Psychology of Trading: Attributes of a Successful Trader

The successful trading is 80% psychological and 20% methodological. That is why; self-knowledge and study of its own patterns of behavior is the key to success.

We all know that the forex market is highly volatile and often decisions must be taken in very short periods of time. Uncertainties are on all things, and even today we have the help of many tools and techniques, no one really knows what will happen with the market prices. Faced with a downward transaction, no one knows exactly how low will prices fall or how high they will rise, the question is how much will I risk. All this creates great anxiety and nervousness in forex operators, which often end up losing their money by making hasty decisions.

Control over your emotions and stress management

Given that everyone has access to the same information, the same news, the same numbers, indicators, statistics, etc… What makes the difference between winning and losing trad? The answer is that the former remain emotionally stable at all times. They can handle the pressure of risk and can control their emotions. They also understand that losing is part of the business. Trust in its methods and systems, giving them the peace of mind that losses are only small setbacks that will last a certain time and then be recovered.

The most important thing is to enter calmly and with confidence knowing that everything will turn out right. Planning in advance our strategies to operate on them will give us greater sense of security.

Controlling your emotions can be achieved through: Trust in the probabilistic model, to be psychologically prepared to lose, to operate without fear and self-criticism. We must not be satisfied with the way we trade, but we must investigate our errors and design techniques to overcome them. Keeping a log of errors is quite useful to shed bad habits and avoid falling back into them. All this as a whole guide will provide greater security and peace of mind in difficult times.

The question among the rookie traders is: When are you ready? That is, when you have enough knowledge (of both the market and ourselves), and when it becomes aware of what they learned and the sense of one’s own emotions into effect. That is, when there is awareness of one’s own inner states, resources and intuitions, and when you make a correct assessment of your own strengths and weaknesses as Traders. All this ends in one thing: confidence in oneself, valuing our skills and emotional.

Fear and greed: Two sides of a coin

Both can lead to losses even if the reasons are different.

FEAR: There is fear usually when there are down trending markets and traders can be carried away by despair. The impulse response in this case is to close all positions quickly to avoid further losses. The point here is that these movements are often market peaks that eventually reverse. The trader that acts calmly and beforehand verifies indicators and trends is more likely to take advantage of changes in the market and avoid losses. That’s why the best in these cases is to set a “stop loss” and respect it, because in “difficult” times you will not be thinking with total objectivity and reasoning.

GREED: This is contrary to the case of fear. Greed occurs when the gains are increased and the operator fails to distinguish a time when to get out of a position, always waiting to “get something closer to the market.” Of course this also has its peak before starting to fall, which in the best case scenario achieves minor gains and at worst … could even lose money.

To avoid falling prey to these emotions, the important thing here is to understand that both parameters, Stop Loss and Limit to be set before each transaction based on the fundamental and technical analysis of it, and then they must be RESPECTED.

Remember:
Stop Loss: how much am I willing to lose.

Limit: How much am I willing to earn.

Sell the Pound Against the Euro and Dollar

The British Pound was weak against major currencies as an economic research institute projected continued declines in GDP and housing prices and warned that a substantial recovery may not occur for several years. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research projected at least two additional quarters of GDP contraction and forecast declines in housing prices stretching to at least 2012. Meanwhile, there are additional funding needs for major banks Barclays and RBS put additional pressure on the Pound. The U.K. currency lost ground against the Dollar, Euro, and Yen.

It is considered likely that the Pound will experience on-going weakness over the coming months. Economic data suggest that Britain is the weakest of the major economies and the pace of recovery will lag that of the U.S. and EU. Retail sales and GDP data to be released Thursday and Friday, respectively, are expected to show continued problems for the U.K. economy. There is no catalyst in the immediate future for improvement in either the macroeconomic picture for the U.K. nor in the performance of the Pound. It is recommended of selling the Pound against both the Euro and the Dollar.

