Forex terms Archives - Forex Education

What Does Equity Mean in Forex?

Traders usually understand the term “balance” in the account. But, what’s equity in forex?

Account equity in forex trading means the total current value of a forex trader’s account, equal to the account balance plus or minus any profit or loss from open positions. When there are no open trades in the trading account, equity is as same as the trading balance. When the trading account is in profit, equity equals the sum of balance and floating profits. When the trading account is in loss, equity equals the sum of balance and floating losses.

In simple words, equity refers to traders’ money in their trading accounts plus or minus any profit or loss from open positions.

Below you can see a video about equity in forex:

Equity formula is:
Equity = Account Balance + Floating Profits (or Losses)

Forex equity examples:

Example 1: Forex account equity without trades
Let us assume that the trader has a $1000 account.
The trader doesn’t have any open trades.

In this case: Equity = Account Balance = $1000

Example 2: Forex account equity in the profitable account:
Let us assume that the trader has a $1000 account. And trader has 1 mini lot open position 10 pips in profit:
In this case: Equity = Account Balance + Floating Profit = $1000 + $10 = $1010.

Example 3: Forex account equity in the loss account:
Let us assume that the trader has a $1000 account. And trader has 1 mini lot open position 10 pips in loss:
In this case: Equity = Account Balance + Floating Loss = $1000 – $10 = $990.

Now we can answer one more important question:

What is the difference between balance and equity in forex?
The difference between balance and equity in forex is that equity is equal to the account balance plus or minus any profit or loss from open positions. Balance and equity value are the same when there are no open positions in a forex trading account. The equity value is higher than the balance when the forex trading account is in profit. The equity value is lower than the balance when the forex trading account is in the loss.

What Does Trailing Stop Mean?

by Fxigor

As we define in the previous article “What is stop-loss order,” a stop-loss order is an instruction placed with a broker to buy or sell a security by setting a stop loss level, a specified amount of pips away from the entry price.

The stop-loss price level can be fixed, but it can change too. So, What is the trailing stop order?

A trailing stop or trailing stop-loss is an order that moves the stop-loss price level with each new price tick by the trial amount or trailing stop loss percentage away from an asset’s current market price. For BUY trade, if the security price rises, the stop price rises by the trail amount, but the stop-loss price doesn’t change if the security price falls. For the SELL trade, if the security price is going down, the stop price fall by the trail amount, but if the security price is going up, the stop-loss price doesn’t change.

What is a trailing stop quote? Many brokers use the term trailing stop quote to make it clear that the stop order will only be triggered once a valid quoted price level in the market has been met, without negative slippage.
In that case, if we have a BUY order and EURUSD has a 1.3 price level stop loss, the order will close exactly 1.3 or above 1.3.

Trailing stop BUY example: If we buy the asset at $100 and set a trailing stop to be $10 from the beginning price, then when the price goes to $102, my new stop loss will be $102-$10=$92. If the price goes to $150, then my stop loss will move to $150-$10=$140, etc. Instead of a fixed dollar amount, we can use the percentage.

How does a trailing stop work in forex

The reality is that several traders realize that they should accept their losses and let them go as quickly as possible. On the other hand, they also have been told that they should let their profits continue to flow for an extended period. Yet, if someone is not aware of a tool to aid in implementing this strategy, it is necessary to understand how to use trailing stop in forex. It is quite similar to the application of the usage of a stop order that is regular, but it can be placed to flow with the market.

For example, if you desire to ride along with the EUR/USD, you place an emergency stop that will undergo a phase of triggering if the market happens to not move in your favor. Following the passing of a day or a few more, when the trade is tending toward your turn, you desire to conduct a locking in some profit to find out what will occur. It is possible to place a stop in the territory of a positive gain. This could be seen as the placement of a trailing stop. If there is the continuance of the market flowing toward your favor, the profit you have locked in will increase. This will be an ongoing favorable situation until the market slides back in a downward trend and reaches your stop placement.

The trailing stop’s critical role is to engage in the augmentation of the profit lock while the market is in a moving phase. As such, there is no requirement for you to engage in interventions or make adjustments. The trailing stop’s functionality permits you to follow trends with a level of safety in your preferred comfort zone so that there is no need for constant monitoring.

