Forex eToro Review

eToro - Practical examples of use

This is a brief summary of some of the functionality that the platform eToro offers to their users. Some Forex trading examples that show how easy is to trade foreign currencies with eToro are included, too. When you enter the platform, you can choose between visual mode or so-called expert mode. Since the last one seems to be a difficult thing, for experts, let's explain it right now. You'll see immediately how easy and intuitive are operations to buy or sell currency pair, with just a few clicks.

Open position

 

The operations to do to open a position, indicated with red arrows and relative numbers, are described bellow.

1. With a click of the mouse you select the line containing the currency pair you want to trade.
2. In the field "Currency Pair" you choose to buy or to sell the pair. In this example, the pair EUR/USD has been chosen to sell because is considered that the price will drop.
3. In the field "Trade Options" you choose the risk level, i.e. the leverage, which ranges from 1 to 10 to 1 to 400. Than you choose the amount to invest and you can also set the limits for "stop loss" and "take profit". These limits may be set or changed at a later stage, as we shall see in the next paragraph.
4. When all the parameters are set, you should activate the exchange by clicking on the green button "Open Trade". One window opens where you should click "OK", to confirm the operation or click "Cancel" if you change your mind and you don’t want to execute the trade.

Limits modification

 

Once the position is opened you can change one or both of the limits of the same position: automatic closing of the position to limit the loss (Stop Loss), if the trend is unfavorable to you, and / or self-closing to take profit (Take Profit) when the price reaches desired level. The picture above shows the procedure to change the limit "Take Profit". The same would be a way to change "Stop Loss".

To change the value of "take profit" you must click on the relative button (circled in red). One window will open where you can change the value by changing the monetary amount of profit or by varying the rate of closure. Of course, changing one of the two, the other value automatically changes. Once you set the value to what you want, you must press "OK" button to confirm the new limit.

Close the position manually

 

Having set the limits for the stop of the loss and the profit taking, the position will close automatically if one of the limits is reached. If for any reason you want to close the position manually, at any time you can click with mouse on the button "Close" (circled in red) and then click the button "OK" to confirm the closure on the new window that will open. All closed position are moved in history field. To access the history area, you must click the tab "History" (circled in yellow). You can see the content of history field on the next image.

History

 

In the history area all closed positions are listed together with the most relevant data of their performance. Reading from the left to the right we have the number of operation, type of action (buy or sell) and the currency pair involved, the opening and closing dates and times, the amount invested and the capital managed with invested amount. Follow the opening and closing rates, the spread and profits or loss achieved with the percentage gain. The transactions are listed in chronological order and higher listed are more recently executed. To return to the previous screen click the tab "Open Trades", circled in yellow.

Examining better this window, as well as those listed before, you can see tabs and buttons of other features that eToro offers to clients: the online help with explanations about the meaning of the options, contact the staff and access to the community and forum, where you can exchange ideas and opinions with other users. You can also view the news in real time from the world of finance and see the calendar of events important for the evolution of the prices of currencies. The Forex tab are relative to the currency pairs, while if you click Commodities tab you can trade gold and silver. At the left of the lines with currency pairs, there are buttons to access the charts that show evolution of the rate of the currency pair we are interested in. It's circled in red the button of the pair EUR / USD, and the relative graph you can see below.

Charts

The charts offer a range of options that allow you to adapt representation to our personal taste. First of all, you can choose from a basic chart or an advanced one. The last one is shown on the picture below. As you can see, chart can be represented with traditional style bar, lines or with the candles. You can choose the period of representation from 1 minutes to 24 hours, various technical indicators and you can also draw lines and curves. Among other things, the chart can be saved on your personal computer for the future analysis. Moving the mouse cursor over a candle you obtain all the characteristic values for the relevant period; the rates of opening and closing, and the high and low price of the pair. 

 

The above chart also shows the high volatility of exchange rates in certain periods. On the graph you can see the evolution of EUR / USD in the day 27 July 2009, in periods of 15 minutes. Observe the difference between the highest price on the chart of 1.4297 at 11:45 a.m. and the lowest one of 1,4203 at 16:00 (4:00 p.m.). In about 4 hours, the price was dropped by 94 pips. Exploiting this decrease would mean earning 94% of invested capital, using the leverage 1 to 100, in just 4 hours and no other exchange market may offer the opportunity to so high profit.

Visual mode

For completeness of presentation, let’s see briefly one of the five visual modes that are available to the trader. After seeing how simple is the use of the expert mode of the eToro platform, maybe wouldn’t be correct to say that the visual mode is simpler. Indeed, it is just easy as expert mode, but this mode is offered to meet the personal tastes and to allow the user to choose the most suitable for him.

