Wall Street

I like movies, especially “Wall Street: Money never sleeps”. And what about you?

 

Forex Demo Contest in IFC Markets

Forex Demo Contest in IFC Markets

The other day I received an Email from IFC Markets, informing me that the company holds a demo contest between its colleagues and they are inviting me to participate as a partner. First I thought that it must be something simple. But no, after reading contest terms and conditions, I became quite interested. See the conditions:

·          All the accounts will have 1000$ deposit with 1:100 leverage;
  Each participant should open at least 3 positions daily;
  Each participant should at least open 5 positions with Take Profit or Stop Loss during the whole contest;
 Each participant should trade not only currency pairs, but also metals (at least 6 positions) and  CFDs (at least 6 positions)
 Calculation of profit/loss should be presented by each participant;
 No Scalping allowed!
 No one should ask each other what s/he is trading and open the same positions!

The one with higher account balance will win the contest.

    The winner will get a Special Prize from the Management!

Yes, really attractive conditions. It was informed in the Email that the contest will be held October 7-21. So I immediately took my mobile and called IFC Markets to tell them that I accept the invitation to become contest participant. I am trading for already 5 days, now my balance is 900USD. Actually I am losing, but I will do my best to become the first. The secret of awaiting prize is really thrilling. Good Luck to me! 

How to spend thousand dollars?

          Nickolas worked as a journalist for already ten years. He was earning enough to make a modest living without any luxury. He was married once, but his wife couldn’t stand his personality of not trying to reach high goals, so he lived alone and comfortable with no reason to complain about life. His all days were similar to each other, except one, when he bought a lottery and appeared to be lucky. He won thousand dollars. Once in a lifetime Nick wanted to try something new, something he hadn’t done before, so what to do? –I always liked traveling and wanted to see new places, but everytime something was keeping me away from doing it,- he thought,- hmm I haven’t taken a holiday for a long time already, it’s right time to do it. Next day at 10 o’clock in the morning he was waiting outside of the principle’s office. –Come in,- he heard someone calling from the room.

-So you want to take a holiday to do what Nick?, - asked the principle. –Travel, Mr. Armstrong, I always wanted to visit Greece as my ancestors are from there,- answered Nick. –Oh, I see, but there is a little problem with your decision. –Problem, what kind of problem, sir? –It’s not a surprise that you haven’t written any good articles for a long time already. Maybe you have some problems I understand, but now you want to take a holiday for a month and I think it’s too much. I cannot let you do that until you give me some good material.

Nick was upset, as his desire was not fulfilled. The fact was that he really wanted to spend that money now, so what to do? He was considering leaving his job and doing what he initially decided, in the end he wanted to do that for a long time now, but it wasn’t a sensible idea and he was a sensible man. There had to be something else he could do with the money. Several ideas crossed his mind at that time. Buying a video camera sounded nice to him at the beginning, but then he remembered that he is divorced and doesn’t have children, he cannot even go traveling then why does he need a camera? He could also donate the money to the charity, it would be very kind of him, but despite of this wonderful idea he really wanted to spend the money for himself. His head full of this kind of thoughts he didn’t even notice that he was already sitting in a café and one of his old friends was trying to catch his attention. They had been very close friends once when he and Michele were still married, but after the divorce many of their mutual friends chose to support Michele and Harry was one of them. They talked about old times, remembered good days and Nick told him about his lottery prize and that he cannot decide what to do with that. It appeared that Harry was trading on foreign exchange (forex) market for several months and already earned some money. – It is certainly a risky business, but in case of having a good strategy, you can earn quite a lot and that is what I do. You should try, it will be a new and interesting way to invest money-he said. 

                It was late at night Nick couldn’t fall asleep. He was thinking about life, about the money and Harry’s words. It was a risky business he said, but Nick was never a man who was getting engaged in risky businesses. It could be the reason he was alone now. He never enjoyed dangerous trips, was always careful and sometimes boring as his friends used to say. Maybe it was time to try something risky, he wouldn’t lose anything. That night he followed his old friend’s advice and started trading. He lost money and won money, he was thinking about new strategies he could use to earn money, besides he made some new connections during that. The change made in his life had a good influence on him and also on his career, because he became more enthusiastic and interested in what he was doing. He found good material that he could use in articles, which in fact Mr. Armstrong appreciated and approved his desire to travel.

                Now he had money and had permission from boss, he could finally do what he really wanted for a long time and it felt wonderful. New life was waiting for him full of new and exciting experiences. 

Forex!

Post by IFC Markets.

