Forex, FX, foreign exchange: the market where one currency is exchanged for another. It has no exchange building and no single closing bell. Banks, brokers, funds and companies trade with each other over the counter, from the Sydney open on Monday morning to the New York close on Friday, and the Bank for International Settlements measured turnover at roughly 9.6 trillion US dollars a day in its 2025 survey. Nothing else comes close.
Everything is quoted in pairs. EURUSD is the price of one euro in dollars; buying it means buying euros and selling dollars at the same time. The first currency is the base, the second the quote, and a move is counted in pips, the fourth decimal on most pairs. Majors, the pairs against the dollar, carry the tightest spreads; crosses and exotics cost more to trade.
What moves currencies is macro: interest rate decisions, inflation prints, employment data, and the risk mood of the day. Sessions matter too. Liquidity peaks while London and New York overlap; the Asian session is quieter, which is exactly what some algorithms are built for.
A strategy tagged Forex on Javlot trades currency pairs only. When a history mixes forex with metals or indices, the tag becomes Multi-asset instead.