The window on the visual offers to client 5 different visual interfaces called globe trader, forex trand, forex marathon, forex charts and forex trade box. All interfaces are interactive, choosing one of the options you pass the selection to another one. Since all is very simple and intuitive, only the screenshot of the mode "forex trend" is shown here. 

 In the "forex trend", the image below, we choose one of the currencies and the expected trend, rise or fall, (column "currency direction"). For example, we have chosen the euro that rise. The box that we chosen will indicate us, with an arrow, the next column we must elaborate, in this case is "Against currency". Here we indicate the currency that make pair with the euro: we indicate USD. Having made this choice on the right we will see a series of boxes with the amount to be invested and we choose one of those proposed. At the end you can choose, at the bottom of the screen, the level of risk: 100, 200 and 400. Made all the choices we press the button "Open Trade" and one window appears that allow us to confirm or to abandon the operation. Really easy, isn’t it?

Simple Forex Software

The majority of the people who trade on Forex have a passion for this, they are not professionals of the field. Often, they are employers in the firm and during the hours of work they have no possibility (for obvious reasons) to make the trading. Someone would gladly look at the market during the lunch time, in order to see if some trend could be useful, but often the employers don't have the possibility to do that. The computers in the office are almost always connected on the firm's network and many times the unavoidable firewall does not permit access to Forex sites or it is not possible to install the relative software because it would be necessary to have the credentials of the net administrator.

The official platform software is limited and it doesn’t always permit us to have a global vision of the course of currencies and the market, it might be possible, but we must open a tide of windows and arrange them in an ergonomic way, with some personal criteria, for being able to see the necessary data.

In order to face both problems, several years ago a good friend of mine created a small program. He is a very good software programmer and very fair priced, but only for friends: I took him out for dinner! That was all it cost me for his work. I wanted an application that shows the global course, the trend of the main currencies, all together and in a simple manner. For this purpose software ForexTrend was created. It's a gift from us. You can download and use it for free. 

Installation

Let’s start with the installation and the necessary resources for proper use of the application. Start by downloading the software to your preferred folder. You can also place it on the desktop so that you can easily access it. There is no need to install the software. The application works under all versions of Windows. You must be connected to the Internet in order to read the values of the currency couples. If you have an antivirus program you will probably have to set up a rule so that the program can access the Internet.

What it does and how does it works

Start by clicking the Start button. The program read once in the minute the medium value of 15 couples of the 6 main currencies. At this point I want to give you two explanations. Since I wanted to show the global pointers, I didn't want to make the application more "heavy" by using buy and sell values, who are variable between one platform and the other. If you look well you will see two couples miss, GBP/AUD and AUD/CHF, instead of which you will find two others: EUR/CAD and USD/CAD. These last ones are those which I use sometimes, while I never trade with the first two couples. It's only about my personal tastes and I hope it goes well also to you. As it is seen on the screen below, there are 8 couples on the left and 7 on the right of the window. For every couple we have:

• Name of the currency couple to which the data refer.
• The first value read immediately after the start of the program, in the square brackets, and in the same line the last six read values.
• The linear diagram with the representation of the course of the price from the beginning of the program. In the right side of diagram are written minimums (in red) and maximum (green), occurred during the software activity. 

Up in the window there are the timetables of the readings of the relative values. The first timetable is always in the square brackets, as it is refered to the first price. The numeric values and diagrams are both colored:

• In green, if the price is increased,
• In red, if the price is decreased,
• In black, if the price has remained unchanged.

If for some reason the program can’t read the values, the place which have to contain the data will be empty. If instead you see all diagrams black and linear, than Forex marcet is closed and you read the closing price.

Software limitations

The software can read until 30.000 data for every couple. Since the reading interval is of 1 minute, the data can be accumulated for 500 hours, that means more than 20 days. Once the maximum capacity is reached, the application is automatically stopped, as if the user had pressed the Stop button.

The graphical space permits the presentation of a certain number of points, not the maximum number which can be read by the program. When this limit is reached, in the diagram will be only present data for a minimum lack of time, every 2 minutes, 3 minutes and so on. In this case, the minimum and maximum values indicated on the right side of diagram are refer to the complete interval of the read data, while the same diagram could not represent them.

You must also consider the fact that the prices are read in discontinuous way, that means once in a minute, so the read price could not be the maximum or the minim in that interval. However, the aim was to see the global trend. Obviously, for the real trading you will chose your favorite forex platform that will give you the precise data.