Summertime Forex

Summertime is outdoors. It means a lot of suns, more cold drinkings, irresistible wish to have a rest and of course no wish to go for work. You are sitting in the office trying to concentrate on an important project but no result. Summertime is calling outside and you are dreaming of earning a lot of easy money and enjoying summer days. Believe it or not but you have a real opportunity to do so. Forex trading does not require going somewhere, thinking a lot or trying to concentrate.  You can lie comfortably on the sofa, with your laptop or mobile, drink cold juice and earn much money within a day. But most importantly, in Forex market you do not need to hurry to work every morning, to listen to your boss and be in competition with your colleagues. Imagine how free you are while trading Forex and how quickly you can earn money. Your pleasant summertime holiday is ready without much effort and time. Enjoy summertime Forex with IFC Markets!

Gaurav Learns about Bid and Ask Prices

Gaurav Learns about Bid and Ask Prices

The next meeting with my friend Gaurav took place in my office. When Gaurav entered my room, I was sitting in front of the computer, staring at the screen. You can guess that at that moment I was trading Forex and was in a panic cause my loss was gradually increasing. However, I was ready to continue familiarizing my friend with the Forex world.

-          Hi, my friend, this time I will tell you about Bid and Ask prices in Forex.

He looked at me amazed, trying to understand the meaning of the terms.

-          I will now explain everything to you, it is really simple. Look, the price at which you are ready to sell the currency is called Bid price and the price at which you buy the currency is Ask price.

-          Yes, I have grasped the main idea, Manoj, but could you bring an example just for clarity?

-          Yes, of course. Look, you open the terminal and see that the broker offers you the currency pair EURUSD with the Bid price of 1.30435 and the Ask price of 1.30404. So when you buy the base currency which in this case is the EUR you look at the price 1.30404 and when you sell, you look at the Bid price, i.e. 1.30435. So, always remember:

- YOU BUY AT ASK PRICE

 - YOU SELL AT BID PRICE

-          Everything is clear, but there is something that interests me. Why is there a difference between Bid and Ask prices?

-            Yes, I was just going to tell you about Spread. That difference is called Spread which is the profit of the broker. Every broker charges the spread which may be different for each currency pair; moreover it may be different for the same currency pair, depending on the market volatility. Hence, there are fixed and floating spreads. For example, IFC Markets offers low and fixed spreads, starting from 1.8 pips. As for pip, I will tell you about it the next time.

-          Ok, thank you very much for new information, my dear friend.

GeWorko Method

Hello, dear traders, today I would like to present to your attention  informative videos, related to the unique and innovative portfolio trading method GeWorko, recently worked out by IFC Markets and NetTradeX Corp.

Popular Currency Nicknames in Forex Market

Popular Currency Nicknames in Forex Market

Apart from their official names, the major currencies carry special nicknames as well, which are widely spread among Forex traders. Do you want to know from where these nicknames come? So, let us reveal the origins.

USD – the US dollar. The USD received a nickname mainly because calling it simply “the Dollar” might have arisen some confusion. Let us recall that the currencies of such countries as Canada, Australia and New Zealand are also called the dollar. The nickname Dollar or Buck is popular among professional traders. But it was the term “Greenback” that has gained great popularity among Forex market commentators. This term has its history. I will now tell you, it’s very interesting. So, it was during the Civil War in America in the late 1800’s when then-president Abraham Lincoln printed U.S. Demand Notes to finance the war. He printed the front side of it black and the back side green. It was something new, since all currency notes had blank backs in that period. Now, I hope, you have understood how USD received the nickname “Greenback”.

EUR – the European Union’s Euro. The European Union or Eurozone is now using the EUR as its official currency. The circulation of the EUR started not long ago, in 1999, however it is gaining more and more popularity, yielding only to the USD. Fiber or Fibre stands as the nickname of the EUR. According to some sources, it has received that name because the EUR bills are made of cotton fiber.

  

GBP – Britain’s Pound Sterling. In Forex market the GBP is very often called just Pound, Sterling or Cable. The nickname “Cable” came about because formerly the USDGBP exchange rate was transmitted via the Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, laid between London and New York.

CHF – Switzerland’s Swiss Franc: Swissie, the Chief. The Swissie is mainly spread among professional traders, whereas the retail Forex market prefers the name “the Chief”.

CAD –Canadian dollar. The pair USDCAD is frequently referred to as “the Funds”. This is because the currency pair trades for value one business day for funds, not two business days as in case of other currency pairs. The CAD carries the nickname “Loonie” as well. The loon is the national bird of Canada which is pictured on the one dollar Canadian coin.

AUD –Australian dollar: the Aussie: Aussie is named after a native of Australia.

