How to Invest in a Foreign Exchange Market
There are many ways to invest in the foreign exchange market. The foreign exchange market also called the currency market or forex (FX), is the world’s largest financial market, where each day accounting for more than $5 trillion average traded value. It comprised of banks, commercial companies, central banks, investment firms, hedge funds and retail investors. The foreign exchange market allows participants to buy, sell, exchange and speculate on currencies. Many people think that investing in foreign currency sounds like an exotic, but like all other investments, investing in the foreign exchange market involves risk. Since high leverage is used when investing in foreign currency can result in high volatility and greater risk of loss. As it’s the largest and most liquid market in the world so aware of the many risks that differs it from traditional equity and bond markets.
- Forex Market: It is a 24-hour cash (spot) market where currency pairs, like the Euro/US$ (EUR/USD) pair, are traded. As the currencies are traded in pairs so the investors and traders are actually betting that one currency will go up and another will go down. The buying and selling of currencies are based on the current price or exchange rate accordingly.
- Foreign Currency Futures: These are futures contracts on currencies whose buying, and selling are based on the standard size and settlement date. In US, the CME Group is the largest foreign currency futures market which offers futures contracts on G10 currency pairs, emerging market currency pairs and e-micro products.
- Foreign Currency Options: Where an obligation is represented by futures contracts on either buying or selling a currency at a future date, the right is given to the option holder but not the obligation by the foreign currency options, so that the option holder in the future, can buy or sell a fixed amount of a foreign currency at a specified price on or before a specified date.
- ETFs and ETNs: Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Exchange-Traded Notes (ETNs) are one of the numbers of foreign currency exchange-traded products. They provide exposure to foreign exchange markets. Some ETFs are single currency, while others buy and manage a group of currencies. Investors looking for an easy way to invest in foreign currency should consider ETFs. Since these funds have fewer leverage-related risks and are easy to trade with traditional stock brokers.
- CDs: Foreign currency certificates of deposit (CDs) which are available on individual currencies or baskets of currencies. They allow investors to earn interest at foreign rates. For example, the TIAA Bank’s “World Energy” basket CD, offers exposure to four the non-Middle Eastern energy-producing countries (Australian dollar, British pound, Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone).
- Foreign Bond Funds: These are simply mutual funds that are invest in the bonds of foreign governments. Foreign bonds are typically denominated in the currency of the country of sale. If the value of the foreign currency rises in respect to the investor’s local currency, the earned interest value will increase when it is converted.