Download : Forex Trend

eToro Forex platform

eToro is in this moment probably the most modern and original Forex platform on Internet. Thanks to the deepened studies of the needs and the habits of traders, and ergonomics, considering that people are different among them, eToro provides that each operation could be done in several ways, different from each other therefore everyone surely find way to work more closely to him. Everything is very intuitive and you will be able to start very easily, without even reading the instructions, which however should be consulted.

Another feature, which the users will like a lot, is that in certain periods eToro applies a spread of just 2 pips on the major currencies and a benefit like this isn’t so easy to find on the other platforms. Moreover, a real account can be opened with a really small amount, only 50 dollars. In this way, this platform tries to open the Forex market to people with the modest financial resources. 

But eToro doesn’t want to be another impersonal computer tool, so it offers its users a great forum where you can exchange opinions, ideas and experiences with the other members, and a chat in real time with other traders. In real time you can see trends followed by the other users, namely those who buy and sell (in percentages) the main currency pairs. And even more, there are tournaments between traders with prizes: the winner is the trader that produces the hugest profit in certain period, and the first prize is 10,000 U.S. dollars. So eToro is not only a Forex platform, but an authentic Forex community, too.

As the other good platform, eToro offers a demo account with 2000 dollars, obviously a virtual money, where you can achieve experience, learning about the world of the Forex and the use of the platform itself. Even using a demo account you are participating in the tournament with the other traders and the top 10 traders are rewarded with the prizes ranging from 100 to 300 dollars. Various options are offered for funding your account and withdrawing from it, starting from the usual and inevitable credit card, through a bank transfer, PayPal or convenient, or Western Union to transfer money. 

Forex Web Platforms

Today, on Internet are present numerous sites that use various Forex platforms, as usually are called applications, i.e. the software that allow us to sell and to buy currencies in the real time. The purpose of this page is to supply to potential users useful information about some of them, that we use frequently and that we acquaint well. We hope that this can help especially those that approach for the first time Forex trading, and experienced users, too.

Our selection of Forex platforms are based on seriousness, reputation and tradition of the companies that manage particular platform, security of the platforms, simplicity and powerful at the same time of the interface, and availability of training mode, so client can become familiar with platform, before he starts to operate with the real money. Surely, very important elements for trading are applied spread, especially for the majors, the most traded, bonuses and prizes, security, simplicity and celerity of the procedures of funds and withdrawals from your account, and of course assistance and support offered to the clients.

It’s essential to know well certain Forex platform before starting to trade with the real money. This knowledge protect us from unpleasant surprises that we can have using non reliable platforms, or those not sufficiently tested. One can have good information searching on Internet with search engines, looking for opinions and judgements of experienced users that often put them in various forums and personal blogs. 

eToro

eToro is a new Forex platform, founded in 2008, that uses latest information technology in computer science, and ergonomics knowledge to give to a final user an innovative, visual interface, visually very pleasant and modern, but more important, very intuitive and extremely easy to use. Procedures to open or to close one position can be done with only one click of the mouse. Once the position is opened so quick, all the parameters, such "stop loss" or "take profit" can be adjusted to suit your necessities. The whole process, from the opening to the closing of the position, is very clear and transparent.

Like any good platform, eToro also offers real-time charts of the trends of the currencies and the latest news in the world, but also the possibility to chat with other customers and to exchange ideas in one dedicated forum. They organise for customers championships trading and customers who have had more success, that have made the biggest profits, are rewarded with prizes in cash, credited to the account to the real account. So a job, sometimes very stressful, becomes also a pleasant online entertainment and a place where you can meet other people with similar interests as yours. 

Forex Trading Examples

Here are two detailed examples of intraday trading: this means that you open and close the position within one Forex day. Remember that the Forex day starts at 5:00 PM EST (10:00 PM GMT / 22:00), and ends a day after at the same time.

Long position example (buying position)

Detailed description
You have a EUR 1,000 account and would like to buy a full lot (100,000) of the pair USD/JPY.

Step 1
You decide to buy the pair at the following rates:
USD/JPY 110.00/110.03
EUR/JPY 160.00/160.03
NOTE: We will use the EUR/JPY rate to transform the trade currency into your euro account base currency.

To buy 100,000 USD with JPY, the broker provides you 100,000 USD x 110.03 (The ask price), which equals 11,003,000 JPY. With 11,003,000 JPY, you buy 100,000 USD.

Having used 1:100 leverage, you are able to open this position with a 1,000 USD investment (110,030 JPY). EUR 687.69 (110,030 JPY / 160.00) is used as margin to cover your position. You are left with a EUR 312.31 balance in your account. Now you have an open long position.

