Russian Ruble Gains Further as Nation

Russian Ruble Gains Further as Nation Rebound From Slump

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

The Russian currency experienced another day of gains after a government official announced today that the country is out of recession, adding attractiveness to the already appealing Russian stock market.

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Crude Oil Record High Helps Russian Ruble to Gain

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Russia is the main energy supplier to Europe, and this week, as the crude oil continued to extend gains reaching the highest values since it tumbled last year after the global slump, the ruble is gaining, as demand for Russian natural resources are influencing the national currency positively.

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Crude Oil Provides Support for Ruble Rally

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

The Russian currency benefited from a new wave of confidence among traders that forced commodities rates up, helping Russian assets to be more attractive in global markets, consequently influencing positively the rates for the ruble.

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Russian Ruble Advances on Oil, Equities

Friday, August 28th, 2009

The Russian currency had the first gains after three days of losses versus the greenback as the crude oil rates climbed on speculations that demand will rise, suggesting that the one of the main global oil producers will export more of its commodities.

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Crude Oil Fuels Russian Ruble Rally

Monday, August 24th, 2009

The Russian currency gained versus the U.S. dollar and several other currencies as the crude oil climbed again today, fueled by optimism regarding the world economic recovery.

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Russian Ruble Climbs Intensively on Crude Oil Rally

Monday, July 20th, 2009

The Russian currency gained most in almost a decade as the crude oil reached $64 a barrel and metallic commodities are on the rise, creating speculations that Russia, a world leader in commodity exportation, will benefit from a global economic rebound.

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Ruble Declines as Russian May Enter Deeper Recession

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

The Russian ruble completed a week of consecutive losses versus the euro and the dollar, as speculations in Russia indicate that the recession will be depper than previously announced.

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Ruble Drops as Crude Oil Rates Continue Decline

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Russia, the world’s leading energy supplier and main oil exporter to Europe, has witnessed a considerable drop in its currency as the crude oil price is reaching almost a week of declines, as concerns regarding the global slump may slash global energy demand for the next months.

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Russian Ruble Climbs on Oil Uptrend, Stocks Rally

Monday, June 1st, 2009

The Russian ruble posted gains against the U.S. dollar for the third day in a row, as the demand for oil increases, causing the Russian stock market to have the highest rally since the beginning of the global slump.

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Ruble Strengthens to New 2-Month High

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

The Russian ruble rose to its new maximum since January 14 against the U.S. dollar today as the current oil prices still suggest that the December-January devaluation was too strong.

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Indian Rupee Sells as Indian Elections

Indian Rupee Sells as Indian Elections End with Uncertainty

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

The Indian rupee declined against the U.S. dollar today showing the second bearish day as the country’s parliament elections aren’t easily predictable about the actual winner that will form the new government.

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Indian Rupee Approaches Recent Record-Low

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

The Indian rupee declined against the U.S. dollar today, almost reaching a new record-low level, as the domestic companies converted to dollars in order to pay for the imported goods.

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Rupee to Post Worst Weekly Drop This Year

Friday, February 20th, 2009

The Indian rupee declined against the U.S. dollar today and is currently ready to show the biggest weekly drop since the beginning of the year as the slump of the U.S. stock markets was followed by the decline in the Asian markets.

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Indian Rupee Gains on Global Optimism

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

The Indian rupee rose at the fastest pace in a week today as the revival of the global stock markets restored the optimism of the traders that the foreign investors will return to Indian, buying the local assets with the local currency.

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Rupee Opens Higher Today on Stocks Revival

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

The Indian rupee advanced against the U.S. dollar during the Forex trading session opening today as the stock markets showed some strength world-wide and the investors used the short-term opportunity to enter the high-risk assets.

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Indian Rupee Falls to Record Low

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

The Indian rupee fell to the record low level against the U.S. dollar today as the Asian stock markets followed the path of the U.S. equities and declined strongly; the recession forecasts for 2008 and the first half of 2009 also played their role.

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Rupee Declines More as Stocks Tumble

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

The Indian rupee continued to fall against the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen today as the Asian stock markets fell again, spurring the outflow of the capital from the emerging markets.

