「忙しくて投資に時間が取れない」「インデックス投資だけでは収益性に満足できない」——

The government is strongly encouraging investment.

I feel that FX investment is again attracting attention among businesspeople.

In particular, USD/JPY and Gold (XAUUSD have characteristics that make them easy to invest in over the past decades, and if managed properly, they have the potential to yield returns higher than index investing.

This time, I would like to think about “why FX now?” in my own way as a trader Hiro.

■1. USD/JPY is the cheapest and most cost-efficient currency pair with extremely low fees

USD/JPY is the most familiar currency pair for Japanese people and boasts top-tier liquidity worldwide.
Therefore,

• Spreads are extremely small (i.e., fees are low)

• Order execution is easy and trading is smooth

• Information is easy to gather and easy to analyze

These are the advantages.

For example, stocks can have unexpectedly high fees, which is why securities companies want people to invest in stocks. In investing, “low cost” is surprisingly important.

In that regard, USD/JPY suits both beginner and advanced investors.

■2. USD/JPY tends to form trends easily, making it easier to build strategies

One of FX’s attractions is that you can aim to profit from both rising and falling prices.

Among them, USD/JPY has the characteristic ofeasy to form clear trends.

• Clear interest rate differentials between the Bank of Japan and other countries

• Strong reactions to U.S. economic indicators

• Tends to have a simpler chart structure

Because of this background, it pairs well with “trend-following” investment strategies.

In society, FX is often said to be high-risk, but that’s becausepeople who ignore losses and let them run accumulate big losses.

In reality,

• Cut losses when they are small

• Control losses within an acceptable range

• Operate simply by fixing the stop-loss width

Thus,simply applying stop-loss can drastically reduce risk.

Rather, the cases of huge losses are almost always when “stop-loss is not set.”

■4. Gold (XAUUSD) is in an upward trend

Recently, gold has continued an upward trend due to global inflation and geopolitical risks.

And gold’s features are:

• Strong correlation with the dollar (weak dollar tends to push gold up)

• Tends to form trends, so people familiar with USD/JPY price movements can understand chart patterns

• Large price movements and many profit opportunities

This is the point.

Similar to USD/JPY,if you set stop-loss properly you can significantly reduce risk, making it a viable investment even with a small amount of capital.

■5. With strict money management, you can aim for returns exceeding index investing

Index investing like S&P 500 generally yields about 3–8% annually, but with FX, proper money management canoffer the potential for around 20–50% annual returns.

Of course, FX is an investment that can swing to either positive or negative depending on how you do it.
However,

• Include stop-loss

• Appropriately size your lots

• Prepare for crashes

If you follow these basics, it is not rare to have higher expected value than index investments.

■6. Busy businesspeople have the option of automated trading (EA)

In recent years, many EAs (automatic trading tools) for USD/JPY and gold have appeared.

With EA,

• Zero analysis time

• Auto-trading even while you work

• No problem even if you skip looking at charts for days

• Low to medium risk operation

This is the investment style that uses the least time.

Because you don’t need to think, it is exactly the ideal investment method for busy businesspeople.

■まとめ

The current market environment offers:

• USD/JPY: clear trend and extremely low fees

• Gold: upward trend continues, many opportunities

• EA market is mature, offering abundant automated options

• Stop-loss and money management can significantly reduce risk

This is the “best timing to start FX.”

In life, the task of considering financial investments will come many times as you progress through different life stages. Regardless of what you invest in, diversification and concepts like stop-loss are skills to develop through practice and experience.

If so, I recommend medium to low-risk investments, but financial investing is a kind of experience that, if understood earlier in life, makes it easier to foresee the future.

Investing is an action that only those who have experienced can understand and reap the fruits from.

Why not start small and manage it properly?

That is all for today. See you again!