Hi, nice to “meet” you all.
As per thread’s title, I am a complete newbie to forex trading.
Now… I had this normal saving account - not a trading account - and for an emergency, I had to change a considerable amount of money from EUR to USD. I placed an order, and bought USD at the rate the bank offered, I can’t remember but let’s say 1.16. Done.
However, that emergency dissipated, and now I had USD to change back to EUR. I noticed my bank had a tool to place an order that would be executed only meeting a given rate requirement, so I set it to 1.17, just for the sake of it. The requirement was met within the next 7 days, and boom - I made 1k EUR from… a mistake of sorts.
So I am wondering - Can I just go back and forth setting such orders and selling and buying as certain rates are met, and maybe make something a week, then skip one, then perhaps make another similar move 10 days later, and on and on? Or am I missing something? Seems too good to be true.
Thanks for any insight you have to share.
it sounds like you can , i don’t know all the details, but you are saying this is done with your bank.
so if that’s the case, when you set the rate and the exchange takes place YOUR BANK IS ACCEPTING THE TRANSACTION. Meaning… yes you can
this is essentially just trading EURUSD what you are doing, but the bank is trading it on your behalf.
so… yeah… good on you
Yes and No ! you were very lucky. “Swap shops” like that set their rates once a day or so and they have all sorts of “Commissions and fees” they charge as well. ALmost certain that is a “One off” - you’d be just as likely to lose 3 or 4 cents as to gain one !
[Edit - what I mean is that your “Pending order” may never get filled. - however dollar has shown weakness recently so who knows ?]
Thanks. Yes I can see that the bank’s rate is substantially worse than the one I see elsewhere (so btw, were I to open a trading account, I would be able to trade at those rates exactly?)
However I have taken a list of all the EUR/USD rates offered by the bank in one year, and I saw that there were - in 300 days - 44 opportunities of buying or selling with a 0.01 … “delta”* (sorry I don’t know the technical terms). *I mean either 0.01 lower or higher than my last purchase or sale, so as to make a it of profit switching back and forth between EUR and USD.
Basically if I kept placing orders that were carried out only in positive conditions (positive for me), I would have made a profit 44 times through the year, without a risk? (Because if the conditions are not met, no trade happens, so worst case scenario I make 0 profits but lose nothing).
All this, while staying liquid. Again I ask myself… is this really possible?
‘Delta’ is a term used by option traders to measure the risk of an underline asset (one of four) and is a measure of how much risk (or likelyhood if you prefer) the underline asset has to price moves. 0.1 assumes a low risk to larger moves. However, I cannot see how this will help determine in which direction the price will go? The best of luck anyway.
Well I was using “delta” just for its general mathematical meaning - the difference between two values.
Exactly so - a term used in Differential Calculus 
to define a small change in y with respect to x
Yes it is possible but profit is not guaranteed unless you know the art of trading. In your example case price went in your favor. It could have been opposite also. Whether you trade online or in bank you have to learn to predict the price. Hope it Helps you.