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Rupee Falls to Record Low on Rate Cuts

Friday, October 10th, 2008

The Indian rupee fell to the new record low level versus the U.S. dollar today as the foreign investors pulled out capital out of the country’s markets amid deepening of the global financial crisis.

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Indian Rupee Heading for Weekly Gain

Friday, July 11th, 2008

The Indian rupee is more likely to end this week in a positive zone against the U.S. currency as the investors expected that the companies’ good reports will attract traders and the conversion to local currency.

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Rupee Falls on Oil Demand Speculations

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

The Indian rupee showed a weakening today at the Forex market as the speculations that the domestic companies will have to buy oil rose in the country.

Taiwan Dollar Rose on Bail-Out Expectations

Taiwan Dollar Rose on Bail-Out Expectations

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

The Taiwanese dollar gained today after four days of declining against the U.S. dollar as the speculations that the U.S. senate will approve the $700 billion bail-out plan by the end of this week spurred confidence in the Asian currencies.

Brazilian Real Ends Losing Streak

Brazilian Real Ends Losing Streak on Global Optimism

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

After speculations suggesting that the Brazilian currency will suffer further interventions from the national central bank to stop is rally, the real had a negative performance this week that only ended today after global optimism rose attractiveness for assets in emergent markets.

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Brazilian Real Down on Intervention Talks

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

The Brazilian real posted another negative session today as movements in the central bank led traders to speculate that further measures will be taken to halt the real’s rally, which already rose 34 percent versus the greenback this year.

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Brazilian Real Rises on G-20 Stimulus

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The Brazilian real was one of the most benefit currencies today with the Group of 20 statement indicating that stimulus measures to support the global economic recovery will be extended, increasing risk appetite among traders today that opted for assets in emergent markets.

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Brazilian Real Gains Sharply on Risk Demand

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

The Brazilian real had one of the best weeks in more than 2 months as demand for commodities and emergent markets assets rose globally, maintaining the real as the best performing currency in 2009 among the 16 main traded ones in foreign-exchange markets.

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Brazilian Real Extends Gains on Domestic Optimism

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Several reasons are providing support for the Brazilian currency to extend this week’s gains as risk appetite rose today increasing demand for commodities, injecting money in Latin American stocks, consequently adding confidence towards the real’s outlook.

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Brazilian Real Gains as Stocks Rebound

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

After posting the sharpest fall in 8 months in the beginning of this week, Brazilian stocks rebounded this Tuesday, providing support for the real to gain versus most of the 16 main traded currencies in foreign-exchange markets.

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Brazilian Real Rebounds on Domestic and Global Optimism

Friday, October 30th, 2009

The Brazilian had one of the sharpest climbs versus the U.S. dollar today as both the domestic and international economic scenario set the risk appetite high increasing appeal for emergent market currencies, and setting the greenback down versus most of the 16 main traded currencies.

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Intervention Fears Set Brazilian Real Down

Monday, October 26th, 2009

The Brazilian real, ranking among the best performers in currency markets this year with the Australian and New Zealand dollar, experienced another day of losses as the government may take further action to halt the current national currency rally.

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Brazil Real Rebounds on Optimism

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

The Brazilian real posted sharp gains today after several negative sessions on speculations that the country’s economic strength will induce central bankers to raise interest rates in the country, attracting more foreign investors.

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Brazilian Real Declines on Central Bank Desperate Measure

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

The Brazilian real has been the best performing currency among the 16 more traded in foreign-exchange markets this year, and after a central bank measure to tax foreign investment on stocks and bonds to curb the currency’s rally, the real fell today.

