Investment is a financial growth strategy practiced worldwide and in numerous different markets. Generally, it means buying into an asset, such that you own a portion of a representation of its value.
That way, if the asset becomes more valuable, you can sell what you own for a profit. The forex and stock markets represent two of the world’s most famous avenues for investment.
Both can take different forms and be accessed by way of a variety of brokers and trading platforms. But both allow people to invest in the value of heavily traded, popular assets.
That said, the forex trade and stock markets are not the same or necessarily overlap directly. Forex refers to “foreign exchange” or, more clearly, the global currency trade.
On the other hand, stock markets are defined as being where buyers and sellers trade companies’ equity (meaning stocks or shares).
Key Takeaways
- The forex market involves trading currencies, while the stock market involves buying and selling shares of publicly traded companies.
- Forex markets operate 24 hours a day, five days a week, offering increased accessibility and flexibility for traders, whereas stock markets have set trading hours.
- Forex trading focuses on currency pairs and global economic factors, while stock trading requires analysis of individual companies and industries.
What is Forex?
Forex, or foreign exchange, is the trade of currencies against each other. The idea is for investors to capitalize on changes in values, which occur daily.
So, for instance, if the Euro is worth 1.10 U.S. dollars one day and it’s worth 1.20 USD the next, it has gained value, and there’s a profit to be made by traders. There are different ways to trade forex, depending on the broker or platform any given investor uses.
The most straightforward way is to “buy” or “sell” a currency pair — such as EUR/USD — according to what you believe will happen. If you think the base currency (the first one listed) will gain value against the quote currency (the second), you buy the pair and hold the position for as long as you wish; if you think the base currency will lose value, you sell the team.
Forex can also be traded through CFDs (contracts for difference), which work similarly but reward you for being correct about the direction of the pair’s movement, as opposed to how you time your position. Furthermore, forex trades can be made with leverage, allowing traders to trade with more money than they invest, maximizing the potential for gains, and adding risk for more significant losses.
In assessing the forex market, we should note that investors will find several dozen currency pairs listed. Only official, primary currency units are listed — so, for instance, you will see the pound listed but not the quid, per our look at the difference between the pound and quid.
Likewise, you won’t see total units listed — meaning you will see the U.S. doll, not the quarter.
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What is the Stock Market?
We defined the above stock market as where buyers and sellers trade equity. Essentially, it’s market in which companies’ values are listed as share prices.
An investor can purchase a share — in a sense, a small piece of the company — for the listed price. Then, if that price goes up, the investor can sell the share back for a profit (or, if the price goes down, the claim can be sold at a loss).
The stock market caters to both long- and short-term investors. While forex trades are often conducted in a reasonably short time to capitalize on currency values’ more minimal fluctuations, some stock market positions are held for weeks, months, or even years at a time.
It’s also not unusual for an investor to purchase a significant number of shares in an asset and sell some of them while holding onto the rest. Another critical distinction is that while forex is universal, stock markets are divided into numerous exchanges worldwide — the biggest (by market cap) are those in the U.S., East Asia, and Europe.
Different stock exchanges include other listings, with countless companies listed worldwide.
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
