I would be thankful if some one provide me his/her personal experience about forex trading, particularly in Range trading.

Answer
Earning a living with Forex is dependent on three factors. First, your starting account balance. Second, your actual performance level. And third, your living requirements.

If you are opening an account with $500...the answer is no...you will not be able to make a living at Forex. Even $1000, $5000, $10,000 or $25,000 would not be enough of an initial account size to make a comfortable living in the Forex market.

The next area of importance is your skill as a Forex trader or the effectiveness of the strategy that you follow. If you are a 50/50 trader and win on half of your trades and lose the other half you cannot make a living at Forex. If you have the time, the patience, the discipline and the knowledge to make at least 20 pips in 4 out of 5 days of daily trading you may have a good shot at making a living from the Forex market.

I also personally know quite a few conservative Forex hedge traders that consistently make over 8% return per month.

Here is where things get interesting. Let's say that you have an account of $100,000. If you were to earn over 8% per month and only draw off 4% ($4000) per month you may be able to live quite comfortably with that income level. And your account balance would continue to grow, more than doubling every 18 months.

So I guess a good goal would be accumulate an investment amount of $100,000 before deciding to simply live off of your Forex investment. It is amazing to me how many people are working very hard while they have well over $100,000 sitting in CDs, money market accounts and mutual funds earning only 3% to 10% per YEAR.

The final point to keep in mind is to decide if you want to spend the bulk of your time sitting in front of the computer day trading, or you want to go through the stress of hoping that you guess the news releases correctly as a fundamentals trader. Or would you prefer to be a conservative Forex hedge trader spending about 30 minutes a week to manage an account of any size.

I wish you well and I hope that you can soon realize your goal of generating a comfortable living through Forex trading.

paul

Is it true that only 5% of the people trading FOREX make money?

Answer
I've heard the same statistics.

However, I've been working with a Practice Account for the last 30+ days. I've used 8 pips = $ 8000.00 as my trading number per trade. For the last 30 days I'm up $ 10,000.

The important rule is to ALWAYS place a stop/ loss order, insuring your don't loose " the farm ". Use the indicators for your decision and stay out when the market does not indicate what direction it is taking.

Answer
Forex trading systems are only as good as the traders who use them. Mental fitness and objectivity are key to your success as a trader, and most back-tested systems I've used are actually quite good for emotion-free trading. But they work only as long as traders don't let their impulses interfere with the profit potential of their trades. You win some, you lose some. Don't let emotions control the outcome of your trade.

How does an automated forex trading system work?

Might be nice if someone can simplify how it works. I am also looking for an automated forex trading system too.

Answer
Automated forex trading systems (robots) are just a tool. Like any tool their success ultimately depends on the person using it. There are many people that make a ton of money from forex trading.

If you are looking for the best forex software, visit this site

http://the-best-forex-software-in-internet.blogspot.com/

This software is the best software that can help increase your trading profit and user friendly.


Best Wishes,

Is there any free web service, to provides live NSE/BSE stock quotes, Gold/Silver prices and ForEx rates??

I want free "web service", not a free "web site". Web service is what, which I can use to get live stock, gold, silver, For-Ex rates to use in my own software or web site... Kind of live data feed I'm looking for...
I want free "web service", not a free "web site". Web service is what, which I can use to get live stock, gold, silver, For-Ex rates to use in my own software or web site... Kind of live data feed I'm looking for...

Answer
You need to download Metatrader - that gives you live prices and historical data for all the Major currency pairs and gold and silver. This is what most day traders like me work off and the FX providers use.

You can download and use a demo account for free, or open a live trading account if you choose to.

I use it for charting and a spread betting platform to trade off.

The beauty of it is that you can insert your own custom indicators - pivot points and they like which makes it much much easier to trade.

A link to one provider is below, they also have a US site if you are based there.

Should i buy gold or diamonds?

Q. Should i invest in gold? I want to invest in something like gold or diamonds but i dont know how i would make money from investing in either? Any gold or diamond experts out there with info would be great.
I have 5000 to invest.

