Best Finance Network
Get the best connectivity about finance.

Currency trading on the foreign exchange market (Forex), also known as speculative forex trading, is carried out with the intention of making money. The currency exchange rate is the rate at which a certain currency is able to be exchanged for another. It is always quoted in pairs, for example the USD/EU rate (US Dollar and Euro). Because exchange rates can fluctuate and change based on a variety of reasons for example economic factors such as industrial production, geopolitical events and inflation, there are always factors influencing whether or not a currency pair is bought or sold. If you are new to currency trading, we have complied a list of tips that you may find helpful.

Know the Language

When it comes to currency trading, technical language can often be used by traders and this can be a little bit intimidating if you’re just beginning to trade. If you see a word that you’re not sure of, it’s a good idea to refer to the commonly used Forex terms which will help you become more familiar with the language.

Technical Analysis

In order to develop a strategy, a wide variety of tools and techniques are used by traders. Some traders will perform technical analysis by studying the market using currency charts, which is a good strategy that assumes past movements in the market will help to predict market activity in the future. Technical analysis is a very popular technique due to how effective it is.

Fundamental Analysis

Other traders will use fundamental analysis in order to develop a trading strategy. These traders closely follow the effect of political, economic and social effects on the prices of currency. One way to do this effectively would be to read specialized Forex news in order to keep up to date on how events have an effect on currency exchange rates.

Practice

As you become more familiar with the market, you will gain more practice and experience which in turn will make you a better trader. You may also like to experiment with a variety of tools to see which ones work best for you, for example the portfolio management tool from IMS Broadridge which assists with all aspects of managing your portfolio from order management to risk management.

Know the Risks

There is a considerable level of risk involved with trading foreign exchange on margin, and many people often decide that this amount of risk is unsuitable for them personally. Before you decide to trade foreign exchange it is important that you take time to carefully consider all of your investment objectives, appetite for risk, and level of experience. Remember that there is always a possibility that you lose some or all of the money you initially invest, so you should never invest money that you cannot afford to lose. If you have any doubts or worries, you may find it helpful to consult a financial advisor.

How did you start out trading foreign exchange? Do you have any more tips or advice for those just starting out? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

People with family and friends living abroad are faced with the constant problem of sending money to their loved ones. The challenge is usually finding a method they can use to transfer money without having to incur the high transaction costs or wait for days before the transfer is processed and completed. If you are in need of sending money abroad, the good news is that there are several methods you can use to transfer money at a cheaper rate and without delays. One of the best techniques on how to send money abroad cheaper is by use of Foreign exchange companies, also known as Forex or FX companies.

What is a Forex company?

Forex companies are companies whose main purpose is to offer international money transfer services. To do this, Forex companies use every aspect of currency exchange, and sometimes the even result to physical delivery of the cash to the receiver.

Advantages of FX companies

While banks are usually a safe bet when conduction any financial transaction, they are very problematic when it comes to sending money abroad. More often than not, banks will charge very high transaction fees and offer low exchange rates. The process is also characterized by long delays. In addition, you might have to open an account with a bank to enjoy their international money transfer service. These constraints only serve to make the process longer and more expensive.

FX companies are a better alternative when it comes to sending money abroad for the following reasons:

– FX companies charge very low transaction fees and some top companies even offer the service for free.
– Forex companies offer better exchange rates than banks. While most banks have an exchange rate margin that goes as high as 5%, FX companies’ margins can go as low as 0.5%.
– Unlike most banks, Forex companies do not have any hidden fees. You will always have a clear picture of how much you are paying before sending money.
– FX companies transactions are quicker (approximately 48 hours to send money anywhere in the world) compared to banks, which can take as long as 8 days.
– Sending money abroad with FX companies usually just requires you to go online and make the transaction, while with you must be physically present and undergo a lengthy process when using banks.

Sending money through a Forex broker

Here is how you can send money abroad cheaper using FX companies:

– Chose a favorable FX company to use based on your current location and the location of the recipient. You can do this comparing the services offered by different companies on the Internet.
– Open an account with the FX Company you have chosen. However, you should ensure that the website of the company is secured to guarantee the security of your account and personal information.
– Login into the website to check the exchange rates being offered.
– If you are satisfied with the rates, you can go ahead and send money. If you are not satisfied with the rates, you can always wait until they fluctuate to a favorable rate: most online interfaces used by these companies have exchange rates alert system that you can use.

Other ways to send money abroad at cheaper rates

Apart from Forex companies, there are other methods you can use to send money abroad at cheaper rates. They include:

Online accounts

Online accounts such as AlertPay and PayPal offer international money transfer services, with the transactions taking a few hours to a few days. With this accounts, you can send money by either using account to account transfer or bank to online account transfer. Transfer using online accounts is very cheap, and in some countries it is free.

