A futures contract is a contractual agreement, generally made on the trading floor of a futures exchange, to buy or sell a particular commodity or financial instrument at a pre-determined price in the future. Futures contracts detail the quality and quantity of the underlying asset; they are standardized to facilitate trading on a futures exchange.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/futurescontract.asp#ixzz1hT20unzI

Use Investopedia to define your terms. “Forex” is simply the market in which currencies are traded.

There are several definitions and strategies and tutorials here:
http://www.investopedia.com/search/default.aspx?q=forex#axzz1hT16WcZJ

Currency Trading – FOREX – Foreign Currency Exchange

1.EUR/USD – Euro/U.S. Dollar
2.GBP/USD – Great British Pound/U.S. Dollar
3.USD/CHF –- U.S. Dollar/Swiss Franc
4.USD/JPY –- U.S. Dollar/Japanese Yen
5.USD/CAD –- U.S. Dollar/Canadian Dollar
6.AUD/USD – Australian Dollar/U.S. Dollar
7.EUR/GBP – Euro/Great British Pound
8.EUR/JPY – Euro/Japanese Yen
9.EUR/CHF – Euro/Swiss Franc
10.GBP/CHF – Great British Pound/Swiss Franc
11.GBP/JPY – Great British Pound/Japanese Yen
12.CHF/JPY – Swiss Franc/Japanese Yen
13.NZD/USD – New Zealand Dollar/US Dollar
14.EUR/CAD – Euro/Canadian Dollar
15.AUD/CAD – Australian Dollar/Canadian Dollar
16.AUD/JPY – Australian Dollar/Japanese Yen
17.EUR/AUD – Euro/Australian Dollar

NOTE: Of the above 17 currency pairs, six of them are deemed the “major currency pairs” in the FOREX market because they account for about 80 percent of FOREX transactions:

1.EUR/USD – Euro/U.S. Dollar
2.GBP/USD – Great British Pound/U.S. Dollar
3.USD/CHF –- U.S. Dollar/Swiss Franc
4.USD/JPY –- U.S. Dollar/Japanese Yen
5.USD/CAD –- U.S. Dollar/Canadian Dollar
6.AUD/USD – Australian Dollar/U.S. Dollar

As you can see, there is a currency on the left and one on the right. The one on the left is referred to as the base, and the one listed on the right is known as the cross. The format, once again, is as follows. BASE/CROSS, or EUR/USD. The EUR is the BASE and the USD is the CROSS.

TERMINOLOGY:
•PIPS- Price Interest Point. This is the smallest unit price for any Foreign Currency.
•LOT- A lot of currency is one denomination for a trade (100K or mini account). This is similar to purchasing one stock or one contract in the futures market.
•LONG to buy
•SHORT to sell
•BID-The price at which you sell
•ASK-The price at which you buy

Price Interest Point – (PIP)
Profits are made in the FOREX by gaining PIPS. A pip is the last digit from the decimal point. This value is 1/100th of a cent. You may now be asking yourself, how do I make money off of 1/100th of a cent? The answer is leverage. The FOREX market is highly leveraged and should be respected. That said, it can also provide for a tremendous return on your investment. The average leverage in the FOREX is 100 to 1. Basically this indicates that for every dollar you invest in a trade you are controlling $100 of value.

Calculated PIP
Calculated PIP – shows the Price Interest Point (PIP) value for the selected currency pair based upon your trading account margin. For example, a standard 1 percent margin trading account controlling $100,000 in currency would show the EUR/USD with a PIP value of 10.

PIP VALUE-Fixed or Floating
FIXED- When the USD is the cross currency (right side of the pair), the PIP value is fixed at $10 in a 100k account.

FOATING- When the USD is the base currency (left side of the pair), the PIP value is based upon the exchange rate of the cross currency (i.e., USD/CAD.). Also, the PIP value is floating when the pair consists of foreign currencies (i.e., EUR/ GBP).

LOT
A lot is the normal unit of trading in the FOREX market. Trades are made in lot increments, similar to share increments in the stock market.
Standard (or 100k) FOREX account- has a 100:1 leverage ratio
1 LOT= $1,000 investment= ratio leveraged 100 to 1, which = $100,000 in buying power.
Mini FOREX account- has a 200:1 leverage ratio
1 LOT= $50 investment= ratio leveraged 200 to 1, which = $10,000 in buying power.

TRADING HOURS (EST)
•Trades 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. The market is open from Sunday at 5pm EST to Friday at 4pm EST.

actually 95% new comers fail because they’re actually gambling. when you say gambling, it’s trading without knowing… that’s gambling. I wouldn’t agree that forex is totally gambling because if you know what you’re doig, you can make calculated risks. if you have the right help you will gain knowledge and confidence. I don’t mean to be “mean” but I have to be honest, you were definitely “gambling” when you made that forex trade because in the first place it’s not your money (basically yet), you borrowed it and it’s one of the biggest mistakes new forex traders make, they trade with borrowed money. You should trade with something that you can afford losing. Emotions is a great factor in trading. You cannot win with strong emotions, especially when you’re playing with fear.

Try these forums (you can talk to real long term, successful traders here):
http://www.forexfactory.com/forum.php
http://forexforums.dailyfx.com/forum/
http://forums.babypips.com/

Then have a free demo account here (do a dry run everytime you learn new strategies or stuff). they also have good trainings here:
http://exeliafx.com/
http://forexvps24.com/

Well, nothing to lose now. Only to learn… therefore to win! all you need is a good attitude and the patience and soon you’ll get there!

http://onlineforexsoftware.com/

The forex market is also soo big that one company cannot force movement of price, unlike the stock markets.

what is the insane amount of risk involved? are you refering to the leverage of 100:1. well its only a risk if you are 100% leveraged in your account. its not hard to manage this by not leveraging high amounts. usually no more then 2% should ever be at risk.

Long answer. Not a literal scam. A theoretical scam. The promise is something no amateur can realize as a practical matter. A pro with lots of money and highly specialized training and knowledge can probably game the system regularly. A semi-pro with a six figure portfolio (at least) can probably game the system a couple times a year and break even the rest of the time.

Everyone else doesn’t really stand a chance.

The same applies, mostly, across the board in the investing world.

In a nutshell, here’s the deal:

If you are not an insider — aka working in the industry with very big money (100′s of millions, at least) — your primary advantage is patience and technical analysis. Everyone else is screwed.

Patience can be in minutes rather than seconds, but it is more likely to be in weeks rather than months or months rather than weeks.

Technical analysis demands actually skill and brain power, first, and then, most importantly, a refined ability to stick to what you know and nothing else. Not, necessarily, what the industry defines as “focus” but what and independent judge would say is your particular area of expertise.

If you are willing to wait for the deal (“idea”) that is closest to your “sure thing” and then wait, despite all evidence to the contrary, that you are correct, then you will win. Otherwise, you are screwed.

Note, however, that leverage limits your ability to wait until you are proved correct. Forex has an tremendous amount of leverage built into every trade.

That’s a hint.

A big one.