Currency Trading - Factors Influencing A Currency Pair Exchange Rate

Factors Influencing A Currency Pair Exchange Rate

Introduction

The exchange rate refers to the value of the US dollar against the values of currencies of other countries. Such a rate helps determine how much we pay for imported goods and services and how much we receive for what we export, among other things. When the value of the US dollar drops, imports become more expensive, and we tend to reduce the volume of our imports. Simultaneously, other countries will pay LESS for some of our products and that will tend to boost export sales. If imports and exports are a substantial part of a country's economy, as is the case with Canada, the exchange rate plays a particularly important role in our economy. The exchange rate between two countries' currencies is particularly important if the two countries are heavily involved in trade.

What factors affect an exchange rate?

A country's exchange rate is typically affected by the supply and demand for that country's currency in international exchange markets. This is typically known as a floating exchange rate. If demand, for say dollars, exceeds supply, then the value of the dollar will go up. If however, the supply of dollars exceeds demand, then its value will go down. A huge amount of money is bought and sold on international exchange markets for many different currencies.

Several factors influence the supply of, and demand for, a given country's currency.

If INTEREST rates are HIGHER in, say, the US than in other countries, then investors WILL choose to invest in the US, increasing demand for the dollar, provided that the expected rate of inflation is not higher in the US than among our trading partners. If INTEREST rates are LOWER in the US than in other countries, investors will choose NOT to invest in the US, decreasing demand for the dollar.

If the US INFLATION rate is HIGHER, investors are LESS likely to prefer the US -even with higher interest rates- because of the expectation that the value of the dollar will be ERODED by inflation. If our INFLATION rate is LOWER, investors are MORE likely to prefer the US, because there will be NO expectation that the value of the dollar will erode.

Trade balance also has an effect on a country's currency. If world prices for what a country exports rise in comparison with the cost of that country's imports, that country will be earning more for its exports than it pays for its imports. The more demand there will be for that country's currency, the better the deal becomes. If investors are confident that the US economy will be strong, they will be MORE likely to buy American assets, pushing UP the dollar's value. If investors are not so confident that the economy will be strong, they will be LESS likely to buy the country's assets, pushing the dollar's value DOWN.

Joshua Kunken is Chief Currency Analyst for ForeignMarketWatch.com

Car Insurance | Car Rentals | Health Insurance | Weight Loss | Life Insurance

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The Basics Of Forex
Foreign exchange market is also known as Forex or FX market. To date, it is the world's biggest "economic bazaar". FX produces an average of over $1 trillion daily earnings. That is 30 times more than combining all the volumes of America's equity markets. This currency market is where currencies are bought and sold.Why Forex?These currencies are traded in pairs, i.e., E...(related: Currency Trading)

Why Forex Traders Plan To Fail Before They Even Place Their First Trade & How You Can Know It & ...
Have you heard the wise saying that a trader who fails to plan, plans to fail? I have, and I was once that trader! However, did you know that even though traders who have constructed a plan, which incorporates their trading stategy (their "...(related: Currency Trading)

Example Of A Profitable Transaction In Forex
To make a profit, in the FOREX, a trader can enter the market as a *buy position* (known as going "long") or a *sell position*(known as going "short").For discussion, let's assume you've been studying the EURO.Your trading methods, rules, strategies, etc., tell you that price...(related: Currency Trading)

Forex Profits
The Forex Market-What, When and Why?Forex, FX and the Forex market are some common abbreviations for the Foreign Exchange market. Actually it is the largest financial market in the world, where money is sold and bought freely. In its present condition the Forex market was launched in the seventies, when free exchange rates were introduced, and only the participants of the market determine the price of one currency against the other proceeding from demand and supply. As far as the freedom from any external co...(related: Currency Trading)

Chinas New Currency Regime
The base unit for the renminbi is the yuan, which is how the Chinese currency is most commonly referred to. The official ISO abbreviation for the yuan is CNY, but it is also commonly abbreviated in the forex industry as RMB.The yuan had been pegged at 8.28 to the dollar since 1994. While China has been openly discussing scrapping the dollar peg for several years, many traders weren't expecting a move until later in the year.The PBC declared that the new r...(related: Currency Trading)

Online Forex Trading
Foreign exchange currency trading is also known as Forex trading, or FX, and has no single physical marketplace like the New York Stock Exchange does on Wall Street in New York or the Tokyo Stock Exchange does in Japan. The New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange online traders are limited to making purchases during the actual trading hours governed by New York Stock Exchange hours or the Japanese Stock Exchange's Tokyo hours. In contrast online Forex trading gives traders access to the online Forex trading community through an electronic series of different online trading platforms. Online Forex trading and online accessibility are nicely compatible because the world's foreign currency exchange market is a 24-hour market, and the internet...(related: Currency Trading)

Business And The Forex
The business world is a complex web of supply and demand. Money and goods, physical or otherwise, pass through the global market every single day. To meet this exchange between one country and another, foreign exchange, or forex, was born. The term forex is used to refer to transactions involving the conversion of money of one country into that of another or to the international transfer of money and credit instruments.Foreign exchange, or forex, is use...(related: Currency Trading)

Chinas New Currency Regime
The base unit for the renminbi is the yuan, which is how the Chinese currency is most commonly referred to. The official ISO abbreviation for the yuan is CNY, but it is also commonly abbreviated in the forex industry as RMB.The yuan had been pegged at 8.28 to the dollar since 1994. While China has been openly discussing scrapping the dollar peg for several years, many traders weren't expecting a move until later in the year.The PBC declared that the new r...(related: Currency Trading)

Writing A Trading Plan
All professional traders have a trading plan. Trading futures is a zero sum game and those with a plan (and the discipline to apply it) will succeed over those that have no plan. A plan details the particular market anomaly that you intend to exploit - your edge. Human emotion creates anomalies...(related: Currency Trading)