    |
Why Trade FOREX?The FX markets are open 24 hours per day during the FX business week.Indviduals looking to profit from market movements can act any time of the day or night during the FX trading week to take advantage of changing market conditions. Chicago Mercantile ExchangeŽ (CME) offers electronic access to its entire range of FX futures, virtually 24 hours per day during the FX trading week. The extended access throughout the day was made possible with the introduction of "side-by-side" electronic trading with floor trading, occurring in CME futures pits. Why trade FOREX? Trading in the FOREX markets offers diversification. In today's equity market environment, diversification is a critical factor in individual portfolio management. FOREX Futures offer valuable market diversification for an investment portforlio that has equity market risk. Exchange rates march to their own beat. On a historical basis, changes in exchange rates have had very low correlations with price movements in stock market values and interest rates. This lack of any systematic relationship can be exploited to lower portfolio risk and generate positive returns when other markets are in a depressed state. When a trader initiates a position in a currency, it is either a bullish or bearish outlook versus other currencies. If the outlook is bullish, a trader can profit by purchasing that currency against other currencies. However, if an outlook is bearish, a trader can profit by selling that currency against other currencies. The Parker FX Index*, a benchmark which measures the returns of global currency managers, reveals healthy returns over the last three years. As of 2002, the Parker FX Index revealed gains of 3.24 percent over the last three months (as of December 2002), a 7.99 percent gain over the past 12 months, a 12.63 percent gain over the last two years and a 20.8 percent gain over the past three years. Past performance in a particular financial instrument or index is not necessarily indicative of future results. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading futures on any type of investment product. Why Trade FOREX? The FOREX market is unique because of its size and liquidity. The average daily trade in the global forex markets currently exceeds US$1.9 trillion. The FOREX market is deep and liquid, offering traders the oppurtunity to efficiently enter the market. The FOREX market offers long trading hours, covers the globe and a lot of factors influence currency prices.
|