Regarding the trailing stop, you can also engage in the trailing stop placement for the sake of longer-term trading. You can place your stop far removed from the market trend and permit things to undergo development. This works rather successfully for slow trading systems, which tend to engage in the locking in of profits for extended months or days. When someone participates in setting up a target that is long term, then it is truly advised to place a trailing stop as well. This will permit the person to set up the total trade at an early stage while granting it the freedom to take its route.

With the reality that the forex market is running for a time frame of twenty-four hours over six days each week, this results in the need for many hours to undergo monitoring. Instead of enduring a lack of sleep or interrupted sleep, it makes wise sense to apply the trailing stop to one’s trade in this case. The remarkable result is that the lock of your profit can increase even when you are soundly asleep. The market will continue to go on as it does, while your trade will be able to conduct any needful adjustments or stops.

Disadvantages of trailing stop loss
Some traders advise avoiding trailing stop loss because they are automatic.
Automatic trailing stops loss move stop loss always per defined number of pips or percentage without analyzing the current market situation. For example, an automatic trailing stop loss can move the stop price level for 15 pips all the time; even that market has 100 pips daily volatility (ATR) or 250 pips daily volatility.

Static stops are great for novice traders as they make them aware of this tool and help them understand risk management. Trailing stops are for those looking to maximize their profits and have already learned the other concepts. This type is about money management rather than risk management. These stops are not stationary and move as the trades move in favor of the trader.

Here’s an example of your understanding. Let’s assume that a trader has taken an extended position and is trading EUR/USD at 1.3200. The pip stop is at 1.3150, with a 100 pip limit at 1.3300. Consider a situation in which this trader decides to move up to 1.325o; he will adjust the stop up to 1.3200. This 0.050 up the original stop value. A trailing stop moves to the entry price of the trader or the breakeven price. This means that if his chosen currency pair reverses and moves against him, the trailing stop will protect the gains that he made at his original position.

Traders can remove the initial risk by using this break-even stop permit. They will feel protected and can move to other Forex trade opportunities. The trailing stop has different types; the easiest one to work with is a dynamic trailing stop. It adjusts the stop for every single pip that will move in favor of the trader. Taking the same example mentioned above, if our currency pair moves to 1.3201 (1.3200 being the starting entry), the stop will automatically adjust to 1.3151.

How the best way to use trailing stops?

If you want more control over the stops, you can always move them manually. Experienced traders who like to trade in a fast-moving market or do trend trading often move the stops manually. This is because the price action is critical in this kind of trading.

Trailing Stop after hours

So, do trailing stops work after hours? Trailing stop orders won’t execute during after hours, the extended-hours session. The trailing stop orders that traders set during extended-hours will queue for the market open of the next trading day. This trailing stop after-hours rule applies to any trading platform or trading broker.

Should you use a trailing stop loss?
Trailing stop loss can be an interesting trading strategy, but traders need to avoid a completely automated trailing stop process. The best results traders can get if they manually set trailing amount or percentage based on current market conditions.

What Is Drawdown?

by Fxigor

Drawdown forex definition – drawdown meaning

Drawdown in the finance industry can have two meanings. Drawdown in banking refers to a gradual accessing of credit funds. Drawdown meaning in forex refers to reducing equity – how much an investment or trading account is down from the peak before it recovers back to the peak. Drawdown and loss are not the same things. A trader can open a position, in one moment make a 2% drawdown, and then close position 3% in profit. Profitable closed positions can have a drawdown at some moment.

What drawdown teaches you?

A drawdown also helps you know how long your trading system can survive in the forex market. Your position may not be defendable if your drawdown is large.

For instance, an investor has to work hard to recover his capital loss if his drawdown is 50%. To secure his equity position from breaking, he will have to get a 100% profit on the remaining capital.

When a forex trader has a drawdown, then the best options for him are to readjust his system and implement good risk-management procedures instead of trading aggressively to recover his breakeven point. Usually, the result of the trader’s aggressive approach to recovering the breakeven point for his capital can be adverse. The reason behind it can be his emotional decisions, over trading, and using leverage even to back his account of trade.

