How to go “Long” in Forex in South Africa revealed. We have conducted extensive research to provide South Africans with a comprehensive guide on going “long” in Forex.
This is a complete guide to How to go “Long” in Forex.
10 Best Forex Brokers in South Africa for 2025
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In this in-depth guide, you’ll learn:
- How does foreign exchange work?
- What does it mean to go “Long” or “Short” in Forex in South Africa?
- Step-by-Step ongoing “Long” in Forex
- Why should South Africans go “Long” in Forex?
- How to Choose the Right Forex Broker in South Africa
- The Best Forex Brokers in South Africa
How to go Long in Forex – 8 Key Point Quick Overview
- ✅ How does foreign exchange work?
- ✅ What does it mean to go “Long” or “Short” in Forex in South Africa?
- ✅ Step-by-Step ongoing “Long” in Forex
- ✅ Why should South Africans go “Long” in Forex?
- ✅ How to Choose the Right Forex Broker in South Africa
- ✅ The Best Forex Brokers in South Africa
- ✅ Conclusion
- ✅ Frequently asked questions
How does foreign exchange work?
The foreign exchange market is a global exchange for national currencies. The foreign exchange markets are the largest securities market in the world as measured by nominal value; daily transactions include trillions of dollars.
Currency pairings are used in foreign exchange trade, with each pair valued relative to the other. For example, a South African trader will sell one currency and purchase another when engaging in a forex transaction.
Subsequently, the trader will earn a profit if the currency they buy appreciates relative to the currency that they sell.
For example, the exchange rate between the US Dollar and South African Rand is 18.09 to 1. Therefore, if the currency rate moves from 19.09 to 1, the South African trader can sell their US Dollars for 1,900 and generate a profit of 100 ZAR.
What does it mean to go “Long” or “Short” in Forex in South Africa?
Understanding the fundamentals of going long or short in Forex is crucial for all novice traders. Taking a long or short position depends on whether a trader expects a currency to appreciate (rise) or depreciate (fall) compared to another currency.
Below we will discuss the important components that South Africans must understand before they start trading Forex.
Understanding Trading Positions in Forex Trading
When discussing trading, we often use the terms “long” and “short” to distinguish between two sorts of transactions. However, understanding precisely what these phrases represent may be difficult, so we will begin by defining a forex position.
A person or organization’s exposure to the fluctuations of one currency relative to others is measured by the size of its forex position. The duration of the role is flexible. There are three distinguishing features of a forex position:
- The currency pair being traded (e.g., USD/ZAR, EUR/USD)
- The direction of the position – whether you are going long (buying) or going short (selling)
- The position size (indicated in lots where 0.01 is a micro lot and 100,000 is a standard lot)
Positions in many currency pairings are available to traders. For example, someone might “go long” if they are optimistic that the currency’s value will rise.
Their account’s equity and any necessary margin determine the amount of risk they take. Therefore, maintaining a healthy level of leverage is essential for successful trading.
How do Buyers and Sellers Affect the Forex Market?
The price of a financial instrument is influenced by supply and demand, which buyers and sellers determine. As a result, market prices vary because one group tends to exceed the other at any moment.
When there are more buyers than sellers, market demand increases, and the asset’s price increases. When the opposite occurs, supply grows, and demand for the item declines, resulting in a price decline.
The influence of supply and demand on markets is often referred to as market volatility. In a buyer’s market, buyers have the upper hand over sellers.
Because supply far exceeds demand, they could negotiate a greater purchase price for an instrument. However, a seller’s market exists when there is a limited supply of an asset and an abundance of buyers. In this instance, the vendor has the upper hand.
Long versus Short Positions
In foreign exchange, one may take a long or short position by speculating on the price of a certain currency pair rising or falling. The fundamental decision of whether to go long or short is the starting point for each market participant.
When traders ” go long” on an asset, they put money into it, expecting its value to rise. Conversely, short sellers expect the value of the asset they are betting against will fall so they can buy it back at a lower price in the future, resulting in a negative investment balance.
