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For many people, the idea of traveling the world while earning an income is just a dream. Yet, some have made this dream a reality. They’re able to see the world, meet new people, experience new cultures, and earn an income while they’re at it.
One of the best travel jobs out there is forex trading. Why? Well, there are several reasons, and, in this post, our expert will explain what forex trading is, how it works, and why it’s one of the best options for earning money while traveling.
As the name suggests, travel jobs are jobs where you spend at least a portion of your time traveling to other destinations around the world. Typically, some travel jobs allow you to travel for a living while others offer you more chances to travel than a traditional job. Also, with some travel jobs, you’ll be working for someone and with others, you’ll work for yourself.
One of the reasons why travel jobs are becoming increasingly popular is due to advancements in technology and the internet. In simple terms, it’s now possible for almost anyone to be location-independent and work from almost anywhere. In this way, it’s possible to see new places, experience new cultures, and meet new people while earning an income.
What Is Forex Trading?
Forex trading, also known as foreign exchange or FX trading is simply when you exchange one currency for another. Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to be a trader to do this.
So, when you, for instance, travel abroad you’ll also have to exchange one currency for another. The difference is that, when you trade forex, the ultimate goal is to make a profit or generate a return. You can almost think of it as stock trading where you buy a stock when the value is low and sell it when the value is high, making a profit in the process.
The best way to explain how forex trading works is by using a simple example. Let’s say you buy 1000 euros when it trades at $1.20. So, you’ll pay $1,200. A few days later, you sell the euros when it trades at $1.30 a Euro. You’ll then get $1,300 and make $100 profit in the process.
In forex trading lingo the euro and dollar described above is known as a forex pair and referred to as EUR/USD. The first currency in the pair is the base currency. It’s this currency that you anticipate will either increase or decrease in value. The second currency in the pair is the quote or counter currency.
So, when trading, you anticipate that the value of the base currency will increase or decrease relative to the counter currency. There are many of these pairs you can choose from when trading, but some of the other major ones, which make up 75% of forex trades are:
The US dollar and the Japanese yen or USD/JPY
The British pound and the US dollar or GBP/USD
The US dollar and Canadian dollar or USD/CAD
The Australian dollar and US dollar AUD/USD
The US dollar and the Swiss franc or USD/CHF
The New Zealand dollar and US dollar NZD/USD
Typically, each currency pair has a bid and offer price. In other words, each currency pair has a price at which you can buy the currency and a price at which you can sell the currency. The difference between these two prices is what’s known as the spread and is typically the way forex brokers earn money.
Why Forex Trading Can Be One of the Best Travel Jobs?
Now that you know what forex trading is and how it works, you probably want to know why it can be one of the best travel jobs. Well, apart from the opportunity to earn an income from it, it has several other benefits that you’ll enjoy.
Ability To Work Anywhere in the World
To trade forex, you basically only need a laptop, your phone, or a tablet and an internet connection. This means you can work from anywhere in the world which, in turn, makes it ideal as a travel job.
You Work for No One
Another benefit of forex trading is that you don’t work for anyone. Well, actually, you work for yourself, so it does require a fair amount of commitment and effort to be successful. But you don’t work for an employer. This means no bosses speaking over your shoulder the entire time and, thankfully, no office politics.
Almost Round-the-Clock Trading
Unlike stock exchanges, the forex market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. However, because different forex exchanges are located in different parts of the world, forex trading basically never stops.
So, for example, trading starts in Wellington, New Zealand, with exchanges in Australia, Japan, China, Europe, the UK, and the US following throughout the day. The effect of this is that there’s a break in trading only once a week when the American exchange closes at 1 am GMT on Saturday until Wellington opens again on Sunday at 9 pm GMT.
Convenient Mobile Apps
As we’ve said earlier, you only need a laptop, phone, or tablet and an internet connection to trade forex. What makes it even easier is that most brokers offer mobile apps that you can use to trade with. This makes it easier and more convenient to trade and generate an income no matter where you are.
Passive Income Options
What makes forex trading especially attractive as a travel job is that it gives you a few different passive income options. In other words, it gives you the ability to invest some money and generate a return without much input or active trading. These options include copy trading and PAMM or MAM accounts which we deal with in more detail later.
When you want to start trading forex, you’ll have to choose the right forex trading strategy to use. Typically, you’ll have a choice between the following strategies:
Intraday or day trading. When day trading, you’ll aim to make a profit on small and frequent price movements throughout the day. Generally, this will be done through several trades during the day, and you won’t leave any positions open for longer than a few hours, at most.
Scalping. Like day trading, you’ll aim to capitalize on small price movements with scalping. Generally, though, the time you hold positions open for will be much shorter and you’ll do a lot more trades. In simple terms, with scalping, your goal is to take small profits on as many trades as possible. This then adds up to a larger profit.
Swing trading. Unlike day trading or scalping, swing trading requires that you keep positions open for longer periods like days, weeks, or even months. So, with swing trading, you’ll aim to capitalize on longer-term trends to make a profit.
Investing. Investing or a buy-and-hold trading strategy requires that you invest capital and leave it there for the long term. As a result, you aim to generate a return because of the long-term growth of a currency, and you’re less interested in price fluctuations in the short term.
