releases to analyze forex successfully, this is where the political and also economic assets are very responsive to disturbances in the political landscape, because currencies represents countries rather than companies.
Therefore, the general rule of thumb in the forex market is that politics almost always trumps economics. The history of forex is littered with examples of political trades.

(4) Trade and Capital flows
This entails that before making your final prediction about a country’s currency, you should take a moment to categorize the country as dependent on either trade flow or capital flow.
Trade flow refers to how much a country earns through trade.
Capital flow refers to how much investment a country attracts from abroad.
Some countries like Canada,Australia,New Zealand and Germany are sensitive to trade flows.These countries achieve a large portion of their growth through the export of various commodities.
In the case of Canada oil is the primary source of revenue. For Australia, industrial and precious metals dominate trade, and in New Zealand, agricultural goods are crucial source of income. Trade flows are also important for export dependent countries such as Japan and Germany. For countries such as US and UK, which have large liquid investments markets, “capital flow” are of far greater importance. In countries financial services are paramount, in fact, in the US, financial services represent 40% of the total profit of the standard and poor500(S & P 500).

(5) Merger and Acquisition
This is an area of corporate finances, management and strategy dealing with purchase and or joining with other companies. In a merger, two organizations join forces to become a new business usually with a new name. Because the companies involved are of typical size and stature the term “merger of equals” is sometimes used.
Example, if a European company wants to buy a Canadian asset for $20 billion, it would have to go into the currency market and acquire the currency to effect this transaction. Typically, these deals are not price sensitive because the acquirer may have a date by which the transaction is to be completed. Because of the underlying dynamic, merger and acquisition flow can exert a very strong temporary force on forex trading, sometimes skewing the natural course of currency flow for days or weeks.

There has been a constant argument among different school of thoughts as to which type of forex trading strategy is the best between this two main type of forex trading strategy;fundamental analysis and technical analysis.
 There is no basic type of forex trading strategy that is the best between fundamental analysis which is based on looking the market on current news release, interest rate,political and economic news,forces of demand and supply.In fundamental analysis we represent currencies with their economy and as a countries economy appreciates so also does it currency etc.
  And technical analysis which is looking the market based on price movements.Technical analysis is the study of price movement. In one word, technical analysis =
charts. The idea is that a person can look at historical price movements, and, based on the price action, can determine at some level where the price will go. By looking at charts, you can identify trends and patterns which can help you find good trading opportunities.
  Finally,in order to become a true Forex master you will need to know how to effectively use both types of analysis. The Forex market is like a big flowing ball of energy, and within that ball is a balance between
fundamental and technical factors that play a part in determining where the market will go.

Why Trade Foreign Currencies?

There are many benefits and advantages to trading Forex. Here are just a few reasons
why so many people are choosing this market:

· No commissions.

No clearing fees, no exchange fees, no government fees, no brokerage fees.
Brokers are compensated for their services through something called the bid-ask
s· No middlemen. Spot currency trading eliminates the middlemen, and allows you
to trade directly with the market responsible for the pricing on a particular
currency pair.

· No fixed lot size.

In the futures markets, lot or contract sizes are determined by the exchanges. A
standard-size contract for silver futures is 5000 ounces. In spot Forex, you
determine your own lot size. This allows traders to participate with accounts as
small as $250 (although we explain later why a $250 account is a bad idea).

· Low transaction costs.

The retail transaction cost (the bid/ask spread) is typically less than 0.1 percent
under normal market conditions. At larger dealers, the spread could be as low as
.07 percent. Of course this depends on your leverage and all will be explained
later.

· A 24-hour market.

There is no waiting for the opening bell – from Sunday evening to Friday
afternoon EST, the Forex market never sleeps. This is awesome for those who
want to trade on a part-time basis, because you can choose when you want to
trade–morning, noon or night.

· No one can corner the market.

The foreign exchange market is so huge and has so many participants that no
single entity (not even a central bank) can control the market price for an
extended period of time.

· Leverage.