Step 2
When you sell the pair, the rates are:
USD/JPY 110.70/110.73
EUR/JPY 160.01/160.04

You sell USD at 110.70 for a total of 11,070,000 JPY. Your profit is 67,000 JPY ( 11,070,000 - 11,003,000), i.e. 67,000 JPY / 160.04 (ask price) = 418.65 EUR. This means that your account now contains 1,418.65 EUR (1,000.00 initial account's amount + 418.65 profit).

Using leverage to your advantage, you made a 61% (100 x 418.65 / 687.69) profit in one day. Only in the Forex market can you make such huge profits, so quickly.

Long summary
Step 1
When you buy the pair the rate is:
USD/JPY 110.00/110.03

You buy 100,000 USD against JPY at 110.03.

Step 2
When you sell the pair the rates is:
USD/JPY 110.70/110.73

The difference between the selling and buying price is 110,70 – 110,03 = 0.67 JPY: this is your profit for each USD invested, for a total of 100,000 USD x 0.67 JPY = 67,000 JPY, or 418.65 EUR, as seen above. 

Short position example (selling position)

Detailed description
Your basic account currency is EUR, with an amount of 1,000 EUR, and you would like to sell 100,000 (a full lot) of the pair USD/JPY (selling USD against JPY).

Step 1
You decide to sell the pair at the following rates:
USD/JPY 110.00/110.03
EUR/USD 1.4000/1.4003
NOTE: We will use the EUR/USD rate to transform the trade currency into your euro account base currency.

Using a leverage of 100:1, you are able to sell USD 100,000 USD/JPY, selling USD 100,000 and buying JPY 11,000,000 (100,000 x 110.00). The 1,000 USD translates into EUR 714.29 (1,000 USD / 1.4000), which is margin to cover your position. You are left with a EUR 285.71 balance in your account. Now you have an open short position.

Step 2
When you buy the pair, the rates are:
USD/JPY 109.20/109.23
EUR/USD 1.4006/1.4009

You buy USD at 109.23 (ask price), for a total of 100,704.93 USD (11,000,000 JPY / 109.23). Your profit is 704.93 USD (= 100,704.93 - 100,000), i.e. 503.20 EUR (704.93 USD / 1.4009). Your account now contains 1,503.20 EUR (1,000.00 initial account’s amount + 503.20 profit).

You made a 70% (100 x 503.20 / 714.29) profit in a day.

Short summary
Step 1
When you sell the pair the rate is:
USD/JPY 110.00/110.03

You sell 100,000 USD against JPY at 110.00.

Step 2
When you buy the pair, the rate is:
USD/JPY 109.20/109.23

You buy USD at 109.23. The difference between the selling and buying price is 110.00 – 109.23 = 0.77 JPY: this is your profit for each USD invested, for a total of 100,000 USD x 0.77 JPY = 77,000 JPY, or 503.20 EUR, as explained above.

World Forex Hours

The Forex market is the only 24-hour market, opening Sunday 5 PM EST, and running continuously until Friday 5 PM EST. The Forex day starts with the opening of Sydney’s (Australia) Forex market at 5:00 PM EST (10:00 PM GMT / 22:00), and ends with the closing of New York’s market, a day after, at 5:00 PM EST (10:00 PM GMT / 22:00), immediately reopening in Sydney restart trading.
Note: EST is an abbreviation for Eastern Standard Time (e.g. New York), while GMT is an abbreviation for Greenwich Mean Time (e.g. London).

The main Forex markets, in the order of their opening times, are: Sydney, Tokyo, Frankfurt, London and New York. On the chart below, you can see the hourly course of the Forex-trading day. 

 Note: Tokyo’s market doesn’t start in the proper time zone due to the fact that it opens 1 hour
after the other markets (9:00 AM Local Time, while others open at 8:00 AM Local Time).

 The following table illustrates the opening and closing local times for a Forex day and week, in function of time zones. 

