FX trading involves trading pairs of currencies and profiting off the price difference between them. FX trading at Questrade is for speculation purposes. This means that no physical currency is exchanged as part of the investing process. So, a trader
can simply place a trade on our platform to take advantage of the changing prices between the two currencies.
For example, you might be trading British Pounds (GBP) vs. US Dollars (USD). You could believe that the British Pound will increase in value vs. the US dollar (which would lead to you going long on your FX contract), or alternatively, you might believe
the opposite (leading to you having a short FX contract).
You can trade in lot sizes of 1, 0.1, and 0.01 contracts, which corresponds to 100,000 units, 10,000 units, and 1,000 units of the respective currencies in the contract.
Your profit (or loss) in a given FX contract is determined by the change in price between the two currencies over the duration of the contract, multiplied by the size of the contract.
If you want to test out FX trading for yourself, we offer a practice account version of our platform, Questrade Global, where you can learn how things work and test out your investing strategies without using your real money. The FX market is open for trading 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.