Drawdown types

Drawdown can be an absolute drawdown, maximum drawdown, and relative drawdown. In our article absolute drawdown, we described that absolute drawdown refers to the sum difference between the initial capital risked and a minimal point below that level.

Relative drawdown is the maximal drawdown percentage that shows the ratio between the maximal drawdown and the respective local upper extremum (of equity).

Relative Drawdown = MaxDrawDown % = Max Drawdown / its MaxPeak * 100%

Maximal Drawdown = Maximum distance (Maximal Peak – next Minimal Peak)

Excessive use of Leverage

Usually, the effects of a bad trade become disastrous if leverage is used excessively by the trader. In fact, traders are unwilling to accept a losing trade or have to bear huge losses when they are too confident or too aggressive. According to a trading proverb, our career in a trade cannot be made by one trade but to destroy it one dreadful trade is enough’.

Conclusion

Before entering a trade, to fix a point to stop loss for that trade can be the most vital tip to follow. It will help in reducing the loss due to drawdown. Instead of making emotion-based trading decisions, you should focus on minimizing losses by using strategies to manage risk before making any exciting trades.

The majority of trades have some drawdown, even profitable trades.

What is Leveraged Buyout LBO in Simple Words

by Fxigor

Leveraged Buyout Definition

What is an LBO
A leveraged buyout is a process when you borrow a significant amount of money to complete another company’s acquisition. Now, since the amount of loans taken for acquiring the company is pretty high, so to pay them off, the acquired company’s assets are put to use. They are often kept as collateral for the loans to the creditors. Sometimes, the acquiring company also uses its own assets to keep as collateral for the loans. Now, this buyout’s main reason is to make sure that when a company is being acquired, the acquiring company is not committing a lot of capital.

The best book to learn about LBO is: Investment banking valuation leveraged buyouts and mergers and acquisitions:
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Leveraged Buyout LBO Simple explanation video

Historical aspects regarding Leveraged Buyout

The infamous history of leveraged buyouts suggests that they hadn’t been much success in the past. Most importantly, when the 1980s are kept into account, various, much important buyouts happened and led to acquired companies’ eventual bankruptcy. Mainly, this was because of the pretty high leverage ratio that amounted to almost 100%. The interest payments were also so large that the company’s operating cash flows couldn’t make it to meet the exceedingly high amounts, and thus, they eventually got bankrupted.
One of the largest LBOs on record was in 2006 when Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Merrill Lynch, and Bain &Co. acquired the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). The three companies had to pay a whopping amount of $33 billion to acquire HCA.

What are the reasons behind LBOs?

When a company is taking so many loans to acquire another company, it raises questions and puts the acquiring company’s finances at great risk. So, one does wonder about the reasons behind such a buyout. Well, there are three important reasons why companies come to this point.

1. The first reason is when the company wants to take over a public company and make it private
2. When someone is trying to sell a portion of his existing business for its spin-off.
3. The third reason might be the transfer of any private property or the case where a small change is to be made in the ownership of a specific business.
However, there is one common requirement that the acquired entity must be a profitable and growing venture in all cases. So, spending all the large amounts and acquiring all the loans are worth it.

Break down of LBOs
Usually, there is a ratio of 10% equity to 90% debt in an LBO. Due to the excessive ratio, usually, the bonds issued in this buyout are referred to as the junk bonds instead of the investment grade. Moreover, many people believe that the tactic of LBOs is highly predatory and ruthless because the target company never actually sanctions it. Moreover, it is pretty much ironic that the assets responsible for a company’s success are actually being used against the same company by the predator company as collateral.

The process of LBO – How does a leveraged buyout take place?
The leveraged buyouts often contain many complexities, and hence they take some time for completion. For instance, consider the example of the JAB holding company. It is a private firm that makes investments in healthcare companies, coffee, and luxury goods. In May 2016, the JAB holding company started the leveraged buyout of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. The acquired company came at a whopping price of $1.5 billion. There was a leveraged loan of $350 million and a revolving credit facility of $150 million through the Barclays investment bank.
However, Krispy Kreme Doughnut Inc. already had a debt on its balance sheet, which was also needed to be sold. Barclays made it more attractive by adding a 0.5% interest rate to it. Thus, the LBO was made quite intricate, and the deal was almost canceled. Nevertheless, on July 12, 2016, they went through with the deal and closed it.