Time Zone	Opening/Closing time*	Week starts	Week ends
GMT+12	10:00 AM (10:00)	Monday 10:00 AM	Saturday 10:00 AM	Auckland
GMT+11	09:00 AM (09:00)	Monday 09:00 AM	Saturday 09:00 AM
GMT+10	08:00 AM (08:00)	Monday 08:00 AM	Saturday 08:00 AM	Sydney
GMT+9	07:00 AM (07:00)	Monday 07:00 AM	Saturday 07:00 AM	Tokyo
GMT+8	06:00 AM (06:00)	Monday 06:00 AM	Saturday 06:00 AM	Hong Kong
GMT+7	05:00 AM (05:00)	Monday 05:00 AM	Saturday 05:00 AM	Bangkok
GMT+6	04:00 AM (04:00)	Monday 04:00 AM	Saturday 04:00 AM	Dhaka
GMT+5	03:00 AM (03:00)	Monday 03:00 AM	Saturday 03:00 AM	Karachi
GMT+4	02:00 AM (02:00)	Monday 02:00 AM	Saturday 02:00 AM
GMT+3	01:00 AM (01:00)	Monday 01:00 AM	Saturday 01:00 AM
GMT+2	00:00 AM (00:00)	Sunday 00:00 AM	Friday 00:00 AM	Cairo
GMT+1	11:00 PM (23:00)	Sunday 11:00 PM	Friday 11:00 PM	Frankfurt
GMT	10:00 PM (22:00)	Sunday 10:00 PM	Friday 10:00 PM	London
GMT-1	09:00 PM (21:00)	Sunday 09:00 PM	Friday 09:00 PM
GMT-2	08:00 PM (20:00)	Sunday 08:00 PM	Friday 08:00 PM
GMT-3	07:00 PM (19:00)	Sunday 07:00 PM	Friday 07:00 PM
GMT-4	06:00 PM (18:00)	Sunday 06:00 PM	Friday 06:00 PM
GMT-5	05:00 PM (17:00)	Sunday 05:00 PM	Friday 05:00 PM	New York
GMT-6	04:00 PM (16:00)	Sunday 04:00 PM	Friday 04:00 PM	Chicago
GMT-7	03:00 PM (15:00)	Sunday 03:00 PM	Friday 03:00 PM
GMT-8	02:00 PM (14:00)	Sunday 02:00 PM	Friday 02:00 PM	Los Angeles
GMT-9	01:00 PM (13:00)	Sunday 01:00 PM	Friday 01:00 PM
GMT-10	00:00 PM (12:00)	Sunday 00:00 PM	Friday 00:00 PM	Hawaii
GMT-11	11:00 AM (11:00)	Sunday 11:00 AM	Friday 11:00 AM

If you live in New York you can see from the table (GMT-5) that daily trade starts at 5:00 PM (17:00), and ends at 5:00 PM (17:00) the day after. The weekly opening is at Sunday, while the weekly closing is Friday.

Familiarize yourself with your local opening and closing times, because this will impact when you must close your day trades.

For example, if you live in London (GMT), the Forex day ends and restarts at 10:00 PM (22:00). If you open a position at 9:30 PM (21:30), and close it at 10:30 AM (22:30), your trade goes from one to another Forex day and rollover/swap are applied. If you open a position at 10:30 PM (22:30), and close it next day at 11:00 AM (11:00), your trade is intraday (closed within the same Forex day), and no rollover/swap apply.

Important: A Forex day doesn’t correspond to a normal/calendar day.

Forex Terms

In this little glossary you can find explanations for some of the most used terms in Forex. 

Term	Explenation
Ask	The price at which a broker is willing to sell (same as Offer) a currency pair. This is the price the trader pays when buying a currency. If the quote for EUR/USD is 1.4000/1.4003, 1.4003 is the Ask price.
Bid	The price at which broker is willing to buy a currency pair. This is the price the trader receives when selling a currency. If the quote for EUR/USD is 1.4000/1.4003, 1.4000 is the Bid price.
Bid/Ask Spread	Or simply Spread. The spread is the difference between the Bid and Ask price. If the quote for EUR/USD is 1.4000/1.4003, the spread is 0.0003 USD (3 pips).
Broker	An individual or firm who handles trader's orders to sell or to buy currency, and charges the customer a commission for the service.
Closing rate	The rate of the last transaction completed of the considered period.
Currency Pairs	Foreign Exchange traders buy one currency while simultaneously selling another. Therefore, Foreign Exchange quotes are expressed in currency pairs. The four major currency pairs are the EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, and USD/JPY. The first currency in the currency pair is the "base currency", while the second is the "quote currency" or "counter currency". For example, in the pair EUR/USD the EUR is the base currency, and the USD is the quote currency.
Currency Pair Price	The price of a currency pair is usually a five digit number, with four digits to the right of the decimal point. In some instances, most usually with the Japanese Yen, currency pairs have only four digits. When, for example, EUR/USD is listed at 1.4000, it means that it takes 1.4000 units of the quote currency (USD) to buy a unit of the base currency (EUR). If the price of the currency pair rises to 1.4050, a trader with a long position (buying EUR against USD) makes a profit, while a trader with a short position (selling EUR against USD) takes a loss.
Day Trading	Refers to opening and closing the same position within same day.
Leverage	The ratios between the contract value and the deposit required from trader (margin) to trade. For example, if the trader must deposit $500 to have a $100,000 position (to buy a full Lot), the leverage is 200:1 ($100,000/$500). The inverse value is the percentage margin requirement: in this example 0.5% (0,005 = $500/$100,000).
Long	When a trader buys a currency pair it is called going long. The trader’s position will appreciate if the price of the currency pair increases.
Margin	The initial investment needed to open one position, used as collateral to cover the credit risk of the broker/dealer. The percentage of the required margin is inversely related to the leverage.
Opening rate	The rate of the first transaction completed of the considered period.
Pip	An abbreviatian of Percentage In Point. The smallest measure of price move that a given exchange rate can make in Forex trading. For most major currency pairs, one pip equals 1/100th of 1 percent (0.0001). A notable exception is the USD/JPY, in which each pip is 0.01. For instance, if pair EUR/USD moves from 1.4000 to 1.4007, the pair has appreciated seven pips.
Short	When a trader sells a currency pair it is called going short. The trader’s position will appreciate if the price of the currency pair decreases.