Answer
I have seen this question come up often, and the answer has remained the same over the last 5 years. My advice has been the same, No! Gold is not a good investment.
The New York Spot Price Market (USDollar)
If you bought 1oz of gold at $1,690.00 on Mar 26, on Apr 4, gold dropped to $1,620.00 you would have lost $70.00
If you kept your gold for 30 days on Apr 23, your gold is worth $1,640.00
a $50.00 loss.
A one year investment in 1oz of gold, starting on Apr 25, 2011 at $1,510.00 per oz, on Apr 23, 2012 gold closed out at $1,640.00 a big $130.00 profit.
Consider, that you have tied-up $1,640.00 for one year, and that's just on one oz of gold.
http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.htmâ¦
As for diamonds as an investment, diamonds require large sums of money and knowledge to be able to receive a decent profit. As a point of reference, I offer a 50 year historical diamond price trend chart for an average 1 Carat D Loupe (clean wholesale diamond prices). Evolution Graph from 1960 to 2010 http://www.ajediam.com/investing_diamonds_investment.html Diamonds have had a steady increase, with no decline/drop over the last 50 years. So if you bought this 1 carat D Loupe diamond in Jan. 2000 at $15,100 and sold it in Apr. 2011 you would receive a profit of $13,900. You have tied up $15,100 for 11 years, will you be alive to spend that profit? or even young enough to enjoy it!
Check out the FOREX market, I have been in that market for 7 years. FOREX is my full time job. I walk to work, a total of 44 feet to my office. I spend and enjoy my profits NOW, not years from now!

Answer
The forex market actually consists of many international markets around the world, including London, New York, Sydney, and Tokyo.

A specific country may have a holiday where traders in that country may take a break from trading; however, there are still traders in other countries who will continue trading, since their country doesn't celebrate that holiday.

Bottom line...although country-specific holidays may impact forex trading activity in terms of lower volume and higher volatility, they won't close down the forex market entirely. Trading still continues somewhere around the world.

do you know about the forex (4X) market?

My father recently started investing in this type of "money" market. its suppose to work off the changing value of international money.
Anyway I've never really been able to give him help on anything and thought maybe some of you knew some "tips", "tricks", "Advice". Anything I could pass along to him.

Answer
The Forex market is full of scammers and people who sell questionable investment products than make them rich and not you. I would advise your father against Forex trading. he is likely to lose money in the long run. Forex is useful to companies that make money in one country and need to exchange it for money in another country, but most individuals who trade Forex lose money.

Hey I've recently heard about Forex and it seems legit. Ive noticed that there are lots of bots available to maximize the accuracy, from experience are any of them legit? and If so which do you recommend. And also what types of charts would be best?
Thannks

Answer
Hello,

Most bots are a complete WASTE. I have emails just about each week from some company selling robots or some broker asking us if we want to partner with them as an affiliate. If the bots were so good I can say they woujld not be selling them for $199!!! The good bots are at most blackbox houses and Firms and are paid many millions. 1/3 of the volume in stocks daily is taken care of with black box trading. Do you really think that some robot for $199 is going to make you rich. Best to spend that money on a forex book on like amazon than to throw it away.

Regards
BT
www.fxlivedaytrading.com

Forex Blog:
http://forex.fxlivedaytrading.com

forex beginner...i want to go into forex traidng with $1000?

I want to go into forex trading with $1000....any advice on tricks of making money.......any reputable broker that has little spread, where i can buy at bid and sell at ask price.....which forex supports mobile trading.....i am thinking of buying a laptop or palmtop........where can i get ba data on forex brokers based on their patroniszation/ no of clients. any idea of Electronic Communications Network forex bokers...............thx

Answer
To answer all your questions, go to www.babypips.com

There you will learn:
-$1,000 is not enough to open a Forex account... you're going to get a margin call and go broke.
- You'll never get no spread between the bid/ask, that's how the brokers make their commissions
- Check their broker comparison chart under the Tools menu to see various info on all the different online brokers

My biggest advice would be DONT open a real trading account until you have at least 2 months of experience with a demo account. If you open a real account right now I guarantee you're going to go broke.

Check out my Forex blog for more information:
http://yarcofin.wordpress.com

Are there any online (free) FOREX charts that only banks use? I am NOT refering to OANDA, FXCM, or spread trading services. I need currency charts that show historical graphs for ALL world currencies.

Answer
First of all, if there is such a thing as "charts that only banks use," how would we get access to them? Second, what would keep others from getting the same "charts," i.e., why could we not get access to them? Thirdly, how would we know if there is such a thing as "charts that only banks use," unless we work for a bank, and we're not tellin', because we don't want others to get access to "charts that only banks use." And last, if only banks use them, why would they be free online?

You see, this question is a little confusing. Are you really interested in the "charts," or charting software, or are you more interested in the data feed, and ability to show "ALL world currencies?"

Are you really interested in "ALL" charts or just those used by banks?

