Ten years ago, Forex was only traded by banks and the wealthiest of investors. Nowadays, with the advent of online trading platforms such as eToro and Alpari (UK) Ltd who provide access to the markets with a few clicks of a button, you too can participate in this financial revolution – whatever your experience level.
Forex is still an unknown quantity for many people; many new traders give up very quickly because they don’t know how to manage risk or where to place their stop-loss order: usually exiting trades far too late and therefore getting into serious trouble.
This has led to several tips on choosing the best forex broker in Norway. Like any industry, there are specific regulations that apply to online trading sites, and it is your responsibility to ensure you sign up with one that complies.
Advantages of Forex
- You can trade forex 24 hours a day – 5 days a week (Sunday – Friday).
- There are no restrictions on when you can deposit or withdraw money so that you can plan your trading around this.
- There are no restrictions on the trade size you wish to place, so you can risk as much or as little capital as needed to make substantial profits or limit potential losses.
- It is unnecessary to buy an entire currency unit which makes trading very flexible compared to other investments, where usually one share equals 1 unit of investment.
- The minimum margin requirement is usually as low as 1% of the total trading amount, so you can start trading with a much smaller capital than other investments.
- You have access to your funds 24 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning no time restrictions on when you can withdraw money from your account, which is very useful if you need cash for something urgent and unexpected that crops up!
- Currency exchange rates constantly fluctuate, meaning that there are always opportunities emerging in this market.
It’s what makes Forex such an exciting field to trade in because you never know where the needs will go next!
- The currency markets are always open, meaning that you can trade around the clock. Unlike stocks and shares, which only open during office hours (regular market timings are 9:00 – 17:30).
With currency trading, due to the fact it takes place almost 24/7 via online exchanges, this means there is no downtime or quiet periods where traders cannot access their positions or make new ones!
How To Choose A Forex Broker?
- First of all, ensure your chosen broker has a license.
This is paramount and means you can verify the company has been checked and complies with legal requirements. You can check this on the Financial Services website of your country or by contacting the FSA (Financial Services Authority) in the UK.
- Ensure their spreads are as tight as possible.
Meaning how much it costs to place a trade is affordable for you though not all expensive spreads guarantee more profits. It depends on your trading style and approach, so do your research before committing funds to an account.
- Check what type of assets they provide.
You don’t want to sign up with a broker that doesn’t offer currency pairs such as EUR/USD because these are considered significant currency pairs and form the basis for any profitable Forex portfolio.
Many brokers offer different instruments, and some may be more suited to your trading style than others, so do your research before signing up.
- Does the broker provide any tools or features to help you achieve a high win ratio?
While this varies from trader to trader, many ‘beginner’ traders find that Forex robots are just too tempting because they can appear very profitable at first sight but comment much-needed warning signs that the software is not suitable for beginners!
Don’t forget that just because it looks easy doesn’t mean it is, so check what type of tools are available with your chosen online forex broker beforehand to avoid wasting time testing out unsuitable partners.
- Withdrawal restrictions.
Most brokers will only allow you to withdraw funds from your trading account once a certain minimum amount of equity has been reached. Whilst this is good for protecting the broker, it also means you cannot withdraw any funds until you have accumulated enough money to do so.
Follow Saxo Bank for more information.