Forex AB is a Swedish financial services company. The company was started in 1927 as a currency exchange service for travellers, at the Central Station in Stockholm. The owner of Gyllenspet's Barber Shop, according to the legend, discovered that most of his customers were tourists in need of currency for their trips. The owner began keeping the major currencies on hand.
The company was subsequently acquired by Statens Järnvägar (SJ), the Swedish State Railways, which expanded the operations until it was sold off to one of the managers, Rolf Friberg, in 1965. The company was the only one apart from the banks that was licensed to conduct currency exchange in Sweden.
The company, which is still wholly owned by the Friberg family, has expanded into Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland and has over 60 shops, usually located at train stations or airports. The decrease in the business brought on by introduction of the euro has made the company look for alternative sources of revenue, like applying for a banking licence and attempting to move into more regular transaction services, earlier handled by Svensk Kassaservice, a subsidiary of the state owned Swedish postal company, Posten.
Since 2003 Forex is a licensed bank.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Forex scam
A forex scam is any trading scheme used to defraud individual traders by convincing them that they can expect to gain a high profit by trading in the foreign exchange market. Currency trading "has become the fraud du jour" as of early 2008, according to Michael Dunn of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But "the market has long been plagued by swindlers preying on the gullible," according to the New York Times ."The average individual foreign-exchange-trading victim loses about $15,000, according to CFTC records" according to The Wall Street Journal. .The North American Securities Administrators Association says that "off-exchange forex trading by retail investors is at best extremely risky, and at worst, outright fraud."
“In a typical case, investors may be promised tens of thousands of dollars in profits in just a few weeks or months, with an initial investment of only $5,000. Often, the investor’s money is never actually placed in the market through a legitimate dealer, but simply diverted – stolen – for the personal benefit of the con artists
In August, 2008 the CFTC set up a special task force to deal with growing foreign exchange fraud."The forex market is a zero-sum game, meaning that whatever one trader gains, another loses, except that brokerage commissions and other transaction costs are subtracted from the results of all traders, technically making forex a "negative-sum" game.
These scams might include churning of customer accounts for the purpose of generating commissions, selling software that is supposed to guide the customer to large profits, improperly managed "managed accounts", false advertising, Ponzi schemes and outright fraud. It also refers to any retail forex broker who indicates that trading foreign exchange is a low risk, high profit investment. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which loosely regulates the foreign exchange market in the United States, has noted an increase in the amount of unscrupulous activity in the non-bank foreign exchange industry.
“In a typical case, investors may be promised tens of thousands of dollars in profits in just a few weeks or months, with an initial investment of only $5,000. Often, the investor’s money is never actually placed in the market through a legitimate dealer, but simply diverted – stolen – for the personal benefit of the con artists
In August, 2008 the CFTC set up a special task force to deal with growing foreign exchange fraud."The forex market is a zero-sum game, meaning that whatever one trader gains, another loses, except that brokerage commissions and other transaction costs are subtracted from the results of all traders, technically making forex a "negative-sum" game.
These scams might include churning of customer accounts for the purpose of generating commissions, selling software that is supposed to guide the customer to large profits, improperly managed "managed accounts", false advertising, Ponzi schemes and outright fraud. It also refers to any retail forex broker who indicates that trading foreign exchange is a low risk, high profit investment. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which loosely regulates the foreign exchange market in the United States, has noted an increase in the amount of unscrupulous activity in the non-bank foreign exchange industry.
Balance of trade
The balance of trade (or net exports, sometimes symbolized as NX) is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports in an economy over a certain period of time. A positive balance of trade is known as a trade surplus and consists of exporting more than is imported; a negative balance of trade is known as a trade deficit or, informally, a trade gap. The balance of trade is sometimes divided into a goods and a services balance; especially in the United Kingdom the terms visible and invisible balance are used.