In Forex trading, a small margin deposit can control a much larger total contract
value. Leverage gives the trader the ability to make nice profits, and at the same
time keep risk capital to a minimum. For example, Forex brokers offer 200 to 1
leverage, which means that a $50 dollar margin deposit would enable a trader to
buy or sell $10,000 worth of currencies. Similarly, with $500 dollars, one could
trade with $100,000 dollars and so on. But leverage is a double-edged sword.
Without proper risk management, this high degree of leverage can lead to large
losses as well as gains.

· High Liquidity.

Because the Forex Market is so enormous, it is also extremely liquid. This means
that under normal market conditions, with a click of a mouse you can
instantaneously buy and sell at will. You are never “stuck” in a trade. You can
even set your online trading platform to automatically close your position at your
desired profit level (a limit order), and/or close a trade if a trade is going against
you (a stop loss order).

· Free “Demo” Accounts, News, Charts, and Analysis.

Most online Forex brokers offer ‘demo’ accounts to practice trading, along with breaking Forex news and charting services. All free! These are very valuable resources for “poor” and
SMART traders who would like to hone their trading skills with ‘play’ money
before opening a live trading account and risking real money.

· “Mini” and “Micro” Trading:

You would think that getting started as a currency trader would cost a ton of
money. The fact is, compared to trading stocks, options or futures, it doesn’t.
Online forex broker offer “mini” or “micro” trading accounts,some with a minimum account deposit of $300 or less. Now  we are not saying that you should open account with a bare minimum but it does makes forex much more accessible to the average (poorer) individual who doesn’t have a lot of start-up trading capital.

Unlike the equity market – where investors often trade with institutional investors (such as mutual funds)or other individual investors there are additional participants that trade on the forex market for entirely different reasons than those on the equity market. Therefore, it is important to identify and understand the functions and motivations of these man players of the forex market. v  Government and central Banks Arguably, the most influential participants involved in the forex market are the central bank and federal governments. In most countries, the central bank is an extension of the government and conducts it policy in line with the government. However, some government feel that a more independent  central bank is more effective in balancing the goals of managing inflation and keeping interest rates low, which usually increases economic growth. No matter the degree of independence that a central bank may have, government representatives usually have regular meetings with the central bank represntatives to discuss monetary policy. Central banks are often involved in manipulating reserve volumes in order to meet certain economic goals. For example, ever since pegging it currency (the Yuan) to the U.S dollar, China has been buying up millions of dollar worth of U.S treasury bills in order to keep the Yuan at its target foreign exchange rate (forex rate) central banks  use the foreign exchange market to adjust their reserve volumes. With extremely deep packets, they yield significant influence on the currency market. v  Banks and other financial institution Along with central banks and governments, some of the largest participants involved with forex transactions are banks. Most people who needed foreign currency for small –scale transactions, like money for travelling, deal with neighborhood banks. However, individual transactions pale in comparison to the dollars that are traded between banks, better known as the interbank market. Banks make currency transactions with each other on electronic brokering system that a based on credit. Only banks that have credit relationships with each other can engage in transaction. The larger banks tend to have more credit relationships, which allow those banks to receive better foreign exchange prices. The smaller the bank, the fewer credit relationships it has and the lower the priority it has on the pricing scale. Banks, in general, acts as dealers in the sense that they are willing to buy/sell a currency at the bid/ask price. One way that banks make money on the on the forex market is by exchanging currency at a higher price than they paid to obtain it. Since the forex market is a worldwide market, it is common to see different banks with slightly different exchange rates for the same currency v  Hedgers Some of the biggest clients of these banks are international business. Whether a business is selling to an international client or buying from an international supplier, it will inevitably need to deal with the volatility of fluctuating currencies. Having to deal with forex risk is a big problem to many multinational corporations. Since foreign exchange is uncertainty. One choice that a business can make to reduce the uncertainty of foreign –exchange risk is to go the spot market and make a transaction for the foreign currency that they need. Unfortunately, businesses may not have enough cash on hand to make such transactions in the spot market or may not want to hold large amount of foreign currency for long periods of time. Therefore, businesses quite often employ hedging strategies in order to lock in a specific exchange rate for the future, or to simply remove all forex risks for a transaction. Example is a European company wants to by steal from U.S. it would have to pay for steal in U.S. dollars. If the price of the Euro falls against the dollars before the transaction is made, the European company will finally pay more Euro than formally specified. As such, the European company could go into the market to lock in the current exchange rate to eliminate the risk of dealing in U.S. dollars. These contracts could be either forwards or future, contract. v  Speculators Other class of participants in forex are speculators. Instead of hedging against changes in exchange rates or exchanging currency to fund international transactions, speculators attempt to make money by taking advantage of fluctuating exchange –rate levels. The largest and most controversial speculators on the forex market are hedge funds, which are essentially unregulated funds that use unconventional and often risky investment strategies to make very large returns. Think of them as mutual funds on steroids. Given that they can take large positions, they can have a major effect on a countries currency and economy. Some critics blame hedge funds for the Asian currency crises of the late 1990s, while others pointed on Asian central bankers. Either way, speculators can have a huge impact on the forex market. These are the basic participants of the forex market, now you can understand the history and knowledge of the forex market.

