{"id":18175,"date":"2011-01-16T20:01:45","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T01:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/fx\/?p=18175"},"modified":"2011-01-16T20:01:45","modified_gmt":"2011-01-17T01:01:45","slug":"trading-the-main-global-fx-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2011\/01\/16\/trading-the-main-global-fx-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading the Main Global FX Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Robert Thomas<\/p>\n<p>The dollar and euro continue to fluctuate on the good and bad news  surrounding their respective economies. Sterling is traded less than the  dollar and euro but, along with the yen, is still one of the most  traded currencies.<\/p>\n<p>The key sterling FX pair is the  sterling\/dollar market where sterling is currently looking as strong as  it has done for some time. The pound has retained the $1.60+ level and  there is strong price support from $1.5945 all the way up to the $1.60  level. Investors seem to be holding the faith with the currency for the  time being.<\/p>\n<p>For the key euro\/dollar market, we have seen a fair  few swings throughout 2010 but there is high volume support around  $1.3430\/50 and that should support the euro unless the European  sovereign debt position gets worse again.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately though, a recent <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cleanfinancial.com\/cmc_markets.php\" target=\"_new\">CMC Markets<\/a> report has questioned both Eurozone data and European sovereign debt.  &#8220;It&#8217;s been a turbulent time for currencies and EU ministers have sought  to reassure the markets that haircuts on bond holdings will apply only  to new debtors and not existing ones&#8221; it read.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This reassurance  saw the euro rally despite Eurozone industrial production figures for  September missing the target by some way, coming in at -0.9% against an  expectation of a 0.3% rise. Also, 2010 Q3 growth figures in the  Eurozone, France and Germany have all missed expectations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>All  this leads to very volatile markets which can be exciting to trade,  especially when you think about your potential profits. After all,  making a profit is seldom a bad thing. However, any spread bettor or CFD  trader should understand that they can lose money as well.<\/p>\n<p>Whether  you speculate on the FX markets by buying and selling currencies or  make use of a more modern investment format such as Contracts for  Differences (CFDs), the risks remain and must always been considered.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays,  many investors are turning to financial spread betting. This offers a  variety of advantages to both new and experienced investors. As we have  mentioned, risks are an inherent part of investing. As with all  investments such as trading shares, funds, pensions, housing etc, you  can lose money. With spread betting you can lose more than your initial  investment.<\/p>\n<p>You should ensure that spread betting matches your  investment requirements and familiarise yourself with the risks that are  involved. Spread bets do carry a high level of risk to your capital. If  necessary, seek independent advice.<\/p>\n<p>The appeal of <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.financialspreads.com\/\" target=\"_new\">spread betting<\/a> though is the wide range of advantages such as:<\/p>\n<p>1)  Spread betting offers a large variety of markets that you can trade on  which includes the indices, commodities, stocks and shares, and, of  course, the FX markets.<\/p>\n<p>2) Investors are able buy or sell  financial instruments. As a result, you can speculate on a particular  market in the way in which you feel it is going to move. You are not  restricted to speculating on an FX market to go up; you can also  speculate on it to fall.<\/p>\n<p>3) Because spread betting does not  involve the transfer of ownership rights and is purely a bet on the  future value of an asset, it isn&#8217;t liable to income tax, capital gains  tax or stamp duty*.<\/p>\n<p>4) If you are buying and selling currencies  then you usually have to pay commissions and\/or brokers&#8217; fees. With  spread betting, there aren&#8217;t any such fees.<\/p>\n<p>If you do trade the FX  spread betting markets though, don&#8217;t forget that with trading you need  to control your greed. Also, if you use smaller stake sizes then this  can reduce your level of risk.<\/p>\n<p>* Based on UK tax law. Tax law can be changed or may differ depending on your personal circumstances.<\/p>\n<h3>About the Author<\/h3>\n<p>The author is a seasoned financial author offering strategic and tactical trading views for some of the leading <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleanfinancial.com\/spread_betting_companies.php\" target=\"_new\">spread betting companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The dollar and euro continue to fluctuate on the good and bad news surrounding their respective economies. Sterling is traded less than the dollar and euro but, along with the yen, is still one of the most traded currencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}