Contract Specifications

Markets (sometimes referred to as financial instruments, assets or products), including currencies, stocks, indices and precious metals such as gold. The types of marketplaces that you can invest in include the FX market, the stock exchange and commodities market, among others. There's no limit to the number of markets you can trade, meaning that you have the opportunity to trade hundreds of assets. The choice is yours.

While the forex market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, this doesn't apply to all financial markets. Specific markets will have different trading sessions.

Make sure you're aware each of market's Start and Close time so you can prepare to react as and when you need to. This is also a good way to start planning your trading strategies, as you'll get in the habit of keeping each Start and Close time in mind.

A 'ticker' is a symbol used to identify a particular company or asset on a publicly traded market. Tickers are usually simple abbreviations and pretty easy to distinguish. A good example is the GBPUSD, which refers to the Great British Pound - US Dollar currency pair. You'll soon get familiar with tickers and learn to identify the assets you're watching in the blink of an eye.

A swap refers to the interest that you earn or pay for a trade that you keep open overnight. There are two types. Swap short for keeping short positions open overnight, and Swap long for keeping long positions open overnight. The interest you pay will vary depending on what you're trading.

Just to pop back to basics - a spread is the difference between the ask price (which is the price that a trader is willing to buy a currency pair for) and the bid price (which is the price that a trader is willing to sell a currency pair at). You might have heard it referred to as the 'cost of trading'. When we talk about 'minimum spreads', we're talking about the lowest possible amount that trade could cost.

A 'point in price', more commonly known as a 'pip', is the measure of change in a currency pair. This can also stand for a 'percentage in point' and 'price interest point'. It's a standardized unit used to show the change in value between a currency pair. Pip value just refers to that change in value.

Financial instruments are traded in lots. Lots represent the amount of the asset that you are buying or selling. There are three most common types of lots - the standard, the mini and the micro. Lot sizes just means how much of a product you're trading.