Forex trading
for beginners.

Read the quote before the chart.

In EUR/USD, EUR is the base currency and USD is the quote currency. A price of 1.1000 expresses US$1.10 per euro. Buying the pair gives exposure to the euro rising against the dollar; selling gives exposure to the opposite move. The product you trade may be a rolling spot contract or CFD rather than delivery of currency.

Suppose you buy exposure to 10,000 EUR at 1.1000 and close at 1.1020. The price difference is US$0.0020 per euro, so the gross gain is 10,000 × 0.0020 = US$20. Closing at 1.0980 instead gives a US$20 gross loss. These examples exclude costs and assume execution at the stated prices.

If your account currency is not USD, the result also needs conversion. Product availability and protections vary by jurisdiction and broker. Read the specification for the actual account you intend to use.

Pips measure movement. Lots measure size.

For EUR/USD, one pip is 0.0001. A change from 1.1000 to 1.1020 is 20 pips. A fifth decimal is a fraction of a pip; it is not another full pip. Many yen pairs use 0.01 instead, so the convention must match the instrument.

With the standard EUR/USD definition of 100,000 EUR per lot, 0.10 lot represents 10,000 EUR. Each pip on that 0.10-lot example is worth US$1 before costs and conversion. Doubling the size doubles the cash impact of the same price movement.

Follow the position-size calculation before using any lot number. Gold uses a different contract definition; see the XAU/USD guide.

The chart price is not your complete trading cost.

A platform usually shows a bid and an ask. A buyer enters at the ask and closes at the bid; a seller does the reverse. The gap between them is the spread. Some chart views display only one side or a midpoint.

Imagine an unchanged EUR/USD quote of 1.1000 bid / 1.1002 ask. Buying 10,000 EUR at the ask and immediately selling at the bid would lose US$2 from the spread alone. This is an arithmetic illustration, not a typical-spread claim.

Commission, overnight financing and currency conversion may add costs. Slippage means execution differs from the expected price. Record actual entry and exit prices and charges; do not subtract the spread twice if it is already captured in your fills.

Know what your order asks the broker to do.

A stop entry and a protective stop loss serve different purposes. Check the order direction, trigger price, size and expiry on the ticket. Understand which bid or ask triggers the order. Practise cancellation and modification on a demo account before relying on those controls.

Separate margin from money at risk.

Margin is collateral required to support a position. It is not a maximum loss. Leverage expresses the relationship between exposure and that collateral. For a fixed position size, changing leverage does not change the cash value of the same price move.

In a simplified example, US$10,000 of exposure at 20:1 leverage requires US$500 of initial margin. A 1% adverse move in that exposure represents a US$100 loss before costs—20% of the initial margin. Real brokers may use tiered requirements, currency conversion and closeout rules.

Plan the loss scenario first: account amount, chosen cash budget, entry-to-stop distance, costs and size. Consider other open trades as well. Two positions that both depend on a stronger dollar can concentrate the same underlying risk.

Practise the mechanics before moving on.

• Check the product: record the symbol, contract size, quote currency and dealing hours.
• Use a demo ticket: practise entering, cancelling and closing an order, including changes to a stop.
• Check your workings: reproduce a hypothetical loss calculation by hand, then compare the calculator.
• Keep a journal: record assumptions, mistakes, losing examples and skipped trades as well as successful examples.

Next, study market, limit and stop orders. Follow the course map through the remaining lessons, including margin and leverage, position sizing and risk.

There is no deadline to move to live trading. Understanding the interface does not establish that a strategy will make money.

Common questions.