Trading Concepts
What is Forex?
The foreign exchange market – also known as forex or the FX market – is the world’s most traded market, with turnover of $5.1 trillion per day.*
To put this into perspective, the U.S. stock market trades around $257 billion a day; quite a large sum, but only a fraction of what forex trades.
Forex is traded 24 hours a day, 5 days a week across by banks, institutions and individual traders worldwide. Unlike other financial markets, there is no centralized marketplace for forex, currencies trade over the counter in whatever market is open at that time.
How FX Trading works
Trading forex involves the buying of one currency and simultaneous selling of another. In forex, traders attempt to profit by buying and selling currencies by actively speculating on the direction currencies are likely to take in the future.
World’s Major Currencies
| COUNTRY | SYMBOL | COUNTRY | SYMBOL |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | USD | Switzerland | CHF |
| Eurozone | EUR | Canada | CAD |
| Japan | JPY | Australia | AUD |
| Great Britain | GBP | New Zealand | NZD |
Want to know more about how to trade forex?
Our free Let’s Get to Know Forex guide will cover how to get started, help you make your first trades and outline how to create a long-term trading plan for long-term success.
*April 2016 Interbank Forex Market average daily volume from Bank for International Settlements.
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