Retail forex brokers
There are two types of retail brokers offering the opportunity for speculative trading: retail forex brokers and market makers. Retail traders (individuals) are a small fraction of this market and may only participate indirectly through brokers or banks. Retail forex brokers, while largely controlled and regulated by the CFTC and NFA might be subject to forex scams At present, the NFA and CFTC are imposing stricter requirements, particularly in relation to the amount of Net Capitalization required of its members. As a result many of the smaller, and perhaps questionable brokers are now gone. It is not widely understood that retail brokers and market makers typically trade against their clients and frequently take the other side of their trades. This can often create a potential conflict of interest and give rise to some of the unpleasant experiences some traders have had. A move toward NDD (No Dealing Desk) and STP (Straight Through Processing) has helped to resolve some of these concerns and restore trader confidence, but caution is still advised in ensuring that all is as it is presented.
Forex Market participants
Unlike a stock market, where all participants have access to the same prices, the forex market is divided into levels of access. At the top is the inter-bank market, which is made up of the largest investment banking firms. Within the inter-bank market, spreads, which are the difference between the bid and ask prices, are razor sharp and usually unavailable, and not known to players outside the inner circle. The difference between the bid and ask prices widens (from 0-1 pip to 1-2 pips for some currencies such as the EUR). This is due to volume. If a trader can guarantee large numbers of transactions for large amounts, they can demand a smaller difference between the bid and ask price, which is referred to as a better spread. The levels of access that make up the forex market are determined by the size of the “line” (the amount of money with which they are trading). The top-tier inter-bank market accounts for 53% of all transactions. After that there are usually smaller investment banks, followed by large multi-national corporations (which need to hedge risk and pay employees in different countries), large hedge funds, and even some of the retail forex-metal market makers. According to Galati and Melvin, “Pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and other institutional investors have played an increasingly important role in financial markets in general, and in FX markets in particular, since the early 2000s.” (2004) In addition, he notes, “Hedge funds have grown markedly over the 2001–2004 period in terms of both number and overall size” Central banks also participate in the forex market to align currencies to their economic needs.
Forex Scalping Methods
Scalping the Forex market is one of the fastest growing methods for trading Forex in the modern day world. In Forex scalping trading is performed over much shorter periods than other forms of trading and income is often generated even from relatively small fluctuations in a currencies price.
The main reason people trade via scalping is often that due to the quick nature of the method, profits can be built up fairly quickly. What’s more it also makes market movements far less likely to cause a large differential in the buy and sell prices.
Other methods of trading such as technical and fundamental analysis rely on analysing trends and predicting movements based on past performance or current news. Forex scalping offers a much quicker turn of events and traders using this method are simply looking for lots of small movements in currencies in any trading day.
Due to this difference in speed of trading, Forex scalping often means that traders run a much tighter ship as the risk is spread short time over a large number of currencies. In other methods of trading losses can often run a bit loose as the trader searches for that one trade that will return a big profit.
When scalping a trader will often only hold a currency for a matter of minutes before they resell at a profit. What is basically happening is that the Forex trader is playing with the spreads to bring in money where others fail to spot such a small market move.
Almost all successful Forex scalpers base their strategy on absorbing masses of information about the market they are trading in. You will not find many new traders adopting scalping methods simply because of the level of knowledge and nerve you need to succeed.
It is also rare that a Forex scalper will hold their position overnight. Most will close all trades before finally turning their computer off. If they do not then the trade they leave running is not really following the Forex scalping method.
The scalping method is usually based on three factors:
Liquidity – The more liquidity in a market then the more attractive it becomes to a Forex scalper as they can make more profitable trades in any given period.
Volatility – Only the most stable of markets are attractive to scalpers as a big movement is not what they are looking for. A stable market offers the chance to gain lots of small profits from many many trades
Time – A successful Forex scalper will not always begin trading at the start of a day. True, the longer they have to trade then the more they can make but patience is the key since it is pointless trying to scalp the Forex if market conditions are not right, for example in a period of large economic uncertainty.
As you can see, providing you have taken the time to learn as much as possible about market conditions then Forex scalping methods are not that difficult to implement. In many ways they are much more secure than other methods and this is why the method is becoming so popular.
The main reason people trade via scalping is often that due to the quick nature of the method, profits can be built up fairly quickly. What’s more it also makes market movements far less likely to cause a large differential in the buy and sell prices.
