The forex (foreign exchange) market is the world's most liquid financial market, enabling the trade in pairs of national fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar (USD), euro (EUR), Canadian dollar (CAD), Singapore dollar (SGD), Swedish krona (SEK), Japanese yen (JPY) and many more. Trades and positions on the forex market are all expressed in pairs of currencies (e.g., USD/EUR), with the first ticker called the base currency and the second one called the quote currency. A forex pair price indicates how much of the quote currency you need to pay to buy one unit of the base currency. For instance, a listing of USD/EUR 0.9 means that to buy one U.S. dollar, you'd need to pay 90 Euro cents.
Euro and U.S. dollar: EUR/USD
U.S. dollar and Japanese yen: USD/JPY
British pound and U.S. dollar: GBP/USD
U.S. dollar and Swiss franc: USD/CHF
Australian dollar and U.S. dollar: AUD/USD
U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar: USD/CAD
New Zealand dollar and U.S. dollar: NZD/USD
A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include securities listed on a public stock exchange as well as stock that is only traded privately, such as shares of private companies that are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Investments are usually made with an investment strategy in mind.
In the forex market, you trade foreign currencies. Traders speculate based on how one currency performs against another, which can reflect a nation's economic health and stability. On the other hand, the primary assets of the stock market are shares in corporations. As a shareholder, you invest in the company's success and can benefit from its growth through increases in stock value and dividends.
As mentioned earlier, the forex market operates 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. It starts when the Australian markets open on Sunday evening and closes with the New York markets on Friday.
