Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Companies Bankrupt Overnight, Stocks Crash to Zero! Yet You Still Hold Stocks?

By Chris Taylor


Do you have friends or family members that suffered major losses from bankruptcies such as GM, Wachovia, or the tech bubble crash? Are they still trading stocks or using full service stock broker? It may be time to reconsider and look into the foreign exchange market (forex) also called FX or the currency market. Forex is the most liquid market in the world, almost $4 trillion dollars daily volume and open practically any time. It is the market of choice for most Europeans as well as the Pacific region traders. What's so good about forex?

With traditional stocks, you are giving your money to a company for a share, a small piece of the company. You do this so that eventually you sell that share for more than you paid. Pretty simple concept and sometimes it works out in your favor, but occasionally that share becomes nothing more than a tax write-off when overnight, the company goes bankrupt. In forex trading, in simple terms, you are exchanging your currency for the equivalent of another countries currency. And like stock trading, when you exchange that currency back to your country's currency you are expecting more than you paid. Unlike stock trading, major currencies do not suddenly become worthless paper overnight.

For example, Sept 11, 2001 shocked the U.S. in more ways than one, but Americans never lost the ability to buy food with dollars. Japan was torn apart by a tsunami, but yen continued to buy meals, etc. Both tragedies were horrible, instantaneous, and unforeseen events that resulted in a reactionary significant drop in currency value, however; most forex traders minimized the loss. Forex trades 24/7, except for scalping, most traders place a stop loss whenever they are in a trade. With forex markets trading day and night, the stop loss initiates as the news happens. No overnight losses you get with stocks opening down and hopscotching over the stop loss. Forex trades with the 24 hour news cycles while stocks trade on bankers' hours.

Forex trading hours are flexible and fit around any work schedule, as long as a computer with internet is available. Forex is 24/7, however it is best to trade during hours when two or more major trading markets are open. The best times are 1am-3am EST (London/Tokyo,) 8am-12pm EST (New York and London) and 7-10pm EST (Sydney/Tokyo.) With the hours so spread apart, a trading opportunity is available to fit anyone's work schedule. It definitely fits more people's schedule than the U.S. stock market hours, 9:30am-4pm EST. Forex Trading is also a great fit for stay-at-home moms/dads and with that have to occasionally run errands during the day. In addition to convenience, it is also nice to know that you're not hopeless if your trade reverses on you. Since a market is always open and you're a smart trader with a stop loss in place, your losses are minimized. Forex is sounding like a good plan now.

Forex has not been available for public trading as long as stocks have. Forex trading requires high speed computers connected electronically to handle the growing number of traders. It was literally waiting for technology to advance, which happened in the 1990's when the internet and computers expanded. For that reason, your parents never had it as an option. So it is an unfamiliar investment vehicle and after all everybody trades stocks. At one time everybody travelled by trains, but that does not make it faster. Now technology is cultured into the world with iPhones, droids, etc. It's time to do the same with your portfolio. Get into a market that is open 24/7, gives you more control, and the ability to react anytime if bad news hits. A world where setting up profitable trades is as simple as e-mail and execution can be automatic any hour of the day. Anytime trade execution is an important feature for trading. The major company stock crashes, Enron, GM, dot coms, etc., are announced after trading hours leaving stockholders powerless. By the time the market opens, the price per share reflects the bad news. That doesn't happen in forex trading with major currencies.

See? Forex is not as frightening when you shed light on it. There are even more advantages that were not mentioned. However, 24 hour access to trading, no bankruptcies and overnight protection are advantages that sell themselves. Give forex trading a few minutes of your time. When it convinces you to look deeper, make sure you study up and learn it first before you start trading. Learn, learn, develop a trading plan or get one from a proven expert trader. Then trade it in a practice account until you feel comfortable with it. Take the first step and give it a good look.




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