Everyone has been talking about the stock market in recent months due to the volatility brought on by Donald Trump’s tariffs, Congress’s budget talks, persistent inflation, rapidly changing tech valuations, and fears of a recession in much of the market.

As a result, many equity investors have been exploring new investment opportunities to hedge their stock bets or expand their trading presence. Surprisingly or not, many have settled on Forex as their new avenue for trading success in 2025. Below, we explain why more equity investors are exploring Forex this year, whether it’s a good idea for you, and key starting points you shouldn’t overlook if you want to try trading on Forex yourself.

What to consider before getting into Forex trading?

If you’re moving into Forex from the stock market (or just starting with either), one major factor to be aware of is that Forex trading requires using a broker.

While you can use a broker for stock trading, too, that’s not strictly necessary. All you need is a brokerage — the online storefront where stocks, bonds, ETFs (exchange-traded funds), and other investments are purchased.

With Forex, however, working with a broker is essential. This might seem counterintuitive since you can make money exchanging currencies at a bank or exchange bureau. However, banks and other exchange points are themselves licensed financial intermediaries, just like brokers. Using such an intermediary is mandatory if you want to trade on Forex.

Finding the right broker can be tricky, as many options exist and not all are equally reputable or successful. That’s why newcomers (and experienced traders too) are advised to use the TopBrokers platform to find the best broker in their local or preferred markets.

TopBrokers constantly researches and analyses the specifics and performance of Forex brokers, offering up-to-date reviews and data. This helps new Forex traders find the most suitable broker.

Why are equity investors and millions of others investing in Forex in 2025?

Forex is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week

Stock markets usually operate on a tight schedule, typically from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This can make it difficult for people to trade equity effectively if they are busy during those hours or cannot respond quickly to market changes.

Forex, on the other hand, operates 24 hours a day, making it accessible worldwide at almost any time. The Forex market closes only for two days a week — from Friday at 5:00 p.m. EST (10:00 p.m. GMT) to Sunday. For the remaining 120 hours, you can trade Forex whenever you like.

Trading directly with equity is available on some Forex platforms

If you have experience trading equity, you can also use your stocks to trade on Forex. This is possible only on proprietary platforms like Forex.com and on MetaTrader 5, but not on MetaTrader 4.

You can also trade stock CFDs on Forex.

CFD (contract for difference) trading is available on Forex. This allows you to speculate on a stock’s price without owning the stock. There is still financial risk — if you bet the stock will increase in value (“go long”) and it doesn’t, you lose your investment. Likewise, betting the stock will decrease (“go short”) and being wrong also results in losses.

However, the risk is no greater than trading on the stock market, as you are speculating on similar price movements. Also, on Forex, you can trade CFDs without worrying about stock availability since you only speculate on future value.

Lastly, Forex CFDs can be leveraged, meaning you only wager a small fraction of the investment, often as little as 0.5% of the trade value. This flexibility allows you to place more trades than if you couldn’t leverage. However, losses still require covering the full amount.

Forex is more volatile than the stock exchange.

Volatility in Forex is higher than in stock markets, which can be challenging at first. But Forex offers instruments that let traders use volatility to their advantage. Instead of hoping for steady gains, Forex traders can make multiple small trades daily, hedge them against each other, and aim to come out ahead.

Forex is much larger and more liquid than the stock market

Many people don’t realise just how much larger Forex is compared to the stock market. While stock trades total just over $60 trillion annually, Forex sees $6.6 trillion daily, which means it surpasses stock market volume in about nine days. Annually, Forex turnover is around $1.66 quadrillion (based on $6.6 trillion daily turnover times trading days).

The high volume and liquidity allow transactions to be processed quickly and easily. Prices do not need to move significantly for traders to make profits.

You can use Forex to hedge against other markets, including stocks

Another benefit is using Forex to hedge against losses in other markets. For example, the USD/CAD currency pair often inversely correlates with crude oil prices. So, if you fear falling oil prices because you’re invested in that market, going long on USD/CAD can mitigate risk.

Whether trading equities, CFDs, or currencies, Forex is increasingly attractive to equity investors. As stock markets become more volatile, many are turning to Forex, where volatility is expected and there are built-in methods for managing it, such as leveraging trades and hedging with correlated currencies.

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