Forex FAQ
Forex FAQ
Short, plain answers to the questions people ask most about forex: when the market is open, what pips, lots and leverage are, what smart money concepts mean, how to learn, and what ForexLens is and is not.
Everything here is education. ForexLens uses simulated prices and play money, gives no signals and links to no brokers. Leveraged trading is high risk and most retail traders lose money.
Forex trading hours and sessions
What are the forex trading hours?
The forex market trades 24 hours a day, five days a week. The week opens on Sunday at about 17:00 New York time, when dealing starts in New Zealand and Australia, and closes on Friday at 17:00 New York time. There is no single exchange: trading passes from Sydney to Tokyo to London to New York and round again. Activity is uneven across the day, so the hours that matter depend on which currencies you are watching.
What are the four forex trading sessions?
By convention the day is split into four sessions named after their main dealing centres. In New York time they run roughly: Sydney about 17:00 to 02:00, Tokyo about 19:00 to 04:00, London about 03:00 to 12:00 and New York about 08:00 to 17:00. These are habits, not official opening times, and they shift by an hour at certain times of year because countries change their clocks for daylight saving on different dates.
When is the forex market most active?
Activity is usually highest when London and New York are both open, roughly 08:00 to 12:00 New York time. Two of the largest dealing centres overlap then, and most United States economic data is released in that window. The London open is the next busiest period. Busy hours usually mean tighter spreads and larger moves. That describes when the market tends to move; it is not advice about when to trade.
Is the forex market open on weekends?
No. Trading stops on Friday at 17:00 New York time and resumes on Sunday at about 17:00 New York time. News still happens over the weekend, so the first price on Sunday can be noticeably different from the last price on Friday. That jump is called a gap, and a stop order inside the gap is filled at the new price, not at its own level.
What is a kill zone in forex?
A kill zone is a short window inside a session when smart money traders expect the significant moves of the day to begin. ForexLens uses three windows in New York time: Asia 20:00 to 00:00, London 02:00 to 05:00 and New York 07:00 to 10:00. They are a convention for focusing attention, not a guarantee of anything. Read more on the kill zones page, or place the windows in your own time zone in the Kill Zone Clock game.
What are the forex trading hours in Toronto and Eastern time?
Toronto is on Eastern time, the same clock as New York, so every New York time on this site is also the Toronto time. The forex week runs from Sunday at about 17:00 to Friday at 17:00 Eastern. London opens at about 03:00 Eastern, New York dealing starts at about 08:00, and the busiest overlap is roughly 08:00 to 12:00 Eastern. Many of the main Canadian and United States data releases come out at 08:30 Eastern.
What happens at the 4pm London fix?
The 4pm London fix is a benchmark exchange rate calculated from trades in a short window around 16:00 London time. Pension funds, index funds and companies use it to value holdings and settle large orders, so real volume gathers at that moment and prices can move around it. It is one of the plainest examples of where large flows come from. The full story is on the FX dealers and the 4pm fix page.
Forex basics: pips, lots and leverage
What is forex trading?
Forex, or foreign exchange, is the market where one currency is exchanged for another. Banks, companies, funds and governments use it to pay for trade and move money across borders. Forex trading, in the retail sense, means speculating on whether one currency will rise or fall against another, usually with leverage. It is risky, and most retail traders lose money. For a plain explanation of the market itself, see How Does Forex Work.
What is a currency pair?
A currency pair is the price of one currency quoted in another, written BASE/QUOTE. In EUR/USD the euro is the base and the US dollar is the quote, and the price says how many dollars one euro costs. Buying the pair means buying the base currency and selling the quote currency at the same time. The forex pairs section covers fifteen pairs one by one.
What are the major forex pairs?
By long habit, the majors are seven heavily traded pairs that all include the US dollar: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, AUD/USD, USD/CAD and NZD/USD. Pairs without the dollar, such as EUR/GBP or GBP/JPY, are called crosses. Majors usually have the tightest spreads. The list is a convention, not an official ranking.
What is a pip in forex?
A pip is the standard unit for measuring a price change. On most pairs one pip is 0.0001, the fourth decimal place. On pairs where the Japanese yen is the quote currency, one pip is 0.01, the second decimal place. Most dealers quote one extra digit, called a pipette, which is a tenth of a pip. A move in EUR/USD from 1.0850 to 1.0860 is ten pips.
What is a lot in forex?
A lot is the unit of position size. A standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot is 10,000 units and a micro lot is 1,000 units. One standard lot of EUR/USD is therefore a position of 100,000 euros. Lot size, together with the pip value, determines how much money each pip of movement gains or loses.
How much is one pip worth?