Guidelines to creating own Forex Trading System

1. Choosing your Time Frame:

This is the first step, where you will need to answer yourself: how many hours you want to dedicate to trading? Would you prefer sitting in front of the monitor constantly for several hours trading short (5, 15, 30 minutes) time frames that would require constant market monitoring and quick reaction to price moves OR you would be more comfortable with setting up your charts once or twice a day and never turn your monitor on during the rest of the time?

This is pretty much about the comfort and free time you have on your hands that could be spend in the Forex currency world, however, while testing your new strategies you may want to find out about their performance in different time frames and then choose the most accurate and profitable option.

2. Choosing Trading Tools:

There are plenty of trading tools and indicators available to Forex traders, but not all of them could give the fastest signal about upcoming trading opportunities. And traders’ goal, of course, is to get into the trade as early as possible and take maximum advantage of price moves.

Among indicators that could provide traders with a fast signal about upcoming changes and possible trading opportunities are such indicators as EMA (Exponential Moving Average), SMA (Simple Moving Average), Parabolic SAR; Fast, Slow or Full Stochastic, MACD and others.

One of the common ways to spot a trend reversal as fast as possible is to use Moving Averages. Such simple strategy as using 5 EMA and 10 EMA crossover will show trend reversal and new trading opportunity at its earliest stage.

Another example would be Stochastic lines crossover or MACD lines crossover. The idea behind it is simple: when two line cross each other the trend is changing to the opposite and new opportunity for entry arises. Stochastic and MACD indicators also use moving averages.

Combining indicators on the one chart and experimenting with indicators values, traders can create an optimal and the fastest way to spot the early trading opportunities.

3. Choosing a currency pair and finding its active trading hours:

Currencies have their own “characters” or behavior. Some are extremely active like GBP/USD or GBP/CHF, some are quite consistent and steady trending like EUR/JPY or EUR/GBP.

Different indicator set-ups, different values may be used to achieve best results for each currency pair.

Also a good idea is to find the most active hours for a chosen currency pair. Those hours of currency highest activity are easy to spot on the chart and should be used to get maximum profits during the trading session.

4. Choosing additional trading tools to confirm signals received earlier:

Once we found time frame, indicators and currency pair(s) that respond the best it is time for the most crucial step — finding additional tools/indicators that will confirm received earlier signals and give either a green light for action or save Trader from fake-outs.

As a confirmation indicator Trader can use again any indicator or trading tool he/she is well familiar with. It is recommended to be more sophisticated in choosing additional tool to confirm the prior signal. It could be also the same indicator but with different settings.

For example, with our initial 5 EMA and 10 EMA crossover method we could use additional 20 EMA line and wait until 5 EMA crosses 10 EMA (which is the first signal) and continues through 20 EMA (which would be our confirmation for action).

Or instead, we could opt for MACD indicator – it is a very good Forex indicator that can reveal a lot of useful information. Finding the best working value set-up for MACD (it has initial settings are (12, 26, 9) ) that will perfectly match our time frame and particular currency behavior we can use it as a great confirmation indicator to separate most promising trades from fake, loosing ones.

Other good indicators/tools to confirm the signals are RSI, Stochastic, Fibonacci etc. Improvising and learning Trader can find the one that produce best results.

Planning Forex Trading Strategies

Forex trading strategies are based on fundamental and technical types of analysis. This article gives you a better understanding of both types and ways of implementing them into your Forex trading strategies.

FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS

Political and economic changes are the basis here as they frequently affect currency prices. Traders relying on this analysis gather information about unemployment forecasts, political ideologies, economic policies, inflation and growth rates from news sources. Most traders combine Forex trading strategies to plot actual entrance and exit points and double-check the information.

Forex trading strategies consider that just like most markets the market is controlled by supply and demand. The two most critical affecting factors for them are interest rates and the strength of the economy that is affected by changes in the GDP, trade balances and the amount of foreign investment.