NZD –New Zealand dollar: the Kiwi. Kiwi is a flightless bird, specific only to New Zealand. Thus it comes to be the national bird of the country and appears on the one New Zealand Dollar coin. Sometimes natives of New Zealand are also called Kiwis.

GeWorko Method - A Real Revolution in Financial World

Financial world already has an opportunity to enjoy an entirely new approach to financial markets research and analysis. The method is the result of a joint work of NetTradeX Corp., one of the leading trading software companies and of IFC Markets, a Forex brokerage company. The method carries the name personal composite instrument (PCI) GeWorko.

The method may sound to you as something complicated but in fact it is very simple. It will allow you creating portfolios from a range of financial assets, available on the platform NetTradeX and, most importantly, to determine the value of one portfolio relative to the other one. As a result you get a new financial asset – PCI GeWorko. Moreover, you can create both a simple structured PCI, when each portfolio consists of one asset, and a complex one with a variety of instruments.

For clarity let us see an example. You decide to trade a simple structured portfolio. So for the first portfolio you select Oil and for the second one SnP500. So now you have OILSnP500 and like in case of currency pairs the first asset stands for the base currency and the second one for the quoted one.

Likewise you can create a complex portfolio, in the first one including, for example OIL, SnP500, Gold and in the second one AUD, USD and Silver.

And take into consideration that the prices of assets are expressed in US dollars.

So, you see that the most attractive thing about portfolio trading is that you are completely free to use your imagination. There are no limits, you select as many assets as you wish, thus creating your own quotation - personal composite instrument (PCI) GeWorko.

Enjoy your Forex trading with IFC Markets!

Rupee, who are you !?

The History of the Rupee

The official currency of the Indian Republic is called the rupee (INR) and the coins are called the paise. One Indian rupee is made up of 100 paise. Paper money comes in allotments of Rs.5, Rs.10, Rs.20, Rs.50, Rs.100, Rs.500 and Rs.1000. Coins come in allotments of 10 paise, 20 paise, 25 paise, 50 paise, one rupee, two rupees and five rupees. 

So how old is the Indian rupee? The Indian rupee history goes back to the 15^th century when Sher Shah Suri (1486–1545), the founder of the Sur Empire in North India, introduced the first rupee. The word “rupee” derived from Sanskrit rūpya "shaped; stamped, impressed; coin" and also from the Sanskrit word "rupa" meaning silver.

The United Kingdom, whose colony was India, was trying by force to put into circulation the pound; however these attempts were not a success. In that period the rupee was spread in other colonies of the UK: Kenya, Qatar, Uganda, Bahrain, etc.. After the recognition of independence of India in 1947, the rupee became the official currency of the Indian republic.

On the front side of the banknote features a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Indian rupee has its special symbol. It is a blend of ‘Ra’ in Devanagri script and ‘R’ in Roman. It has two parallel lines crossing this ‘Ra’ or ‘R’ which shows that the symbol “is equal to” one Indian rupee. If you look more closely at the symbol, you can notice the robustness of the Indian economy.

Rupee in Forex Currently the Indian rupee is widely traded in Indian Forex market. The rate of the currency pair INR / USD is controlled and managed by the Reserve Bank of India, while other pairs INR / EUR and INR / JPY are volatile and are in a free-floating. At present IFC Markets does not provide INR as a trading instrument. But in the nearest future INR will be included in the list of currencies traded in IFC Markets.

Any Company, dealing with clients should put a very high emphasis on the quality of the client support. Forex brokerages are not exceptions. IFC Markets is a good example of a broker who is doing his best for the clients. The below presentation is a bright example of successful support.

DOWNLOAD 

Gaurav Learns About Currency Pairs and Exchange Rates

The next time when we met I felt that Gaurav was impatient to know more about Forex trading.

-          I am really eager to go deep into Forex, so what am I supposed to learn today?

-          Today I will give you general information about currencies. So let’s start from the beginning. As you know in commodity market a product is sold or bought with this or that currency. And how does it operate in Forex market if the currency itself is the product? The answer is simple. In this market currencies are exchanged for one another.

-          You mean that I can trade with any currency in Forex?

-          Yes, you are right. The currencies are so many in number that The International Committee of Standardization has established a special ISO code for each currency, consisting of three latin letters – the first two letters indicate the country of the currency and the last one the name of that currency. For example INR is the abbreviation of India and Rupee.

-          Oh, great, so USD is United States and dollar, GBP – Great Britain and Pound, JPY – Japan and Yen.

