One family among several

Hong Kong — What is forex?

Forex is the currency market — one family on an instrument list that also holds metals, index and share CFDs, crypto CFDs and energies. Learning it by comparison is faster than learning it alone, because every other family is described in terms of how it differs from a pair.

Forex is currency traded against currency: euros against US dollars, pounds against dollars, dollars against yen. A single currency has no price by itself, only a rate against another one, so the market's unit of trade is a pair. That is the first thing that separates it from the rest of the list, where a price is usually a thing measured in money rather than money measured in money.

A quote is a subject and a ruler

In EUR/USD the euro is counted and the US dollar is the ruler: the price of one euro in US dollars. At 1.1000 a euro costs a dollar and ten cents. Read USD/JPY and the roles swap — dollars counted, yen doing the measuring.

Nobody quoting a price gets to redefine that order, which is why the same pair reads alike on two different screens, and why a rate given without its pair is a fragment rather than a fact.

What a pair looks like beside the neighbours on the list

On the list	What the number counts	What one unit of size holds	When it quotes
Currency pair — EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY	Money in money: one currency measured in another	A quantity of the counted currency	Round the clock on weekdays
Metal — XAU/USD, XAG/USD	A weight of metal measured in dollars	A weight, not a count of currency	Gold: nearly 24 hours a day, five days a week
Index CFD — US30, US500	A level, counted in points	An exposure per point of that level	The session of the market it tracks
Crypto CFD — BTC/USD, ETH/USD	One coin measured in dollars	A quantity of coins	24/7, weekends included
Energy — crude oil, natural gas	A measure of the commodity in dollars	Its own contract size	Its own hours

Read the first column downwards and forex is the odd one out: it is the only family where both sides of the price are money. Read the last column and it is the ordinary one — the timetable everything else is described against.

The size units, and why they refuse to transfer

1 lot on a currency pair is 100,000 units of the counted currency — 100,000 euros on EUR/USD. That figure is a market convention, identical wherever the pair is quoted.
0.01 lot is a hundredth of it, and at that size a pip — the move from 1.1000 to 1.1001 — is about ten cents.
Type the same 0.01 into the size field on gold, on an index CFD or on a coin and the quantity behind it is a different thing entirely. The field accepts the number without comment.

The word «about» in the second line is load-bearing: page figures are rounded, and the one that decides your result is printed on the order screen for your symbol and your size. Fetch it there before money is involved — a demo account shows it free, and risk basics comes first.

The one timetable you can read in advance

This market has no building and no bell. It runs 24 hours a day on weekdays: as the working day ends in one part of the world it is starting in another, so the quotes roll on without a pause. The hours when Asia is at work and the hours when Europe is do not show the same list in motion, and the difference is visible on any platform at no cost.

At weekends the currency market rests, while crypto CFDs carry on quoting — which is why one Saturday screen can be flat and busy at the same time. A timetable is the rare statement about the future that can be confirmed beforehand. Its limit is strict: it says when a number can move, never which way.

The reason always turns up after the move

A rate shifts when one side is wanted more than the other, and the explanations offered are genuine enough: a headline, a report on jobs or shop prices, a decision on interest rates, the ordinary traffic of banks and travellers.

Now read them for their tense. Each is fitted to a move that has already finished. Fluent commentary on yesterday demonstrates hindsight, which is a different ability from foresight and much easier to sell. Nothing and nobody forecasts this market reliably — and that holds for every other family on the list too.

How the market is actually reached

You reach these prices through a broker, the company standing between a private account and markets no individual enters directly. Most beginners never hold the currency itself: they trade a CFD, a contract that tracks the pair and delivers nothing. The same arrangement covers the metals, indices and coins in the table above, which is why one account reaches all of them.

Questions about the currency family

Why is forex always quoted in pairs when gold is not?

Because both sides are money. A currency needs another currency to be measured against; a metal is already a thing, so it can be priced in one currency alone.

Which currency is the one being counted?

The first one named. EUR/USD is the price of one euro in dollars; USD/JPY is the price of one dollar in yen.

Does one lot mean the same thing on a pair and on an index CFD?

No. On a pair it is 100,000 units of the counted currency. On other families the size unit covers a different quantity, stated in that symbol's contract details.

Is a pip worth about ten cents on everything?

No — that figure belongs to a 0.01 lot on a currency pair. Elsewhere the step has a different name and a different value, and your own order screen prints the one that applies.

Why did the price jump between Friday and Monday?

The currency market rests at the weekend; the reasons prices move do not. Crypto CFDs, which quote 24/7, do not produce that gap.

Does trading round the clock mean I should trade at any hour?

It means quotes exist at any weekday hour. Which hours suit a person is a separate question the market does not answer.

Someone explained today's move convincingly. Does that help with tomorrow?

No — they are two different abilities. Explanations are assembled afterwards; nobody forecasts the moves in advance.

Is forex the safest family to start with because it is the most familiar?

Familiarity is not safety. Leverage works the same way across the list, and losses can be rapid on any of it.

Where the comparison continues

The whole market list

Five families under one login, and what each one re-sets.

See the list

Why nothing is delivered

What a position on a pair or on gold actually holds.

Read what a CFD is

Trading words

Pip, point, lot — one name, different quantities per symbol.

Sort the words

See a pair and a metal quoting side by side.

This is an independent guide, not a broker. A demo account lets you open both on virtual money — free, no time limit, mistakes cost nothing. Demo results do not promise the same on a real account.

Open a free demo at Exness