Thanks to the world’s numerous financial crises and investors’ appetite for safe haven options, gold trading is as popular as ever at eToro and other leading online brokers. The price of gold has been rocketing over the last few months, reaching a new record high of $1,681.65 per ounce during Thursday’s trading sessions, but will the gold bubble burst or can we consider the precious metal a safe commodity to trade for the foreseeable future?
As silver prices almost always mirror the fortunes of gold prices, the price of silver has been on the rise too, climbing by over 25 per cent over the last year. Gold and silver have been bucking the trend recently, with both of their prices significantly increasing, while practically all other commodities and stock markets have been recording negative numbers during the same period.
Over the past week there have been twist and turns across the world’s Forex markets, with many factors ranging from unemployment numbers to economic crises affecting the fortunes of foreign currencies and their exchange rates across the globe. Keep reading to find out what happened to the major currencies over the last seven days.
Last week the world’s most traded currency, the US dollar took a turn southward, reversing the advances made in previous weeks. Worse than expected manufacturing figures, higher unemployment and low consumer confidence left many Forex traders at eToro and other markets believing that the US Federal Reserve continue to keep interest rates low.
Even though the world foreign exchange markets are open 24 hours a day 5 days a week, as are online Forex brokers such as eToro, this doesn’t mean that you should trade Forex all day every day. Some periods of the trading day and week are more profitable than others. So when is the best time to trade Forex? When should we log into our Forex trading accounts and start opening positions?
The big bucks made from Forex trading are done so when the markets are moving. When the markets are stagnant it can be very difficult to beat the spread, so a volatile market is a market full of opportunity and possible profits for the shrewd trader.
Whether you’re a novice trader who’s just finding their feet in the big wide world of Forex trading or an experienced professional who makes a living from trading Forex you will find Forex for everyone at eToro. eToro is a successful online Forex broker that offers an industry-leading trading platform along with a wide range of products and is supported by a huge community of like-minded traders to benefit both new traders and pros.
For new Forex traders eToro offers a simple mode of the trading platform, allowing you to get the hang of trading, prices and spreads etc. Before you deposit a single penny, new Forex traders can try their hand using an eToro practice account, which allows you to trade real prices in real time but with play money to avoid any early losses. There’s also the trading challenge, which is a competition that offers cash prizes for the best practice account traders. eToro also offers trading challenges for real money traders. To support new Forex traders eToro also offers personal coaches, educational courses and a low initial investment amount of just $50.
Speculators and investors at eToro and other online commodities brokers witnessed gold prices soar on Wednesday, breaking the ‘golden’ $1,500 mark in the process. And just like previous hikes in the price of gold, the price of other commodities benefitted too. This latest advance by the valuable metal has gone further than many analysts predicted and if you were on the gold wagon as it reached these dizzy heights on Wednesday you should be a happy trader right now.
Last week fear of inflation pushed gold prices up to the dizzy heights of $1,486 and the just the same as today, other precious metals including silver also climbed in value. Today silver traded above the $45.00 mark, climbing by 54 cents and hitting a 31-year high for the heavily traded commodity but what does the future hold for commodities such as silver and gold?
Even though the euro has already benefitted greatly from the predicted interest rate rise tomorrow it still continued to make headway against its US counterpart, while the Japanese yen dropped to new lows. Forex traders at eToro watched the euro soar to a 14-month high against the dollar during today’s European trading sessions, at the same time as the yen fell to a a six-month low against the dollar and an 11-month low against the euro.
Unsurprisingly, the Japanese yen has been under the cosh since the devastating earthquake and tsunami that threw the yen into a chaotic position. However, the Bank of Japan has made numerous efforts to stabilise the yen but this hasn’t stopped the Japanese currency falling further. The EUR/JPY climbed to a high of 121.97 before settling at 121.70, which the USD/JPY was up 0.2 per cent at 85.12.
During yesterday traders at eToro saw gold climb to a near-record high thanks to the turmoil in Libya and the Middle-East. Silver has also benefitted from the unrest in the Arab nations, climbing to its highest level since 1980. Oil too increased in price due to the uncertainty in the region, making it to over $100 per barrel.
In a similar fashion to Forex traders when they buy US dollars and Swiss francs to reduce risk, gold is also considered a safe haven commodity that’s seen a huge rise in demand so far this week. This demand for the sought after precious metal saw it rise in price to $1,435.60 per ounce yesterday as traders shifted investments to avoid the market turbulence caused by the unrest in the Middle-East.
Following last week’s decision by the Bank of England to maintain the country’s interest rates at 0.5 per cent sterling has struggled. This is because a low interest rate stifles an economy’s currency, while a rise in interest rates can cause a currency to strengthen. However, along with interest rates, tomorrow’s UK unemployment figures could boost sterling if they were to show a decline from the massive 7.9 per cent figure of November last year.
Traders at eToro and other online Forex brokers will be watching closely to see what the unemployment figures for December will be. If the UK’s unemployment numbers fall from the previous month we could witness a resurgence for the British pound, which may in turn help to boost the sluggish economic recovery.
When trading Forex online at eToro you will hear the term ‘leverage’ branded about on a regular basis but what exactly is leverage and how does it affect your Forex trading? Simply put, leverage is a multiplying factor that allows you to trade positions which are larger than the amount of funds you have. Leverage at eToro is similar to that found at any of the internet’s leading online Forex brokers and offers you up to 400 x your actual investment.
So how does it all work? Let’s say for example that you use $25 of money to place a trade using 400 x leverage, this would actually give you a position of $10,000. This means that smaller investors are able to trade Forex without having to find thousands of dollars just to open a small trade. The ability to trade Forex using leverage may seem like a great idea, and indeed it can be but beware that it can also hamper your trading as much as be a benefit to you if it’s used irresponsibly.
In the fast-paced and hectic world of online Forex trading every second counts. The difference between making a profit or not, the split-seconds that are lost while placing and confirming trades can sometimes be decided by how fast you can actually place a trade. However, one click trading from eToro is a function that gives experienced Forex traders the killer edge required to make those vitally quick trades.
When trading at eToro without one click trading activated you must first click the buy or sell button of a particular currency pair, choose your leverage, choose your trading amount, set any profit and loss limits then confirm your trade before you actually get your position. However, one click trading takes away all of your confirmation requests, allowing you to place a trade at the price that you want as soon as you’ve clicked your mouse.