Can you really expect to get everything or "ALL" for nothing?

I can give you several websites where you can enter a ticker symbol or pick from a list of currencies one at a time. But how do you know wheter they are "ALL" there, or whether these charts are used by banks?

To get them "ALL" at once, you will have to pay for the data feed, about $100/mo, like everyone else. But you should check with the data vendor first, to make sure that they are supplying ALL of them. Usually, data services are geared to traders, institutions, whatever. It appears you are not interested in the typical data service, but wish to pay some astronomical fee for ALL, and this service would certainly not be offered for free.

But an occasional quote can be had just about any time anywhere that offers quotes. You don't make the distinction about what is so unusual or hard to get about a particular currency quote, or give us any idea what application requires this.

Here is one of the most extensive lists I've seen of currency codes from the CIA World Factbook, but no quotes. These will help you with the symbols once you find that atypical data feed service.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2065.html

FOREX TOOLS REVIEWS
http://www.forexbastards.com/forextoolsreviews.shtml

Charting
http://charts3.barchart.com/chart.asp?sym=$DXY&data=A&jav=adv&vol=Y&evnt=adv&grid=Y&code=BSTK&org=stk&fix=

http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/

Yahoo Currency Converter and quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency

how does one convert european(british) money into dollars?

Answer
Check out this site

http://www.forex.ch/converter.htm

I'm looking to get into the stock/forex markets field but I have a degree in Sociology, which equates to basically nothing in the private sector. Most, if not all, jobs in the stock/forex field for non-business type majors are in some boiler room high pressure 55+ hour a week sales position. I'm not interested in that at all. Does anyone know of any positions that might be possible for a Sociology major to get into in the forex/stock market fields? Or do I have to go back to school?

Answer
Using the Mtpredictor's technical analysis Elliot Wave Principle software, Bsmtprediction provides Forex Traders with FREE access to AUD/USD, EUR/GBP, GBP/USD, EUR/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY & USD/JPY daily currency forecasts through this website. At Any Time / Any Day (we'll straight away post the signals here in real-time if there's any triggered) 1 hour, 4 hours & daily time frame forecasts are published on this site. The predictions are good from the moment they are published until either it reached the take profit target, hitted the stop loss or another new prediction of the same currency & timeframe unveils on the same / following day. Essentially, the prices shown are for an unknown period.. That's why we encourage you to subscribe our FREE Google Groups newsletter to get the latest signal updates sent to your e-mail from the very 1st minute it surfaces the net..

Where can I find a job of forex trader?

I am a forex trader and interested to trade forex for banks, coporations and individuals .Anyone can help me?

Answer
Please visit the following sites :-
forex-trading.superiorinvestor.net/forex-trader-jobs/forex-trader-jobs.html - 18k -
www.marketforex.net

I trade only stocks right now but I've heard people swear by trading futures or forex. I've never tried either. Is one more volatile and therefore easier to make more money?

Answer
The main difference between trading stocks and futures is the leverage involved.

In a stock margin account, you can trade at 2:1 or 4:1 leverage. In a futures account, you can trade the E-mini or Dow mini futures with 20:1 or 40:1 leverage. This causes your profits and losses and account value to be extermely volatile, and very dangerous if you trade at maximum leverage. In a futures account, you can lose more than you have invested.

Forex is just another form of futures account, except here, the maximum leverage is 200:1. Wo, how much trouble can we get into now? You have to be aware of the economic reports for the currencies traded and the US reports, like GDP, retail sales, and particularly interest rate adjustments and differentials. Unless you are willing to trade gap trades, the opportunity is very little here compared to the huge move from the report. These trades can be very plodding, in between reports. Or some big news announcement will break, or someone declares war, or sets off a bomb, and blows you completely out of the trade. Trading the forex is not for the beginner or faint of heart. Find a good simulator and practice, practice.

Stock vs Forex vs Futures: Which has the biggest changes?

I want to know which one changes the most so I can make the most money.

Sources, a lot of them please.

Answer
Well, both futures and forex are zero-sum meaning that you only make money when someone else loses it. Both those markets are dominated by institutions that hire serious talent. You are asking a complete neophyte question. What makes you think that you can beat me and people like me at futures or forex?

US Savings Bonds for you.

Several years ago I started tentatively to study about the forex exchange market, I have read some books about it but never had the braveness to risk real money in it, If I have to use real money I will at least pump 1000 USD which I may lose in a couple of minutes and most probably it will be the first and the last trial for me, and ofcourse I do not like that.