International Trade. If there is a trade deficit, it is usually considered a negative indicator, as more money is leaving the country than entering it. This can have a devaluing effect on the currency, but usually trade imbalances are already factored into the market consideration. If a country normally operates with a trade deficit, currency price should be unaffected. It will change if the deficit is greater than expected.

The cost of living (CPI) and the cost of producing goods (PPI) are important indicators as well. You should also watch the GDP (the value of all the goods produced in the country) and the M2 Money Supply which measures the total amount of currency for a country.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

It is based on the following assumptions:

1. Combined market forces (political events, economic conditions, seasonal fluctuations, supply and demand) cause currency price movements considered in Forex trading strategies.

2. Currency prices on the Forex market follow trends. Predictable consequences have been linked with many recognized market patterns.

3. Forex trading strategies can rely on historical trends to predict current price movements. Forex market data has been collected for the last 100 years, over that time certain patterns have become emergent. Human psychology and the way people react to certain circumstances are the basis of these patterns.

Most traders consider technical analysis to be of critical importance even though they may also use fundamental analysis to support and confirm their Forex trading strategies. Unlike fundamental analysis, technical analysis can be applied to many currencies and markets at the same time. Since fundamental analysis requires detailed knowledge of the economic and political conditions of a certain country, it is nearly impossible for any single trader to perform it properly on more than a few countries.

Forex beginners may consider the complexities of technical analysis overwhelming and even unnecessary but if you wish to ensure the success of your Forex trading strategies do not ignore both analysis types.

Mapping out your Forex trading strategies, you should learn the market and study trends before you begin active trading. Most brokers will provide you with a practice account where you can place "paper trades" - practice trades where no real money is made or lost. But they act just like a real trade, so you can see exactly how your trade would have turned out if you had placed it for real. This allows you to become familiar with your broker's system as well as learning about the market without risking any money.

The second part of this article explores various charts and indicators you need to use while planning your unique Forex trading strategies.

READING FOREX CHARTS

Price charts can be simple line, bar or even candlestick graphs. They show prices during specified time intervals that can be anywhere from minutes to years.

Line charts are the easiest to read, they give a broad overview of price movement. They only show the closing price for the specified interval and make it easy to pick out patterns and trends.

With a bar chart the length of a line displays the price spread during the time interval. The larger the bar, the greater the price difference between the high and low price for that interval. It is easy to tell at a glance if the price rose or fell, because the left tab shows the opening price and the right tab the closing price. Then the bar will give you the price variation.Printed bar charts can be difficult to read but most software charts have a zoom function so you can easily read even closely spaced bars while mapping out your Forex trading strategies.

Candlestick charts are very similar to bar charts - they both show high, low, open and closed prices for indicated time periods. Originally developed in Japan for analyzing candlestick contracts, they are very useful for analyzing Forex prices and are therefore a handy "tool" in Forex trading strategy planning. However the color coding makes it easier to read the chart, green candlestick indicates the rising price and the red - the falling price.

The actual candlestick shape in reference to the candlesticks around it will tell you a lot about the price movement and will greatly aid your analysis. Depending on the price spread various patterns will be formed by the candlesticks. Many of the shapes have exotic names, but once you learn the patterns, they are easy to pick out, analyze and use while working out your Forex trading strategies.

Price charts are not usually used alone. To get the full effect, you need to combine them with some technical indicators: trend, strength, volatility and cycle indicators. The most commonly used indicators are:

Average Directional Movement Index (ADX) helps indicate if the market is moving in a trend in either direction and how strong the trend is. If a trend has readings in excess of 25 then it is considered a stronger trend. Effective "tool" when planning your Forex trading strategies.

Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) shows the relationship between the moving averages which allows you to determine the momentum of the market. Any time that the signal line is crossed by the MACD it is considered to be a strong market.

