Think Forex And Consider These Two FactorsPosted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010 In this article I will cover two important advantages that the Forex market offers to traders. Daytrading with a small account Risk Control Generally, there are two situation where this can happen. The first has to do with the liquidity of the market. Within this article, we can consider liquidity as a synonymous of trading volume. If liquidity is poor in a market, there might be a significant price difference from one execution to the next one. You can notice this easily in any intraday chart of a small volume security: the price does not move in a continuous an harmonic way, like it does in a very liquid market; rather, it has a tendency to "jump" from one level to the next. This can affect the execution of your orders in a negative way. The phenomenon is also referred to as "slippage". Here we consider in particular the exit order, but slippage can affect your entry order as well, and this could translate in for example in a buy order executed at a higher price than the one you wanted to buy. The Forex market does not fear competitors about liquidity. 1.5 Trillions dollar are traded in Forex every day. The other markets follow at a big distance. The second factor that gives trouble to risk control is in the occurence of price gaps. Say your stock closes today at 63, and your stop order is at 61.5. In theory, your maximum risk is 1.5 points per share. But the stock for any reason tomorrow opens for trading at 57, and you will be stopped out at that price, so the actual loss will be 5 points per share. Gaps are common in stocks whenever an important news is announced when the market is closed. Sometime an important news can cause a gap even intraday, especially in a not so liquid market. Some other times, the trading in a stock is suspended just in the wait of an important pending news. A gap in almost assured when the news is released. Of course, your position can also benefit from a gap, if the gap direction is in your favour. But the point here is that the occurence of gaps reduces your power to control risk with a stop loss order. The Forex market is virtually always open from Monday to Friday. There can be wild intraday moves caused by news, but the occurence of gaps is very rare within the week. These are just two of the potential advantages the Forex market offers to traders. There are many others that I will not cover here, from the cost of trading (commissions are often zero), to the amount necessary to open an account (which can be very low). All these factor explain why the Forex market is attracting more and more traders. Good trading Like it? Share it!More by this author |