Carry Trading

Carry Trading is when you buy and hold a currency that pays a high-interest rate against a currency that has a low-interest rate. Each day a rollover is paid for the interest difference between the two currencies. The advantage of this is that even when your trade is not moving, money is deposited into your account daily. Also, since most forex trades are leveraged, you get paid on the size of your trade, not just the size of your capital.

The downside to the carry trade is that the interest differentials are typically not that much compared to how much risk you are taking. Also, currency pairs that are good for carry trading typically have a strong reaction to any news that presents a risk to the global markets. In other words, as long as things are good, these pairs will rise and pay. If something goes wrong, sometimes unexpectedly, they will plunge very hard and very fast. If you are overleveraged, you can blow up your account in a blink.