Forex basics: What is Forex?

Foreign Exchange (Forex) is a money market where one nation's currency is traded for another. It is the world largest and most liquid financial market. It is operated through a global network of central banks, banks, governments, financial institutions, corporations and individual speculators. It is a 24 hour market that operates during weekdays. Saturday and Sunday are not trading day. The activity in a Forex market basically involves currency exchange between central banks, banks, governments, financial institutions, corporations and individual speculators between nations. Daily Forex trading volume exceeds trillions, which is way too big for stock market to compare with. Today, most of the Forex brokers not only offer traders to trade major currency pairs (EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD) but also some cross currency, gold and oil. With help of computer technology, traders can basically trade anytime and anywhere as long as there is a connection to Internet available.