Perhaps you’re thinking–how to go about this? Well, you’re not alone as there are several people out there thinking the same. A key decision that you need to make is to decide what you want to trade. read the article on fx empire
Indices vs forex trading might be hard to figure out despite the fact that you can access plenty of information out there.
A common thing about forex and indices trading is that both of them happen to be markets where buyers and sellers come together. Though you may already be familiar with this, if you’d like to trade in both markets, it would be useful to figure out where you need to emphasize.
Indices vs Forex trading market comparison
If you go to a seasoned trader for advice on where you can start, they’re likely to suggest something they’re familiar with. As an amateur trader, you might not be able to tell if their recommendation would work well for you or not but do remember that you can trade both markets. The only thing you need to do is know how both of these markets work.
However, what should you do in case you want to choose one? You don’t need to worry about being right or wrong here as this is something that would depend on what you prefer as a trader.
What is forex trading?
Forex trading is preferred by many traders around the world since it is an internationally accessible, open 24/5 market, where anyone can trade. It is the largest and the most liquid financial market around the world where the daily trading volume is roughly about $6 trillion USD.
Forex also happens to be a leveraged product–meaning that you will be able to purchase or sell currencies with greater value by investing small funds. Forex trading includes trading currency pairs, so you exchange one currency for another.
What is indices trading?
Trading indices allow you to predict how an entire share index or sector would move instead of predicting the moves of a single stock. Trading indices imply that you don’t need to take ownership of individual companies but just invest on the basis of how you think a certain group of companies could fare.
The stock market has many stocks to pick from and trading indices is a smart way to put your money on broader stock-market sectors. It also offers investors an opportunity to diversify their portfolios.
Indices tend to be much more stable than individual stocks as they’re made of many stocks put together–this could prove to be a great starting point.
Companies vs countries
The central difference between forex and indices trading is forex traders speculate on currency strength whereas indices traders predict the performance of companies via index price movements. When you trade currencies, you’ll invest in a currency pair if you think the base currency would turn out to be stronger than the counter currency, or when you feel the quote currency would turn out to be weaker than the base currency. For instance, if you thought that EUR would increase in value against the USD, you’d purchase EUR/USD. Every currency’s value is affected by several economic factors. Traders purchase or sell on the basis of the relative strength or weakness between currencies.
When you trade indices, you essentially purchase or sell a group of stocks that are listed on an exchange and carry out trades with them as a unit. For instance, the FTSE 100 Index lists the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The individual share value of these companies could fluctuate on the basis of several factors. In case this happens, it has an impact on the price of the FTSE 100 as a collective.
Indices traders purchase or sell an index should they feel that its rate would increase or decrease in the course of time on the basis of how the companies that form the index perform.
Instruments available for indices vs forex trading
In the world of forex, currencies are further broken down into three categories– the majors, the minors or cross currencies, and the exotics.
Forex currency pairs
The majors are inclusive of the Euro (EURUSD), the Japanese Yen (USDJPY), the Great British Pound (GBPUSD), and the Swiss Franc (USDCHF). This is a group of the leading currencies traded against the US Dollar. The Canadian Dollar (USDCAD), the Australian Dollar (AUDUSD), and the New Zealand Dollar (NZDUSD) are major currencies too but their values get affected by commodity prices.
The minors or the cross-currency group refers to a group of all major currencies paired with one another barring the US Dollar. Some examples are EURAUD, EURGBP, and CHFJPY.
Now one is only left with the exotics which include currencies that are not traded too often like the Mexican Peso (MXN) and the South African Rand (ZAR)
Indices available for trading
When you trade indices, you can access only a few instruments for trading and thus the focus narrows down as in the case of Dow Jones industrial averages, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq.
These three indices are among the top stock indices in the US. The constituent stocks include leading and renowned companies that are known all over the world. In the end, there’s the Japanese Nikkei which is inclusive of the top 225 companies listed on the Tokyo stock exchange. Hang Seng is an index for companies that are listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange while the ASX200 index is for Australia.
What to trade?
So now, what do you pick–indices or forex? Truth be told, it relies entirely on you. If you’d like to, you could trade both markets. In some cases, economic and geo-political conditions would shape relatively better opportunities in one market than another.
With that in mind, if you prefer trading relative value while drawing a comparison between two nations, forex would work better for you. Indices would suit those investors who like to focus on the performance and economic movements of companies or sectors. Consider testing out both markets for a while to pick which one aligns better with your style of trades and risk appetite.
