Forex trading
Discover forex trading with our award-winning platform* and spread bet or trade CFDs on over 330 spot and forward forex pairs, including majors EUR/USD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD, plus our exclusive forex indices.
Over 330 FX pairs
Spreads from 0.7 points
View our spreads
Award-winning platform
Risk management tools
100% automated execution
What is forex trading?
Forex trading is the simultaneous buying and selling of the world’s currencies on a decentralised global market. It’s also referred to as the foreign exchange or FX market. As one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, its total average turnover per day is reported to exceed $5 trillion. The forex market is not based in a central location or exchange so is open to trade 24 hours a day, from Sunday night through to Friday night.
Find out more in our introduction to forex
How do you trade forex?
Our forex pairs are available to trade as contracts for difference (CFDs). When trading forex, you speculate on whether the price of one currency will rise or fall against another.
For example, if you choose to trade GBP/USD (British pound/US dollar) and you think the value of the GBP will rise against USD, you go long (buy). If you think GBP will fall against USD, you go short (sell). If your prediction is correct, you make a profit. If your prediction is incorrect, you would make a loss. Remember, losses can exceed deposits.
View more examples of forex trading
Currency pairs
Forex is always traded in currency pairs, for example EUR/USD. The first currency (EUR) is called the ‘base currency’. The second currency (USD) is known as the ‘counter currency’. The way currencies are displayed shows us how many units of the counter currency you can buy with one unit of the base currency. This is the exchange rate, or in other words, how many US dollars you can buy for one euro.
You can trade CFDs on over 300 currency pairs via our platform. Currency pairs can generally be divided into three groups: major, minor and emerging.
Major
Most of these pairs contain the US dollar as either the base or counter currency. They are the most frequently traded. Major currencies pairs include EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/CAD.
Minor
Currency pairs which do not contain the US dollar are known as minor currency pairs. Examples include EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF, GBP/JPY and CHF/JPY.
Emerging
Also known as exotic pairs, these are made up of a major currency paired with an emerging or small but strong economy. Emerging currency pairs include USD/NOK, USD/HKD and EUR/CZK.
Online trading platform
Award-winning
Our trading platform has won multiple awards, including Best Platform Features, based on highest user satisfaction among spread betters, CFD and FX traders (Investment Trends 2017 UK Leverage Trading Report), and Best Forex Trading Platform at the UK Forex Awards 2016.Customisable charts
Access all the features you need to analyse price movements and conduct technical analysis. We have over 95 technical indicators, chart types and drawing tools built in.News and insights
Stay up-to-date with our market calendar and in-built Reuters news stream.Trade on the move
Our native mobile apps for iPad, iPhone and Android mean you can trade forex wherever you are, anytime.
Learn to trade forex
When you trade CFDs on forex pairs, you are speculating on whether you think the price of one currency will rise or fall against the other.
CFDs are a leveraged product. This means you only need to put down a small initial deposit, known as margin, to enter a trade. Trading using leverage can enhance losses as well as profits, which means any losses you make can exceed your initial deposit on the trade.
Learn and develop
Find out more about forex in our introduction to forex trading.
Trading library
Learn about different trading strategies, as well as fundamental and technical analysis.
*Best Platform Features and Best Mobile Phone/Tablet Platform; ranked highest for Platform Reliability and Charting, based on highest user satisfaction among spread betters, CFD and FX traders, Investment Trends 2017 UK Leverage Trading Report; Best Online Trading Platform, Shares Awards 2017; Best Forex Trading Support, UK Forex Awards 2017.
^A minimum spread is the lowest spread that will be shown on the given product. If the underlying market spread widens throughout the trading day, or you are trading out of hours, the platform spread may also widen. The spreads shown are for the first price available for the average market trade/bet sizes in the relevant product. The spread will widen for larger trade/bet sizes, see our platform for more information.
Spreads, commissions and margins (as applicable) are provided for information only. Please refer to the product overview area of our trading platform for the most up-to-date information including trading hours and spreads.
Please note that the change in price that results in a P&L change equal to your stake size is represented by the last large digit in the price shown on the platform.
At the end of each trading day (5pm New York time), positions held in your account may be subject to a holding cost. The holding cost can be positive or negative depending on the direction of your position and the applicable holding rate. Historical holding rates, expressed as an annual percentage rate, are visible on our platform within the overview section of each product. View further details about our CFD trading holding costs.