Basic Forex Charts

Line Chart

The line chart is the simplest charting option. Rate history is measured according to customizable time intervals, and the points, which illustrate the closing rate at that particular time, are connected by a line. The horizontal axis lists the time units (for example: 1 minute, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, etc.) and the vertical axis illustrates the rate value. For example, the graphic below details 100 intervals of 15 minutes on the horizontal axis, for a total of 1500 minutes (25 hours). This means that the closing rates are indicated at each 15 minute interval. 

 One of the problems with the line chart is that only the closing rate is shown for every time interval, and doesn’t let us see changes that happened within this period. Using the OHLC bar chart, traders are able to see all price changes occurring within each time interval. Using the OHLC bar chart, traders may identify the opening rate (O), the highest rate (H), the lowest rate (L), and the closing rate (C), within each time interval, as shown on the graphic below (note that the opening rate is on the left, while the closing rate is on the right of the bar). 

 An OHLC bar chart, using 10 intervals of 15 minutes, looks like this: 

Candlestick Chart

The candlestick chart, based on an old Japanese method, is similar to the OHLC. The body of the candle is red when the opening rate is higher than the closing rate. The body of the candle is green when the opening rate is lower than the closing rate. When the candlestick is green the top of the body, the thick center of the candlestick, represents the closing rate. When the candlestick is red the bottom of the body represents the closing rate. The two lines extending from the bottom and top of the body illustrate the high and low of each particular time interval. 

 A candlestick chart, using 11 intervals of 15 minutes, looks like this: 

List of World's Currencies for Forex

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provided ISO 4217 standard that define codes of three letter and relative three digits number for each currency. Here is a relative table.