Stochastic Oscillator compares the closing price to the price range over a specific time frame to determine the strength or weakness of the market. If a currency has a stochastic of greater than 80 it is considered overbought. However, if the stochastic is under 20 then the currency is considered undersold.

Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) is a scale from 1 to 100 that compares the high and low prices over time. If the RSI rises above 70 it is considered overbought where as anything below 30 is considered oversold.

Moving Average is created by comparing the average price for a time period to the average price of other time periods.

Forex Brokers

To help you narrow down your search, here's a list of some of the leading online forex brokers:

Alpari

Location: Russia / UK / US
Online Since: 1998
Account Types: Micro / Classic
Minimum Account Size: $200
Free Demo Account: Yes (unlimited)
Spreads: 1.8+
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4

(Note: Alpari has three different websites (UK, US and Russia) so account features may vary).

CMS Forex

Location: US
Online Since: 1999
Account Types: Universal (trade mini and standard lots from same account)
Minimum Account Size: $200
Free Demo Account: Yes
Spreads: 2 pips for EUR/USD and USD/JPY pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: VT Trader 2.0

dbFX

Location: Germany
Online Since: 2006
Account Types: Standard
Minimum Account Size: $5000
Free Demo Account: Yes
Spreads: 2-4 pips for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: dbFX Trading Platform

Dukascopy

Location: Switzerland
Online Since: 2004
Account Types: Live / Managed
Minimum Account Size: $50,000
Free Demo Account: Yes (14 days)
Spreads: 0-2 pips for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: Java / JForex / Web

Forex.com (part of GAIN Capital)

Location: US
Online Since: 1998
Account Types: Mini / Standard
Minimum Account Size: $250
Free Demo Account: Yes (30 days)
Spreads: 1.1+ for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4

FXCM

Location: US
Online Since: 1999
Account Types: Mini / Standard
Minimum Account Size: $2000
Free Demo Account: Yes
Spreads: Typical spreads between 2 and 4 pips for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4

(Note: Separate Micro account also available).

FXDD

Location: US
Online Since: 2002
Account Types: Mini / Standard
Minimum Account Size: $250
Free Demo Account: Yes (90 days)
Spreads: 2 pips for EUR/USD pair
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4 / MTXtreme / FXDD Trader / FXDD Auto / Power Trader

FXPro

Location: Cyprus
Online Since: 2008
Account Types: Standard / Premium
Minimum Account Size: $500
Free Demo Account: Yes (unlimited)
Spreads: 0.5+ for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4

GFT Forex

Location: US / Worldwide
Online Since: 2001
Account Types: Mini / Standard / Silver / Gold / Platinum
Minimum Account Size: $250
Free Demo Account: Yes
Spreads: 3-4 pips for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: DealBook 360

Interactive Brokers

Location: US
Online Since: 1998
Account Types: Universal
Minimum Account Size: $3000+ (depending on the type of account)
Free Demo Account: No
Spreads: 1 pip for EUR/USD pair
Charts / Trading Platform: Trader Workstation

Interbank FX

Location: US
Online Since: 2001
Account Types: Mini / Standard
Minimum Account Size: No minimum
Free Demo Account: Yes (30 days)
Spreads: 2 pips for EUR/USD pair
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4

MB Trading

Location: US
Online Since: 2002
Account Types: Standard
Minimum Account Size: $400
Free Demo Account: Yes
Spreads: 0.1-1 pip for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4

MIG Investments

Location: Switzerland
Online Since: 2003
Account Types: Standard / Professional / Institutional
Minimum Account Size: $5000
Free Demo Account: Yes (90 days)
Spreads: 2-3 pips for major currency pairs (less with institutional account)
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4

Oanda

Location: Canada
Online Since: 2001
Account Types: Standard
Minimum Account Size: No minimum
Free Demo Account: Yes (unlimited)
Spreads: 0.9 for EUR/USD pair
Charts / Trading Platform: FXTrade platform

