Move with global currency markets

Some benefits of forex trading are:

• ‍Tighter spreads: As one of the most liquid financial markets, forex tends to offer tighter spreads than other asset classes. This means you can retain more potential profits on winning trades.
• ‍Accessibility: The forex market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. This gives you the flexibility to trade at your convenience.
• ‍Low capital requirements: At Deriv, you can trade forex with a minimum deposit of 5 USD.
• ‍Leverage: Deriv offers forex leverages of up to 1:1000 on forex trading. This higher leverage allows you to control larger positions with less capital. However, it also amplifies your risk.

Forex quotes are expressed as a pair of currencies, with the first being the base currency and the second being the quote currency.

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The base currency is the currency being priced, and the quote currency is the currency used to price the base currency. For example, in the forex quote EUR/USD 1.1800, EUR is the base currency, and USD is the quote currency. This means that 1 EUR is worth 1.1800 USD.

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Forex brokers always show two prices for a currency pair: the bid price and the ask price. The bid price is the highest price a buyer is willing to pay for the base currency. In contrast, the asking price is the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for the base currency. The asking price will always be higher than the bid price.

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For more information, read our blog article on forex currency pairs.

Forex trading fees include:

• ‍Spread cost: The spread is the difference between the bid and ask price, which is the cost of placing a trade.
• ‍Swap fees: Swap fees are charged for holding positions overnight. This is to account for interest rate differentials between the two currencies and the cost of funding the position overnight.
• ‍Commission: The commission is sometimes charged separately from the spread, especially for raw spread accounts. You can find Deriv's spread cost and swap fees in the FX pairs trading conditions table above in this page.

Major forex pairs are the most popular and liquid pairs, involving the US dollar (USD) and other major currencies such as the euro (EUR), British pound (GBP), Japanese yen (JPY), Swiss franc (CHF), Canadian dollar (CAD), and Australian dollar (AUD).

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Minor forex pairs, also known as cross-currency pairs, typically do not include the USD and are traded less often. Some examples of minor currency pairs include the EUR/GBP, GBP/JPY, and EUR/CHF.

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Exotic currency pairs involve the combination of a major currency with the currency of a developing or emerging economy. Some examples of exotic currency pairs include the USD/SGD (US dollar/Singapore dollar) and USD/TRY (US dollar/Turkish lira).

The major factors that impact the forex exchange rate include:

• Interest rates
• Inflation rates
• Geopolitical events
• Economic indicators (such as GDP, employment data, and consumer sentiment)
• Political stability
• Central bank actions
• Forex market sentiment
• Global trade patterns

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The interplay of these factors can lead to exchange rates fluctuations.