Forex Options Market Overview

The forex options market started as an over-the-counter (OTC) financial vehicle for large banks, financial institutions and large international corporations to hedge against foreign currency exposure. Like the forex spot market, the forex options market is considered an "interbank" market. However, with the plethora of real-time financial data and forex option trading software available to most investors through the internet, today's forex option market now includes an increasingly large number of individuals and corporations who are speculating and/or hedging foreign currency exposure via telephone or online forex trading platforms.

Forex option trading has emerged as an alternative investment vehicle for many traders and investors. As an investment tool, forex option trading provides both large and small investors with greater flexibility when determining the appropriate forex trading and hedging strategies to implement.

Most forex options trading is conducted via telephone as there are only a few forex brokers offering online forex option trading platforms.

Forex Option Defined - A forex option is a financial currency contract giving the forex option buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a specific forex spot contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the forex option buyer pays to the forex option seller for the forex option contract rights is called the forex option "premium."

The Forex Option Buyer - The buyer, or holder, of a foreign currency option has the choice to either sell the foreign currency option contract prior to expiration, or he or she can choose to hold the foreign currency options contract until expiration and exercise his or her right to take a position in the underlying spot foreign currency. The act of exercising the foreign currency option and taking the subsequent underlying position in the foreign currency spot market is known as "assignment" or being "assigned" a spot position.

The only initial financial obligation of the foreign currency option buyer is to pay the premium to the seller up front when the foreign currency option is initially purchased. Once the premium is paid, the foreign currency option holder has no other financial obligation (no margin is required) until the foreign currency option is either offset or expires.

On the expiration date, the call buyer can exercise his or her right to buy the underlying foreign currency spot position at the foreign currency option's strike price, and a put holder can exercise his or her right to sell the underlying foreign currency spot position at the foreign currency option's strike price. Most foreign currency options are not exercised by the buyer, but instead are offset in the market before expiration.

Risk-Reward Ratio in Forex Trading

From the very beginning of your forex career a term Risk/Reward Ratio will be an important part of your trading strategy. The realization that every single trade you make contains a certain degree of risk will defend you from uncontrollable fears and panic attacks during the trading hours. This is when the risk management comes in handy. The best known way to figure out the risk you take is to calculate the risk-reward ratio. What is this ratio and how is it determined?

Risk

First thing to do when calculating the risk-reward ratio is to figure out the risk itself. This can be done by analyzing the total sum of money needed to enter the trade. The actual amount of money at risk is calculated by the following formula:

the price of the selected currency multiplied times the amount of lots

Reward

The reward is of course closely related to the profits you hope t make from the price movements. The formula to figure out the reward is as follow:

the gain multiplied times the amount of lots traded

Trading in the Forex Requires Some Caution

Whether it is in the millions or thousands, trading in the Forex is a bit risky. There are a lot of players involved and if you don’t arm yourself properly with knowledge about the Forex you may just get swamped.

The Forex is the largest, most vibrant market in the whole wide world. The financial world has never had a market that involves so much transaction.

Over a trillion dollars worth of different currencies exchange hands everyday. Some lose in the trade, while some hit the jackpot and make tons of money.

The Forex is characterized by its unpredictability and the liquidity because it deals with foreign currencies and each one's value influenced by their own country.

That's why anyone who is greatly considering joining the Forex trade should think twice, thrice and maybe even ten times before doing so. This is not an arena for the weak and nervous.

The Forex is a very complex financial arena and only those with enough knowledge, experience and financial capability can join the foray.

Managing the risk factors is a priority task for those professionals who do this everyday. They direct and manage accounts from their investors, full confidence is placed on them and their client's success is also their success.

Some professional Forex brokers have placed high value on their credibility. The more clients they have, the more they earn as well. They make a profit by eating a slice of their client's profit. If they have made a name for themselves in the Forex trade, they don’t need to go look for clients; the clients will look for them and invest.

There are those, however, who want to manage their own portfolios. A word of caution though -- educate yourself first about the trade.

Learn the ropes and tricks of the game before throwing your hat in the ring. Try to gain access to many self-learn and self-study websites that can impart their knowledge with you.

Try out the website of the Federal Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), there they offer consumer reports as well as articles about applicable laws in Forex trading.

Many Forex management firms maintain a website that offers free online tutorials and brochures. You may need all the educational information about the Forex that you can get your hands on.

They may not outright say it, but the best and the finest and most skilled Forex traders have learned all the secrets of the game. From trading signals technical indicators, and theories that could explain about the market behavior.

How Currencies are Traded in the FOREX Market

Currencies are traded in dollar amounts called “lots”. At 100:1 leverage, one lot is equal to $1000 which controls $100,000 of a given currency. This leverage is known as “margin” and some brokers will allow traders even higher leverage than 100:1. This superhigh leverage is one of the reasons that Forex trading has become so popular.

Currencies are always traded in pairs. Each pair has unique notation that expresses which currencies are being traded.

The symbol for a currency pair will always be in the form ABC/XYZ. ABC/XYZ is not a real currency pair, just an example of how currency pairs are stated in the market. I

n this particular example, ABC is the symbol for one country’s currency and XYZ is the symbol for another country’s currency.

Listed below are some common symbols used. There are symbols for other currencies as well, but these are the most commonly traded ones.

USD - The US Dollar

EUR - The currency of the European Union "EURO"

GBP - The British Pound

JPN - The Japanese Yen

CHF - The Swiss Franc

AUD - The Australian Dollar

CAD - The Canadian Dollar