You might have noticed a hype lately around words like “forex”, “trading”, “bitcoin”, and so on. But what does forex even mean, and what’s the hype all about?

Well, in simple words, Forex means “Foreign Exchange”, which is basically currency exchange.

Now, foreign exchange is the ability to trade one currency for another. Let’s say you’re living in a European country that uses the Euro as currency, but you wanna travel to the US for holidays. In this case, the only way to actually pay for stuff in the US is by doing so in US dollars. So, you have to exchange your Euro for USD.

Now, maybe you noticed that since we are headed towards a cashless economy, when you pay via card or your phone, this “exchange” is done automatically. How cool is that?

There’s some basic stuff you should know about forex though, especially if you’re considering it as a “trading” option. Let’s go!

1. We trade currency pairs

So, in forex, we trade currency pairs. For example, one of the most popular currency pairs is the EUR/USD, as it represents two of the biggest economies of the world. Other popular currency pairs are: the British Pound or Pound Sterling (GBP) VS the US Dollar (USD), the Australian Dollar (AUD) VS the US Dollar (USD), and a couple more that we’ll be reviewing in our next article!

2. We use forex (literally) all the time

We actually “trade” forex more than we think. Every time you buy something online from a country with a different currency, you’re exchanging one currency for the other.

Additionally, many companies pay their overseas employees in their local currency. So, they need to exchange money from one currency to another for payroll purposes!

3. It's kind of a big deal

Foreign exchange is very important for cross-border trade, investments, and transactions in general. Additionally, traders want to benefit from the “ups and downs” of prices, by “buying low”, and “selling high”, just like any other trade! You buy an item at a certain price to sell it higher for a profit.

4. Liquidity

What’s really cool about trading forex is its liquidity. This is basically the ability to buy and sell a currency pair, almost anytime. What this means is that high liquidity in a financial market allows for faster transaction flow and more competitive pricing.

5. Bidirectional trading

In trading the motto is usually “buy low, sell high”. What we mean by this is that if the market is going up (ie uptrend), you could buy or “go long”, to benefit from the rally/trend. Similarly, if the market is going down (ie downtrend) you can sell or “go short”, in order to benefit from the decline.

This is an advantage of forex trading, as “shorting” is not available in all financial markets (i.e. stock market, cryptocurrencies).

6. Leverage

Leverage is a pretty cool financial tool that allows traders to control more capital than what they originally deposited. Now, the interesting part is that any potential profit will be multiplied for the trader, but so will the risk and loss. So although this tool can be pretty handy, you need to use it very wisely!

7. Open 24/5

Last but not least, another cool thing about the forex market is that it's open 24 hours a day, five days a week, from Monday to Friday. So, basically, you can trade pretty much anytime you want during the weekday!