Forex trading and real estate are completely different investment opportunities, but they can be compared alongside each other. If you are looking to get into either, you should consider the pros and cons of both.
First off, you should decide whether you are more interested in passive income or capital gains. With real estate, you can rent out property to tenants, thus allowing you to achieve passive income. However you can also sell off your properties for more than you bought them for, thus allowing you to achieve capital gains. With this type of trading, you can use short-term trading strategies to make capital gains and you can use long-term trading strategies to make more passive income. When looking at the two investment opportunities like this, you can see that both Forex trading and real estate can allow you to achieve both passive income and capital gains.
However, real estate does require a much greater initial outlay than Forex trading does, since the minimum deposits offered by Forex brokers today, tend to be very competitive and low. Also, you will probably want to go with Forex trading particularly if you are looking for capital gains. This type of trading can be used to make passive income as already mentioned, but the prices of currency pairs do tend to fluctuate a lot more than the prices of properties, so capital gains are thought to be more easily achieved through trading currencies.
Another advantage of the Forex market, is its liquidity. You can buy and sell currencies in huge volumes within seconds, with just a click of a button. You can also trade on margin, using leverage to control more currency than you actually hold. With real estate, if you want to sell a property for example, you will most likely have to wait weeks if not months before you eventually find someone that is interested in purchasing the property you are selling.
Forex trading is also a lot more easier and convenient. You can trade from your own computer through your chosen Forex broker's trading platform at any time of day, since the market for currencies is open all day every day (not including the weekends). There are no negotiations and such like there are with real estate; when selling properties or advertising to potential tenants, you have to educate others about your properties etc. This is because no two properties are exactly the same; properties are not homogeneous products.
There are also some other complications when it comes to real estate; you will most likely have to hire others to take care of some of the work for you, like estate agents, lawyers etc. Not only does this all add to the complication of investing in real estate, but it also costs you good money and transaction costs generally are much higher in real estate than in Forex trading. There can also be issues with actual transactions in real estate; sometimes lawyers are required to sort out bad buyers, but in Forex trading, your Forex broker will guarantee that all of your transaction run smoothly no matter what; for example if you are looking to buy a particular currency pair your broker will ensure that you do get to buy the currency pair in question.
With real estate, you also tend to get stuck when the real estate market isn't doing too well. Also when you suspect that the prices of properties will fall in the future, you will also get stuck; you will have to choose to either wait it out or sell up quickly, which can be quite stressful. With Forex trading though, when you suspect that the prices of particular currencies will fall in the future, you can simply exchange those currencies in question for other currencies and then buy them back again in the future.
In conclusion, both Forex trading and real estate are legitimate investment opportunities in their own right. However, Forex trading is more ideal for the average investor. Both Forex trading and real estate can allow individual investors to achieve both passive income and capital gains, though it might be better to trade currencies for capital gains in particular. Forex trading also requires much less initial outlay. It is also much more convenient, easier, quicker and cheaper. It is also worth remembering that currencies are homogeneous and the currency market is highly liquid; these both act as advantages of Forex trading. Profits can also be achieved in the FX market, regardless of whether currencies are going down or up.
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