I want to know the best broker companies, and the best way for technical and news analysis, and if I applied a good technical and news analysis, would I be at high risk either?

Do you have any recommendations?

Answer
FXCM has worked fine for me for many years, but I find myself trading more FXY or maybe FXE than any spot, along with the options.

For example, it's a lot easier to hold a long FXY and later sell a covered call, called "legging on," and you have a relatively risk-free long position with a little theta decay going on there in case it goes nowhere or down a little. It reduces your cost basis, protects the downside somewhat reducing risk, and at the same time increases your probability of success to 67%, way over a 50/50 guess directionally with high leverage in a cash FX position. The latter is doomed from the start to failure using leverage without the tools and knowledge to handle these markets.

Having traded FX for more than a decade, I'm lost in the gov't run, debt driven, and crisis insane FX markets. Fits and starts and stop farts.

Trading is about managing risks, not guessing what a politician will do next. How about when the rules change, or suspended law? How do you measure those risks?

Quite plainly, my "recommendation" would be to avoid forex like a plague, especially and until you can call yourself a trader.

Learn to trade stocks first, if you insist on trading, then see if you can do it with leverage. Develop a trade plan and test the plan. If you can make simulator profits by trading the plan, you're good. If not, modify your plan.

Read the book by David Nassar - Rules of the Trade - available at your local Interlibrary Loan System.

http://www.dailyfx.com/forex/fundamental/daily_briefing/daily_pieces/scalping_report/2013/05/08/Forex_AUDUSD_Scalps_Target_March_Lows_Bearish_Below_1.0220.html

"Which Is Better, Buy-and-Hold or Market Timing?"

"Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Market Timer

Lefevre, Edwin - Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (story of Jesse Livermore)

O'Neil, William J.- How to Make Money in Stocks - can also be your TA instructor if you buy his paper IBD.

Programs to Filing tax for capital gains (Forex)?

Hi! I am a student and have no income but small amount of capital gain (last year about $1000)
Since Im new to file tax for capital gains I was confused and needed to have lots and lots of help to file my tax this year, so I really want to be prepared for next year.

I am at VITA website and sadly I dont live in a state that I could get a help from the lab so I am at the screen where I can choose between H&R Block, e tax, turbotax, and Taxskayer. Which one would you suggest for me to use for capital gains?

Thanks fore reading and for your opinion!

Answer
They will all work pretty good BUT you do have to enter and answer all of the questions and the correct information on to the forms and the lines in the right places to get the correct numbers and the correct information on to the correct lines an forms and schedules of your 1040 income tax return for this purpose and time in your life. And this will take you some time to learn how to work with and through the software programs for this purpose and time in your life.
You could choose to become a voluinteer tax preparer with the VITA program and learn how to use the the software program that they do use for this purpose at this time in your life. It is very good and interesting and also a challenge for this purpose.
To start just go to the www.irs.gov website and use the search box and type LINK and Learn taxes
Link and Learn Taxes
This fun, interactive course teaches you the basics to accurately prepare 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ income tax returns for individuals AND obtain your volunteer certification along the way-at your own pace!

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=123214,00.html

Linking volunteers to quality e-learning solutions

Link & Learn Taxes, linking volunteers to quality e-learning solutions, is the web-based program providing nine courses: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Military, International, Puerto Rico and Foreign Student, along with a refresher course for returning volunteers. There are two optional specialty courses on Cancellation of Debt and Health Savings Accounts. This training prepares SPEC partners and volunteers to provide quality tax return preparation services in their local communities. This fun, interactive course teaches the basics to accurately prepare income tax returns for individuals AND users can obtain volunteer certification along the way at their own pace!
Students will make their way through lessons that include tax topics, case studies, and interview simulations. Link & Learn Taxes uses pop-up windows to connect to forms, publications and other resource materials.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistor through the IRS program for this purpose.
VITA will be recruiting volunteers in for the 2013 tax filing season in a couple of more months and when you choose to register with them for this purpose they will send you a set of study material books for the 2012 tax year filing before November for the 2013 tax fining season. GOOD LUCK.
They use the TAX WISE program which works very good once you do learn how to us it for this purpose and time in your life.

