The picture in three lines
- Forex is a dealer network with no central building, stocks trade on regulated exchanges in fixed sessions, and crypto trades non-stop across many independent venues.
- What you actually own differs: a contract with a provider, a share held by a nominee, or a coin in someone's wallet.
- Leverage limits, investor protection and settlement speed all change from one market to the next.
Financial markets explained well start with structure rather than prices. A currency, a share and a coin can all appear on the same app with the same green and red numbers, yet the machinery behind each one is different. Knowing that machinery tells you when you can trade, what can go wrong and who you would turn to if it did.
- 24 × 5
- Forex trades from Sunday 17:00 to Friday 17:00, New York time
- T+1
- Standard settlement for US share trades since May 2024
- 24 × 7
- Crypto venues never close, including weekends and holidays
What any market needs
Every market, from a fish auction to a currency desk, needs the same three things: people who want to buy, people who want to sell, and a way to agree a price. In electronic markets that agreement is usually visible as two numbers. The bid is the best price someone will pay; the ask is the best price someone will sell at. The gap between them is the spread, and it is the first cost any trader meets.
Some venues match buyers and sellers directly through an order book. Others rely on dealers, called market makers, who quote both prices and profit from the spread. Many retail products are a mix: a broker quotes you a price built from what its own suppliers are quoting.
Three structures side by side
| Forex | Stocks | Crypto | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where trading happens | Over the counter, between banks, dealers and brokers | Regulated exchanges and linked venues | Many independent exchanges and on-chain protocols |
| Trading hours | 24 hours, Sunday evening to Friday evening (New York) | Fixed weekday sessions per exchange | Continuous, every day |
| What a retail trader usually holds | A leveraged contract with the provider | Shares held by a broker's nominee for you | A balance at an exchange, or coins in a self-held wallet |
| Settlement | Spot currency settles in two days; retail contracts roll over each night | One business day in the US | When the transfer is confirmed on the blockchain |
| Main overseer for retail | Financial regulator of the provider | Securities regulator and the exchange's own rules | Varies widely; licensing regimes still developing |
Forex: a network rather than a building
There is no forex exchange you could visit. Currencies trade between banks, large dealers, funds and companies over electronic networks, and brokers sit at the edge of that network passing prices to retail customers. Because the network spans time zones, the market follows the sun: it opens as Asia starts Monday, passes through Europe and America, and closes on Friday afternoon in New York.
That round-the-clock structure has a catch. Liquidity is thinnest around the daily cut-off at 17:00 New York time, when spreads widen, and deepest when London and New York overlap. Our forex guide covers the sessions in detail.
Stocks: companies listed on exchanges
Shares are issued by companies and then traded on exchanges with published rulebooks. Each exchange has its own hours: New York runs 09:30 to 16:00 local time, London 08:00 to 16:30, Frankfurt's Xetra 09:00 to 17:30 and Tokyo 09:00 to 11:30 then 12:30 to 15:30. When an exchange is shut, its shares mostly stand still, and news that arrives overnight appears as a jump, or gap, at the next open.
A retail investor almost always goes through a licensed broker, which holds the shares in a nominee account kept separate from its own money. More on that in how the stock market works.
Crypto: always open, never in one place
Crypto-assets live on public blockchains. Any exchange can list them, so the same coin trades on many venues at once, each with its own order book and slightly different price. Trading never stops, and a transfer settles once the network confirms it rather than after a fixed number of business days.
The trade-off is custody. Coins left on an exchange are only as safe as that exchange's controls and solvency, and many countries offer no compensation scheme if it fails. Coins in a wallet you control are safe from the exchange but not from your own mistakes. See how crypto works.
Financial markets explained by what moves prices
Fig. 1 · The main price drivers in each market
- CurrenciesInterest-rate expectations, inflation and growth data, and demand for safe havens during stress.
- SharesCompany earnings and forecasts, interest rates, and how much investors will pay for future profits.
- CryptoLiquidity and risk appetite, network activity, regulation news and large holders moving coins.
All three react to the same big forces: interest rates and the general appetite for risk. When investors turn cautious, share indices and crypto often fall together while the US dollar and Japanese yen tend to strengthen. That is a tendency, not a rule, and it can break without warning.
Leverage and protection are not the same everywhere
For retail clients in the UK and EU, CFD leverage is capped at 30:1 on major currency pairs, 20:1 on gold and major indices, 5:1 on individual shares and 2:1 on crypto, with positions closed out automatically when margin falls to half of the requirement and negative balance protection so you cannot lose more than your deposit. The UK goes further and bars the sale of crypto derivatives to retail consumers. Offshore firms and many crypto venues work outside these limits, which is one reason the same trade can carry very different risk depending on where it is placed. The margin calculator shows what each cap means in collateral.
Asked and answered
Which market is open the most?
Crypto trades continuously, every day. Forex runs 24 hours on weekdays, from Sunday evening to Friday evening New York time. Stock exchanges trade only during their own weekday sessions.
Why does the same asset show different prices on different apps?
Each venue or provider has its own buyers, sellers and pricing sources, and some add a markup to the spread. Differences are usually small in busy markets and larger when trading is thin.
Do I own the asset when I trade on an app?
It depends on the product. Buying shares through a broker normally gives you ownership held in a nominee account. A CFD is only a contract on the price. On a crypto exchange you hold a claim on the exchange unless you withdraw coins to your own wallet.
Sources
- US Securities and Exchange Commission, T+1 settlement rule
- European Securities and Markets Authority, CFD product intervention measures
- UK Financial Conduct Authority, restrictions on CFDs and crypto-derivatives for retail consumers
- Published trading hours of NYSE, London Stock Exchange, Xetra and Tokyo Stock Exchange