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What Is the Forex Market

The forex market is where one currency is swapped for another, with no building and no floor, only banks and brokers connected by wires, open from Monday morning in Asia to Friday evening in New York. This paper shows you the market in five lines; the idea as wires strung between banks rather than a square; one whole week of the euro against the dollar, 24 to 28 August 2026, with a bar in every hour; who is in it, from the banks at the centre to the client at the end of the wire; and the Forex folder of six-letter names on your platform.

Difficulty
Beginner
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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The forex market, in five lines

The forex market, short for foreign exchange, is where one currency is swapped for another, euros for dollars, pounds for yen. It has no building and no floor: it is banks and brokers connected by wires, and a price is whatever the wires are quoting at that second. It runs from Monday morning in Asia to Friday evening in New York without a pause. Banks, companies, funds and governments are in it, and brokers' clients at the far end. In its 2022 survey the Bank for International Settlements counted about 7.5 trillion dollars changing hands in it every day, more than any other market.

Wires, not a square

Picture six banks and the wires between them, and nothing else, because there is nothing else: no square where the buyers meet and no bell. A stock market has a building, or at least one computer everyone's orders go to; the forex market is only the wires, each bank quoting to each other bank, and the price lives on the wires. Your broker hangs on one of them, the gold dot, and passes the quote it hears down its own wire to you.

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