Attractive aspects of LBO

An LBO generally represents a win-win situation for banks as well as financial sponsors. Thus they are quite attractive. In the case of a financial sponsor, he can employ the leverage and thus enhance his equity rate. The banks can also make it different from corporate lending and thus attain some significantly high margins by supporting the finances of LBOs. This is because the banks will be charging much higher interest. Moreover, the banks can obtain security or collateral too as proof or surety that they will get repaid.
In a leveraged buyout, the firm’s managers, employees, or other investors attempt to use borrowed funds to buy out the firm stockholders.
How much amount can the banks provide for an LBO
As mentioned, the LBO requires a lot of debt, and this depends on how much amount the banks are actually willing to provide for supporting an LBO. The amount varies and is dependent on several factors that are mentioned as follows:
• Overall economic environment
• The company’s quality is being acquired, i.e., whether the company’s operating cash flows are stable, its history, the prospects of growth, and the hard assets, etc.
• The experience and history of the financial sponsor.
The financial sponsor is offering • How much equity.
Characteristics of leveraged buyouts
The leveraged buyouts greatly differ in many aspects. However, some characteristics are there that hold in almost every LBO mentioned as follows:
• Strong management team – The chief executives will have worked with each other, and by rolling over their shares in the LBO deal, they might have some vested interests.
• Relatively lesser existing debt – The private equity firm will add up more debt in the company’s capital structure, which is to be repaid over time. Thus, this results in a lesser effective purchasing price. If the company already has acquired a huge debt balance, then the deal is very tough to be closed.
• Relatively lesser fixed costs – the fixed costs are to be repaid even if private equity firms’ revenues decline. Thus the fixed costs pose a risk for the private equity firms.
• Stability in cash flows – the acquired company in the LBO must have a stable operating cash flow.

Leveraged Buyout LBO Model in Simple Words
When consideration is given to the matter of the leveraged buyout model constructed by engaging in the usage of the Excel program, this refers to the conducting of an evaluation for a transaction classified as a leveraged buyout in shortened form is referred to as LBO. It is noted that such a transaction is regarded as acquiring a business that is financed via the application of a large amount of debt. It is further realized that the collateral used for the funding of a leveraged buyout is derived from the assets about the acquisition business and the assets of the business that is taking over the new business.

Leveraged buyout valuation model:

LBO model or Leveraged Buyout model is a representation system during the acquisition of a public or private company with a significant amount of borrowed funds, which needs to enable investors to properly assess the transaction and earn the highest possible risk-adjusted internal rate of return (IRR). LBO model consists of a process of determining a fair valuation for a company, determining the equity returns (through IRR calculations), determining the effect of recapitalizing the company, and determining the debt service limitations of a company from its cash flows.

See leveraged buyout model example video:

Usually, the process of this type of transaction involves the purchaser having a desire to make the lowest amount of investment possible in terms of pursuing and engaging in the usage of debt for the sake of being able to finance the rest of the price of the business. Or sometimes, other sources that are classified as being non-equitable may also be used for this purpose. The objective of the LBO model seeks to empower inventors to be able to assess transactions properly and to be able to achieve the most optimal level of internal rate of return that is noted as being risk-adjusted.

Within the context of the leveraged buyout, the reason for the business that is investing or the buyer to engage in the acquiring of the new business is for the sake of earning returns that are optimally high as possible in terms of their investment of equity by applying the usage of debt for the sake of augmenting the possible returns. The organization that does the acquiring sets forth determining whether the investment is worthy of pursuit via conducting calculations regarding the potential internal rate of return. Usually, the minimum in such cases is set forth as being thirty percent and higher. The internal rate of return sometimes can be even at a low rate of twenty percent for deals that are regarded as large or, in such cases, that the economy’s conditions are regarded as being unfavorable. Once the acquisition has been made, the ratio between the debt and equity is generally one to two times more because the debt makes up fifty to ninety percent of the purchasing price. The organization’s cash flow is then applied for the sake of paying for any outstanding debt.

