is aReferring Broker of:
New to Forex
Overview of Advantages | ||
Advantage | Forex Market | Stock Market |
24-hour market | Yes | Limited |
No-commission trading* | Yes | Limited |
Short trades without uptick | Yes | No |
Simple access to market information | Yes | Yes |
* | ||
24-Hour Market
The forex market is a seamless 24-hour market and is open from Sunday 5:15 PM EST (New York Time) through Friday 5:00 PM EST. In addition, FXCM offers 24/7 customer support. The ability to trade any time, night or day, on forex markets enables traders to set their trading times themselves. As an FXCM customer, you can enters and exit trades any time you like without having to wait for an opening bell, which can create price gaps.
No-Commission Trading
On the forex market, you do not pay any commissions or transaction fees, either for online or telephone orders. The cost of filling orders is covered by the bid/ask spread. On the other hand, offers for commission-free trading in stocks are usually limited and subject to restrictions. Traders also have to pay a bid/ask spread for stock trades in addition to the commission. In contrast, the forex market does not have any commissions or trading fees. (FXCM and FX Trading24 are compensated for their services by the spread between the bid and ask prices.)
Short Trades Without Uptick
Unlike the stock market, the forex market places no limitations on short trades. On the currency market, you can take advantage of trading opportunities in both rising and falling markets, whether a trader holds a short position or goes long, regardless of what direction the market takes. Since currency trading involves the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another, there are no structural influences on the market. This gives traders equal access to both rising and falling markets.
Simple Access to Market Information
On the stock market a huge amount of information is available on most individual stocks. To find attractive trading opportunities, you have to sift through numerous information sources, but forex traders can focus their attention exclusively on six primary currencies. In addition, information about revenues and corporate profits of listed companies is frequently not even audited before being released. As a result, the figures are often either not entirely true, as hindsight has proven again and again, or they are used to intentionally mislead or for unfair purposes, such as insider trading. By comparison, all of the news relevant to the forex market is available to everybody, equally and simultaneously.
The expertise acquired by share traders in analysing stocks can easily be applied to the forex market. Many economic indicators, such as economic growth and prime interest rates, which share traders are generally well aware of, also impact currency prices. In addition, many technical stock traders have discovered the attractiveness of the forex market for themselves, since currencies are easier to trade with traditional indicators such as MACD or RSI, and tools such as bar or candlestick charts.