-          Yes you are completely right, my friend. But you see not all currencies are important in Forex market. There are such which are traded more than others. Being the World’s Reserve currency USD is traded mostly. Accordingly currency pairs including US dollar are called major currency pairs. They are the following ones:

EURUSD – Euro vs US dollar

GBPUSD – British pound vs US Dollar

USDJPY – US Dollar vs Japanese yen

USDCHF – US Dollar vs Swiss franc

AUDUSD – Australian dollar vs US dollar

USDCAD – US dollar vs Canadian dollar

NZDUSD – New Zealandian dollar vs US dollar

-          And are there currency pairs which do not include USD?

-          Yes, and such pairs are called major currency cross pairs. For example AUDCAD, GBPAUD, EURCAD, etc.

-          But I don’t understand one thing, Manoj. Why in one pair for example USD stands first, in another second?

-          So, see, if the price of one currency is expressed in US dollars such quotation is called direct quotation.

-          So, GBPUSD, EURUSD are direct quotations, right?

-          Yes, it is right. And if the price of USD is expressed in a currency, such quotation we call indirect quotation, e.g. USDCHF, USDJPY. As you see currencies are traded in pairs which are called currency pairs. The first currency in the pair is base currency and the second one is quoted currency.

-          So, in EURUSD EUR is base currency and USD is quoted currency, am I right?

-          Completely right. Let’s continue, each currency pair has its exchange rate and we call it quotation. Quotation is the price of one currency expressed in the price of another currency. For example when you see the following quotation EURUSD 1.3104 what do you understand from it?

-          I guess that for 1EUR you can give 1.3104 US dollars.

-          Great, Gaurav, you have understood everything.

-          Now, let’s conclude. In Forex market we trade with currency pairs. Each currency pair has its exchange rate or quotation. The first currency in the pair is called base currency, the second one quoted currency. We can assume for better understanding that the base currency is your product and the quoted currency your money. In Forex market there exist many currency pairs. Those which include US dollar are major currency pairs, and those where USD is absent are called major currency cross pairs.

-          Thank you, my friend. You really gave me valuable information. Now I suppose that it is time for me to enter Forex India.

-          No, these are only the first steps, Gaurav. You still have much to study. Be patient and you will enjoy Forex trading soon.

<a href="http://www.blogadda.com" title="Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs" > <img src="http://www.blogadda.com/images/blogadda.png" width="80" height="15" border="0" alt="Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs"/></a>

FOREX CONTEST

Hello, dear Forex traders. I am glad to announce that IFC Markets has started a new contest. Only 13 days left if you want to register and become a participant.

                                Try yourself and be confident in your success!

                                                 START

Let's Talk About Forex

Gaurav Learns What Forex Is in General

The next day when we met I decided to tell my friend about how Forex market was formed, what it is in general and who the main participants of that market are.

-I will now tell you how the Forex (Foreign Exchange) market was formed. Before 1970s the price of a currency was determined by the gold reserve of that country. Each currency had its equivalent expressed in ounces of gold. But soon everything changed. The fluctuating rates came to replace the gold standard. So this is how international Forex market was formed.

- What are fluctuating rates, Manoj?

-Fluctuating rates are the capability of the currency value to change freely depending on the supply and demand for that currency.

-Ok, clear. So I cannot understand how currencies are traded.

-Everything is simple, Gaurav. In Forex market a definite amount of one currency is sold or bought by a definite number of another currency. To make it clearer to you just imagine that one currency is the product, another is the currency with which you sell or buy the product. And you gain profit from trades thanks to floating currency rates.

- Ok, so for example if I trade with EURUSD it means that EUR is the product and USD is the currency, right?

- Yes, you are quite right, my friend. Let’s continue. So what is the advantage of this market you may ask. Imagine a market where you can buy or sell any moment you like; Forex market is open 5 days 24 hours a week. You can trade wherever you want due to online trading; a computer or mobile with internet connection and your trading becomes possible from any corner of the world. What is important for me is that in Forex market you do not have any boss, actually you yourself are your boss. In this sphere you are completely independent, there aren’t even colleagues, accordingly no competition exists.

- Great, so anyone can be involved in this market?

- Actually till 1990s only big financial institutions and banks could participate in Forex market. Forex trading was realized with several million U.S. dollars. In future due to brokerage companies Forex trading became possible for individuals as well. Thanks to margin trading one can trade with 100 000 dollars possessing just 1000 dollars, thus risking his own money. I will tell you about margin trading with more details later. And also remember that there is no international Forex company. Forex is realized due to brokerage companies. At present there are an unlimited number of brokers all over the world, offering their own unique services.

- Yes, my friend you really provided me with valuable information.

- This is only the beginning, Gaurav. Next time we will go deeper into this world.