Concerning the structure of a leveraged buyout model

Within the scenario of engaging in the transaction of a leveraged buyout, the investors, which are regarded as private equity or a firm that specializes in leveraged buyouts, may form a new organization used for the sake of being able to obtain the desired business. Following the completion of a leveraged buyout, the target business then is regarded as a subsidiary that pertains to the new organization, or the two businesses may undergo a merger for the sake of formulating one business enterprise.

Considering capital structure within the leveraged buyout model.

When the term capital structure is used regarding a leveraged buyout scenario, this correlates to the elements of funding that are applied during the process of buying a company for acquisitions. Though the reality is that there is different structuring applied in each case of leveraged buyouts, it is recognized that generally, there are many similarities about the capital structures of many businesses that are purchased new. In such cases, debt is the largest portion of the funding for leveraged buyouts. The usual capital structure seeks to supply funding that is the least costly and holds the least amount of risk. Then other additional sources of funding are applied.

It is noted that the capital structure of a leveraged buyout may contain debt that is obtained via a bank. Bank debt is also sometimes called senior debt. This is the cheapest funding that is available that is used for the sake of buying a company that is targeted during the process of a leveraged buyout. This would make up fifty to eighty percent of the capital structure for the leveraged buyout. This provides an interest rate that is lower in comparison to other forms of financing. This is why this type of funding is the highest preference among investors. On the other hand, debts with banks are associated with covenants and limitations that place restrictions on businesses regarding the payments of dividends for shareholders, increasing other debts with the bank, and purchasing other businesses when the debt is regarded as being yet active. The time for paying back debts with banks is set for five to ten years. If there is the business’s liquidation before the debt’s full payment, the debt with the bank must be paid immediately.

There can also be the application of high yield debt. This is regarded as being debt that is not secured. It generally carries an interest rate that is considered quite high to provide good compensation for the investors who have risked their finances. This type of debt possesses limitations that are less restrictive in comparison to bank debts. In such cases that a business decides to undergo liquidation, it is required to pay the high yield debt before any payment is provided for holders of equity. But this type of debt is still paid only after the bank’s debt has been paid first. This debt can be accessed via private institutional markets or public debt markets. The period for paying back this type of debt is set for eight to ten years. This type of debt sets forth options that offer bullet repayment details or early repayment details.

When we talk about capital markets, bonds, stocks, usually in reports, we can read about the LBO model. I hope that this article was simple enough to help you to understand this concept.

How to Calculate a Pip Value?

by Fxigor

Pip and pips are widespread terms in the trading industry. In this article, we will explain the basic concept.

Calculating Pip Value in Different Forex Pairs. Forex pips explanation

PIP is the acronym for the phrase “percentage interest point.” It’s also known as a price interest point. A forex pip is the lowest price increase for a given pair. The pip value is a unit of measurement for currency movement in most currency pairs in the forex trade. The pip between two currencies varies. However, it is generally equal to the fourth decimal place in most currency pairs. For EURUSD or GBPUSD, for example, 0.0001 is one pip.

The pip value, as you know, is the standard by which a currency pair is compared. This also includes the exchanges of the currency pairs as well as the trade size. The significance of pip value is that it’s through pip that you can show the amount of exposure and significantly influence your position. The pip value is defined by the pair of currency, trade value, and the currency pair’s exchange rate.

Currency must be exchanged to enable international transactions. There are a lot of bets and other transactions happening in the forex market. All these take place via speculators who are on the watch-out to earn money as the price of foreign currency moves.

The absolute value of the pip

To make it simple, each forex account will have a certain number of lots and pips. A lot is a collection or the lowest quantum of a currency that you’re going to trade. And the pip the lowest amount that currency can change.

The value of a foreign currency keeps on varying concerning other currencies. And, the absolute value varies with different currencies and with a particular currency. The pip shows to what extent a pair of currencies move up and goes down. The value of a pip is, therefore, varies across pairs of currencies. This article discusses pip value and the various aspects that go into calculating the pip value.