And some of this (Forex) trading can get to be really complicated when you get into the Straddles
This section discusses the loss deferral rules that apply to the sale or other disposition of positions in a straddle. These rules do not apply to the straddles described under Exceptions , later.
A straddle is any set of offsetting positions on personal property. For example, a straddle may consist of a purchased option to buy and a purchased option to sell on the same number of shares of the security, with the same exercise price and period.
Publication 550 chapter 4. Sales and Trades of Investment Property

4. Sales and Trades of Investment Property
Straddles

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p550/ch04.html#en_US_2011_publink100010632

Hope that you find the above enclosed information useful. 07/08/2012

Answer
Chinas reserves are at US$900 billion, the world's largest ahead of Japan.

BTW, you may want to read this article by a Stanford Professor

Savings lead to trade surplus
(Chinanews.cn)
Updated: 2006-06-16 14:40

Regarding the fact that some Americans criticized China's exchange rate while talking about the Sino-US trade balance issue, economics professor Ronald McKinnon with Stanford University noted on the 14th that it is China's excessively high savings rate that has caused trade surplus, and the RMB exchange rate is absolutely unrelated.

McKinnon indicated that recently China's trade surplus is constantly and habitually misunderstood as an exchange rate issue.

Nonetheless, the fact is that compared to investment, the savings rate of China is quite high while that of the US is quite low.

Therefore, the US is short of savings. Should US people have the same savings rate as Chinese people, their nation would likely maintain the interest rates at a low level.

As to how to solve this problem, Prof. McKinnon contended that China should reduce its savings and expand consumption.

At the same time, the US should raise its savings and cut down fiscal expenditure. In this way, the trade imbalance between these two countries can be solved. China's trade surplus will accordingly decline while trade deficit of the US will decrease.

McKinnon does not stand for stimulating trade balance by means of adjusting the RMB exchange rate on a large scale. He said that attempts to solve the problem through the exchange rate will have uncertain impacts.

He added that should the RMB appreciate, we cannot know whether China's trade surplus would decrease. However, China would undoubtedly see comparative deflation, with its interest rates being forced to fall towards zero.

Zero interest rate will probably lead to an inflationary trap, which Japan suffered from two decades ago. If China risks allowing a violent RMB appreciation, its economy will undergo the consequence of turbulence, which, in turn, will affect the economic stabilization of the US and the world.

Yuan to stand above 8 break point again

Chinese currency stood strong again on Wednesday as the exchange rate of the yuan to the dollar closed at 7.9996:1 in the competitive price deal, climbing to break the "8" psychological point one month after it fell below that point.

At 9:30 Wednesday, the board at the National Foreign Exchange Center showed that the average exchange rate of the dollar to the yuan was 1: 8.0051, dropping 22 points from Tuesday. After the opening session, the yuan kept rising steadily.

In the competitive price deal system, the exchange rate of the yuan to the dollar fluctuated between 7.9995-8.0050:1, while in the enquiry price deal system, the transaction of the yuan against the dollar was between 8-8.0054:1.

Analysts say that the appreciation of the Renminbi shows the central bank's strong intention for a tightened monetary policy. In addition, China faces much more pressure with its huge, ever-increasing foreign exchange reserves and such pressure will have to be relieved by raising the yuan value.

At present, China has 900 billion US dollars of foreign exchange reserves, ranking first in the world, mostly coming from the country's trade surplus, which has been growing steadily. Some financial experts predict that China's trade surplus this year will exceed 100 billion US dollars, which means that such pressure will continue to be felt.

It is obvious that the Renminbi's appreciation this time reflects more about its real situation. A staff member at the transaction center predicted that after rising above the "8" breaking point again this time, it is less likely for the yuan to go down much deeper in the future.

Forex Trading in US that supports Paypal money?

looking for a forex trading site that supports US citizens as well as paypal money. Thanks

Answer
Not very likely. They want ACH bank transfers.

FOREX trading is a scam. Well, for 99.47% of people it is a scam. Seventy-five percent of all investors lose nearly their entire stake in just a few months. The problem is that the company sets the exchange rate, not the open market. Also, if you buy on margin (required for almost everyone) the company can force sale of your shares when a currency falls a tiny amount, thereby not letting you survive any sort of fluctuations. Stay away. You'll have better luck at the roulette wheel, which isn't saying much.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amateur-currency-trading-20110403,0,588787.story

i am member in many companies www.boa-mail.com,www.maystromails.com,fairydollarmails.com,www.cooperative mail.com,
wwwspeedmail.com ,wwwkingofads.com,wwwunitedmailempire.com,wwwwoo-mails.com,wwwsea-mail.com,wwwdollarfactorymail.com,wwwhuge-mails.com,wwwmany-mails.com,wwwmedal-mails.com,wwwsea-mail.comwwwspacemail.com & many more such companies i will send you a big list .in all this companies i am working from three months for 8 hours a day daily i am platinium member in all this companies most of the company is of forex chart so i want to know & your help for this i like to ask you all this companies are legal or not because i am not getting payment from any of this companies from three month i request all companies but they told me to collect from e-gold or money bookers or paypal i am not getting payment now what i have to do i told company to send me through bank wire in my bank account account number address i have given plz help me yahoo. i trust fully yahoo.