To illustrate, if one “shorts” the USD/ZAR pair, you speculate that the USD value will decline, allowing you to “cover” your short position by buying USD at a lower price.
You lose money if you purchase low and sell low or high and buy high. South African traders can make or lose money whether they initially make purchases or sell.
What is a “long” position, and when should South Africans trade it?
In a forex trade and currency pair, there is always a “base” currency and a “quote” currency involved.
For instance, the pair can look like this:
- USD/ZAR = 19.09
The South African Rand is the quote currency, and the US dollar is the base currency. According to the given price, 1 USD is equivalent to 18.09 ZAR
When trading currencies, you must always buy one currency and sell another simultaneously since all currency transactions include pairs.
To “go long” on a currency is to “bet” that the base currency will appreciate versus the quotation currency. In the example, you are betting that the US dollar would eventually be equal to or more than 18.09 ZAR.
When you purchase the dollar (called “going long”) in this currency pair, you short the Rand (called “going short”). When you sell Rand, it is the equivalent of selling shares of a company short.
For example, in NPN/ZAR, when you purchase Naspers Stock (JSE: NPN), you are taking a long position in Naspers stock and a short position in the South African Rand on the assumption that the value of Naspers Stock will increase faster than the value of the South African Rand.
The APPL/ZAR ratio provides an additional perspective. When you sell your shares back, you are going long on the South African Rand and short on the stock since you now value ZAR in your possession more than the stock itself.
Step-by-Step ongoing “Long” in Forex
To go long on a currency, you begin a transaction in a purchase position based on believing that the underlying currency is bullish or likely to appreciate. In addition, it indicates that you are not optimistic about the value of the quoted currency and believe it will decline.
If your prediction is right and the value of the base currency increases, you can terminate your position at the current market price and pocket a profit.
In addition, South African traders can easily measure the changes in the exchange rate in pips, with a pip 0.0001 of the value of the quote currency, or ZAR, in our example.
Considerations before going “long” in Forex
Supply and demand are the only two factors that affect the foreign exchange market. Similarly, both are impacted by a single factor: market sentiment.
The fast-paced forex market is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and investors’ moods are extremely sensitive to the rush of news, data, and other happenings that occur throughout the globe.
Even so, traders now have access to a wider variety of resources to improve their forex trading techniques, increasing their potential to obtain a competitive advantage. The upside is that competition in the foreign exchange market is higher than ever.
Decide How You Want to Trade Forex
Trading foreign exchange (Forex) can be carried out in two primary ways: spot trading and trading via a broker. To purchase or sell a currency pair at the current market exchange rate is known as a “spot FX deal.”
A straight swap of money is required here. Such deals are settled in cash rather than via contracts, and the price does not contain interest. You must engage in a swap transaction involving your currency pair to maintain the position or roll it over.
The price changes of a futures contract or stock are mirrored in a CFD. For this reason, the spot EURUSD would be the underlying of a EURUSD-based CFD. Contracts for difference (CFDs) are exchanged only over the counter and not on centralized exchanges like their underlying assets.
One issue with CFDs is that their underlying prices and spreads seldom match perfectly. In the absence of in-house hedging systems, you may find yourself in a position where, when you win, the CFD provider loses, and when the CFD provider wins, you lose.
There have been complaints that certain CFD providers use unreasonable spreads or even halt trading at inopportune periods. The purchase price of a currency CFD is used as the reference price for subsequent trades, which is a benefit of CFDs.
Whether the price of a currency is higher or lower than the contract price is the only thing that matters to the trader, regardless of whether the pair’s minimum or maximum value is reached.
It is worth noting that, like forex spot trading, forex CFDs can be traded on margin with leverage from 1:100 and up to 1:1000.
While CFDs allow you to trade Forex, the true benefits come from the fact that you can access numerous worldwide markets with a single brokerage account.
Consider Your Timeframe
The trading timeframe is an additional significant consideration that will affect the technique chosen. Not all methods of forex trading are proactive, in which traders forecast the future direction of a currency. However, others are reactive, reacting to market fluctuations. Below are the typical trading timeframes that South Africans must consider:
- Day trading refers to opening a new position in the forex market every day and closing it before the end of the trading day (in whatever time zone the trader is located).
