The market is open 24 hours a day, five days a week across major financial centers across the globe. This means that you can buy or sell currencies at any time during the day.
The foreign exchange market isn’t exactly a one-stop-shop. There are a whole variety of different avenues that an investor can go through in order to execute forex trades. You can go through different dealers or through different financial centers which use a host of electronic networks.
From a historical standpoint, foreign exchange was once a concept for governments, large companies, and hedge funds. But in today’s world, trading currencies is as easy as a click of a mouse—accessibility is not an issue, which means anyone can do it. Many investment companies offer the chance for individuals to open accounts and trade currencies however and whenever they choose.
When you’re making trades in the forex market, you’re basically buying or selling the currency of a particular country. But there’s no physical exchange of money from one hand to another. That’s contrary to what happens at a foreign exchange kiosk—think of a tourist visiting Times Square in New York City from Japan. They may be converting their (physical) yen to actual U.S. dollar cash (and may be charged a commission fee to do so) so they can spend their money while they’re traveling.
But in the world of electronic markets, traders are usually taking a position in a specific currency, with the hope that there will be some upward movement and strength in the currency that they’re buying (or weakness if they’re selling) so they can make a profit.