ODL Securities

Location: UK
Online Since: 2004
Account Types: Standard (can trade from $1 per point upwards)
Minimum Account Size: $2000
Free Demo Account: Yes
Spreads: 2-3 pips for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4 (and other platforms for professional traders)

Saxo Bank

Location: Denmark
Online Since: 1999
Account Types: Saxo MiniTrader / Saxo Trader
Minimum Account Size: $2000
Free Demo Account: Yes (20 days)
Spreads: 2-3 pips for major currency pairs
Charts / Trading Platform: SaxoTrader

FAP Turbo: the real money forex robot

FapTurbo has a high trading frequency through scalping for quick pips whenever it can. Combined with a tight stop loss, your account can be multiplied faster over time.

That is why some of the users' account can multiply 2-3x in a week. It does depend on favorable trend though.

Fap Turbo monitors 5 currencies and uses the scalping method to trade all of them simultaneously. They are EURCHF, GBPCHF, EURGBP, USDCAD, EURUSD.

FapTurbo has this built in safe-filters to take small fixed losses compared to most system that uses huge stoplosses.

Fap Turbo uses a stealth mode operation that hide the profit and stoploss values from the brokers.

Benefits of FAP Turbo:

• You can multiply your account faster with short term scalping

This was the main reason why I tried out Fap Turbo. I always thought forex robots should be doing scalping and multiplying small accounts during favorable trends.

Note that I say that small accounts not your main trading capital. With compounding, you could really rake up some decent thousand% gains with only your risk money at 100% max.

Not to mention that it can trade 5 currencies at a single time!

• Your trading capital is always protected with small fixed stoploss

This feature is massive and what makes Fap Turbo works for long term. Lets face it, a software cannot cope with all kinds of market conditions. Therefore, it must take losses whenever it is wrong. That will help to preserve our earlier profits.

This is one area that the predecessor , Forex Autopilot failed to obey.

• You have an trading strategy that is working for 9 years

Ok , backtest do not mean everything but at least you have a clue on the profitability and winning rate. FapTurbo scores a 5000%+ net profit with 96% winning rate. If the trading strategies inside this expert advisor is no good, it won't even be profitable

• Your account is least likely to be flag by brokers

You should realised now that shady brokers do not like automated trading softwares. So there is every chance that they will sabotage your trading results with stoploss hunting and even banning your account. Thats why Fap Turbo employs a stealth mode operation to escape detection by most brokers.

• You are getting a upgraded version over Forex AutoPilot

Forex AutoPilot made a lot of money in the early days when market was trending big. It then came down crashing with its big stoploss when the currency turn its trend. Forex Autopilot wipe away all the earlier profits with a single 500 pips stoploss.

The goal of Fap Turbo was to improve the weaknesses of its predecessor.

Be Successful in Forex Trading

Knowing how to trade in Forex is just not enough to guarantee your success. In this largest and the most liquid financial market in the world, you need to have more than the knowledge and skills to be successful. You need to know about the different things involved in Forex to earn huge amounts of money.

Simply knowing how to trade Forex and about the major currencies traded, like the US dollar, the Japanese Yen, and others are just the basics. Knowing when and what to trade is equally vital to be successful in Forex.

You need to have a trading strategies for this. So, what exactly are the trading strategies involved in Forex? There are a number of money making strategies that you can use when trading in the Forex market.

If you use these strategies properly, you will earn huge amounts of money in a very short time. First of all, you have to realize that Forex trading is very different from stock trading. Therefore, strategies are also very different.

The first strategy that you can use to earn a lot of money in the Forex market is the leverage Forex trading strategy. The leverage Forex trading strategy, allows you, as an investor in the Forex market, to borrow money to increase your earning probabilities.

With this strategy, you can easily turn your money to 1:100 ratio. However, the risk involved can be huge. This is the reason why there are stop loss orders you can use to minimize the risk and also to minimize the loss. The leverage Forex trading strategy is one of the most commonly used strategy by Forex traders to maximize profits.

