Currency trading offers a host of benefits for the small investor today and here we look at just five reasons for taking advantage of the lucrative world of Forex trading.

1. The 24 Hour Nature Of Trading.

The majority of the world's trading markets operate out of fixed trading centers and to strictly limited hours, normally between Monday and Friday. However, because currency trading takes place around the world you have the ability to trade 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

This means that, since most private traders operate from their own homes, you can decide just when you want to trade, whether it is in the morning, afternoon, evening or even in the middle of the night. It also means that, whatever happens in the world, you have the ability to take advantage of events and their effect of particular currencies instantly and are not frustrated by having to wait for the market to open.

2. Very Low Trading Costs.

With many traditional markets, including the equity markets, trading costs can be high and brokerage fees in particular can quickly mount with commissions on even quite small trades being $20 or $30 and commission on larger traded running into hundreds of dollars. Trading costs are however very much lower in currency trading and the electronic nature of the market means that even the traditional bid/offer spread is much lower on currency trades than of other market trades.

3. High Leverage.

The Forex market is not the only market which allows you to trade on leverage but leverage in currency trading is typically far higher than that seen elsewhere. For example, professional equity traders will generally be permitted to leverage ten times their capital whereas even private currency traders are typically permitted to leverage one hundred times their capital. Of course you do have to be careful and one downside to the availability of high leverage trading is that it can lead not only to high profits, but also to high losses. Fortunately however the market tends to regulate risk management fairly tightly.

4. Limited Slippage.

Unlike many markets, currency trading offers the immediate execution of trading orders at real-time prices and, in almost all cases, this means that the price you see is the price you pay. For people who have experienced trading in other markets there is nothing more frustrating than executing a trade only to find that by the time the trade is settled prices have moved and you end up with less money than you expected.

5. The Ability To Profit From Rising And Falling Markets.

Equity traders know only too well the cycle of Bull and Bear markets which has a dramatic effect not only on profits, but also on the ability to actually trade. Fortunately, the structure of the currency trading market means Forex traders do not suffer from such problems. Because currency trading always involves a pair of currencies, if you are short on one currency then you are long on the other and so the possibility of profiting is always there regardless of whether the market is falling or rising.

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