Answer
If u want money u need financial capital. There is no free money

Hi, I'd like to start making a lot of money using the Forex (or Foreign Exchange) market. What product, bot or book or otherwise, should I use?

Answer
Forex trading is simply high risk with high return. More than 90% of forex traders are making losses. Only the very good forex trader able to consistently making profit in forex trading.

As a newbie, I suggest you start learning from trading using a demo account. All forex brokers now offer demo account where it work just same as real account. Learn everything about forex trading, fundamental and technical analysis. Trade in demo account for at least 6 months. If you can consistently make winning, then you may want to move on opening a real account with mimimum deposit that you can afford to loss.

Here are some articles that could be useful for you as a newbie in forex trading:
http://www.forex2u.com/guide/category/forex-newbie/http://www.forex2u.com/guide/category/forex-newbie/

Good luck.

Homework on Exchange Rate?

Q. what is an exchange rate?why do we have exchange rate?What are they use for?Identifity 10 different type of exchange at least 3 must be from the the caribbean

Answer
In finance, the exchange rate (also known as the foreign-exchange rate, forex rate or FX rate) between two currencies specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. For example an exchange rate of 120 Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) to the United States dollar (USD, $) means that JPY 120 is worth the same as USD 1. The foreign exchange market is one of the largest markets in the world. By some estimates, about USD 2 trillion worth of currency changes hands every day.

The spot exchange rate refers to the current exchange rate. The forward exchange rate refers to an exchange rate that is quoted and traded today but for delivery and payment on a specific future date.

Quotations
An exchange rate quotation is given by stating the number of units of a price currency that can be bought in terms of 1 unit currency. For example, in a quotation that says the EUR-USD exchange rate is 1.2 USD per EUR, the price currency is USD and the unit currency is EUR.

Quotes using a country's home currency as the price currency (e.g., £0.574744 = $1 in the UK) are known as direct quotation or price quotation (from that country's perspective) ([1]) and are used by most countries.

Quotes using a country's home currency as the unit currency (e.g., $1.73990 = £1 in the UK) are known as indirect quotation or quantity quotation and are used in British newspapers and are also common in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

direct quotation: Home Currency / Foreign Currency
indirect quotation: Foreign Currency / Home Currency
Note that, using direct quotation, if a unit currency is strengthening (i.e., appreciating, or becoming more valuable) then the exchange rate number increases. Conversely if the price currency is strengthening, the exchange rate number decreases and the unit currency is depreciating.

When looking at a currency pair such as EUR/USD, many times the first component (EUR in this case) will be called the base currency. The second is called the counter currency.

Free or pegged
Main article: Exchange rate regime
If a currency is free-floating, its exchange rate is allowed to vary against that of other currencies and is determined by the market forces of supply and demand. Exchange rates for such currencies are likely to change almost constantly as quoted on financial markets, mainly by banks, around the world. If the value of the currency is "pegged" its value is maintained by the government in question at a fixed rate relative to the other currency. For example, in 1983 the Hong Kong dollar was linked to the United States dollar.

Nominal and real exchange rates
The nominal exchange rate is the rate at which an organization can trade the currency of one country for the currency of another.
The real exchange rate is an important concept in economics though difficult to grasp in reality. The real exchange rate is defined as rer=e(P/P*) where e is the exchange rate as number of foreign currency units per home currency unit and P is the price level of the home country and P* the foreign price level.
Unfortunately, in real life there is not just one foreign currency and not just one price level -so the calculation of the real exchange rate gets more complex. Further, the above definition is based on purchasing power parity (PPP) which implies a constant real exchange rate which could not be verified empirically. PPP would imply that i.e. the real exchange rate was the rate at which an organization can trade goods and services of one country for those of another. For example, say the price of a good increases 10% in the UK, and there is also a 10% appreciation in the Japanese currency against the UK currency, the price of the good remains constant for someone in Japan despite increase in price for people in the UK. In cases where tariffs become an issue, this would be less the case. More recent approaches try to model the real exchange rate by a set of macroeconomic variables such as relative productivity and the real interest rate differential

Fluctuations in exchange rates
A market based exchange rate will change whenever the values of either of the two component currencies change. A currency will tend to become more valuable whenever demand for it is greater than the available supply. It will become less valuable whenever demand is less than available supply (this does not mean people no longer want money, it just means they prefer holding their wealth in some other form, possibly another currency).