The history of Forex started from the use/creation of the gold standard monetary system in 1875, this marks as one of the most important history in forex market, To Bretton Woods system 1944 this is where the allied nations deliberated on what would be the system of international monetary management and finally the Jamaica agreement  of  1976 where the world finally accepted the we of floating foreign exchange rate (forex rate). The creation of the gold standard monetary system in 1875 marks one of the most important event in the history of the forex market. Before the gold standard was implemented, countries would commonly use gold and silver as means of international payment (Forex). The main problem with using gold and sliver for payment is that its value it effected by external demand & supply for example, the discovery of a new gold mine would drive gold prices down. The main idea of the gold standard was that government guaranteed the conversion of currency into a specific amount of gold and vice versa.  Clearly, government needed a fairly substantial gold reserve in order to meet the demand for currency Exchanges. During the late nineteenth century all of the major economic countries had defined an amount of currency to an ounce of gold. With time, the difference in price of an ounce of gold between two currencies became the Exchange rate for those two countries. This became the first standardized means of currency exchange in history. Finally, the gold standard broke down during the beginning of the World War I. Hence, the Bretton woods, system is where the allied Nation convened to Bretton wood, with more than 700 representatives from the allies in 1944 and they all believed to set up as new monetary system, so as to fill the void left by the gold standard system abandoned, this happened before the end of the world war II. They deliberated over what would be called the Bretton wood system of international monetary management . Bretton wood led to the formation of the following: A method of Fixed exchange rate; The U.S Dollar replacing the gold standard to become a primary reserve currency and the creation of three international agencies to oversee economic activity; International Bank for reconstruction and Development.         (IMF) the international monetary fund and (GATT) General agreement on tariff and trade the U.S. Dollar replacing gold as the main standard of world currency convertibility and U.S dollar being only currency backed by gold. For 25 years or so, the us ran a balance of payment deficit in order to be world reserve currency. By the early 1970s U.S gold reserve were so depleted that the U.S treasury did not have enough gold to cover all the U.S. dollars that foreign Central Bank had in reserve. Finally, in August 15,1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon closed the gold standard and U.S. now announced the U.S. dollar will not exchange gold as foreign reserve. Bretton woods did not last but left a legacy that has a significant effect an today international  economic climate, this include the formation of the IMF, IBRD and GATT. Furthermore, the current exchange rate system came, after the Bretton woods system broken down, then the world finally accepted the use of floating foreign exchange rate during the Jamaica agreement of 1976. This meant that the use of the gold standard would be permanently abolished. However, this is not to say that government adopted a pure free floating exchange rate system. Most governments employ one of the following three exchange rate system that are still used today; which are Dollarization, pegged rate and managed flotation rate. Finally the international monetary system (Forex) has evolved through three different stages and finally arrived to its current state of floating foreign exchange rate.

Welcome to the online money making blog , in the course of this posts i will show how you can make money online using your computer system connected to the internet,this  system i am introducing to you is forex business, .