Pip value is the position size multiplied by the pip size, and it comes out in the quote currency. On a standard lot, one pip is worth 10 units of the quote currency: 10 US dollars on EUR/USD, 10 Canadian dollars on USD/CAD, and 1,000 yen on USD/JPY. A mini lot is a tenth of that and a micro lot a hundredth. If your account is in a different currency, the amount is converted at the current rate. The Risk Desk game practises this.
What is leverage in forex?
Leverage lets you control a position larger than the money you put up. The deposit required is called margin, and it equals the position value divided by the leverage: at 30 to 1, a position worth 30,000 needs 1,000 of margin. Leverage does not change the odds. It magnifies losses exactly as much as gains, and high leverage is a common reason retail accounts are wiped out. Regulators in many countries cap the leverage that retail traders may be offered.
What is the spread in forex?
The spread is the difference between the price at which you can buy a pair (the ask) and the price at which you can sell it (the bid). It is a cost you pay on every trade, built into the price. Spreads are usually tightest on the major pairs during busy hours, and they widen on crosses, in quiet hours and around major news releases.
How much money do you need to start forex trading?
To learn, none. ForexLens is free and uses play money, and you can practise every concept without risking anything. Trading for real is a different question: any money you put in is at risk, small accounts tempt people into oversized positions, and most retail traders lose money. A sensible order is to learn first, practise on simulated charts for a long time, and only then decide whether real trading is for you at all.
Is forex trading risky, and can you make a living from it?
Forex trading with leverage is high risk. Regulators in several jurisdictions, including the European Union, require providers to disclose the share of retail accounts that lose money, and it is consistently the majority. Some people do trade for a living, but they are the exception, and nothing on this site can make you one of them. Understanding a chart is not the same as profiting from it. The Reality Lab game shows how widely outcomes vary even among traders using an identical method.
Smart money concepts
What are smart money concepts (SMC)?
Smart money concepts are a vocabulary for describing price charts: market structure, liquidity, fair value gaps, order blocks, premium and discount, and session timing. The idea is that large participants leave recognisable footprints. Much of the vocabulary was popularised under the name ICT. It is widely used by retail traders and also contested: it describes what price did, and it is not a proven account of who moved it or why. Start at the smart money concepts hub.
What is a fair value gap?
A fair value gap, or FVG, is a three-candle pattern in which the wicks of the first and third candles do not overlap, leaving a gap across the middle candle. SMC traders read it as an imbalance left by a fast move and watch whether price returns to it. The rule ForexLens uses is exact: wick to wick, and touching wicks are not a gap. See the fair value gap page.
What is an order block?
An order block is the last candle of the opposite colour before a strong move that breaks structure: the last down candle before a sharp rally, or the last up candle before a sharp drop. SMC traders read its range as a zone where price may react if it returns. Without displacement and a structure break, a candle does not qualify. Details are on the order block page.
What is a liquidity sweep?
A liquidity sweep, also called a stop hunt, is when price trades through an obvious high or low where stop orders are assumed to rest and then closes back on the original side. SMC traders read it as those stops being taken before a move the other way. If the candle closes beyond the level, it is a break, not a sweep. See liquidity sweep, or practise in Sweep or Break.
What is the difference between BOS and CHoCH?
Both are closes beyond a swing point. A break of structure (BOS) is a close beyond the last swing in the direction of the existing trend, so it is read as continuation. A change of character (CHoCH) is a close beyond the last swing against the trend, read as the first sign of a possible reversal. A wick through the level does not count for either. See break of structure and change of character.
Do smart money concepts work?
Honestly: nobody has shown that they give a reliable edge. The concepts are precise enough to define and practise, and many traders find them a useful way to organise a chart. But there is little independent evidence that trading them is profitable, the stories about who is behind each move are usually unverifiable, and hindsight makes every example look clean. We set out the evidence and the criticisms on the does SMC work page.
Is SMC the same as price action or supply and demand?
They overlap heavily. All three read candles and levels without relying on indicators. An order block resembles a supply or demand zone, a liquidity sweep resembles a failed breakout or stop run, and market structure is the old idea of higher highs and higher lows. SMC adds its own names, stricter definitions for some patterns and a story about large participants. The story is the contested part; the patterns themselves are familiar price action.
Do smart money concepts only apply to forex?
No. The vocabulary is applied to any chart with candles, including indices, gold and crypto. ForexLens teaches it on simulated forex pairs because session timing and pip arithmetic are easiest to explain there. The definitions do not change between markets. Whether the concepts are useful in any market is a separate question, and the honest answer is the same everywhere.
Learning forex
How do I learn forex trading?
