Forex Prop Firm:
Majors to Exotics

Majors, Minors and Exotics

Currency pairs fall into three groups, and the group says a lot about how a pair behaves. The Markets list in the platform shows every pair available right now.

Majors pair the US dollar with another large economy's currency and carry most of the volume, so their spreads are usually the tightest. Minors, or crosses, leave the dollar out; GBP/JPY is known for wide daily ranges. Exotics pair a major currency with an emerging market one and tend to bring wider spreads, sharper moves and larger swaps.

Sessions and Overlaps

Forex on Pivex runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, from Sunday 21:00 UTC to Friday 21:00 UTC. Over that time the market passes through four main trading centers, and liquidity rises and falls as each one opens and closes.

Activity tends to peak in the overlaps. While London and New York are both open, the majors usually see their deepest liquidity and tightest spreads. The late New York hours, before Asia picks up, are often the thinnest part of the day.

What Moves Currencies

A currency's value reflects what traders expect from its economy and its central bank. Prices move when those expectations change, which is why scheduled data and policy meetings matter so much.

• Interest rates: higher rates, or the expectation of them, tend to attract capital and support a currency.
• Central banks: decisions from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan can move their currencies within seconds.
• Economic data: inflation, jobs, retail sales and business surveys shape the rate outlook, and the monthly US jobs report is among the most watched releases.
• Risk sentiment: in calm markets traders lean toward higher yielding currencies, while in stressed markets the US dollar, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc often find demand.
• Politics and trade: elections, tariffs and sudden policy shifts can matter most for exotic pairs.

An economic calendar shows when the next release or meeting is due. Checking it before each session keeps you from holding a position through news by accident.

Pips and Lots in Plain Terms

A pip is the standard unit for a price move in forex. For most pairs it is the fourth decimal place, so EUR/USD moving from 1.1000 to 1.1010 is a 10 pip move. For pairs quoted in Japanese yen, such as USD/JPY, a pip is the second decimal place.

A lot measures position size. By the usual forex convention one standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, and smaller lots let you size more finely.

Pip value is what turns a stop loss into a dollar risk. A 20 pip stop on 0.50 lots of EUR/USD risks $100, while the same stop on 0.10 lots risks $20.

News Trading Rules at Pivex

News trading is allowed in the Challenge, so you can open or hold positions around central bank decisions and data releases. At the Pivex Trader stage, trades are not opened or closed in the 5 minutes before and after a high-impact release.

Permission to trade the news does not make the market calmer. Around a major release, spreads can widen and prices can jump past your stop. One large news day can also weigh on the consistency rule, which asks that your largest trading day stays under 50% of total profit.

Methods That Are Not Allowed

• High-frequency trading, meaning trades closed within 30 seconds
• Tick scalping and latency arbitrage
• Grid and martingale strategies
• Hedging across accounts
• Copying trades from other people or third-party services
• Oversized positions on one instrument; the Help Center explains the limit

Risk Habits for Forex

1. 1Set your risk per trade firstDecide how many dollars a trade may lose before you open it, keeping it to a small fraction of the 4% daily limit.
2. 2Place the stop where the idea is wrongPut the stop at the price that would prove your idea wrong, then choose the lot size that fits your risk amount.
3. 3Watch for overlapping exposureEUR/USD and GBP/USD often move together because both are priced against the dollar. Two trades on them in the same direction can act like one larger position.
4. 4Check the calendarKnow which releases fall in your session and decide in advance whether to trade them, cut size or stay flat.
5. 5Keep a personal daily stopPick a loss for the day below the 4% limit and step away when you reach it. On Membership accounts, Daily Loss Protection closes open positions and pauses trading if an account loses 3% in one day, once per account.
6. 6Close everything at the targetWhen the account reaches the 10% profit target, close all trades. The dashboard shows where you stand on each objective.

Explore Other Markets and Features

Forex is one of five markets on a Pivex account, and the same Challenge rules apply to all of them. Account sizes run from $10K to $100K, and Pivex Academy covers the basics in 18 short lessons.