 INTRODUCTION TO CURRENCY TRADING

The currency trading market(Forex or FX) is one of the most exciting and fast moving markets around today.Recently, forex trading in the currency market has been the domain of large corporation ,central banks ,large financial institutions and some extremely wealthy individuals.The invention of the internet today has changed all of these and today it is possible for an average investor to buy and sell currency at the spot market with the click of the mouse through online brokerage account.
Daily currency movements are normally very small.Most currencies move less than percent  every day, this makes the currency market one of the least volatile market around.Therefore, thousands of currency speculators or traders rely on the use of huge amount of leverage to increase the value of potential movements.In the retail forex market,leverage can be as much as 500:1 or 300:1.High leverage can be extremely risky but because of round-the-clock trading and deep liquidity,foreign exchange brokers have been able to make high leverage an industry standard in order to make the movements meaningful for currency traders. 
Extreme liquidity and the availability of high leverage have helped spur the market’s rapid growth and made it the ideal place for many traders.Positions can be opened and closed withing minutes or can be held for months.Currency prices are based on the forces of demand and supply and thus cannot be manipulated because of the large size of the market.  
WHAT IS FOREX?
  The foreign exchange market,also referred as “FOREX” or “forex” or “Retail Forex” of “FX” or “SpotFX” or just “spot” is the largest financial market in the world,with a volume of about  $4trillion a day.If you compare that to the $25billion a day volume of the New York Stock Exchange trade,you can see how enormous  the Foreign Exchange really is. It actually to equates more than three times the total amount of stocks and future markets combined!Forex rocks!          
WHAT IS TRADED IN THE FOREX MARKET  The simple answer is money,forex trading is the simple buying of one currency and selling of the other currency simultaneously.Currencies are traded through a brokers or dealer,and are traded in pairs;for example the Euro and US dollar{EUR/USD) or British pound and the japanese Yen(GBP/JPY)
Because you’re not buying anything physical, this kind of trading can be confusing. Think
of buying a currency as buying a share in a particular country. When you buy, say,
Japanese Yen, you are in effect buying a share in the Japanese economy, as the price of
the currency is a direct reflection of what the market thinks about the current and future
health of the Japanese economy.
In general, the exchange rate of a currency versus other currencies is a reflection of
the condition of that country’s economy, compared to the other countries’
economies.
Unlike other financial markets like the New York Stock Exchange, the Forex spot market
has neither a physical location nor a central exchange. The Forex market is considered an
Over-the-Counter (OTC) or ‘Interbank’ market, due to the fact that the entire market is
run electronically, within a network of banks, continuously over a 24-hour period.
Until the late 1990’s, only the “big guys” could play this game. The initial requirement
was that you could trade only if you had about ten to fifty million bucks to start with!
Forex was originally intended to be used by bankers and large institutions – and not by us
“little guys”. However, because of the rise of the Internet, online Forex trading firms are
now able to offer trading accounts to ‘retail’ traders like us.                                           
  What is a Spot Market?
A spot market is any market that deals in the current price of a financial instrument.

Which Currencies Are Traded?
The most popular currencies along with their symbols are shown below:

Symbol   Country                          Currency                        Nickname
USD       United States                  Dollar                             Buck
EUR        Euro members               Euro                               Fiber
JPY         Japan                              Yen                                Yen
GBP        Great Britain                  Pound                            Cable
CHF        Switzerland                     Franc                             Swissy
CAD        Canada                          Dollar                             Loonie
AUD        Australia                        Dollar                             Aussie
NZD        New Zealand                 Dollar                              Kiwi
Forex currency symbols are always three letters, where the first two letters identify the
name of the country and the third letter identifies the name of that country’s currency.
When Can Currencies Be Traded?
The spot FX market is unique within the world markets. It’s like a Super Wal-Mart where
the market is open 24-hours a day. At any time, somewhere around the world a financial
center is open for business, and banks and other institutions exchange currencies every
hour of the day and night with generally only minor gaps on the weekend.
The foreign exchange markets follow the sun around the world, so you can trade late at
night (if you’re a vampire) or in the morning (if you’re an early bird). Keep in mind
though, the early bird doesn’t necessarily get the worm in this market – you might get the
worm but a bigger, nastier bird of prey can sneak up and eat you too…

Time Zone                           New York                     GMT
 
Tokyo Open                        7:00 pm                         0:00
Tokyo Close                        4:00 am                         9:00
London Open                       3:00 am                         8:00
London Close                     12:00 pm                        17:00
New York Open                  8:00 am                         13:00
New York Close                  5:00 pm                         22:00