Learn in order. Start with the mechanics: pairs, pips, lots, leverage and margin. Then learn to read a chart: structure, liquidity and risk. Practise each idea on simulated charts until you can apply the rule without help, and learn position sizing before anything else involving money. The forex education page lays out the path, and the free forex trading course follows it floor by floor. For the very basics, Forex Fitness covers them as games.
Is there a free forex trading course?
Yes, this one. The ForexLens forex trading course is free: short games arranged in floors, from market structure through liquidity, imbalance, value and time to a complete model and risk. There is no card, no paid tier and no upsell to a broker. The first game needs no account, so you can play it now and decide for yourself.
How long does it take to learn forex trading?
The vocabulary can be learned in a few weeks of short daily sessions; a run of a game here takes three to six minutes. Reading charts consistently takes months of practice. Becoming profitable is a different matter that many people never reach, however long they study, and no course can promise it. Be wary of anyone who gives you a timeline to income.
Do I need a demo account to learn forex?
Not to begin. ForexLens has its own practice area, the Desk, with a simulated chart and a play-money balance, and every game runs on simulated prices. A demo account with a dealer becomes useful later, to learn a real trading platform and see live spreads. Remember that demo results flatter you: there is no real money and no real fear, so they say little about how you would trade for real.
Where can I learn forex trading in Toronto or Canada?
ForexLens is built in Toronto and is online and free, so you can learn from anywhere in Canada without attending a class. Start with the forex education page. We do not run in-person courses. If you later decide to trade for real, check that any dealer you use is registered with the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), and remember that most retail traders lose money.
What is the best way to practise reading charts?
Commit to an answer before you see it. Looking at marked-up charts teaches little, because hindsight makes everything obvious. On ForexLens you mark the chart first, then the Lens shows what the rule finds, and the difference is what you learn from. What you miss comes back a few days later until it sticks. Short, frequent sessions work better than long occasional ones.
About ForexLens
What is ForexLens?
ForexLens is a free training centre for smart money concepts. You learn by playing short games on simulated charts: you mark what you think is there, then the Lens reveals what the concept says is there and which rule decided it. It is education only, with simulated prices and play money. More on the about page.
Is ForexLens free?
Yes. There is no card, no trial period and no paid tier. ForexLens has no broker links and takes no affiliate or referral money. The first game is open without an account. A free account with a verified email address saves your progress and opens the rest of the 34 games as you level up.
Is ForexLens legit?
Here is what it is, so you can judge. ForexLens is an education site made by TradingFuse in Toronto. Every price is simulated and all money is play money. It sells no signals, runs no managed accounts, promises no income and links to no brokers. It also tells you plainly that smart money concepts are contested and that most retail traders lose money. The simplest test is to play the first game without an account.
Is it FX Lens, FXLens or ForexLens?
The name is ForexLens, one word, at forexlens.com. People also type FX Lens and FXLens when they search for it, and they all mean this site. If you arrived looking for FX Lens or FXLens, you are in the right place.
How do I log in to ForexLens or sign up?
If you already have an account, log in with your email and password. If you are new, create a free account with an email address and a password, then confirm the email we send you. Password reset is available from the login page. There is no sign-in with third-party accounts.
Is there a ForexLens or FX Lens app?
ForexLens is a website, built to work well on a phone: every game can be played with a thumb on a small screen. There is no app in the app stores. Open forexlens.com in your phone browser and, if you like, add it to your home screen from the browser menu.
What happened to the old ForexLens tools, like 3D charts and trade ideas?
ForexLens is now a free training centre. The earlier tools, including 3D charts, trade ideas, forecasts and live sessions, are no longer offered here, and old links to them lead to the nearest page on the new site. If you came for those, the closest thing today is the smart money concepts hub and the games.
Does ForexLens give forex signals or trade ideas?
No. ForexLens gives no signals, no trade ideas, no forecasts and no market calls, and none of the charts on the site show real prices. The aim is to teach you to read a chart by a clear rule, not to tell you what to buy or sell. If you want to understand what signals are and why to be careful with them, see What Are Forex Signals.
Can I trade real money on ForexLens?
No. ForexLens is not a broker or a trading platform. You cannot deposit money, and nothing you do here places a real trade. The Desk uses a play-money balance that can be reset at any time, and XP is earned for accuracy and process, never for simulated profit.
Who makes ForexLens?
ForexLens is made by TradingFuse and built in Toronto, Canada. It is part of a small family of education sites that includes Forex Fitness for forex basics and Day Trade Gym for day trading. The about page explains the method and the honesty rules in full.
Start with one chart
The first game takes about three minutes and needs no account.