Forex Walkthrough

Level 2 Markets - Forex Vs. Stocks

Differences Between Forex and Equities
A major difference between the forex and equities markets is the number of trading alternatives available: the forex market has very few compared to the thousands found in the stock market. The majority of forex traders focus their efforts on seven different currency pairs. There are four "major" currency pairs, which include EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, and the three commodity pairs, USD/CAD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD. Don't worry, we will discuss these pairs in detail in the next portion of our forex walkthrough. All other pairs are just different combinations of the same currencies, better known as cross currencies. This makes currency trading easier to follow because rather than having to pick between 10,000 stocks to find the best value, the only thing FX traders need to do is "keep up" on the economic and political news of these eight countries.

Quite often, the stock markets can hit a lull, resulting in shrinking volumes and activity. As a result, it may be hard to open and close positions when you'd like to. Furthermore, in a declining market it is only with extreme ingenuity and sometimes luck that an equities investor can make a profit. It is difficult to short-sell in the U.S. stock market because of strict rules and regulations. On the other hand, forex offers the opportunity to profit in both rising and declining markets because with every trade, you are buying and selling at the same time, and short-selling is, therefore, a part of every trade. In addition, since the forex market is so liquid, traders are not required to wait for an uptick before they are allowed to enter into a short position, as is the rule in the stock market.



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