Now, which strategy you choose will depend on your specific goals and requirements and each strategy has its own pros and cons. Keep in mind, though, that day trading and scalping take a lot of time and effort because you need to keep track of price fluctuations constantly.
In contrast, swing trading and investing require a much smaller time investment. For this reason, they’re the preferred forex strategies when you’re considering forex trading as a travel job.
Best Forex Passive Income Options
As stated earlier, forex trading gives you a few opportunities to earn a passive income. These options like copy trading, PAMM, or MAM accounts allow you to generate a return on the capital you invest without much input from you. As a result, these options do not require a lot of time, effort, or trading skills which makes them a perfect fit for when you want to travel.
Forex Copy Trading
Copy trading is simply when you copy the trades of a more experienced or professional trader. To do this, you’ll need to use a platform that supports copy trading like eToro. On the platform, you’ll subscribe to a specific trader and, once subscribed, all the trades on their trading account will be copied to yours.
This, ultimately, saves you time and effort, while increasing your chances of making a profit. This is especially helpful when you’re inexperienced and don’t have the specialist skills necessary. And speaking of profit, the average return of the top 50 traders on eToro in 2019 was about 29%.
Keep in mind that, although copy trading can make it easier and save you a lot of time, past returns are not an indication of future performance and, like any investment, there is still some risk involved.
PAMM/MAM Accounts
PAMM and MAM accounts are pooled accounts where you give a fund manager the power to trade on your behalf.
A PAMM or percentage allocation money management account is comprised of the combined accounts of the fund manager and the investors. With it, your money is allocated to trades in a specific proportion to that of the fund or money manager. Because of this, the manager also risks his own funds which, in turn, ensures that he takes as little risk as possible when trading.
When a profit is made on a PAMM account, the manager takes a small percentage as a fee and the remainder of the profit is then distributed to all the other investors in the account based on the percentage each has in the total pool.
MAM accounts are similar to PAMM accounts in that they also pool the funds of investors. The main difference between the two is that the manager has more responsibility because, here, investors don’t make any decisions. So, while PAMM accounts typically allocate trades based on a percentage of the total equity, MAM accounts don’t have this limitation.
As a result, they offer more flexibility, and managers are, for example, allowed to use higher leverage in trades. This brings about the potential for higher profits but also carries more risk.
With both PAMM and MAM accounts, the potential returns vary and are based on the specific risk profile of the specific investment and fund manager. So, it’s important to remember that, as with any investment, there’s always some risk involved.
5 Tips for Profitable Forex Trading
When you decide to start trading forex, there are a lot of things you’ll need to learn and master. To make this process a bit easier, here are some tips you can use to ensure that you get off on the right foot.
Tip 1: Set Aside a Specific Time for Forex Trading
When you start trading, you’ll need to plan carefully and decide what strategy you’re going to use, how much money you’ll trade with and what currency pairs you’re going to trade. This, in itself, takes some time and effort.
It’s, therefore, best that you set aside a specific time for forex trading so that you’ll know you’ll be completely focused. Remember, it’s inevitable that you’ll make some mistakes, but it’s important that you learn from these mistakes. So, another excellent idea is, at least when beginning, to start training and developing your strategy on a practice account.
Tip 2: Use Apps Correctly
Although, as stated before, mobile apps give you a convenient way to trade forex and monitor your positions on the go, you’ll need a PC or laptop if you want more in-depth details and analytics. This additional information will ensure that you have all the relevant information you need to plan your trades and maximize your chances of making a profit.
Tip 3: Study Best Time to Trade Forex
To increase your chances of success, you’ll want to study when the best time is to trade forex. In other words, you’ll want to determine when you’re most likely to make a profit. Keep in mind, though, that this will to some extent depend on the specific exchange you’re trading on and the currency pair you’re trading.
Generally, to determine the best time for the specific exchange and currency pair, you’ll have to look at liquidity, volatility, and other market indicators.
Tip 4: Don’t Overtrade
When starting out, it’s best to use strategies like swing trading and other strategies that don’t require you to make a lot of trades. In the first place, when only focusing on a few trades over longer periods, you’ll be able to limit mistakes, especially when you’re inexperienced.
Focusing on fewer trades also allows you to keep your emotions in check which ensures that you don’t buy and sell at the wrong time. This, in turn, eliminates the possibility of unnecessary losses.
Tip 5: Learn Forex EA and Forex Bots
You now know that the forex market operates almost 7 days a week and that you should set time aside specifically for it. So, while it’s obvious that you can’t spend all your time trading and watching the markets, you still want to maximize your chances of making a profit.
That’s where expert advisors (EAs) and forex bots come in. Expert advisors are specifically designed pieces of software that monitor the market continuously and provide you with signals of possible opportunities and trades. Likewise, forex bots do the same, but they’re also able to enter trades automatically without any input from you.
How Much Do Forex Traders Make?
So, is forex trading profitable? Well, this is a difficult question to answer because it will, ultimately, depend on the amount you’re trading with, leverage, strategy, currency pairs, risk management, and other factors. As a result, the amount you’ll be able to earn is not fixed.