- Swing trading refers to holding holdings for longer, often between two and fourteen days.
- Position trading, in which traders maintain positions for months or even years while attempting not to respond to up or down-market fluctuations, is used by those who are in it for the long haul.
- Momentum trading is where traders assume a big price movement represents the beginning of a longer-term trend, and range trading, in which traders attempt to identify levels of support and resistance from the past with the hope that they will recur.
- Range trading is often used with currencies whose prices fluctuate without a discernible long-term pattern.
Open a Trading Account with a Broker
You can choose a forex broker that offers access to the Spot, Futures, Forwards, and CFDs markets by reviewing providers online, reading reviews, or consulting our section, where we indicate the best forex brokers for South Africans.
Once you have evaluated a broker and already used a demo account to practice trading and examine the broker’s trading conditions and platform, you can register a live account to start trading Forex.
Build A Solid Trading Plan
A trading strategy is crucial to your success because it allows you to remove emotion from your decisions and gives you a framework for when to start and end your positions. In addition, a successful trading strategy considers the trader’s preferences and objectives.
It is just as crucial to know when to get out of a transaction as it is to know when to go in. Therefore, a trading strategy should include stop-loss prices and profit objectives to know when to pull out of a trade and avoid taking a loss.
Carry Out Analysis
Keep in mind that several variables impact the price of a currency. Therefore, before deciding to trade, you should always conduct technical and fundamental research on a currency pair.
In addition, as a foundation for your forex trades, you must consider political and economic developments and analyze critical price levels.
The term “fundamental analysis” refers to analyzing the various factors outside the control of market participants that affect the value of currencies, such as the economy, financial markets, and monetary and fiscal policy.
On the other hand, technical analysis is focused entirely on the price and forecasting the direction of currency exchange rates based on the observable patterns and trends in the prices of past transactions.
The goal of fundamental analysis is to determine whether a currency is overvalued or undervalued by analyzing the underlying variables that influence market prices.
The focus is on factors other than the price itself. Conversely, technical analysis is concerned just with the price. It disregards everything else as unquantifiable data, hoping that supply and demand patterns from the past will be replicated.
Fundamental Analysis
Everything from monetary and government policy to the health of the labor and housing markets is considered when doing a fundamental market analysis.
The underlying premise of fundamental analysis is that it may be used to identify a mispriced currency that will find its true value. Although it has its place in short-term plans, this is a key reason why fundamental research is superior at forecasting price fluctuations over the long run.
While the list is vast and certain occurrences, like natural catastrophes, might be unanticipated, fundamental research should always focus on a few main drivers of the price of currencies. That would include the following:
- Gross domestic product (GDP) data reveals whether an economy is expanding and at what pace. This data is crucial to discussions of economic growth.
- The inflation rate significantly impacts a country’s monetary policy, including the probability of interest rate hikes and the value of its currency. The retail Price Index (RPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) are the two most important indices for gauging inflation (CPI)
- One of the most important factors that affect the foreign exchange market is interest rates. Generally, a stronger currency results from higher interest rates because more people are willing to hold their money in local currency-denominated accounts to take advantage of the higher savings rates.
- Because of the global nature of the foreign exchange market, fluctuations in a country’s trade and capital balances may significantly affect the value of its currency. A slowdown in exports, for instance, might cause a country’s currency to decline.
- The soundness of an economy is often measured in part by the rate of job growth, but salary changes are also crucial.
- The foreign exchange market is also affected by geopolitical factors, such as political events and vast amounts of economic data. A country’s currency reflects its political system, and the value of that currency could be influenced by domestic and foreign policy debates and political upheavals.
Technical Analysis and the Best Indicators
In contrast to fundamental analysis, which attempts to tease out the factors that will determine how currency exchange rates evolve in the future, technical analysis focuses only on the direction of price changes.
Price charts, which display an asset’s or currency’s price movement over time, are the basis of all technical analysis. Technical analysis is predicated on the idea that historical trends and patterns predict the future and uses several methods to identify these trends and patterns.
