Understanding the fundamentals of the foreign exchange market will provide you with a solid foundation upon which to build your skills, trading strategies and even work towards a successful foreign exchange trading journey. So, let’s start the path with our Beginner Trading Guide. Atlanta Capital Markets aims to provide resources for traders of all levels to learn and succeed.
Let’s start with the basics:
The foreign exchange, also known as foreign exchange or the FX trading, is the process of buying one currency and simultaneously selling another. This process can be performed for a variety of reasons, including commercial, tourism, and to enable international trade.
Before the internet, FX trading was only reserved for banks, large corporations, or high-net-worth clients who traded with a broker over the phone. As the internet age came about in the late 1990s, online trading became possible for everyday individuals.
In foreign exchange, currencies trade against each other as exchange rate pairs. For example, EUR/USD is a currency pair for trading the euro against the U.S. dollar. Traders attempt to profit by buying and selling currencies by actively speculating on the direction currencies are likely to take in the future.
Foreign exchange is traded 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, by banks, institutions, and individual traders. Because of the global reach of trade, commerce, and finance, foreign exchange markets are the world’s largest and most liquid asset markets.
With a daily turnover of $6.6 trillion, FX trading is 25 times larger than the US stock market, which has a daily volume of $250 billion.
Market participants use foreign exchange for several reasons, including hedging against international currency and interest rate risk, speculating on geopolitical events, and diversifying portfolios. Take a look at the chart below to see how foreign exchange compares to Stocks.
Leverage
Starting Capital
Number of Instruments
Trading Hours
Subscription Cost
Foreign Exchange
Stocks
Up to 500x
Up to 2x
$100 USD
$5,000 USD
7 major currencies
Thousands of stocks
24 hours
8 hours
Free
Pay for quotes and charts
The easiest way to get started is by signing up for a free demo account. A demo account gives you virtual money to practice trading.
I want to follow and
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I want to trade on
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on foreign exchange Trading Course!
* Winner of ‘Best United Kingdom Finance Choice’ at the Global Investment Forum hosted by UBS ** Data acquired from our server shows our all major pairs spread to be 0.0 pips on average 87.2% of the time from 01-12-2014 to 31-12-2023 (available for our RAW Spread trading accounts only).
Trade Safely: We would like to emphasize the importance of responsible trading. It is crucial to note that equity-linked and foreign exchange derivative products carry a high level of risk and are highly leveraged. These products may not be suitable for all investors. Detailed information about the features, fees, and charges associated with our products can be found in the relevant legal documents available on our website. We strongly advise reviewing these legal documents before engaging in any transactions.
Atlanta Capital Markets is a company registered as Atlanta Investment Holdings Limited, a globally regulated regulated provider of CFD and foreign exchange trading services and Atlanta Investment Holdings Limited which is a registered company of United Kingdom, Number 01277591502124269. Atlanta Capital Markets does not accept applications from residents of countries or jurisdictions where such distribution or use would be contrary to local laws or regulations.
Atlanta Capital Markets restricts client accounts from certain countries/regions. To obtain a comprehensive list of the restricted countries, we kindly request that you reach out to our Investment Support team for further information.