Category: Disadvantages

When considering the options to invest in currencies, you must evaluate the structure and stability of their issuing country. 

In many developing countries, exchange rates are fixed to a leading currency such as the US dollar. In this condition, central banks must maintain adequate reserves to maintain a fixed exchange rate.

A deficiency in currency reserve can have substantial effects on forex prices. A solution to this problem is to trade only in major pairs or major crosses.

We hope that you have enjoyed the above article describing the disadvantages of Forex trading. Be with us to explore forex trading, stocks trading, and other money-making opportunities.

Leave us some comments if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the disadvantages or risks of Forex trading. Also, let us know which of the disadvantages you are most afraid of.

One of the major risks or disadvantages of Forex market is that there are a lot of scammers who are ready to draw down the money from the investor. So you have to be very careful about choosing a trustworthy and reliable broker who won’t cheat and can give better returns.

Variations in interest rates of a country have an effect on currency exchange rates.

Such as if a country’s interest rates rise, its currency will strengthen due to an increased inflow of investments in that country’s assets, as people would expect higher returns. Alternatively, if interest rates fall, its currency will weaken as investors would start to withdraw their investments.

Due to this relation of the interest rates and exchange rates, the differential between currency values can drive forex prices to change dramatically.

Free exchange of information on the internet and social platform enables an individual to easily look up to the forex market’s condition and invest without any deep analysis. This is called Social Trading.

Such kind of social trading imposes greater risk on your trading career. The main disadvantage of social trading is that you might unknowingly follow an inexperienced trader and face a decent loss over time.

So it’s desirable not to blindly follow anyone or to follow only experienced traders.

The high volatility of the Forex trading can either be an advantage or a disadvantage. The change in the global policies and economy may sometimes drastically change the forecast and makes it very difficult for the traders to judge the foreign exchange market and invest money.

It can cause a huge loss to the traders if the market suddenly goes down and there is no stop loss placed in the actual trading system.

Forex trading is known for providing high leverages, meaning you can get profit/loss exposure multiple times of your trading capital. Forex brokers allow leverage of as high as 200:1, so you need to have only $1 to take a forex position worth $200.

So while a trader can profit from the leverage, his risks of losses are also maximized. Thus currency trading can easily become a loss-making nightmare unless the trader takes calculated leverage and has strong money management in place.

One of the worst consequence of this is receiving a margin call from your broker.

Unlike stocks or futures the spot Forex market does not have any centralized exchange or clearinghouse. Alternatively, each broker acts as its own exchange and the broker effectively becomes the market maker. 

This, in fact, provides an opportunity to abuse on the part of the broker or worse. Because of the absence of a centralized exchange, we also see price variations from broker to broker.

When dealing with reputed brokers in well-regulated countries these differences will be small but you need to be well aware of this fact especially if your charting data provider is not the same as your broker, as this may lead to inconsistencies between the planned and actual execution of trades.

The process of price determination of foreign currency is often believed to be complex because of the composite price determination process.

The fluctuations of exchange rates are influenced by multiple reasons and factors. The international politics and economy influence the rate of the currency the most, which creates uncertainty of the price.

The forex trading is usually done on the basis of technical analysis and indicators, which generally are not adequate to determine this type of fluctuation.

This is one of the biggest disadvantages of foreign exchange market. Due to the decentralized and de-regularized nature of the foreign exchange market, it is dominated by brokers. And you actually have to trade against professionals.

Being broker-driven implies that the forex market might not be fully transparent. A trader might not have any control over how his trade-order gets fulfilled, but you may not get the best price or may get limited views on trading quotes as furnished by your selected broker.

So a simple advice is to deal only with regulated brokers who fall within the purview of well-reputed regulators [List]. The market is not controlled by the regulators, but they can control the activities of brokers.