Other methods of trading such as technical and fundamental analysis rely on analysing trends and predicting movements based on past performance or current news. Forex scalping offers a much quicker turn of events and traders using this method are simply looking for lots of small movements in currencies in any trading day.
Due to this difference in speed of trading, Forex scalping often means that traders run a much tighter ship as the risk is spread short time over a large number of currencies. In other methods of trading losses can often run a bit loose as the trader searches for that one trade that will return a big profit.
When scalping a trader will often only hold a currency for a matter of minutes before they resell at a profit. What is basically happening is that the Forex trader is playing with the spreads to bring in money where others fail to spot such a small market move.
Almost all successful Forex scalpers base their strategy on absorbing masses of information about the market they are trading in. You will not find many new traders adopting scalping methods simply because of the level of knowledge and nerve you need to succeed.
It is also rare that a Forex scalper will hold their position overnight. Most will close all trades before finally turning their computer off. If they do not then the trade they leave running is not really following the Forex scalping method.
The scalping method is usually based on three factors:
Liquidity – The more liquidity in a market then the more attractive it becomes to a Forex scalper as they can make more profitable trades in any given period.
Volatility – Only the most stable of markets are attractive to scalpers as a big movement is not what they are looking for. A stable market offers the chance to gain lots of small profits from many many trades
Time – A successful Forex scalper will not always begin trading at the start of a day. True, the longer they have to trade then the more they can make but patience is the key since it is pointless trying to scalp the Forex if market conditions are not right, for example in a period of large economic uncertainty.
As you can see, providing you have taken the time to learn as much as possible about market conditions then Forex scalping methods are not that difficult to implement. In many ways they are much more secure than other methods and this is why the method is becoming so popular.
Forex
In financial markets, the retail forex (retail off-exchange currency trading or retail FX) market is a subset of the larger foreign exchange market. This "market has long been plagued by swindlers preying on the gullible," according to The New York Times.Whilst there may be a number of fully regulated, reputable international companies that provide a highly transparent and honest service, it's commonly thought that about 90% of all retail FX traders lose money. It is now possible to trade cash FX, or forex (short for Foreign Exchange (FX)) or currencies around the clock with hundreds of foreign exchange brokers through trading platforms. The reason that the business is so profitable is because in many cases brokers are taking the opposite side of the trade, and therefore turning client capital directly into broker profit as the average account loses money. Some brokers provide an a matching service, charging a commission instead of taking the opposite site of the trade and "netting the spread", as it is referred to within the forex "industry".
Recently forex brokers have become increasingly regulated. Minimum capital requirements of US$20m now apply in the US, as well as stringent requirements now in Germany and the United Kingdom. Switzlerand now requires forex brokers to become a bank before conducting fx brokerage business from Switzerland.
Algorythmic or machine based formula trading has become increasingly popular in the FX market,with a number of popular packages allowing the customer to program his own studies.
The most traded of the "major" currencies is the pair known as the EUR/USD, due to its size, median volatility and relatively low "spread", referring to the difference between the bid and the ask price. This is usually measured in "pips", normally 1/100 of a full point.
According to the October 2008 issue of e-Forex Magazine, the retail FX market is seeing continued explosive growth despite and perhaps of losses in other markets like global equities in 2008.
Recently forex brokers have become increasingly regulated. Minimum capital requirements of US$20m now apply in the US, as well as stringent requirements now in Germany and the United Kingdom. Switzlerand now requires forex brokers to become a bank before conducting fx brokerage business from Switzerland.
Algorythmic or machine based formula trading has become increasingly popular in the FX market,with a number of popular packages allowing the customer to program his own studies.
The most traded of the "major" currencies is the pair known as the EUR/USD, due to its size, median volatility and relatively low "spread", referring to the difference between the bid and the ask price. This is usually measured in "pips", normally 1/100 of a full point.
According to the October 2008 issue of e-Forex Magazine, the retail FX market is seeing continued explosive growth despite and perhaps of losses in other markets like global equities in 2008.
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