Thoughts of a Stay-at-Home Trader

Dear friends, traders, and haters

You may view this post as an advertisement or a way to draw traffic into my website, maybe it is. But I would appreciate it if you can skip beyond this trash talk and focus on any value this thread might have for new traders.

Below I will be sharing excerpts of articles I have written, that aims to provide Forex intel I have gathered over the past 10 years, written by my editing team who are also Financial experts, in the aim to convey messages in a funny, captivating, but informative manner.

I appreciate positive and negative feedback, but not insulting feedback. Haters will be banned.

My website is below and I plan to further enhance it and build a working relationship with the thread followers.

POSITIVE VIBES ONLY.

https://forexquarters.com/

LESSONS TO MASTER THE MARKET

Forex success begins by learning the Forex basics, how markets operate, and the fundamentals of currency levels. Our Forex School is suited for both beginners and experts who are keen to fill in the gaps towards their objective of mastering and conquering the Forex Exchange Market. ForexQuarters (FXQ) Academy is committed to offering you extensive knowledge provided by our top investors and CFA® Charterholders.

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By committing to our learning resources, investors and traders are assured the utmost quality of learning outcomes which will feed their Forex learning curve, reflecting positively on investment performance and hedging potentials within the overall wealth allocation efforts. Throughout this course, you will be granted the knowledge of our experienced analysts and CFA® Charterholders, who are keen to deliver the highest quality of market systems and methodologies at a click of a button. Our trading courses and guides will teach you how to avoid over-exposing your assets through smart strategies and trading plans that allow you to profit in both trending and ranging markets, thus lowering risk exposures.

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Investors have continually relied and resorted to our Forex guides and education to boost their Forex development, whether beginners or experts, through capitalizing on our basic and advanced Forex offerings. Below you can find our full list of courses and modules of our Forex curriculum where traders can capitalize on the information below in order to boost their knowledge and their trading performance by staying updated with the latest systems and strategies, in line with the latest market dynamics.

We strive to deliver extensive Forex Modules to boost our clients’ knowledge and trading performance

INTRODUCTION TO BASIC FOREX EXCHANGE MARKET AND THE ASSOCIATED DYNAMICS
Our introductory course will introduce you to the basics of forex, how the Forex Exchange Market operates, who are the main players in the market, and the benefits and risks of investing in the Forex Market. Clients will be introduced to the main Forex notions and terminologies, which will grant them access to the mysterious world of Forex Trading. Our analysts at FXQ are here to guide you through the full spectrum and all the intricacies of the Forex Market, the ins-and-outs of trading, and keep you updated with the newest profitable trading strategies that will enhance your trading performance.

1. What is the Forex Exchange Market and Which Instruments are Traded?
2. Why Should you Learn to Trade Forex and is it Really Worth it?
3. What are the Best Sources to Learn Forex Trading and Become an Expert?
4. Who Trades Forex and can you Become a Millionaire Forex Trader?

DEEP ANALYSIS OF VOLATILE FOREX ENVIRONMENTS AND THE VARIOUS TYPES OF MARKET TRANSACTIONS
Clients will capitalize on our exhaustive courses to learn about the perfect trading mediums and environments that will allow them to choose the right trading partner. Efficient Forex transactions require extensive learning about the pros and cons of each order type to better align them with the client-developed trading strategy. Clients will be introduced to Forex Trading Technical Analysis, whereby it can be thought of as an illustration of the forces of Supply and Demand within the market through drawing out overbought and oversold zones or displaying volume and of momentum parameters.

1. Discussing the Differences between the Forex Market and Other Exchanges
2. How to Choose the Best Forex Broker Based on Various Criteria?
3. Analyzing the Best Forex Order Types Based on Strategy and Market Conditions
4. Understanding Forex Charts and the Power of Forex Trading Technical Analysis

DISCUSSION OF INFAMOUS MONEY MANAGEMENT METRICS AND HOW TO GUARD AGAINST MARGIN CALLS
Within our third Forex School Module, clients will learn the deep theories relating to Forex Money Management and the risks involved in over-leveraging their trading accounts. Money Management (MM) is the key for survivability within the volatile and sporadic Forex Market because of the small alterations in market structure and dynamics that arise due to market inefficiencies and sporadic volatility. Few are the traders that understand the risks behind Leveraged-trading and how it can directly and negatively impact the bottom-line and the account balance.

1. Understanding Forex Margin Level and Forex Leverage as a Double-Edged Sword
2. Forex Money Management Strategies in Context of Total Portfolio Risk
3. Advantages of Utilizing a Forex Moving Average to Predict Market Cycles
4. Combined Technical and Fundamental Analysis Approach to Conquer the Market

I believe that understanding the value of a currency and how it fluctuates is the principle to the beginning of any Forex trading journey.

CURRENCIES ARE ALL AROUND US


Currency is not money. We most certainly lost you there, but it is true. Most people tend to confuse the two, believing that the ‘paper money’ we carry can be called real money. In fact, the right term for this paper is fiat currency, as it is purely a representation of money and not a store of value, like gold and silver. In turn, real store of value items can be called money whereby it maintains its purchasing power over time and does not lose its value.
Currency is thus the tangible representation of intangible money, in the form of promissory notes or coins representing the purchasing power backed by the government. This is it, the pure contrast definition between the two often-misunderstood terms. Some analysts actually take it to the extreme and argue that throughout human history, the only sufficient and real forms of money have been Gold and Silver only. These two can be viewed as the best forms of money given their limited quantity and the ability to store a relatively large amount of money in a small physical volumetric capacity.
Currencies are formed to represent the purchasing power that citizens of a certain country possess, based on the economic and trade conditions that the country features. Oftentimes, new currencies are formed after the country has gained or regained its political and military freedoms, in order to boost its economic independency in turn. But here one might ask, what is the cause of economic and currency fluctuations? Is the value of a currency determined by its numerical value or through the strength and popularity of the currency?

Above you can find the Big Mac Index – Jan 2012, which measures the number of Big Mac Burgers from Mcdonalds that the equivalent of 100 USD can buy in the relevant countries. Let us take the cases of each of Japan, USA, and the Euro Area. Using USA as the benchmark, the Japanese Yen (JPY), from a numerical currency value, was nearly ~77 times weaker than the USD in 2012, but the above figure it can be deduced that when 100 USD is converted into JPY, the resulting value carries nearly the same purchasing power in the domestic borders of the JPY. Similarly, although the Euro (EUR) was nearly 1.3 times stronger than the USD in 2012, converting the 100 USD into EURO can buy nearly the same number of Big Macs within the Euro Area.
This aims to prove that the numerical value of the currency is not used as a representation of the strength and popularity of the currencies market. Bear with us now to take this argument one step further, currencies in many cases are pegged to other currencies, gold, and petrochemicals. But in most cases, currencies are pegged to the USD as a reference currency and thus, exchange rates are rather fixed and not much can be deduced from the numerical values of currencies.
Thus, currency exchange rates are a byproduct of market forces of supply and demand in addition to the interactions of economic and political stability variables, such as inflation, foreign trade, monetary interventions, conductive economic environments, and geopolitical forces.

What are your thoughts? How is a currency valued and why does it fluctuate?

here is a couple years younger link, to balance out the how many burgers picture somewhat...vs how many minutes work to buy one Big Mac...
that that is how suddenly most of those "expensive" countries starting to be actually the cheapest relative living cost, when wages also factored in!

http://www.citymayors.com/economics/big-mac-guide.html

Thank you for the input. Puts things greater into perspective.

What is then the driver for currency fluctuation? Some will say it is demand vs supply, but how instantenuous can that be?