Open 24hrs a day, the fx (also known as forex, foreign exchange and currency trading) market has increasingly gained in popularity over recent years. It's evolved into one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world.
The fx market involves trading currencies in pairs. It allows speculators to anticipate market movements, by predicting that one currency will either rise or fall in value against another.
Currency trading pairs
Major currency pairs include Australian dollar against US dollar; Euro against US dollar; Pound against US dollar; Euro against British pound and US dollar against Japanese yen, represented as AUD/USD; EUR/USD; GBP/USD; EUR/GBP and USD/JPY. More than 85% of daily fx trades occur between major pairs.
IG Markets also offers a huge range of minor/exotic pairs on currencies that are less heavily traded, including the AUD/EUR, AUD/NZD and GBP/JPY.
An example of an fx trade would be to buy the Australian dollar (AUD), while selling the US dollar (USD). This is an example of placing a 'buy' trade on the currency pair AUD/USD, and is based on speculation that the AUD will strengthen against the USD. See one of our detailed forex examples to see how you can trade forex CFDs on our award-winning platform, PureDeal.
Expanding your fx trading knowledge
Almost anything can affect the fx market and your trades, from economic data to political stability. To find out more about what influences one currency against another, see our twice-daily Forex Focus. Each update includes performance charts with accompanying analyses of four topical currency trading pairs.
Our research team provides market commentary throughout the day to help you make sense of major world markets that can heavily impact fx trading. We also offer a forex seminar, which discusses the key areas of the foreign exchange market.