Recommended Forex Brokers

The bad thing about all brokers is that they can’t make you trade better in Forex. The best thing that they can do for a trader is to offer him enough freedom, tools and support to bring his trading strategy to life. Here is the list of those brokers that try not to interfere with the ways that a trader chooses:

FXOpen — some people say that they have too many traders to be efficient but, in my opinion, the amount of traders using this broker proves its quality. After all, it has a nice set of features:

• Contests among traders
• Bonus programs
• Alternative payment methods: WebMoney, LibertyReserve, CashU, E-Bullion and other payment options
• 2 pips spread on EUR/USD

InstaForex — a some sort of competition to FXOpen, this broker offers so many bonus and contest promotions to its traders that this alone is enough to make some traders join. But there are more advantages:

• Trade with MetaTrader platform
• Leverage your trades up to 1:500
• Deposit and withdraw funds via WebMoney, Moneybookers and other ways
• Earn interest on deposit
• Low minimum account size

AvaFX — original Forex broker with almost 4-year history of satisfied customers. Except traditional Forex trading provides also CFD, gold and oil trading:

• 1:200 leverage
• Custom trading platform
• Trade oil, gold and other commodities
• WebMoney, PayPal and many other ways to fund your account
• MetaTrader platform for Forex and commodities trading

Forex4you — relatively new Forex broker that tries its best to keep up with the competition and offers extra-high quality level of service. See for yourself:

• More than 50 trading instruments
• Free news feeds from leading news agencies
• Cent trading (if you feel cheap)
• MetaTrader platform
• Up to 12.5% yearly interest on trade balance

Features of the Market

Advantageous Features of the Forex Market

Fees associated with Forex Trading: Due to the fact that the forex market is decentralized - there are no exchange or clearing fees involved. There are no government fees or brokerage commissions. Forex brokers make their money through the spread - so when evaluating a broker, you should consider how tight a spread they offer.

No fixed lot size: Unlike other markets, the flexibility of lot size allows participation in forex trading with a very small account size (sometimes as low as $300).

High Volume and Liquidity: The electronic marketplace offers alomost instantansous transactions and the volume traded is greater than all the stocks and futures markets combined - over $1.9 trillion.

Around the clock access: Unlike the stock market, the forex trader is able to get in or out of a position at any time, day or night.

Highest leverage available in any market: Most online brokers offer 100 to 200 times leverage.

No Uptick Rule: Unlike the stock market, where traders cannot short a stock in a downtrend without an uptick - a forex trader can short a currency pair whenever they want.

Insider Trading: Due to the sheer size of the forex market, insider trading and other manipulations (such as an attempt to corner a market) are far harder to achieve than in other arenas.

Bull/Bear Market: In the stock market, the majority of investors are long and suffer in a bear market. However, in the forex market, due to the fact that if you are long one currency, you must be short another - there is an equal opportunity for profit whether a market is rising or falling.

Forex Market Participants

The main participants in the forex market are central banks, commercial and investment banks, hedge funds, pension funds, corporations and private speculators. An estimated 95% of the daily trading volume in the is done by speculators and investors - ranging from the individual trader to the leading banks of the world.

The remaining 5% is traded by companies and governments who need to convert profits made in the course of doing business into their domestic currency.

The advent of online trading has made the forex market more accessible than ever before - opening up the opportunity to individual speculators in a less expensive and more efficient manner.

Currencies Traded in Foreign Exchange

Virtually any currency can be traded through a broker - providing it is backed by an existing nation. Currencies are defined by three letter symbols, where the first two letters stand for the name of the country and the third stands for the name of the currency. The major currencies are: the US Dollar (USD), the Euro Dollar (EUR), the Japanese Yen (JPY), the British Pound Sterling (GBP), the Swiss Franc (CHF), the Canadian Dollar (CAD) and the Australian Dollar (AUD). All other currencies are known as minors - for example the Thai Baht.

Forex Rollovers

Rollover describes the process where the settlement of an open trade is rolled forward to another value date. In the Forex Market trades must be settled within two business days. However, open positions can be swapped forward to the next settlement date. Normally, open positions are automatically rolled forward. The interest rate for such a swap is predetermined - and swaps are themselves instruments that can be traded.

Rollover in the Forex Market simply reflects the cost of carry - the interest rate differential of the two currencies.

Forex Pips

What is a Pip?

A pip is the smallest price increment in forex trading - pip stands for percentage in point.

Prices are quoted to the fourth decimal point in the forex market - for example EUR/USD might be bid at 1.1914 and offered at 1.1917. In this example we can see that the spread is 3 pips wide. The Japanese Yen (JPY) is an exception - it is quoted only to the second decimal point.