Foreign Exchange Market

What the forex market is

The foreign-exchange market — forex, or FX — is where the world's currencies are priced against each other. It is the largest financial market on earth by turnover, with trillions of US dollars in daily volume split across banks, asset managers, corporates, central banks, and individual traders. Unlike equity exchanges, there is no central venue: forex trades over the counter through an interconnected network of dealers and electronic platforms.

Every price on this page is a pair — two currencies quoted against each other. EUR/USD at 1.0850 means one euro is worth 1.0850 US dollars. When EUR/USD rises, the euro is strengthening against the dollar, or equivalently, the dollar is weakening against the euro. Because currencies always trade relatively, the question "did the dollar go up today?" has to be answered pair by pair.

Majors, minors, and exotics

FX pairs are usually sorted into three groups:

• Majors. EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, and NZD/USD. These involve the US dollar on one side and the most liquid developed-market currencies on the other, and they account for the bulk of daily volume.
• Minors or crosses. Pairs between non-dollar majors, such as EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, or AUD/CAD. Liquidity is lower than the majors but still deep.
• Exotics. A major paired with an emerging-market currency — USD/TRY, USD/ZAR, USD/BRL, and similar pairs. Spreads are wider and volatility is typically higher.

How a forex quote works

A quote usually has two numbers, a bid and an ask. The bid is what a dealer is willing to pay you for the first currency; the ask is what the dealer is willing to sell it to you for. The difference is the spread. Most major pairs quote to four or five decimal places — EUR/USD is routinely quoted as 1.08502 — with a one-pip move being a change in the fourth decimal. Pairs involving the yen, such as USD/JPY, are quoted with two or three decimals because the currency is worth a fraction of a dollar in value.

Retail platforms often wrap the spread into the execution price. Professional venues show the bid, the ask, and the last traded size, so you can see exactly how tight the market is on a given pair.

A 24-hour market with regional sessions

Forex trades around the clock on weekdays, opening in Sydney on Monday morning local time, rolling through Tokyo, London, and New York, and closing in New York on Friday evening. Volume is concentrated in regional sessions:

• Asia (Tokyo). Heaviest activity in JPY, AUD, NZD, and regional crosses.
• Europe (London). The single largest session globally, dominating EUR and GBP flows.
• Americas (New York). Overlaps with the London afternoon and handles the bulk of US dollar flow.

The busiest hours are usually the London-New York overlap, roughly 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time, when liquidity is deepest and spreads are tightest.

What moves exchange rates

At the margin, most exchange-rate moves come back to three things:

• Relative interest rates. Capital flows toward currencies with higher expected real yields. When the Federal Reserve, ECB, BoE, or BoJ raises or cuts policy rates, their currency typically repricess against peers.
• Growth and inflation differentials. Strong growth and sticky inflation usually support a currency through the interest-rate channel; weak growth and disinflation do the opposite.
• Risk appetite and flows. Safe-haven currencies — notably USD, JPY, and CHF — tend to strengthen when global risk aversion rises; commodity currencies like AUD, CAD, and NOK track the prices of the commodities they export.

Scheduled data releases — US non-farm payrolls, CPI prints, central-bank decisions — are the most consistent intraday catalysts. The economic calendar lists these events in advance.

How to use this page

Use the overview widget to scan major pairs and see how the dollar is performing across the board. The cross-rate table gives you an immediate read of which currencies are strongest and weakest today in a compact grid. The screener lets you rank pairs by volatility, momentum, or change; the technical analysis block on EUR/USD shows how short- and long-term indicators are aligning on the market's most traded pair. For deeper charting and drawing tools, see Advanced Charts.

Last reviewed on April 24, 2026. Forex trading carries substantial risk and is not suitable for every investor. This page is general information, not a recommendation. See our Disclaimer.