Diversifying your portfolio is key to keeping it healthy when the economy is down. Learn how diversifying your portfolio affects your risk-to-reward balance, what it means, and how to do it.
What is diversification?
Multiplying positions across multiple asset classes is known as diversification. In this way, a single type of risk is reduced. In the long run, the strategy helps investors and traders maintain a balanced risk profile and maximize returns.
In diversification strategies, positions can vary across industries, asset classes, or even financial instruments – such as CFDs, spread bets, options, or futures.
Diversifying your portfolio means keeping your assets uncorrelated from each other. The goal is to diversify both asset classes and within them.
Currency-focused diversification
Forex is often discussed as a means of portfolio diversification, and with good reason. Forex traders will tell you that there are a lot of opportunities for profit in the forex market, which has made it a good place to diversify.
First of all, the market is extremely accessible. Forex does not have such limits as other forms of investing. You are not restricted to a specific trading window like you would with other forms of financing.
As forex runs 24 hours a day, you remain not only diversified but also active while other markets are down.
Along with its unrelenting accessibility, the forex market is also one of the most liquid markets in the world, allowing you to get started fast. Furthermore, this means that traders can trade long or short freely, thereby returning profits regardless of market conditions.
People who like risk can also play into emerging currencies’ high-yield exposure if they so desire.
A portfolio can benefit significantly from forex investments, regardless of whether you consider them investments in a nation or a currency. Keeping your portfolio balanced can provide depth and a level of profit return missing from other investments.
To spice up your portfolio, you will need to diversify. Portfolio diversification through forex is wise, but where should you begin when making that decision? Find out the currency pairs that could give your portfolio the boost it needs.
Major currency pairs
All major currency pairs feature the US dollar (USD), which makes sense since it is the major currency in the world. The USD plays a crucial role on the quote and base sides, which is why major currency pairs are the most active in the forex market.
The spreads on these pairs are typically the lowest and are often the most liquid. Approximately 30 percent of worldwide forex volume is traded daily between the euro and US dollar, EUR/USD, the most popular major currency pair.
Minor currency pairs
Most of the time, a currency pair that does not include the USD is known as a minor currency pair (or cross-currency pair). Early foreign exchange measurements used the USD, which had to be run through any other currency to arrive at a value.
The emergence of minor currency pairs signifies that this is now a thing of the past. Euros (EUR), pound sterling (GBP), and Japanese yens (JPY) are some of the more active minor-pair currencies.
Exotic currency pairs
Anyone looking to diversify their portfolio can always consider exotic pairs if they feel like branching out. The USD is paired with a smaller emerging economy’s currency in exotic currency pairs, usually from outside the Eurozone.
Since these pairs rarely trade, they can often be more volatile, so changing them can be riskier and more lucrative.
Bottom line
Diversifying your portfolio isn’t difficult when you decide it’s time. For a shot in the arm to your portfolio, however, forex is where you should concentrate your efforts. With a market open 24 hours a day and a level of liquidity, other forms of investment cannot match. And the ability to be long and short, you can’t ignore the importance of portfolio diversification with forex if you want to build an effective, profitable, and diverse investment portfolio.
