Trading

The foreign currency exchange market is a global financial phenomenon. Global forex trading sessions are split into three main geographic regions: the London session (European), the US session, and the Asian session.

Each of these centres has its own particularities and unique traits. Because of this reason, traders have the opportunity to adapt their strategies and trading approaches, depending on what trading session is open at the time they exchange currencies. Getting a better understanding of these trading sessions allows traders to anticipate which the volatility and stagnation periods will appear.

The main forex trading sessions

Traditionally, the largest forex trading markets of the world establish the trading sessions. This way, we and differentiate between the Asian session, the European session, and the US session. Because these sessions take place at different times of the day, they are dynamic and change a lot in those intervals. And so, traders can adapt their strategies, depending on the hours of the day.

• The Asian Session, with the hot spot in Tokyo, is open between 00:00 and 09:00 GMT.
• The European Session, with the trading capital in London is active between 08:00 and 17:00 GMT.
• The American Session, with headquarters in New York, thrives between 13:00 and 22:00 GMT.

In 2008, the world experienced the worst financial crisis since the depression of the 1930s. In response to the decline, the central banks lowered interest rates to stimulate lending, and started printing money in the form of quantitative easing program. These measures helped the economies of the developed countries to grow and in response, global stocks rose. In fact, all the major indices in Asia, Europe, and United States rose by triple digits.

However, markets do not go up forever. There is recent evidence that points to slowing economies. This year, central banks and leading organizations like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have lowered their economic forecasts.

By looking at the economic calendar, there is evidence that a slow growth environment is the ‘new normal’. The global manufacturing PMI has declined to almost 50 while inflation remains significantly lower. In China, exports have shrunk while the Q4 growth was 6.3%. In the US, the economy is expected to grow by slightly over 2.0% this year after growing by 4.2% in the second quarter of 2018. The same trend will be seen in Europe, where Italy is currently in a recession.

As a trader, this should not worry you.

At this point it’s been over a year since the UK voted to leave the European Union in a referendum that has become known as the Brexit vote. I wrote at the time about the potential devastating economic impact of the Brexit, and indeed there were many people forecasting a great deal of turmoil for the UK economy. But now, some 15 months on from the Brexit decision (and getting closer to the actual, formal exit of the UK from the European Union) we can look back with a little bit more perspective.

For starters, it’s worth remembering that this was one of the more surprising geopolitical events in quite some time, at least to a lot of casual observers. While some experts and even some polling firms believed in the end that Brexit had a good shot at passing, we need only look to the betting markets for confirmation of the surprise factor in retrospect. Brexit set a world record for the largest sum of wagers on a non-sports event, and across the board bookmakers reported massive losses – meaning the favored outcome (that Britain would remain in the EU) lost out.

This is not merely to point out that Brexit surprised people, but to indicate why some of the early economic predictions might have come from analysts who were a little carried away.

Whenever there is political change, there is currency value change. Whether such political change is for the better or worse is often a matter of opinion, but almost every time currency values seem to drop after such a change. Most recently the US dollar has experienced its worst start to a year in decades, mainly due to President Trump taking residence in the White House. There are many reasons why political changes usually lead to a fall in the nation’s currency value.

Elections and Volatility

In the run-up to any election, currency values always fall. This is because traders view it as a time of political instability, with a greater chance of the currency falling leading to a sell-off by many traders. There will likely be different financial policies from all those up for the election, meaning investors and traders will be uncertain about what the future for a currency will hold until the outcome of the election is revealed. Trade can also slow down during elections, further weakening a currency.

Changing Monetary Policies

When a new leader or political party takes charge, there is often a fresh monetary approach. This is a strong driver of a nation’s currency and can direct it in a new way.

In response to my previous article “Surbana terminated 50 staff”, one reader blasted me for writing a disguised advertorial. I was a bit disappointed because my intention of writing that article was actually to encourage readers to develop a growth mindset. If you are interested in developing your potential, please do read on.

The term “growth mindset” was coined by Dr Dweck, who discovered that our mindset can shape our understanding of learning. Broadly speaking, it means that we can actually grow our brain to enhance our performance in life and indirectly increase our wealth. Arising from this, we can either choose to have a fixed or growth mindset.

Some people believe that human beings are born with a certain level of intelligence and thus, assume that they can’t do much to change their destiny in this respect. This mentality is called “fixed mindset”, which curtails learning opportunities because people who have fixed mindset choose to believe they cannot change for the better.

On the other hand, there are people who believe in growing themselves through learning. They are not afraid of learning new things and have a knack of learning from their mistakes. Such people possess “growth mindset” and are often motivated by success.

Contract for Differences (CFD), basically allows you to trade in leveraged products without forking out huge capitals upfront. This approach essentially manifests both your potential profits and losses, but with proper risk management, you can ensure asymmetric returns as a trader. To be an all-rounded wealth builder, it is important to have knowledge in different investment instruments and their associated risks. So let’s delve into the 5 most important things that investors must know about CFDs.

(1) What are CFDs? 

CFDs are derivatives because they derive their values from underlying assets like gold, shares or currency. This means that investors are not trading the assets. Instead they are actually trading the contracts with the service providers. This is important because investors are not owning or taking physical delivery of the underlying assets. Money is made or lost when the value of the asset moves either in your direction or against you. Thus, with CFDs, investors have the full option of going “long” or “short” the asset.

(2) The power of leveraging 

Another attractive feature of CFDs is that it allows you to put down a small investment capital for a much larger market exposure. As leveraged financial products, they are traded on margin.

It won’t be wrong to say that Internet has completely changed the way many things are done these days. Today, you can buy almost everything online. You can search for information on all kinds of products and services. You can also ask for recommendations from your friends and family on social networks regarding certain products or other things.

The Possibility Of Trading Online

Thanks to the easy availability of Internet, you can also trade online. You just need a computer and an Internet connection to trade online at one of the several brokers that offer the facility of trading online. Online trading has grown a lot over the past few years. There are a number of advantages of this type of trading and here is a list of some of the major advantages.

One of the biggest advantages is that it is extremely easy and simple for individuals to conduct trades. You can buy various instruments such as stocks, currencies, commodities, CFDs and various other such financial instruments over the Internet. You do not need to give a call to the broker or do anything else to buy a financial instrument. You simply need to log onto the website of the broker and place orders.