If the value of the currency pair increases up or goes down 0.0001, the currency pair’s price has gone 1 pip. Likewise, when the price increases or decreases 0.0005, it implies the price has moved 5 pips.

FX pips meaning examples

If the AUDUSD forex pair’s price varies from $1.0000 to $1.0009, it’s said the at the AUDUSD has raised by 9 pips ($0.0009).

If the price of EUR/USD rises from $1.3040 to $1.3045, the EUR/USD is said to have moved 5 pips.

What are 20 pips meaning in the forex market? For example, when EURUSD rises from 1.3000 to 1.3020, it is 20 pips.

What are 10 pips meaning in the forex market? For example, when EURUSD rises from 1.3000 to 1.3010, it is 10 pips.

What are 30 pips meaning in the forex market? For example, when EURUSD rises from 1.3000 to 1.3030, it is 30 pips.

What are 50 pips meaning in the forex market? For example, when EURUSD rises from 1.3000 to 1.3050, it is 20 pips.

Measuring PIP for the different currency

There are a few currency pairs that are expressed in terms of the second digit following the decimal. The pip value of yen-based currency included EUR/JPY, USD/JPY, AUD/JPY, GBP/JPY are said using two digits after the decimal.

Thus when the US/JPY goes from 112.00 to 112.90, the price is said to have increased by 90 pips (0.9).

Measuring pips for currency pairs

See more as in this Forex Pips Calculator:

Using this pip difference calculator (above), you can calculate the Eurgbp pip value, Eurusd pip value, Usdchf pip value, etc.

A different way of expressing pips in forex

So far, we have defined a pip in forex as the lowest incremental variation in the currency pair price. However, be aware that a pip’s monetary value is not the same across all pairs of currencies. For this reason, each trader must know the way the pip of the forex currency pair is determined. This helps the currency to gain currency and risk management.

Determining pip in USD trading account

The formula to calculate pip value in USD trading account (or non JPY account) is : (0.0001 / Current Exchange Rate)

The most traded currency in the international currency market is the US dollar. When the US dollar is listed second in a pair, the pip value is constant and does not have an account financed in USD.

On the other hand, if the USD is listed the other way, that it’s not the second, you need to dive the pip value by the USD/x***rate.

Determining pip from a non-USD trading account

The currency account is funded is listed second in a given pair of currencies.

The formula to calculate pip value in non USD account for cross currency pair is:

EURJPY Pip Value = [(0.01 / EURJPY Exchange Rate) x (EURUSD Exchange Rate)] x (Units Traded)

YYYJPY Pip Value = [(0.01 / YYYJPY Exchange Rate) x (YYYUSD Exchange Rate)] x (Units Traded)

Determining pip for pairs of other currencies

It is not that many currencies are being traded in your forex account. Of course, you can have a US account but wish to trade the EUR/GBP (Great Britain Pound).

We will explain how to determine the pip for pairs that are not included in your currency account.

As you know, the second currency is constant if you had an account in that currency. Thus, if you have a GBP count, the EUR/GBP pip is GBP10 for a standard lot.

Make sure to consider the current is proved the pip value: the second currency. Once you know the value, you can determine pip in the particular currency to your desired currency. You can do this by dividing it into the format PPP/YYY, where PPP is your currency account.

Facts are:

The constant pip amounts are equivalent to $10 for a standard account.
The constant pip amounts are equivalent to $1 for a mini account.
The constant pip amounts are equivalent to $0.1 for a micro account.

These pip values are coterminous, where USD is listed second. For example, the euro/US dollar, British pound/US dollar, Australian dollar/USD. New Zealand dollar/USD.

Conclusion

If you have a clear understanding of PIP’s notion and the way it works, it will help significant benefits; you will be able to judge the quality of the forex market in terms of profitability. Profitability, in turn, is determined by the quality of your judgment and foresight. For all this, you need to keep abreast of the market: the PIP value of the currency pair and the general market condition around. Thus, to realize the best result, calculating a pip value is important, and you need to leverage it.

In this article, you have a PIP calculator – so test it easily using different currency pairs.

Leveraged Buyout Definition

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