Using wiring sites

Online wiring sites, for example, Western Union and Money Gram, offer international money transfer services to several locations around the world. Transactions using these sites are very fast, and they charge an amount of the money you are sending. The fees are higher than those practiced by the FX companies in 90% of the cases.

Sending pre-paid credit cards

Another trick of sending money abroad cheaper is by sending the recipient a pre-paid credit card that has the money. Credit card services such as MasterCard and Visa offer pre-paid credit cards, which you can load with funds and send to the recipient through post mail. The recipient will then access the funds by withdrawing them from their local ATM machine.

Conclusion

Having cash and not being able to send it to your desired location abroad due to high transaction charges is very frustrating. However, you can now be able to send money abroad without having to worry about high feesor lengthy delays by using the above money transfer solutions.

Razvan has a Master degree in Strategic Marketing and is heavily invested in online marketing for more than 5 years. But in the free time he loves to play team sports, read the latest finance news and drink artisanal beers. His latest project is SendMoneyAustralia.com.

Personal investments can take many forms. Depending on the income of the investor, his appetite for risk, the expenses that he is responsible for and the rate of return that he expects, his investment portfolio will contain different instruments of financial saving. In general some common investment opportunities include real estate, shares and bonds, gold in physical form or tradable bonds, and mutual funds with a systematic investment plan or SIP. Of late people have begun venturing in to the field of commodity trading as a retail investment as well.

What does Commodity Trading involve?

Commodities in the field of Commodity Trading refer to food, energy or metal products which are an important aspect of industrial production. These key commodities are important for development and thus people invest in them using different options. The first is a Futures Contract wherein an investor agrees to buy or sell a specific commodity at a given price in the future at an agreed date. Futures contracts can be drawn up for commodities such as crude oil, natural gas, gold, silver, and even agricultural produce such as wheat, corn and rice.

The trouble with a Futures Contract is that it is very high risk and also rather expensive for a single retail investor. This is where commodity trading companies can help. As a retail investor you open up an account with a commodity pool operator and this person or partnership invests the money collected from individual investors in futures contracts and options. They keep you updated with account statements and annual reports. You ride out the contract with the partnership and split the profits or losses as generated.

Other Instruments to Invest in Commodities

While some investors are happy allowing an expert to handle their daily buying and selling, others wish for a more hands on approach. In this case stock options are a good investment plan. Commodity stocks are easier to buy than futures contracts. They also employ the broker pattern, so if you are already using a broker for company stocks, you will find it easier to add on a broker for commodity stocks. You can also hold on to them or sell them at will based on what changes you see in the market as you track them. Needless to say this option offers you greater control over your investment.

If monitoring commodity stocks on a daily basis is an activity that you would rather not do, you can consider investing in Commodity Exchange Traded Funds. These track the price of a single commodity and use an index of futures contracts. So while you are not directly investing in a futures contract you can still get the benefits associated with investing in one. Not all commodities have Exchange Traded Funds associated with them, so your investment options in commodities via this instrument will be somewhat limited.

You can also invest in mutual funds as an indirect means of commodity trading by investing in a mutual fund that invests in the stocks of companies that are involved in commodity trading. This will allow you to be recipient of the trickledown effect in the profits generated and will also guard you against sharp losses. All in all commodity trading is an investment worth considering in your portfolio.

When we talk about performance and trust in the binary options industry, EZ Trader is one of the brokers who has won many traders over the years from all over the world.

Being one of the first binary options platform (they have their own trading platform which saves you time by avoiding the intermediary companies and offers unique trading systems), since 2008, EZ Trader holds the WGM (Win Global Markets), Services Ltd. of the year 2011, with the headquarters at Nicosia (Cyprus).

Amongst the advantages the company offers I can mention the fact that you don’t have to download any software on your computer, the EZ Trader platform is fully web-based, easy to use (alongside with the HELP and FAQ domains) and very user friendly.

If you activate an account at their platform you will benefit from free online consulting (it is very important that you can communicate with them with ease and they offer that in more than one language), you can contact them with ease through e-mail or by calling the international numbers available at their platform (7 in total at this moment).

Traders can benefit from mobile apps too, the user can use this app on iOS or Android, the app is called EZ Mobile. All you have to do is work with passion, inform yourself, always pay attention and you will succeed and multiply your income using one of the best platforms.

In this EZ Trader review you will also see the assets they offer and these are as follow: 58 stocks, 10 currencies, 19 indices and 4 commodities, overall you can benefit from 91 assets (at the beginning they had 44 assets but since 2011 they have almost double that number); these assets are composed from: indices, stocks, commodities and Forex.

Besides the doubling of the asset number available at EZ Trader they have improved the Lock-Out Period, Expiry Times and they offer more flexibility to your options, making your trades much easier to realise.