Technical analysts theorize that a chart’s patterns and trends may tell you a lot about the state of the market and any shifts in investor sentiment. Therefore, the objective is to spot this potential window of opportunity occurrences before they occur.
Day trading and swing trading are short-term investment methods that often include technical analysis. The beginning price, the highest price, the lowest price, and the closing price are common historical data points used in technical analysis.
When doing technical analysis, these might be considered standard parameters. However, traders need to seek patterns and indications in the market data if they want to predict future moves in exchange rates.
Technical analysts attempt to predict the future direction of the exchange rate based on patterns revealed by studying historical pricing data. South African traders can use several popular technical indicators to help them spot trends and indications, such as:
- Moving Averages (MA) – Trading above the moving average indicates that buyers control the price. In contrast, trading below the average indicates that sellers are in charge. Therefore, a trader should prioritize purchase orders if the price is above the moving average.
- Relative Strength Index (RSI) is utilized in the foreign exchange market since they demonstrate that extreme oversold or overbought states are only transitory. An RSI reading over 70 indicates an overbought market, while a reading below 30 indicates an oversold market.
- Fibonacci – When used with a golden ratio of 1.618, Fibonacci is another great forex indicator for pinpointing the market’s future course. Forex traders rely on this indicator to spot profitable turning points and trends. Once the market has made a sizable upward or downward movement and seems to have leveled out at a certain price level, Fibonacci retracement levels may be calculated.
- Pivot Points – Supply and demand are balanced after a price hits the pivot point. Greater demand is indicated for a currency pair if the price rises above the pivot point level, and higher supply is indicated if the price drops below the pivot point level.
- Bollinger Bands – The indicator signals when to enter and leave a trade based on the security’s volatility. Each Bollinger band has an upper, middle, and bottom section. The overbought/oversold levels are commonly identified using these bands. An asset’s price and volatility may be better described with this indicator’s aid, which is why it is so useful.
- Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) – This indication is useful for anticipating when a market trend will stall, and a correction will begin. By subtracting the long-term EMA from the short-term EMA, we get the MACD. The Exponential Moving Average (EMA) is a moving average that places a premium on recent data.
Choose the Right Position Size and Manage Risks
Consider your position size (in lots) and the amount you are willing to risk and lose if the market swings against you.
For risk management, you must create a stop-and-limit order for your transaction. However, remember that this does not eliminate the possibility of slippage since the market could move quicker than the time required to settle the trade.
Place and Monitor Your Trade
Once you set up risk management, you may place your transaction. Then, observe your transaction to see if your forecast is coming true. Then, you can easily configure trade alerts to signal any changes to market occurrences.
However, remember that you are responsible for monitoring your transactions and should not depend entirely on notifications for position updates.
Why should South Africans go “Long” in Forex?
Traders “go long” for various reasons, some of which stem from shifts in the market’s technical and fundamental environments. Therefore, when doing fundamental analysis, you should consider economic developments associated with the currencies you want to trade.
If, for instance, reports start exceeding or pleasantly surprising analysts’ projections, it is a sign that the economy is performing better than many had predicted, suggesting further gains for the currency in question. As a result, it might be wise to go long or purchase the currency.
When a central bank announces intentions for monetary tightening, forex traders may elect to go long a currency pair since this action has a history of increasing the value of the country’s currency.
One common technical justification for buying currency is because its value has just broken through a previously-established ceiling or level of price resistance.
This would indicate that a new market imbalance is emerging, which might grow into a powerful trend, and that the currency’s price volatility is quite high. When the value of a currency drops to a clear support level, also known as a price floor, traders often buy on the dip.
When a trend shows signs of accelerating, trend-following traders will frequently take a long position in the hopes of riding it out until the trend reverses.
How to Choose the Right Forex Broker in South Africa
It would be unwise to label all forex brokers as fraudulent. While not all brokerages engage in fraudulent activity, some could engage in tactics that put their customers’ money at risk.
