Is Trading Forex for you?

Years ago, I was introduced to the Forex markets by a very savvy friend who extolled the benefits of trading or speculating in currencies. My question to him was, how could a private person trade in currencies and why would he or she even want to?

His answer was illuminating to say the least. First of all he explained that in the forex markets, buying or selling made no difference because you would always be trading in a pair of currencies. At the time, he was trading the US Dollar vs the German Deutche Mark. If he thought the Dollar was going to strengthen he would buy the Dollar, which automatically meant he was selling the Deutche mark. I was fascinated. If he wanted to change his mind, he simply sold the dollar, which meant he automatically bought the Deutche Mark.

"How is it possible to trade in currencies?", I asked. "Just open an account with a bank that has a foreign exchange trading department", he answered.

I thought about his suggestion for a while and then a flood of questions came to me, which led to a complete change of attitude toward trading or investing in anything from then on. I would like to share with you, my revelation about the financial markets, especially the currency markets.