In the stop loss order strategy, the Forex trader creates a predetermined point in the trade where the investor will not trade. As mentioned before, you can use this strategy to minimize risk and loss. However, this strategy can also backfire to you, as the Forex trader. This is because you may run the risk of stopping your trades when the value of the currency goes higher than it was expected.

It is your decision if you will be using this strategy or not.

These are some of the strategies you can use when trading in the Forex market.

Forex trading is a 24 hour market where you can trade anytime and anywhere you are. If you think that the Forex market conditions are good at a specific time, then you can trade at that exact time.

Also, the Forex market is the most liquid market in the world. This implies that you can enter or exit the market anytime you want to. This is to minimize the risk and there is also no daily trading limit.

Here are other tips that you should consider in order to earn money in the Forex market and be good in doing so:

• The first and the last ticks are generally the most expensive. So, for most traders, the rule of thumb is getting in late and get out early.
• When you are losing, you should minimize the risk of losing more money. So, don’t add money when you are losing.
• Select trades that move along with the trend. This can minimize the risk of losing money and maximize the chances of profits.

There are quite a few tools you can use when trading in the Forex market. One is the Forex charts. For the speculator, the chart is the most important tool that you can use to determine market trends and accurately anticipate the future value of the currency. Even though it isn’t actually 100% accurate, you can use the Forex charts as a guide to what’s happening in the market.

It is important for you to know how to read the different charts involved in the Forex market. There are daily charts, hourly charts, 15 minute charts and even 5 minute charts to get you closer to the action. You can compare each of the data in the chart to spot market trends and at the same time, spot potential money making trends.

This can also help you minimize the risk when trading in Forex. Learning how to read charts effectively will get you on your way to become successful in the Forex market.

These are some the strategies and tips that you should take into consideration in order to minimize the risks in Forex trading and maximize your earning potential. Depending on your skills and how you apply your strategies, you can really make a lot of money in the Forex market. However, to be a truly successful Forex trader, you need to accept the fact that you will sometimes lose money. Never get discouraged when you do. Analyze your mistakes, think of a solution to get back what you lost and continue trading.

Best Chart Choices

In trying to understand what financial data predicts in future returns of a particular currency, the investor can turn to different types of graphs in order to glean varying types of information. We will outline the pros and cons of candlestick, line, and bar charts

Candlestick Charts

Candlestick charts not only provide trends in currency data but also provide bounds on the daily variation in exchange rates. However, what is more interesting is that candlestick charts also form a good measure of investor confidence in a particular foreign currency. We present an example of a candlestick chart below. Over each trading day, there is a box-and-whiskers-type figure. The box is darkened if the exchange rate closed lower than its opening price. The box is white if the opposite happened. If the box is black, the top of the box represents the opening price and the bottom represents the closing price. If the box were white, the opposite is the case. The top and bottom of the whiskers represent the daily high and low for the rate respectively.

It is exactly this attention to consumer confidence that led Japanese futures traders to turn to this chart form as early as the 1700s. In fact the distinction between candlestick charts and line and bar charts are historically the geographical difference in preference between Japanese and American traders.

A somewhat confusing aspect of candlestick charts is how conflicted Japanese traders were with the importance of prices. They thought, on one hand, that asset prices were the most important information that a trader could have before making a trade yet, simultaneously, found that asset prices did not correlate directly to the underlying value of the asset at hand. This is to say that the investors would reflect their views on the asset market in the prices they bid and asked for but that their views were not necessarily commensurate with inherent market value. Rather, these bids also involved their emotions and apprehensions to a certain extent. The reliance of traders on their emotions implied that markets would fluctuate with investor confidence.

