I think I am getting the idea of the currency pairs and how to convert back to your account denomination etc. I am confused however with the first step for some reason.
If my account for example is in GBP and I think the USD is going to go down against the JPY and so want to buy JPY (sell USD), do I need to convert the funds I want to trade (eg GBP1000) to USD and only then buy JPY or do I convert straight to JPY?
You dont need to convert anythin. You simply open the pair USDJPY on your MT4 and press buy or sell.
You need to make sure you know what youre doing before starting an account maybe go to School of Pipsology and then come back once you learned some more
Thanks Craig. I am busy going through the āschoolā and quite enjoying it. I have long wanted to understand forex trading but Iām not very āfinancially mindedā. Iāll get there eventually.
Just keep in mind youāre not actually buying or selling anything. Its just called buying and selling because the benefits are parallel to the benefits that a buyer or seller would receive, i.e. you will gain when you are short USD/JPY and the exchange rate falls and so would the seller of USD and the buyer of JPY. But whereas the big international banks do buy and sell currency, we donāt. We are just betting on which way and how far the exchange rate will move.
Your broker will automatically do that for you. Just make your deposit in whatever currency your broker accepts. As long as you have money in your account, you can buy or sell.
Sometimes itās the simple things that make our understanding - right now there is talk about possible rise in inflation up ahead - one of the drivers of inflation is consumer spending - the more buying there is then the more scope for raising the price.
Central banks control rising prices by raising interest rates and higher rates means investors get a better return so they buy pounds.
The opposite applies -so imagine if you had an insight to this equation, today UK retail sales numbers were released for July - they were a āmissā and the pound was sold.
Strangely the pound was being sold since . well since the BRC publicly announced
" FOOTFALL AT STANDSTILL" for the month of July on Aug 6th.
(BRC = British Retail Consortium)
The first currency is the dominant one in the pier therefore if you want the dominant one the first one to go up you buy
For guys learning tx currencies are quoted in pairs but the first currency in the quote does not mean it is the ādominantā currency.
If Eur/Usd is on the rise then there are 2 possibilities - either Euro is being bought in the market or Usd is being sold.
To establish which is the case is worth while and can be easily done by checking other Euro or Usd pairs to get an insight.
Glad you asked this question cause I was a little confused alsoš¤Æ
You donāt need to convert GBP into USD. Just short USDJPY in your account and it will automatically convert your PNL into the account base currency .
Hi all, Iām new to this forum and will be demo trading soon. I would like to know which currency pair I should first practice on and develop other forex skills?
Try any of the major currency pairs! EUR/USD is a good one to start with. 
Agree i like EU as it doesnt move too quickly and it has tonnes of liquidity
Yeah no need for you to worry. Deposit in your broker in whichever currency you use and they accept and can then trade any
Exactly what this guy said!
You donāt need to convert, enter the chart and execute your trades
You definetely donāt need to convert anything into some other currency. The only thing you should do is just to open deal on the currency pair which you are interested in and thatās it. I can only imgine how much time it would take to convert the funds into different currencies. THe life of scalpers would definetely turn into the hell.
The currency of your fund is actually for the withdrawals, this currency doesnāt participate in trading and the deals that you open. It is also much re convenient to measure the amount of funds that you have in the currency that you got used to. So, donāt worry aboutexchanging your fund currency into some other. Everything is done automatically by the trading platform and your broker.