Forex basics
Everything the rest of the academy assumes you already know. What a currency pair actually is, what a pip is worth, how leverage and margin interact, and why the spread is the first cost of every trade.
- ✓ 24 lessons
- ✓ 96 minutes end to end
- ✓ Free in MarketPro
- ✓ No sign-up to start reading
A currency pair is the price of one currency measured in another, and almost every number attached to it follows from the size you trade. One standard lot of EUR/USD is 100,000 euros, so a one pip move is worth about 10 dollars. A mini lot makes the same move worth 1 dollar and a micro lot 10 cents. At 30:1 leverage that standard lot ties up roughly 3,600 dollars of margin rather than the full 100,000, and a one pip spread has already cost 10 dollars before price has moved at all.
This category assumes no experience. It covers pairs and quotes, pips and lot sizes, leverage and margin, spreads, swaps and commissions, the main order types, and the four trading sessions and what changes when they overlap.
Once these are second nature, a stop loss stops being a line on a chart and becomes a number in your account currency. That is the point at which risk management can be done properly rather than guessed at.
The 24 lessons in order
No lesson matches that. to see all 24.
- What Is Forex? The currency market, how a pair actually works, and what a 50-pip move is worth on a real position size.
- Pips, Lots and Contract Sizes A pip is the unit of price movement, a lot is the unit of size, and together they tell you what you are actually risking.
- Order Types Explained Three ways into a trade, two ways out, and the trade-off between controlling your price and controlling your execution.
- Spreads, Commissions and Swap Spread, commission and swap are small on one trade and decisive across several hundred of them.
- Leverage and Margin Leverage decides how large a position you may open. Position size decides how much you lose per pip. They are not the same thing.
- Currency Pairs and Trading Sessions Which pairs to trade, when they actually move, and why the clock changes what a strategy is worth.
- How to Read a Forex Quote What the two currencies and the number actually mean, and why a rising quote is never good or bad on its own.
- How Trading Signals Work A signal supplies the levels. You supply the position size, and that is where your risk actually lives.
- Major, Minor, and Exotic Currency Pairs The group a pair belongs to predicts your spread, your fill quality and how likely it is to gap over a stop.
- Understanding Bid and Ask Price Two prices, one spread, and the reason a brand new position is already slightly negative.
- What Moves Currency Prices Relative demand is the only mechanism. Rates, data and flows are the reasons it shifts.
- Technical Vs Fundamental Analysis One asks what price is doing, the other asks why it should. Their failure modes are different, which is why most traders use both.
- Reading Candlestick Charts Four numbers in one shape, and why the body and the wicks have to be read together.
- Support and Resistance Basics Levels are records of where people have transacted before, not forces that stop price.
- Trend Lines and Market Structure Swing highs and lows describe the market with no lag and no parameters to choose.
- Timeframes and Chart Intervals The interval you choose decides how much noise you see, how often you pay the spread and how wide your stop has to be.
- Economic Calendar Basics Markets price the forecast, so the move comes from the gap between expectation and result.
- Central Banks and Interest Rates Every macro argument in forex is ultimately an argument about what a central bank does next.
- Market Sentiment and Risk Appetite Currencies move in groups when participants change how much risk they want to hold, whatever the local data says.
- Demo Trading Vs Live Trading Simulation teaches the platform. It cannot teach you what happens when the money is yours.
- Choosing a Forex Broker Your broker holds the money, sets the price and fills the order. That is three reasons to spend an afternoon on the choice.
- Trading Platforms and Chart Tools Almost any mainstream platform can execute a sound plan. A badly configured one costs you trades and creates errors.
- Correlation Between Currency Pairs Two positions in correlated pairs are one larger trade wearing a disguise, and your account experiences it that way.
- Common Beginner Mistakes in Forex New traders lose money in a small number of predictable ways, which means each one can be designed around in advance.
Guided paths that use these lessons
A path is an ordered run through lessons from several categories, which is how the app sequences them. 2 paths draw on forex basics.
Take forex basics with you
All 24 lessons in this category, plus the other 296 in the academy, with a quiz on each one and your place kept. Free on any MarketPro account, in the app or your browser.
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Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.