What is actually being traded
Every forex price is a ratio between two currencies. When EUR/USD is quoted at 1.0850, it means one euro costs 1.0850 US dollars. Buying EUR/USD is buying euros and paying with dollars; selling it is the reverse. There is no separate thing called "forex" being bought — only one currency being swapped for another.
Who is in this market
Banks moving money for clients, companies paying foreign suppliers, central banks managing reserves, funds taking positions, and retail traders. The first four groups account for the overwhelming majority of the volume. A retail trader is a small participant in a market built for other purposes, which is worth remembering when a price does something that makes no sense.
Why prices move
Because the demand for one currency changes relative to another. Interest rates are the biggest single driver: money moves toward currencies that pay more to hold. Inflation figures, employment data and central bank decisions all feed into expectations about those rates, which is why the economic calendar matters more in forex than in most markets.
Forex, stocks and crypto, side by side
A stock is a share of one company, priced in one currency, traded on an exchange during that exchange’s hours, and it can be counted — so it has real volume. A currency pair is a ratio between two economies, traded between banks rather than on an exchange, twenty-four hours from Sunday evening to Friday evening, with no true volume figure anywhere. Crypto has an exchange and real volume like a stock, and runs every hour of every day like nothing else, with far larger moves. The tools in this course work on all three because a level is a level; what changes is the hours you can trade, whether volume means anything, and how far price can move while you are asleep.
What a retail trade really is
At almost every retail broker you are not buying euros. You are entering a contract with the broker whose value tracks the euro price. That is why the broker sets the spread, the leverage and the swap, and why choosing one is a decision worth taking seriously.
The honest part
Most retail accounts lose money. Brokers regulated in Europe are required to publish the figure and it is usually between 70% and 80% of accounts. That is not a reason nobody should trade; it is a reason to learn the mechanics before risking anything, and to treat any promise of easy returns as what it is.
In short
| What it is | Exchanging one currency for another |
|---|---|
| Quoted as | A pair, such as EUR/USD |
| Open | Sunday 17:00 to Friday 17:00, New York time |
| Retail access | Through a broker, as a contract rather than the currency itself |
| Against stocks and crypto | No exchange, no real volume, open around the clock |
Common questions
Do I need a lot of money to start?
No, and that is part of the problem. Brokers accept small deposits and offer leverage, so a small account can take positions far larger than it can afford to lose. The amount you need is not the minimum deposit; it is money you can lose entirely without it changing your life.
Is forex a scam?
The market is not. Plenty of things sold around it are: signal groups with invented track records, courses promising a monthly percentage, account managers who guarantee returns. The market itself is a real, enormous, heavily regulated one; be careful of what is sold alongside it.
How is forex different from stocks?
You are always trading one thing against another, so there is no simple "the market went up". It runs almost around the clock rather than on exchange hours, leverage is typically much higher, and there is no ownership of anything — a share is a piece of a company, a currency pair is a rate.
Trading forex and CFDs on margin carries a high level of risk. Most retail accounts lose money. Nothing on this page is financial advice or a recommendation to trade.