In 1972, for the first time ever, everyday investors were allowed to trade the difference in currency values in the United States. Much of the world had just stopped pegging their currencies against the dollar and the oil industry was fueling a worldwide explosion in importing and exporting activity. To tap into this, currency trading was introduced in the form of futures contracts. At the time, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was strictly involved with agricultural products, but it saw the potential economic success of servicing the then nascent currency exchange market and decided to give it a chance.
By 2008, currency trading exceeded $3 trillion dollars daily, but the majority of traders only participate in a fraction of the currency opportunities available to them. However, the currency market is a multilayered kaleidoscope of spot, futures and options trading. The currency market also has very distinct trending patterns that can become more difficult to interpret the shorter the time frame to trade. This is the problem that many new currency traders face as they enter the world of spot trading, but it can be overcome by combining spot, futures and options currency trades. Read on to learn how this works.
Spot Trading Challenges
With the introduction of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, spot currency trading (forex) became the rage. Traders that were new to currency trading could enter the spot market with as little as $300, giving them leverage of almost 500:1. While the leverage is inexpensive, small fluctuations can represent larger losses, as well as large profits, in a short period of time. Another major drawback to spot currency trading is the potential interest rate charges of holding on to a spot contract past the requisite 24-hour time period. Combine these issues with the slippage that occurs as a result of sporadic trading activity, and the challenges quickly become apparent as to why traders may find trading in the forex spot market difficult. (For more, see Getting Started In Forex.)
There is a better way. When currency trading was first introduced in the futures market, it was created to act as protection - a hedge for multinational corporations and banks that needed to protect themselves from the downside risk of buying free floating currencies. They would take delivery of a particular currency, such as the Canadian dollar, and then short it in the futures market or buy a put in the options market just in case the currency dropped in value. This protection would allow them to hold on to their Canadian dollar trade longer in the face of short-term fluctuations that were simply minor retracements in an overall longer term trend. In the past 30 years, nothing has changed. The currency spot market can still be protected by the futures currency market, and the option currency market can protect both the spot and the futures currency market. The interrelationship between the currency spot and options and futures currency markets is rarely exploited by retail traders. Retail traders are typically fixated on fast profits with little regard to the downside risk beyond placing a stop order. This approach is just one-third of the currency universe. With the proper combination of the spot market and the futures market, or the spot market and the options market, a currency trader can optimize performance by taking advantage of both the short-term fluctuations while catching the long-term moves that would be missed by trading the spot market alone.
In 1972, for the first time ever, everyday investors were allowed to trade the difference in currency values in the United States. Much of the world had just stopped pegging their currencies against the dollar and the oil industry was fueling a worldwide explosion in importing and exporting activity. To tap into this, currency trading was introduced in the form of futures contracts. At the time, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was strictly involved with agricultural products, but it saw the potential economic success of servicing the then nascent currency exchange market and decided to give it a chance.
By 2008, currency trading exceeded $3 trillion dollars daily, but the majority of traders only participate in a fraction of the currency opportunities available to them. However, the currency market is a multilayered kaleidoscope of spot, futures and options trading. The currency market also has very distinct trending patterns that can become more difficult to interpret the shorter the time frame to trade. This is the problem that many new currency traders face as they enter the world of spot trading, but it can be overcome by combining spot, futures and options currency trades. Read on to learn how this works.
Spot Trading Challenges
With the introduction of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, spot currency trading (forex) became the rage. Traders that were new to currency trading could enter the spot market with as little as $300, giving them leverage of almost 500:1. While the leverage is inexpensive, small fluctuations can represent larger losses, as well as large profits, in a short period of time. Another major drawback to spot currency trading is the potential interest rate charges of holding on to a spot contract past the requisite 24-hour time period. Combine these issues with the slippage that occurs as a result of sporadic trading activity, and the challenges quickly become apparent as to why traders may find trading in the forex spot market difficult. (For more, see Getting Started In Forex.)
There is a better way. When currency trading was first introduced in the futures market, it was created to act as protection - a hedge for multinational corporations and banks that needed to protect themselves from the downside risk of buying free floating currencies. They would take delivery of a particular currency, such as the Canadian dollar, and then short it in the futures market or buy a put in the options market just in case the currency dropped in value. This protection would allow them to hold on to their Canadian dollar trade longer in the face of short-term fluctuations that were simply minor retracements in an overall longer term trend. In the past 30 years, nothing has changed. The currency spot market can still be protected by the futures currency market, and the option currency market can protect both the spot and the futures currency market. The interrelationship between the currency spot and options and futures currency markets is rarely exploited by retail traders. Retail traders are typically fixated on fast profits with little regard to the downside risk beyond placing a stop order. This approach is just one-third of the currency universe. With the proper combination of the spot market and the futures market, or the spot market and the options market, a currency trader can optimize performance by taking advantage of both the short-term fluctuations while catching the long-term moves that would be missed by trading the spot market alone.
Source: Investopedia