The currency market (currency exchange) is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world. The foreign exchange market, unlike the stock markets, is an over-the-counter market without a central exchange and a clearinghouse where orders match.
Traditionally, currency trading has not been popular with retail traders / investors (traders take short-term positions than investors) because the currency market was only open to hedge funds and was not accessible to retail traders like the U.S. In recent years alone, currency trading is open to retail traders. Comparatively, stock trading has been around much longer for retail investors. Recent advancement in computer and trading technologies has allowed low commission and easy access for retail traders to trade stocks or exchange currency from almost anywhere in the world with Internet access. Easy access and low commission have vastly increased the chances of retailers, both equity and currency, to win. Which of the two is a better option for a merchant? The comparisons between retail stock trading and retail currency trading are as follows;
Nature of the instrument.
The nature of the items that are bought and sold between currency trading and stock trading are different. In stock trading, a trader is buying or selling a stock in a specific company in a country. There are many different stock markets in the world. Many factors determine the rise or fall of a share price. See my article in the stocks section to find out more about the factors that affect stock prices. Currency trading involves buying or selling currency pairs. In a transaction, a merchant buys a currency from one country and sells the currency from another country. Hence, the term "exchange". The trader expects the value of the coin he buys to increase from the value of the coin he sells. In essence, a currency trader is betting on the economic outlook (or at least its monetary policy) of one country against another country.
Market size and liquidity
The Forex market is the largest market in the world. With daily transactions of more than $ 4 trillion, it dwarfs the stock markets. While there are thousands of different stocks in the stock markets, there are only a few commoditytrading pairs in the currency market. Therefore, currency trading is less prone to price manipulation by big players than stock trading. The enormous volume of the market also means that currency pairs enjoy greater liquidity than stocks. A forex trader can easily enter and exit the market. Comparatively, stocks are less liquid, a trader may encounter problems getting out of the market, especially during the main bad news. This is worse especially for small cap stocks. Also due to their enormous liquidity in the forex market, forex traders can enjoy a better price differential compared to equity traders.
Trading hours and their downside for retailers
The Forex market is open 24 hours, while the US stock market. USA Open every day from 930 a.m. at 4 p.m. Eastern time. This means that Forex traders can choose to trade at any time, while stock traders are limited to 930 a.m. EST at 4 p.m. ITS T. A significant disadvantage of retail stock traders is that stock markets are only open to market makers during the hours before trading (8:30 am - 9:20 am EST) and the hours after trading (4 : 30 pm - 6:30 pm EST). And it's during these pre-trading and post-trading hours that most companies post earnings results that would have a big impact on stock prices. This means that retail merchants (many of us) could only see the price rise or fall during these hours. Furthermore, the arrest warrant would not be followed during this time. Forex traders do not suffer from this significant disadvantage. Furthermore, a stock trader can supplement his trade with Forex trading outside of trading hours.
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