Foreign exchange-Forex (trade) is the only market that, currency, is truly open 24 hours with decent liquidity throughout the day, with almost $5 trillion traded around the world. It shows the level of enticement, but not without enterprising spirit. In forex, currency obviously follows the sun.
With a laptop and connectivity, there is no limitation to making, except the traders (un)willingness to trade, consistently.
Meanwhile certain factors like the size, volatility and global structure of the foreign exchange market have all enhanced the performances.
For instance, investors are able to place extremely large trades without affecting any given exchange rate due to high liquid state of the market.
Actually, there are gains and pains, if you like risks, associated with the forex market. How can we define the market, distancing it from other markets?
What are the benefits and risks? How can one avoid lessen the risks? What is the place of Nigeria in the global table?
To provide answers these and more, Forex Time (FXTM), an international online forex broker with presence in Nigeria, recently organized a demo competition for journalists where ingenuities of the market prevailed.
First, FXTM is the brainchild of Andrey Dashin, a man whose business insight and entrepreneurial mind were the driving factors behind the success of his first company, Alpari.
The Company is known for offeing the best possible services to its clients. No doubt, Forex is fast becoming an extremely popular trading instrument for Nigerian investors, keen to profit from what now stands as the largest and most liquid market in the world.
“From day one, we have stated that Forex Time is here to provide the ultimate trading experience for clients,” Olga Rybalkina, CEO of Forex Time said, setting the tone of the Company’s operation in Nigeria.
Secondly, the company provides services to a wide range of different customer types including retail, business to business, institutional investors, portfolio management, introducers and in the near future, affiliates. The competency of FXTM is evident in a vast amount of trading instruments, platforms and accounts, is offers and tailored to the individual needs of clients.
Setting the tone of the competition, Mr. Olumide Ladipo, marketing manager, FXTM (Nigeria), disclosed that disclosed that the demo was intended to the overwhelming growing local interest in Forex, even the Company has embarked on one-of-a-kind free training course in professional Forex trading in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
“Forex is an exciting and dynamic asset class to trade and it is important that any investors looking to trade take the time to educate themselves and truly understand how the market works before making any financial commitments,” he said.
He added that FXTM has instituted Forex Factor, suited to new traders or those who would like to improve their skills and test their strategies in a risk free environment, while experiencing FXTM’s world class products, top quality services and multi-lingual support.
Explaining on the philosophy behind forex, he defined the market as an international currency market with the language focused on money.
Therefore, companies trade in shares, so do countries trade in currency; unfortunately, the Nigerian Naira is yet to find its entry to the market due to instability. Apparently, ten major currencies rule the market, like the United States dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), Japanese Yen (JPY), etc.
Why Forex? Ladipo enumerated reasons the market has come to stay, such as, the high level of profitability with; safer than stock market shares; high liquidity as your capital remains; low start up entry cost and price stability is maintained with no central location which eliminates manipulations.
That does not imply forex is risk-free, just as the Marketing Manager stated, “Greed is the principal reason people record losses in the market. Thus, when the market opens at Sunday night, traders are advised to buy and sell based on their capabilities to avoid loses by Friday Night”.
Olugbenga Fagbohun, trainer & consultant, FXTM Nigeria, while explaining further on the technicalities, said that the one’s capital doled out for trading is like the collateral to take a loan from a bank. On taking the “loan” the trader is left with his intellectual alertness and assertiveness to reap from the boisterous market.
Thus, “Ask Price” is what the brokers like FXTM sell to the trader, while the “Bid” is what the seller (trader) sells to the broker. For example, it is possible for a trader to control a position of US$100,000 by putting down as little as US$1,000 up front and borrowing the remainder from his or her forex broker.
This amount of leverage acts as a double-edged sword because investors can realize large gains when rates make a small favorable change, but they also run the risk of a massive loss when the rates move against them. Despite the foreign exchange risks, the amount of leverage available in the forex market is what makes it attractive for many speculators. These were explained in details during the demo competition.
Meanwhile, the participants were presented with a virtual capital of $100,000. After the keenly contest, Obinna Chima of ThisDay Newspaper came first; Odinaka Mbonu (BusinessDay) was second and Kunle Binuyo from (Connect Nigeria) came third, winning different Samsung Galaxy phones.
Madu Nwegbu, IT manager, FXTM Nigeria, who provided the technical support for the “trader” emphasized that as FXTM rapidly grows from strength to strength on a global scale, the competition is a great way for novice traders around the world to get to grips with the forex world while honing in on their talent as they give it their best shot in the fun new demo challenge.
FXTM had in November 4, 2013 commenced a demo for interested trader where a talented trader receive a prize of $3000 credit in a live FXTM trading account, while a further eight runners up were recognised with prizes of trading credit.
The initiative is one which runs in line with the overall company ethos for innovation while always trying to find new ways to engage traders and increase knowledge about what it takes to be successful in forex trading today.
The demo contest is an excellent way for new clients to learn how to use the MT4 platform, come up with a personalized workable trading strategy, and get to know FXTM’s customer centric support and services.
FXTM is fully aware that no one customer is the same, and is dedicated to ensuring that each client’s individual needs and aspirations are catered for.
picture: contestants at the FXTM demo competition held in Lagos in December, 2013.