Forex Pips Explained

Forex pips explained describes what forex pips are all about. If you are looking at the forex markets as a potential way of generating extra income, then you will probably have come across this term. I could make a joke about apples or oranges, but everybody’s already done those! You will need to understand what pips are if you are thinking about becoming a home trader on forex.

You will not believe how simple it is to understand what a pip is. PIP stands for Percentage In Point. It is the smallest price increment in Forex Trading. For the US dollar one pip is equivalent to the fourth decimal point, or 0.0001 of a dollar (or 1/100th of a cent.) So, for example the US Dollar / Euro bid is 1.3400 and was offered at 1.3395 the spread difference is 5 pips. Simple enough?

However this four decimal point rule does not apply in all currency markets. For example, for the Japanese Yen a pip is equivalent to the second decimal point, or 0.01 Yen.

Why do currency markets trade in pips, simple, when the major forex traders such as banks, trade in hundreds of millions of dollars, each 0.0001 of a dollar is worth thousand of dollars.

And even for the smaller home investor, you have to remember that you are likely to be trading with a leverage factor of 100 to 1. For a hundred dollars invested, you will actually be trading $10,000, so for you, in these circumstances, a pip is worth a dollar.

One of the things you will have to think about when starting to trade on forex is a choice of online broker. When you start trading, the guidance is that you invest small amounts until you develop and understand your trading style. From the point of view of the online broker, these small investments represent a very small return on their investment of maintaining websites, help lines and providing free online training.

It is therefore not too surprising that they would expect you to close your deals for a greater spread difference in pips than if you were trading 10’s of thousands of dollars. It is just the same as buying sugar – buying a 100lb sack is going to be cheaper, per pound, than buying a 2-pound bag.

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