Increased demand for a currency is due to either an increased transaction demand for money, or an increased speculative demand for money. The transaction demand for money is highly correlated to the country's level of business activity, gross domestic product (GDP), and employment levels. The more people there are out of work, the less the public as a whole will spend on goods and services. Central banks typically have little difficulty adjusting the available money supply to accommodate changes in the demand for money due to business transactions.

The speculative demand for money is much harder for a central bank to accommodate but they try to do this by adjusting interest rates. An investor may choose to buy a currency if the return (that is the interest rate) is high enough. The higher a country's interest rates, the greater the demand for that currency. It has been argued that currency speculation can undermine real economic growth, in particular since large currency speculators may deliberately create downward pressure on a currency in order to force that central bank to sell their currency to keep it stable (once this happens, the speculator can buy the currency back from the bank at a lower price, close out their position, and thereby take a profit).

In choosing what type of asset to hold, people are also concerned that the asset will retain its value in the future. Most people will not be interested in a currency if they think it will devalue. A currency will tend to lose value, relative to other currencies, if the country's level of inflation is relatively higher, if the country's level of output is expected to decline, or if a country is troubled by political uncertainty. For example, when Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed his Government on February 24, 2004, the price of the ruble dropped. When China announced plans for its first manned space mission, synthetic futures on Chinese yuan jumped (since China's currency is officially pegged, synthetic markets have emerged that can behave as if the yuan was floating).

Like the stock exchange, money can be made or lost on the foreign exchange market by investors and speculators buying and selling at the right times. Currencies can be traded at spot and foreign exchange options markets. The spot market represents current exchange rates, whereas options are derivatives of exchange rates.

Foreign exchange markets
Main article: Foreign exchange market
The foreign exchange markets are usually highly liquid as the world's main international banks provide a market around-the-clock. The Bank for International Settlements reported that global foreign exchange market turnover daily averages in April was $650 billion in 1998 (at constant exchange rates) and increased to $1.9 trillion in 2004 (Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity 2004 - Final Results). The biggest foreign exchange trading centre is London, followed by New York and Tokyo

I just watch The Dark Knight Rises and saw the scene where Bane stole money by hacking into the computers at the Gotham Stock Exchange can that really happen in real life?

Answer
We've all seen too many movies of someone hacking into a high security system with just a few clicks. It's pretty stupid of us to believe anything we see on TV; it's just entertainment. Without someone at the institution giving you their pass codes, it takes hours, maybe weeks of work, only to meet up with their software and hardware firewalls and tracking systems that leave your footprints all over the place. It just isn't done, at least not successfully. After hours of work trying to get through their security systems, several red flags are raised and security people are alerted long before you can do anything meaningful like withdraw or transfer money (which is going to require authorization by a top-level employee if for a significant amount), even if you manage to get in.

"Can you really rob a bank electronically?" No. Is it possible? Anything's possible. Can you get away with it. Not likely.

"Can you really rob a bank in person?" Sure. Will you get away with it? Not likely. About 99% of them get caught. Almost all of these bank robbers are lazy people that were never successful at anything else, so why would they be successful at this?

When you hear of someone getting robbed electronically, it is almost always a security breach of the individual person, not the bank. These cyber criminals are using a form of social engineering attack model combined with malware. Their favorite targets are large business customers.

Details abound on physical robberies of banks, but almost no data is released by the federal gov't on cyber crime.

Addendum
Just a little story for some fun.
I used to program and run mainframe computers in a previous life, so I'm very security conscious. About 10 years ago, I was trading forex and got the attention of a lot of people, maybe the wrong people that wanted to steal my algorithms.

I had one of the best hardware firewalls money could buy for an individual PC (not a network or mainframe), that cost about $1,500. The logging feature alerted me to some persistent hack attempts, but I didn't pay too much attention since they weren't getting anywhere.

I was in the habit of leaving my computer on all the time, 24/7. One Monday morning, I came to work and my computer was down. Not only that, I couldn't get online. I'm a computer genius, right, so I tried checking the firewall logs and connections, but it would not let me communicate with it. I am the master, and it was blocking ME. Fine, rebooted the hardware, and everything was back to normal, with a few exceptions. It required my logins for security control. This was weird, so I checked the logs.

