With the increasingly widespread use of the internet, foreign currency trading has never been more accessible to investors. The participation of large international corporations, hedge funds and banks makes the foreign currency (Forex) market the most highly traded and most liquid market in the world. The Forex market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, with more than $1.4 trillion dollars changing hands every day.

This tremendous liquidity together with the availability of different currency pairs can result in a high level of volatility on a day-to-day basis. Forex markets are also highly affected by financial news releases which are relatively frequent and can bring about huge swings in the value of a currency. These fluctuations in price give traders opportunity to profit. Forex markets offer investors the ability to profit in both rising and falling markets. With a wide range of instruments to trade and highly leveraged trading, it is possible to begin trading Forex with a very small account.

Most of the instruments traded on the Forex market have a minimum trade size, calculated on the base currency, a common minimum trade size is 100,000 units, for this reason the use of leverage is essential for traders. Many Forex brokers offer mini accounts, where traders are able to place trades with a minimum size of 10,000 units.
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