Bar charts
Below, we present a comparison of a bar chart and a candlestick chart of the same financial information. It is immediately apparent that this chart form leaves out some information. Namely, it gives the daily high and low values, but leaves out the opening price (and therefore the day's swing), only giving the closing price which is marked as a tick on the whisker.While the bar chart does leave out certain data values, there are some advantages to this chart form as opposed to the candlestick chart. The bar chart is much less cluttered than the candlestick chart and analysts can consistently fit in more data values into less chart space with the bar chart format.

Line charts
Line charts provide yet another charting method for financial data. Their popularity stems from the fact that they are the easiest type of chart to read. In a day-by-day line chart, as in the one below, the only information above each day is the day's closing exchange rate. It is also the most amenable to presenting the most data.

As one can clearly see, the con to this type of chart is that it leaves out the most information. As was stated earlier, candlestick and bar charts provide the trader with the high and low exchange rate values, as well as the closing rate (and also the opening rate in the case of candlestick charts). This information is useful in the sense that it gives the trader a sense of the asset's volatility and direction. Line charts do not package this information well.

However, it should be noted that if the trader has more data values, it is possible to make line charts very informative. Most asset ticker websites nowadays have continuous streaming financial data, which means that their line charts contain all the data that is available on a particular asset, including exchange rates that the forex trader might be interested in.

On the other hand, while the line chart acts as a graphical representation of the exchange rate as a function of time, it does not organize the high and low prices for that particular exchange rate in relation to the opening and closing prices as succinctly as a candlestick chart would. Rather, it gives the trader all of that same information plus more, arranged chronologically by second.

Most Popular Currency Exchange Website

Coinmill.com
Coinmill.com has a variety of foreign exchange resources including converters for a multitude of world currencies, excellent tools for webmasters on world currency conversion, and even printable currency calculation charts for travelers.

XE.com
XE is the world’s favorite currency site and covers almost every aspect of currency exchange. They have a basic currency converter to determine the value of one currency in relation to another, the ability to physically convert currency as well as information about trading currencies like one would stocks or bonds.

X-Rates
X-Rates.com is another great currency exchange website. They have a simple graph of exchange rates and the ability to show the average yearly exchange rate for different currencies as well as the current rate. It also has some basic information about currency trading.

ExchangeRate.com
Exchange Rate also has international currency rates as well as currency rate forecasts.

Why trade forex?

• Enormous Volume:

The forex market dwarfs all stock markets of the world in volume. It trades about $4 trillion each day. To put this in perspective, the New York Stock Exchange trades around $28 billion a day. The entire U.S. stock market trades about $191 billion daily. The Futures market trades about $437 billion daily. None of these even come close to $1 trillion, much less several trillion

• Benefits:

Greater volume means better fills on your orders (less slippage). Slippage is where you click on a market price yet get filled at another price by the time your order can be filled. The more volume at each price level, the better those fills become. Therefore, the forex market offers the least slippage of any market. Keep in mind too that slippage is a “real” trading cost.
On top of better fills, the spreads are less which means your costs are less and you can get into profitability sooner in this market due to that. Typical spreads are 2-4 pips on the majors and 4-7 pips on many of the crosses.

• No Commissions:

You simply deal directly with the market maker and therefore you don’t have a broker’s commission. This is a huge savings and allows you to get into profitability much sooner too. For instance, in stocks, you are charged twice (a buy commission and a sell commission).

• 24hrs a Day Trading:

Unlike stocks, that trade only 6 ½ hours a day, you can literally trade forex anytime 24 hours a day (Sunday evening through Friday evening).So instead of having to trade at work, they can trade after work when they can really have some focus. So it doesn’t matter where in the world you are or what shift you work, you can trade forex. More tradable hours means more tradable opportunities.

• No Restrictions on Short Selling:

In forex, you can short just as easily as you can “go long” (buy). The fills are just as quick. There isn’t any need for a firm to check for “shares to borrow” like in stocks. There are no “uptick rules” either. There’s none of that nonsense to worry about.

Besides, in currencies, you are always going long one currency in the pair and essentially short the other. So they don’t care which one you are long or are shorting.