Courses

Spot 1 - Introduction

Spot FX definition and conventions
A spot FX transaction is the purchase or sale of one currency for another, with delivery usually taking place two days after the dealing date. The price at which spot transactions are conducted is called the 'spot rate'... more »

Spot FX rates
Spot rates are quoted as one unit of the base currency against a number of units of the variable currency - referred to as the 'counter currency', with the base currency named first... more »

Spot FX trading environments
Historically, interbank spot FX business was mostly transacted on the phone with phone-based interdealer brokers having a significant role in the market. This situation has changed substantially since the introduction of interbank electronic broking platforms, such as the EBS platform in 1993... more »

Liquidity
In view of its sheer size, it is easy to assume that (transactions of exceptional size apart) liquidity should not be a significant problem in the spot FX market. In practice, this is by no means always the case... more »

Factors driving spot activity
While a granular list of all the individual factors driving FX spot activity would be interminable, it is possible to define a number of broad categories... more »