What is Forex?
If you've ever traveled to another country, you usually had to find a currency exchange booth
at the airport, and then exchange the money you have in your wallet (if you're a dude) or
purse (if you're a lady) or man purse (if you're a metrosexual) into the currency of the country
you are visiting.
You go up to the counter and notice a screen displaying different exchange rates for different
currencies. You find "Japanese yen" and think to yourself, "WOW! My one dollar is worth
100 yen?! And I have ten dollars! I'm going to be rich!!!" (This excitement is quickly killed
when you stop by a shop in the airport afterwards to buy a can of soda and, all of a sudden,
half your money is gone.)
When you do this, you've essentially participated in the forex market! You've exchanged one
currency for another. Or in forex trading terms, assuming you're an American visiting Japan,
you've sold dollars and bought yen.
Before you fly back home, you stop by the currency exchange booth to exchange the yen that
you miraculously have left over (Tokyo is expensive!) and notice the exchange rates have
changed. It's these changes in the exchanges rates that allow you to make money in the
foreign exchange market.