When you buy a currency in the forex market, you are actually doing two trades. You are selling one currency and buying the other. You have known what currency you are betting for/against, as opposed to the stock market where you only need to know one stock.
Unlike stock trading, most online forex firms don’t charge commission. They make money by giving you a worse spread then they get and by charging you interest on margin. This spread is usually two or three pips (explained below).
Margins are huge in currency trading; you can easily be accepted for 200 to margin on-line. Some forex firms will give you up to 400:1 margin. To be honest, there is very little regulation in this industry, which means you can move $2,000,000 worth of currency with only $10,000 in your account. You can even open an account with as little as $300.
Profits in forex are measured in “pips” or “points.” A pip is 1/1000 of dollar. For example if you buy the dollar (USD) against the euro (EUR), and it went in your direction from $1.300 to $1.299, you have made a 1 pip profit. On a $10k order at full margin (200:1), this is equivalent to $50 in profit.