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What is the main difference between the Foreign Exchange Market and the Stock Market? Find out here on my Forex trading software review blog post.

Basically the foreign exchange market is also known as the FX market, and the forex market. Trading that takes place between two counties with different currencies is the basis for the fx market and the background of the trading in this market. The forex market is over thirty years old, established in the early 1970′s. The forex market is one that is not based on any one business or investing in any one business, but the trading and selling of currencies.

The main difference between the stock market and the forex market is the vast trading that occurs on the forex market. There is millions and millions that are traded daily on the forex market, almost two trillion dollars is traded daily. The amount is much higher than the money traded on the daily stock market of any country. The forex numbers are astronomical!

What is traded, bought and sold on the forex market is something that can easily be liquidated. This means it can be turned back to cash real fast, or often times it is actually going to be cash. From one currency to another, the availability of cash in the forex market is something that can happen real fast for any investor from any country.

The forex market is global. The stock market is something that takes place only within a country. The stock market is based on businesses and products that are within a country, and the forex market takes that a step further to include any country. This is another main differnce between the two.

The stock market has set business hours. Generally, this is going to follow the business day, and will be closed on banking holidays and weekends. The forex market is one that is open generally twenty four hours a day because the vast number of countries that are involved in forex trading, buying and selling are located in so many different times zones. As one market is opening, another countries market is closing. This is a advantage for forex traders with the flexibility to trade twenty fours hours a day.

The stock market in any country is going to be based on only that countries currency, say for example the Japanese yen, and the Japanese stock market, or the United States stock market and the dollar. However, in the forex market, you are involved with many types of countries, and many types of currencies. You will find references to a variety of currencies, and this is another difference between the stock market and forex trading. I recommend further training to achieve good results in both markets.

Support and resistance levels are used by investors and speculators to determine how far they believe a currency pair will move between the two levels. This also tells them at what points the price action may turn around due to the buying or selling pressure and start moving in the opposite direction.

But sometimes, the markets change direction due to a fundamental factor. The market change of direction is strong enough to cause a currency pair to break through a previously established support and resistance level. When a previous support and resistance level is broken by the markets, new levels are established. However, the broken levels may still have some influence on the market in the future.

Sometimes there are attempted breakouts. This is also known as False Breakouts. It will become obvious to you that prices do not always stop at exactly the same points each time. So if you are going to set up stringent requirements for your support and resistance levels, those levels may not hold up. You would fake yourself out of a lot of valid price movements.

Even when you take all the precautions, you may fall victim to a false breakout. Now, you will ask how I can tell a false breakout from a true one and when the price has truly broken through support and resistance in a new direction.

There are primarily two methods that you can use to filter out a false breakout with a true breakout. These two methods are setting price-amplitude benchmarks and identifying role reversals.

Setting price amplitude benchmarks involves looking at a chart to determine if you can identify and know when the price action momentarily broke through the prevailing support and resistance level before pulling back and once again returning to the previous level.

The dips through the predetermined levels are usually short lived. You can draw a secondary support and resistance lines which you can then utilize as your price-amplitude benchmarks.

A price amplitude benchmark will tell you if the price has broken through the predetermined level but did not breakthrough the benchmark; you dont have to worry about a change in the trend direction. However, if the price had enough momentum behind it to breach the benchmark, it can continue in the new direction.

Identifying role reversals method involves watching the price action to see if support levels turn into resistance levels and resistance levels turn into support levels. Often, you will see the price action bounce off a level of resistance, then turn around and start heading lower and bounce off the previous resistance level.

When a resistance level is broken, that same level will turn into a support level. Conversely when a support level is broken, that same level will turn into a resistance level. You should use both the benchmark and the role reversal confirmations in your trading analysis to screen out false breakout from a true breakout.

As a forex trader, you should be aware of the role played by the interest rate changes in the general economic and investment climate. You should know that interest rates are an essential part of investment decisions and can drive currency markets as well as the stock and commodities markets in either direction. After the unemployment figures, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate decisions are the second largest currency market moving release.

The impact of the interest rate changes not only have short term consequences but also have long term impact on the currency markets. One Central Banks decision can affect more than a single currency pair in the interconnected forex markets.

In currency trading, an interest rate differential is the difference between the base currency interest rate and the counter currency interest rate. In the pair, EUR/USD, EUR is the base currency and USD is the counter currency. The interest rate differential for the EUR/USD pair will be the difference between the Euro interest rate and the US Dollar interest rate.

Understanding the relationship between the interest rate differentials and the currency pairs can be very profitable for you as a forex trader. In addition to the Central Banks overnight interest rate decisions, expected future overnight rates as well the expected timing for the interest rate changes can be crucial to the currency pair movements.

The reason why it is profitable is that international investors like hedge funds, big banks and institutional investors are yield seekers. They actively keep on shifting funds from the low yield assets to high yield assets.

Interest rate differentials are considered to be the leading indicators for currency prices. London Inter Bank Offer Rate and the 10 year government bond yields are usually used as leading indicators of currency movements.

Lets take an example, suppose the Australian 10-year government bond yield is 5.25%. The US 10-year government bond yield is 1.75%. The yield spread in this case would be 350 basis points in favor of the Australian Dollar.

Suppose the Australian government raised its interest rate by 25 basis points. The 10 year Australian government bond yield would also appreciate to 5.50%. Now, the new yield spread is 375 basis points in favor of AUD. The AUD will also be expected to appreciate against USD.

The general rule of thumb used by professional traders is that when a yield spread increases in favor of a certain currency that currency is expected to appreciate against the other currency in the pair. This is important information for you as a trader. Interest rate data is available on Bloomberg. Keep track of the currencies in the currency pairs that you trade with that data.