In this domain you must be very well informed and EZ Trader will help you find with ease every bit of news you might need to make the best trades for you.

Before every transaction you must read a lot, you must understand the process completely, you must know the terms, you must always create a strategy and then try your luck.

EZ Trader is ideal not only for traders that have already gathered a stock of knowledge about binary options, offering them safety and simplicity but also for the beginners, offering them information and substantial bonuses.

Even if at the first sight this platform used to give the binary options business more of a gamble look they have evolved a lot along the years and now they are a trustworthy binary options broker (being controlled by the CySec: Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission can only confirm that they are serious).

You can read a full EZ Trader Review and find that there are bonuses which are offered to the traders without commissions draws in more every day and they are helped through free online consulting (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) and through the loyalty bonuses.

Some traders consider that true binary options brokers should offer good software and analysis tools and as much information about the assets as possible. The same traders consider that EZ Trader is focused too much on huge bonuses and low charging fees and for this reason the company may resemble a gambling casino.

The bonuses offered by EZ Trader are: for a minimum deposit of 500 you get a bonus of 250 and the wager is 25 times the received bonus (and the period of time in which you must obtain this volume are 90 days).

Considering the different assets and time frames they offer up to 95% return, all you have to do is pay attention and profit from their offers. Withdrawal time usually ranges somewhere between 5 and 7 days, you must be patient until you get your first winnings.

As you use EZ Trader’s platform you will learn more about binary options, invest wisely and enjoy the online experience offered by every transaction.

If you’re a movie buff and coincidentally enjoy watching the markets as well, it’s likely you’ve seen the movie Wall Street. The villain, Gordon Gekko, is a fictional stock broker who, while being exceptionally greedy, had a knack for managing investments. Albeit fictional, he became a huge symbol for all the negative aspects of a stock broker.

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, even labeled the perpetrators of the 2008 financial crisis as “Children of Gordon Gekko”. The character is said to be loosely based on a collection of stock broker personalities including Michael Robert Milken who was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud back in the late 80s.

Obviously, this is not how the majority of stock brokers behave, so don’t let this movie skew your perception of the career. Rather, learn the true nature of the profession and gain insights from some of the most successful brokers and hedge fund managers who intend on building positive legacies for themselves. Here are four notable individuals who fit that description:

Chris Gardner

Well known for the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness”, Chris Gardner worked hard at Dean Witter Reynolds as an unpaid intern while homeless and caring for his only son in 1981. They would sleep in bathrooms and church shelters and he would be the first one in and last one out of the office aggressively calling potential clients. He eventually was able to pass the licensing exam necessary to becoming a stock broker. He later left Dean Witter Reynolds to work for Bear Stearns and became one of the top earners of the company. He now owns his own company Gardner Rich & Co LLC and has a net worth of about $60 million.

Ray Dalio

Born in Queens, New York, when he was 12 he bought $300 worth of shares in Northeast Airlines and ended up tripling his investment after the company merged. He earned his BA from Long Island University and his MBA from Harvard. Ray began his career in finance investing in commodity futures on the New York Stock Exchange. He also worked as a futures trader and a broker at Shearson Hayden Stone. He now has a net worth of about $12.5 billion and runs the largest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates. You can find an informative animated video titled “How The Economic Machine Works” on YouTube where he shares his extensive experience of the investment world.

David Tepper

He has been listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the 25 Highest-Earning hedge fund managers in 2013 and earned a whopping 61% return focusing on distressed bonds in 2001. He began his career in finance in the treasury department of Republic Steel in Ohio and later became a credit analyst at Goldman Sachs. The hedge fund firm he leads is Appaloosa Management and has earn substantial returns over the course of its history. In 2012, the firm earned a 30% return because of pinpoint exchanges on certain securities. He has a net worth of about $7 billion and engages in various philanthropic activities mainly in education and hunger. In 2003, he made a considerable $55,000,000 donation to Carnegie Mellon University’s business school. He’s leaving quite a legacy.

Bruce Kovner

This hedge fund manager has been around the block a few times, literally. He became a taxi cab driver at age 31 after quitting his Harvard PhD studies because of writers block. It was then when he decided to engage in derivatives by investing $3,000 from his MasterCard into soybean futures contracts. He didn’t accurately assess the risk of the investment when it grew to $45,000 because he waited till the price dropped to $23,000 before selling. He cites that experience as an important lesson in risk management. He eventually became a trader at Commodities Corporation which is now connected to Goldman Sachs. Currently he’s the chairman of Juilliard where he learned how to play the harpsichord. His net worth is $4.3 billion.

If interested in learning more about a career as a stock broker, visit http://www.stockbrokersalary.biz to read up on informative articles related to the profession. Also, find out how to market yourself as a stock broker to increase your client base.