Code	Num	Currency	State
AED	784	United Arab Emirates dirham	United Arab Emirates
AFN	971	Afghani	Afghanistan
ALL	008	Lek	Albania
AMD	051	Armenian Dram	Armenia
ANG	532	Netherlands Antillian Guilder	Netherlands Antilles
AOA	973	Kwanza	Angola
ARS	032	Argentine Peso	Argentina
AUD	036	Australian Dollar	Australia
AWG	533	Aruban Guilder	Aruba
AZN	944	Azerbaijanian Manat	Azerbaijan
BAM	977	Convertible Marks	Bosnia and Herzegovina
BBD	052	Barbados Dollar	Barbados
BDT	050	Bangladeshi Taka	Bangladesh
BGN	975	Bulgarian Lev	Bulgaria
BHD	048	Bahraini Dinar	Bahrain
BIF	108	Burundian Franc	Burundi
BMD	060	Bermudian Dollar	Bermuda
BND	096	Brunei Dollar	Brunei
BOB	068	Boliviano	Bolivia
BRL	986	Brazilian Real	Brazil
BSD	044	Bahamian Dollar	Bahamas
BTN	064	Ngultrum	Bhutan
BWP	072	Pula	Botswana
BYR	974	Belarussian Ruble	Belarus
BZD	084	Belize Dollar	Belize
CAD	124	Canadian Dollar	Canada
CDF	976	Franc Congolais	Democratic Republic of Congo
CHF	756	Swiss Franc	Switzerland, Liechtenstein
CLP	152	Chilean Peso	Chile
CNY	156	Yuan Renminbi	Mainland China
COP	170	Colombian Peso	Colombia
CRC	188	Costa Rican Colon	Costa Rica
CUP	192	Cuban Peso	Cuba
CVE	132	Cape Verde Escudo	Cape Verde
CYP	196	Cyprus Pound	Cyprus
CZK	203	Czech Koruna	Czech Republic
DJF	262	Djibouti Franc	Djibouti
DKK	208	Danish Krone	Denmark
DOP	214	Dominican Peso	Dominican Republic
DZD	012	Algerian Dinar	Algeria
EEK	233	Kroon	Estonia
EGP	818	Egyptian Pound	Egypt
ERN	232	Nakfa	Eritrea
ETB	230	Ethiopian Birr	Ethiopia
EUR	978	Euro	Eurozone
FJD	242	Fiji Dollar	Fiji
FKP	238	Falkland Islands Pound	Falkland Islands
GBP	826	Pound Sterling	United Kingdom
GEL	981	Lari	Georgia
GHS	288	Cedi	Ghana
GIP	292	Gibraltar pound	Gibraltar
GMD	270	Dalasi	Gambia
GNF	324	Guinea Franc	Guinea
GTQ	320	Quetzal	Guatemala
GYD	328	Guyana Dollar	Guyana
HKD	344	Hong Kong Dollar	Hong Kong
HNL	340	Lempira	Honduras
HRK	191	Croatian Kuna	Croatia
HTG	332	Haiti Gourde	Haiti
HUF	348	Forint	Hungary
IDR	360	Rupiah	Indonesia
ILS	376	New Israeli Shekel	Israel
INR	356	Indian Rupee	India
IQD	368	Iraqi Dinar	Iraq
IRR	364	Iranian Rial	Iran
ISK	352	Iceland Krona	Iceland
JMD	388	Jamaican Dollar	Jamaica
JOD	400	Jordanian Dinar	Jordan
JPY	392	Japanese yen	Japan
KES	404	Kenyan Shilling	Kenya
KGS	417	Som	Kyrgyzstan
KHR	116	Riel	Cambodia
KMF	174	Comoro Franc	Comoros
KPW	408	North Korean Won	North Korea
KRW	410	South Korean Won	South Korea
KWD	414	Kuwaiti Dinar	Kuwait
KYD	136	Cayman Islands Dollar	Cayman Islands
KZT	398	Tenge	Kazakhstan
LAK	418	Kip	Laos
LBP	422	Lebanese Pound	Lebanon
LKR	144	Sri Lanka Rupee	Sri Lanka
LRD	430	Liberian Dollar	Liberia
LSL	426	Loti	Lesotho
LTL	440	Lithuanian Litas	Lithuania
LVL	428	Latvian Lats	Latvia
LYD	434	Libyan Dinar	Libya
MAD	504	Moroccan Dirham	Morocco
MDL	498	Moldovan Leu	Moldova
MGA	969	Malagasy Ariary	Madagascar
MKD	807	Denar	Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
MMK	104	Kyat	Myanmar
MNT	496	Tugrik	Mongolia
MOP	446	Pataca	Macau
MRO	478	Ouguiya	Mauritania
MTL	470	Maltese Lira	Malta
MUR	480	Mauritius Rupee	Mauritius
MVR	462	Rufiyaa	Maldives
MWK	454	Kwacha	Malawi
MXN	484	Mexican Peso	Mexico
MYR	458	Malaysian Ringgit	Malaysia
MZN	943	Metical	Mozambique
NAD	516	Namibian Dollar	Namibia
NGN	566	Naira	Nigeria
NIO	558	Cordoba Oro	Nicaragua
NOK	578	Norwegian Krone	Norway
NPR	524	Nepalese Rupee	Nepal
NZD	554	New Zealand Dollar	New Zealand
OMR	512	Rial Omani	Oman
PAB	590	Balboa	Panama
PEN	604	Nuevo Sol	Peru
PGK	598	Kina	Papua New Guinea
PHP	608	Philippine Peso	Philippines
PKR	586	Pakistan Rupee	Pakistan
PLN	985	Zloty	Poland
PYG	600	Guarani	Paraguay
QAR	634	Qatari Rial	Qatar
RON	946	Romanian New Leu	Romania
RSD	941	Serbian Dinar	Serbia
RUB	643	Russian Ruble	Russia
RWF	646	Rwanda Franc	Rwanda
SAR	682	Saudi Riyal	Saudi Arabia
SBD	090	Solomon Islands Dollar	Solomon Islands
SCR	690	Seychelles Rupee	Seychelles
SDG	938	Sudanese Pound	Sudan
SEK	752	Swedish Krona	Sweden
SGD	702	Singapore Dollar	Singapore
SHP	654	Saint Helena Pound	Saint Helena
SKK	703	Slovak Koruna	Slovakia
SLL	694	Leone	Sierra Leone
SOS	706	Somali Shilling	Somalia
SRD	968	Surinam Dollar	Suriname
STD	678	Dobra	Sao Tome and Príncipe
SYP	760	Syrian Pound	Syria
SZL	748	Lilangeni	Swaziland
THB	764	Baht	Thailand
TJS	972	Somoni	Tajikistan
TMM	795	Manat	Turkmenistan
TND	788	Tunisian Dinar	Tunisia
TOP	776	Pa'anga	Tonga
TRY	949	New Turkish Lira	Turkey
TTD	780	Trinidad and Tobago Dollar	Trinidad and Tobago
TWD	901	New Taiwan Dollar	Taiwan
TZS	834	Tanzanian Shilling	Tanzania
UAH	980	Hryvnia	Ukraine
UGX	800	Uganda Shilling	Uganda
USD	840	US Dollar	United States of America
UYU	858	Peso Uruguayo	Uruguay
UZS	860	Uzbekistan Som	Uzbekistan
VEB	862	Venezuelan bolívar	Venezuela
VND	704	Vietnamese dong	Vietnam
VUV	548	Vatu	Vanuatu
WST	882	Samoan Tala	Samoa
XAF	950	CFA Franc BEAC	Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon
XAG	961	Silver (one Troy ounce)
XAU	959	Gold (one Troy ounce)
XOF	952	CFA Franc BCEAO	Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo
XPD	964	Palladium (one Troy ounce)
XPF	953	CFP franc	French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna
XPT	962	Platinum (one Troy ounce)
YER	886	Yemeni Rial	Yemen
ZAR	710	South African Rand	South Africa
ZMK	894	Kwacha	Zambia
ZWD	716	Zimbabwe Dollar	Zimbabwe