So, for example, using an extremely risky strategy, 1:100 leverage, and assuming the ideal market conditions, you can make $150 to $750 a day with a $500 deposit. Keep in mind, though, that with such a risky strategy you’ll probably end up losing your entire deposit rather than making a profit.
In contrast, if you use conservative strategies, proper risk management, and use 100% of your deposit every year, you can expect to make about a 12% return on the same $500 deposit.
Ultimately, how much you make will depend on the factors described above and your skills.
Can You Lose Money In Forex Trading?
The simple answer is yes, you can. Like with any investment, forex trading has risks. Also, because it’s typically more volatile than other markets, there may be an increased risk in some cases. Although there’s no way for you to eliminate this risk completely, you can reduce your risk significantly by using proper risk management and constantly improving your skills.
Trusted Forex Brokers
Another vital part of being successful at forex trading is choosing the right broker. Here, you’ll have to consider whether they’re trusted, what their fees are, and what they offer. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide, based on your specific needs and requirements and what the broker offers, who the right broker, that will help you become successful, is.
Here, we’ll look at some trusted brokers you can consider using.
FxPro was registered in 2006 in Cyprus and it’s licensed by several financial regulators including CySEC (Cyprus), the FCA (UK), and the FCSA (South Africa). It’s known for the range of trading tools it offers traders and has received over 85 rewards.
It currently offers trading in more than 70 currency pairs, futures, stock CFDs, and indices with a minimum deposit of $100. In addition, all client funds are held in international banks, separated, and insured.
Established in 2009, XM now operates in almost 190 countries globally and has attracted 3,5 million traders. The team at XM is committed to improving its service offering continuously and the platform is now recognized as one of the best brokers on the market.
It currently offers over 1000 trading instruments and offers traders a choice of 16 trading platforms with a minimum deposit from as low as $5 for its micro and standard lots.
Admiral Markets started operating in 2001 and is a trusted broker licensed by both the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It operates in over 40 countries and has, in the past, been awarded the “Best of the Best” award by The New Europe Magazine.
It currently offers trading in over 8000 instruments which include 47 forex pairs, indices, shares, commodities, and ETFs. It also offers investors the opportunity to invest from as low as $1 and has a minimum deposit requirement to trade of $100.
Is Forex Trading a Good Travel Job? Expert Opinion
To find out if forex trading is a good travel job, we must look at what a good travel job is. Simply put, the ideal travel job lets you travel the world, meet new people, see new places, and allows you to earn a constant income.
So, measured against the above requirements, forex trading is definitely a good travel job. It lets you travel the world and, when done right using the right strategy, tools, and risk management can help you earn a good income without you needing to spend hours in front of a computer screen.
Keep in mind, though, it does carry some risks which you can’t eliminate completely but can certainly reduce using proper trading strategies and money management. To find out more about forex trading, visit our website for more details.
Antony Robertson,
Traders Union Financial Analyst
FAQs
Hopefully, this post was helpful to illustrate why forex trading is a good travel job. If, however, you have more questions, take a look at some of the frequently asked questions people often have.
How do I get started with forex trading?
The best way to get started is to open an account with one of the brokers mentioned above and start trading with a practice account. In this way, you’ll be able to see how the platform works, develop and practice effective strategies, and learn how to implement proper risk management.
What is a practice account?
A practice account is simply an account where you can trade with pretend money to practice forex trading. As such, you don’t have to risk any of your own money.
Is forex trading complicated?
Let’s face it, it can be. When you start out, it can be challenging to learn all the terminology, strategies, and techniques. Fortunately, the more you practice, the better you’ll get and the more you’ll learn.
What amount should I trade with?
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the amount you should trade with. Ultimately, it depends on your specific goals and how much money you’re willing to risk. A good rule of thumb is to not trade with any money you’re not willing to lose.
Glory is a professional writer for the Traders Union website with over 5 years of experience in creating content in the areas of NFT, Crypto, Metaverse, Blockchain, or Web3 in general. Over the last couple of years, Glory has also traded on different cryptocurrency and NFT platforms including Binance, Coinbase, Opensea, and others.
“I understand a lot about this space, being familiar with CEX, DeFi, and DEX, as well as operating across the Ethereum, Binance, and Polygon networks. Also, I know the intricacies and subtleties of NFTs and crypto, thus I am able to bring to table the best content and help connect with the audience better.”
Bruce Powers is an expert trader and technical analyst with over 20 years of experience in Forex, commodities, ETFs, cryptocurrencies and other assets. He is an active trader, technical and fundamental analyst, media commentator, educator and a writer. As an author for Traders Union, he contributes his deep analytical skills, expertise and understanding of the global economy and financial markets to provide market analysis and insights. Powers is also a frequent guest on business TV news shows.
Mirjan Hipolito is a journalist and news editor at Traders Union. She is an expert crypto writer with five years of experience in the financial markets. Her specialties are daily market news, price predictions, and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Mirjan is a cryptocurrency and stock trader. This deep understanding of the finance sector allows her to create informative and engaging content that helps readers easily navigate the complexities of the crypto world.