Therefore, it is not the best method to choose a broker only to verify whether they are a fraud or not. However, using the broker’s demo account could give you a more objective assessment when you utilize certain measures.
Client Fund Security
The practice of separating financial assets into separate accounts, often known as “ringfencing,” is mandated by law in several countries. If this is lacking, customers’ money will be at risk of being lost completely if the company goes bankrupt.
Regulatory Status
A forex broker must be registered and regulated by the country’s financial market regulations to process, clear, and settle traders’ money.
Regulated brokers are likelier, to be honest and forthright with their customers about handling their money. Moreover, the consequences of breaking the rules are severe. Subsequently, the regulation establishes channels of responsibility that safeguard the stability of financial markets.
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) requires all South African forex brokers and leading stockbrokers to prominently display their regulatory credentials (license number, etc.) on their website’s landing pages.
Fees
The cost of buying and selling forex pairs has decreased significantly with the development of trading technologies. As a result, fees for forex trades, options trades, mutual fund trades, and ETF trades should all be reasonable with a top-notch online broker.
Therefore, commissions and fees for internet brokers could range from a few ZAR to a few hundred. However, they are often much below the thousands of ZAR typical in the middle to late 20th century.
History and Reputation of the Broker
Regulation is not the only factor to consider when selecting forex brokers in South Africa. Even if a broker is fully compliant with all laws and regulations, there could still be problems with the experience.
Your sole option for determining a broker’s suitability for your forex trading is to review their previous work. Thankfully, there is no shortage of discussion groups and blogs available online.
You can find out how dependable a South African broker is through actual clients’ experiences on these trading blogs. In addition, such third-party sources could shed light on the forex broker’s past performance.
Trading Platforms
Traders that want to have access to the market in more than one way would benefit from platforms that provide many possibilities. For example, most online forex brokers provide customers access to various trading platforms, including web, desktop, and mobile apps.
Customer Support
A forex broker’s dedication to customers is at the center of each successful trading experience. Therefore, helpful customer service personnel are essential when further information is needed.
A growing number of brokers are adapting their customer service departments to meet their international clientele’s needs better.
Education and Research
Building one’s trading skills might benefit from a comprehensive instructional package. Learning resources for many traders include webinars, live lessons, and articles from professional blogs.
The Best Forex Brokers in South Africa
This article lists the best forex brokers that offer forex and CFDs trading to traders. In addition, we have further identified the brokers that offer additional services and solutions to traders.
Best MetaTrader 4 / MT4 Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, XM is the best MT4 Forex broker in South Africa. XM stands out in a competitive sector of MT4 brokers for its educational assistance and customer care. In addition, XM is an internationally authorized broker with minimal trading costs across three easy account types.
Best MetaTrader 5 / MT5 Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, Eightcap is the best MetaTrader 5 Forex broker in South Africa. Eightcap is an ASIC-regulated market maker with no intervention, MT5 support, and changeable spreads.
In addition to Forex, Eightcap’s MT5 trading account provides access to various CFD indices, commodities, and US and Australian stocks.
Best Forex broker in South Africa for beginners
Overall, Pepperstone is the best Forex broker in South Africa for beginners. Trading rules, Forex, CFD trading articles, courses, and videos are freely available from Pepperstone. In addition, it hosts webinars often, and you can even see recordings of previous webinars for free on its website.
Best Low Minimum Deposit Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, HFM is the best Low Minimum Deposit Forex broker in South Africa. HFM is an FSCA-regulated forex and CFD broker that offers some of the lowest fees.
South African traders can easily register a Micro Account with a minimum deposit of 70 ZAR, with spreads on this account starting from 1 pip.
Best ECN Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, FxPro is the best ECN Forex broker in South Africa. In addition, FxPro is one of the best ECN brokers, with over 800,000 clients from 173 countries worldwide.
Trades are executed within 10 milliseconds, and only 9% of orders experience negative slippage. South Africans can also benefit from FxPro’s negative balance protection.
Best Islamic / Swap-Free Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, AvaTrade is the best Islamic / Swap-Free Forex broker in South Africa. AvaTrade is a well-regulated STP and Market Maker broker that caters to all traders worldwide, including Muslim traders who are prohibited from receiving/paying interest.
