Diversifying Your Trading Strategies in Forex Markets
The key to success in many money markets is in diversity. The truly great stock portfolio is one that boasts a wide array of stocks, in which a percentage of the total portfolio is invested. A good financial advisor can keep money moving from one company’s stock to another in percentages that reflect the relative success of each company that has a hold within that portfolio. Although the Forex can seem much more stable than the stock market, or rather, much more stable than any given company’s performance in the stock market; the Forex too can cause overnight disasters if all of one trader’s trading is happening with one currency.
Thinking hypothetically, traders ten years ago would have been happy to trade for US dollars and then sell them for a higher price. However, the US dollar is no longer the pillar of strength that it was thought to be for so long. If a trader had all of their money on US money on 9/11, they would have lost a lot of money that day. Subsequent devaluation of the dollar has been more predictable, but the bottom line is that there are sometimes rapid changes in the value of a currency. Many things can bring about these quick changes, but current events are one of the factors that cause the most rapid kind of change.
Succeeding in the Forex Market, like succeeding in the stock market, means not only investing enough in the big winners, but also not risking too much or as the old wives’ tale goes—not putting all of your eggs in one basket. The true key to success is in having a large enough percentage of your investment in high yield markets, but having a large enough percentage in slightly lower yielding spheres (though still high-yield, not the highest). This strategy is the stability strategy. Not putting all of one’s assets on one country’s currency or on one company’s success means that total devastation is impossible. Of course, losses can occur, but the key is balance.
Balance in this context means spreading out one’s assets to a variety of areas. Just like a tower needs a solid base, a trader’s Forex portfolio must have a base that is grounded not on only one currency. A portfolio that includes only one currency is opening itself up to the chance of extreme risk. Of course, if the currency does well, the portfolio does well, but if the currency takes a sudden dive, the portfolio has nothing to support it and dives at the same rate as the currency itself. If a trader wants to invest absolutely everything in the currency that is at the top of the Forex today, they can earn the most money tomorrow by keeping all of their money in that one currency, assuming that it does equally well tomorrow.
It is much smarter and safer to diversify the portfolio a little bit. Instead of investing everything in the currency that’s at the absolute top of the list, one can divide one’s portfolio into five chunks and allot one chunk to each of the top five currencies. This means that the portfolio will not earn as much as if all of the money were in that one currency at the very top, but the portfolio will also remain quite safe if the currency at the top takes a little dive.
It certainly seems that those old wives must have known what they were talking about when they warned against keeping all of one’s eggs in one basket. One basket may be efficient, and in the Forex world it might be the most lucrative way, but it is certainly not the safest and smartest way.
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