Trading

Currencies are traded in fixed contract sizes, specifically called lot sizes, or multiples thereof. The standard lot size is 100,000 units of the base currency. Many retail trading firms also offer 10,000 unit (mini lot) trading accounts and a few even 1,000 unit (micro lot).

The officially quoted rate is a spot price. In a trading market however, currencies are offered for sale at an offering price (the ask price), and traders looking to buy a position seek to do so at their bid price, which is always lower or equal to the asking price. This price differential is known as the spread. For example, if the quotation of EUR/USD is 1.3607/1.3609, then the spread is USD 0.0002, or 2pips. In general, markets with high liquidity exhibit smaller spreads than less frequently traded markets.

The spread offered to a retail customer with an account at a brokerage firm, rather than a large international forex market maker, is larger and varies between brokerages. Brokerages typically increase the spread they receive from their market providers as compensation for their service to the end customer, rather than charge a transaction fee. A bureau de change usually has spreads that are even larger.

Example:- lets consider EUR / USD currency pair EUR / USD -- 1.33 Base currency/Quote currency

In the above case if you are buying 1EUR you will have to pay 1.33 USD conversely if you are selling 1EUR you will receive 1.33 USD (assuming no FX spread). Forex traders Buy EUR / USD pair if they believe that EUR would increase in value relative to USD, buying EUR / USD pair this way is called going long on the pair; converseley, would sell EUR / USD pair called going short on the pair, if they believe the value of EUR will go down relative to USD. It is noteworthy, that a pair is depicted only oneway and never reversed for the purpose of a trade, but a buy or sell function is used at initiation of a trade. Buy a pair if bullish on the first position as compared to the second of the pair; conversely, sell if bearish on the first as compared to the second.