The foreign exchange (‘currencies, Forex or FX’) is a market where participants buy, sell, exchange, and speculate on currencies.

In particular, it consists of trading one currency for another, ex: EURUSD.

This means trading the Euro against the US dollar.

Forex and related markets are the largest and most liquid financial market in the world, where the average trade consists of trillions per day.

Trading foreign exchange may have various advantages because of its transparency, direct dealing, significant trading volumes, extreme liquidity, and the great number of participants in the market including governments, central banks, banks, financial institutions, corporations, private investors, etc…

In addition, due to the different time zones of the major financial centers, starting from New York to Australia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Europe, the Forex market is open 24 hours a day (except on weekends), usually from Sunday 00:00 until Friday 23:15 Cyprus local time (GMT+2 Wintertime, GMT+3 Summertime).

Currencies that are traded against the US dollar are called Majors and make up the greatest number of foreign currency trades.

  • USD (US Dollar)
  • EUR (Euro)
  • GBP (British pound)
  • JPY (Japanese yen)
  • CHF (Swiss Franc)
  • AUD (Australian dollar)
  • CAD (Canadian dollar)