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What is FOREX?
Forex, short for Foreign Exchange, is the simultaneous exchange of one country's currency for that of another country. Speculators in the FX market wish to purchase or sell one currency for another with the hope of making a profit when the value of the currencies changes in favor of the investor, whether from market news or events that take place in the world. The Forex market has become the world's largest financial market, with over $1.9 trillion USD being traded on a daily basis. It is part of the bank-to-bank currency market known as the Interbank market. The 24-hour Interbank market literally follows the sun around the world, moving from major banking centers of the United States to Australia, New Zealand to the Far East, to Europe then back to the United States.
Market Hours
The spot FX market is unique to any other market in the world, as trading is available 24-hours a day. Somewhere around the world, a financial center is open for business, and banks and other institutions exchange currencies, every hour of the day and night with generally only minor gaps on the weekend. Essentially foreign exchange markets follow the sun around the world, giving traders the flexibility of determining their own trading day.
Buying and Selling Currencies
Regarding the specifics of buying and selling on forex, it is important to note that currencies are always priced in pairs. All trades result in the simultaneous purchase of one currency and the sale of another. This necessitates a slightly different mode of thinking than what you might be used to. While trading on the forex, you would execute a trade only at a time when you expect the currency you are buying to increase in value relative to the one you are selling. If the currency you are buying does increase in value, you must sell the other currency back in order to lock in a profit. An open trade (or open position), therefore, is a trade in which a trader has bought or sold a particular currency pair and has not yet sold or bought back the equivalent amount to close the position.
Base and Counter Currencies and Quotes
Currency traders must become familiar also with the way currencies are quoted. The first currency in the pair is considered the base currency; and the second is the counter or quote currency. Most of the time, U.S. dollar is considered the base currency, and quotes are expressed in units of US$1 per counter currency (for example, USD/JPY or USD/CAD). Exceptions to this convention are quotes in relation to the euro, the pound sterling and the Australian dollar - these three are quoted as dollars per foreign currency.
Forex quotes always include a bid and an ask price. The bid is the price at which the market maker is willing to buy the base currency in exchange for the counter currency. The ask price is the price at which the market maker is willing to sell the base currency in exchange for the counter currency. The difference between the bid and the ask prices is referred to as the Spread.
The cost of establishing a position is determined by the Spread, and prices are always quoted using five numbers (for example, 121.55), the final digit of which is referred to as a "PIP" or a "Point". For example, if USD/JPY was quoted with a bid of 121.55 and an ask of 121.57, the 2-pip spread is the cost of trading this position.
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