The AvaTrade Islamic Account has increased spreads but offers traders access to several halal markets that can be traded.
Best Forex Trading App in South Africa
Overall, FXTM is the best Forex trading app in South Africa. The FXTM trader provides South Africans with live currency rates and the ability for account management. In addition, South Africans can use FXTM’s app to access their Invest copy-trading account.
Best ZAR Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, Exness is the best ZAR Forex broker in South Africa. With Exness, South Africans can register an account for 180 ZAR ($10) to access several financial markets, competitive spreads, and unlimited leverage per account balance.
Best Lowest Spread Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, Axiory is the best lowest-spread Forex broker in South Africa. Axiory offers a choice between accounts, and South Africans can expect zero-pip spreads and commissions from 6 USD.
In addition, traders can use powerful trading platforms, and Axiory has many tools and educational materials.
Best Nasdaq 100 Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, OANDA is the best Nasdaq 100 Forex broker in South Africa. Through the years, OANDA has become one of the best brokers and trading platforms that cater to all types of traders. In addition, OANDA offers Nasdaq as a CFD on indices and shares listed on the index.
Best Volatility 75 / VIX 75 Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, Plus500 is the best Volatility 75 / VIX 75 Forex broker in South Africa. Plus500 is the best option for South Africans who want to trade CFDs on the Volatility 75 index. Spreads with Plus500 start from 1.17% on VIX trades, and South Africans need not worry about commission fees.
Best NDD Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, SuperForex is the best NDD Forex broker in South Africa. SuperForex offers over 400 instruments and provides South Africans with a choice between STP and ECN Accounts. These accounts feature reduced spreads and some of the most competitive commissions.
Best STP Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, Libertex is the best STP Forex broker in South Africa. Libertex offers a choice between major, minor, and exotic forex pairs. Libertex caters to 3 million platform users, including South Africans and traders, with access to the Libertex, MT4, and MT5 trading platforms.
Best Sign-up Bonus Forex broker in South Africa
Overall, Tickmill is the best sign-up bonus forex broker in South Africa. Tickmill is an STP and ECN broker with FSCA regulation, offering South Africans a choice between three trading accounts.
Once traders have registered and verified a trading account, they receive a 30 no-deposit bonus to get started on Tickmill’s MT4 or MT5 platforms.
Conclusion
A long trade is one in which the trader profits when the price rises, while a short trade is one in which the trader profits when the price falls. Knowing when to buy and when to sell is one of the fundamental components of forex trading that South Africans must understand.
In addition, South Africans can choose to keep a position on the currency market for anything between a few minutes and many years, depending on their trading style, risk tolerance, and the market’s behavior.
10 Best Forex Brokers in South Africa for 2025
Rank
Broker
Review
Regulators
Min Deposit
Official Site
Frequently asked questions
What does going long mean in Forex?
Going “long” means that a trader purchases a currency pair, expecting that the price of the base currency will increase.
How long should South Africans stay in a forex trade?
How long you decide to keep a Forex trade open depends on several factors, including your trading approach, mental state, and the present status of the deal.
Although a transaction can be held open for as little as a few seconds or a few years, the average trader holds onto their holdings for a duration somewhere in the middle.
How can South Africans trade long positions in Forex?
Traders can execute a “long position” by clicking “buy” on their trading terminal once they have received the buy signal from their technical indicators.
When should South Africans buy a Forex pair?
Market opening hours and your FX trading strategy are only two considerations when determining the best times to purchase and sell foreign currency.
Many investors believe buying and selling currency is most advantageous when the market is busy, with high liquidity and volatility.
What is the best spread that South Africans can get in Forex?
For spreads to be optimal, they should be close to zero. Commonly, their average spread is less than 1 pip. Spreads of 0.5 pips are considered favorable for many currency pairs.
Addendum/Disclosure
No matter how diligently we strive to maintain accuracy, the financial markets are volatile that could shift and change at any given time, even if the information supplied is correct at the time of going live.
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