A persistent hacker had been hacking away at my firewall all weekend. He gave up after six hours on Saturday, but came back and hacked at it for four hours on Sunday. The alerts had been sent to my computer, but nobody was there on the weekend. This hacker was good, and almost got in. The firewall saw that he was about to get through, knew it was an unauthorized entry, and alerted me multiple times, pleading with me to break the connection. At the last minute, just when the hacker was making real progress, the hardware firewall severed the connection to all outside sources and shut down my computer, requiring re-authorization to start again. The poor hacker wasted a whole weekend for nothing.

Needless to say, I don't leave my computer on over the weekend anymore.

Incidentally, the security system and multiple firewalls used by businesses and banks are a hundred times more complex than my little $1,500 hardware firewall. And theirs are monitored 24/7 by real people.

Has any one else been suspicious with the way etoro accepts paypal payments? Is etoro a scam?

I recently made a deposit to this forex broker etoro (or e-toro) and my firewall gave me several warnings that a suspicious application (etoro) was trying to steal my details just as I was making a Paypal payment. If anyone gets my Paypal password, isn't this dangerous? Is etoro a scam? What do they need Paypal passwords for?

Answer
Yes I have experienced the same suspicion. Not sure if the whole company is a scam. They're not a regulated by any authority so I guess customers have to take their chances. I have been using etoro for a few months and am no longer a user for a number of reasons. Mainly their platforms instability which caused me to loose control of open positions several times and loose large amounts of money.
However regarding payment security, you are correct.. this is a very suspicious detail indeed. The important issue initially struck me as "strange" when I made my first deposit was that when the etoro application diverted me to Paypal (this was my chosen form of payment) it did it from within its own application and not in a browser like exlorer or mozilla. Companies that use https encryption always warn you to check the address url that you are on to make sure that your details (eg paypal info and password) are not being diverted and seen by a third party. Etoro is this third party and I was even more convinced as every time I made a deposit, Paypal would ask me to enter the password twice for no reason!! Futhermore my firewall (zone-alarm) and antivirus (avg pro) would throw warnings telling me of suspicious behavior and that a program was trying to access/record key-strokes on my PC!!! But being an etoro newbie in good faith, I continued t see what etoro was really about - taking one precaution - (to keep changing my Paypal password as it was clear that etoro was most likely recording it).
They never tried to make a fraudulent transaction from within my Paypal account but then again I kept changing it!! I use Paypal very frequently and found it extremely suspicious why the payment process did not open a fresh browser window like in every other secure payment process.. but instead displayed paypal inside their application without showing you the page url. This is potentially fraud but not necessarily. It depends how the application is set to transmit your personal info. I can't advise you how secure your paypal account is now but to be on the safe side, if you think that etoro is a good broker (I personally now think that it overall sucks) and if you continue to want to trade with them, then change your Paypal password continually to be better safe than sorry.
Accepting risk of money loss via trading is one thing but having your online payment priviledges hacked is another. Don't risk it! Change broker or if you insist on using etoro use another payment option!

Answer
I am doing my research about this company or bank or whatever its called because every one is investing with them but for me looks too good to be true. I read that you can open an account with $ 50 and you can earn 18% per month or 0.6% per day. and you can acces to your interest any time but the only thing I do not like is when you want to transfer whatever you have earned to your bank account you have to do a wire transfer which is $25 or you can buy some one else money

Is it normal to get 200 Profit per day with forex using demo account?

I'm getting about 200 Profit minimum per day using lot 8.0 in demo account.
I'm not sure if this is realistic or not as in the real account.I might get low profit compared to that.
Thanks for the answer Common Sense.I should test with real account using low capital first,as you state the lower time frame the less reality in demo account.

I'm still amateur and I do think a lot about the profits,however I have a tight plan so that my chance to lose is minimum and my chance to profit is maximum,maybe that's why I'm getting a lot profit per day.I will try on the real account.

Answer
Forex demo accounts are great for learning the mechanics of trading. They are not a realistic reflection of how you'll do with real money.

There are many reasons.... but to sum up the two main categories;
Liquidity
Psychology

The shorter your time frame the less "reality" there is in demo accounts. A demo account won't know if there are buyer or sellers available & it certainly can't duplicate how you'll react with real money on the line. Never lose tract of the fact... 90%+ never survive the first 12 months of Forex Trading. Most leave in the first 1-6 months.