A few things I can't quite get my head around

I’m learning on the PipSchool and i’m making good progress, but i’m struggling to understand a few things.

Whats the difference between buying EUR/USD and selling USD/EUR? If i had no Euros would i still be able to Sell EUR/USD or would I just buy USD/EUR?

I’ve got a few android demo trading apps, but i’m struggling to get MT4 working on my Mac, so I think not being to properly apply my knowledge is detrimental!

EUR/USD only comes in that symbol for so no matter what you would be Buying or selling the USD/EUR symbol.

The first symbol in in this case “EUR” always stands for the base currency and the second symbol stands for the quote in this case “USD”. So for example if its EUR/USD = 1.4745. That means 1 Euro can be sold or bought for $1.4745 USD dollars.

Yes if you had no Euros you can still sell EUR/USD. You can put in a buy or sell position in whenever you want. When you sell EUR/USD its buying USD and selling EUR but the symbol is still EUR/USD.

I also trade on the Mac I use a free program called “PlayonMac”.
playonmac.com (Not affiliate just really good program)

  1. Download MT4.exe and Playonmac
    2.Run Playonmac
    3.Go to install Programs
    4.Select others tab
    5.Select Metatrader 4 or 5 and follow the install prompts
    6.Maker shortcut for Terminal and Metaeditor
    7.BOBS YOUR UNCLE!

For the first 3 months of demo trading I had no idea you could sell currency I thought you could only buy so I understand your confusion.

Have a great day and happy trading.:wink:

Hi Andrico,

First, there is no such thing as USD/EUR.

The whole world conforms to a standard set of currency-pair designations, and these designations are determined by a “currency heirarchy”.

The heirarchy dictates that [B]the dollar-euro pairing will always be EUR/USD[/B] (that is, the EUR will always be the base currency in this pair), not the other way around.

For more on this topic, see the second half of THIS POST.

Second, there is no “buying” or “selling” of currencies or currency pairs in the retail forex market (our market), despite what the [I][B]School of Pipsology[/B][/I] and many other sources will tell you. When you take a position in the retail forex market, you are either going LONG, or going SHORT, a particular pair.

In the case of the EUR/USD pair which you asked about, you can take one of two positions:

• you can go long the EUR/USD, if you think the EUR will gain in value against the USD (or, alternatively, if you think the USD will lose value against the EUR) — or —

• you can go short the EUR/USD, if you think the EUR will lose value against the USD (or, alternatively, if you think the USD will gain in value against the EUR).

It’s entirely appropriate to think of these long or short positions as bets on a future change in the relative values of two currencies. It is NOT appropriate to think of these long or short positions as “buying” or “selling” anything. To do so will only screw up your brain.

Since there is no “buying” or “selling” of currencies in the positions you take in the retail forex market, it doesn’t matter what currency you have in your forex account. Your money is not going to be used to “buy” anything, and your money is not going to be exchanged for any other currency.

Your money will simply serve as MARGIN, which you can think of as a good-faith deposit placed with your broker to cover any losses which your trading might incur.

Purge your brain of all that nonsense about “selling one currency in order to buy the other currency”. It’s a gross mis-statement of what’s actually taking place.

Theres’s more than one source of MT4 for Macs so try another version,

Try this version,
MetaTrader 4 & 5 for Mac OS | Admiral Markets
I am using an Admiral Markets Demo account and so far they have been superb :slight_smile:

All great advice above and nothing I can add except keep at it. If you find you’re getting frustrated, take a break. If you do, in a couple of months you’ll be asking yourself, I can’t believe this or that gave me trouble. Everybody has a problem at first, but if you keep at it, the A HA moment where it all makes sense will come your way. Good Luck
Gp

+1 on that Clint! Most people are confused about the buying and selling part and may never understand what happens. All goes back to not spending enough time on education.