Forex Web

The Foreign Exchange, often referred to as the Forex or FX, is the world’s largest financial market, with approximately 3 trillion dollars traded daily. The "goods" traded are currencies of various countries, with the majority of the action involving the so-called majors currencies: the United States dollar (USD), the European euro (EUR), the Japanese yen (JPY), the British pound sterling (GBP), the Swiss franc (CHF) and the Australian dollar (AUD). Gold and silver are also popular trading instruments. With the explosion of internet usage, the Forex market has become accessible to almost everyone.

Leverage

Because of the Foreign Exchange’s relatively volatile nature, and the corresponding potential for very high profit, investing in the Forex market might be considered a form of speculation. The highly leveraged financing commonly offered by Forex operators allows traders extremely high potential profits with a comparably small amount of capital investment.

In Forex, clients are offered leverage as high as 1:200, so the client must invest, in this case, only 1/2 percent of the position they would like to buy. In practice, the trader uses a credit, and covers only the risk of the operation (the percentage of presumed currency volatility).

For example, suppose a trader utilizes a 100:1 leverage, and buys a contract valued at $100,000 with an investment of $1,000. With a 1% increase in the position, the trader would make a profit of $1000, or a 100% return on investment. 

Spread

Obviously, brokerages make a commission for every trade executed, which is generally factored into the prices quoted in the form of a "pip spread". This cost is very small, usually 0.0003 of a unit or, in Forex lingo, three pips. Three pips is equivalent to three-hundredths of one penny. Of course, when trading extremely large amounts of currencies, this can add up.

For example, if a currency pair is quoted as EUR/USD 1.4000/1.4003, the price at which a broker will sell (Ask) one EUR is 1.4003 USD, while the price at which a broker will buy (Bid) one EUR is 1.4000 USD. The price difference is the broker’s profit. With such a pip spread, the cost of buying one lot (USD 100,000) would be USD 30.

Of course, a lower spread is better for the client. If the position above increases by 10 pips, to 1.4010/1.4013, a trader would earn seven pips, having bought the position at 1.4003 (broker’s selling price), and selling at 1.4010 (broker’s buying price).

Internet Forex Platforms

Today, anyone with an Internet connection can exploit the Forex market utilizing Forex trading platforms, computer applications that enable you — in few simple steps — to buy and sell currencies. These online brokerages provide trader’s the real time information needed to make informed decisions, and the technology to instantly execute trades.

This site offers useful information about the Forex market, helping you gain the practice, information and knowledge necessary to become a successful trader.