Forex Trading Statistics: Market Size, Volume and Key Industry Data
BY TIOmarkets
|March 24, 2026The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world by daily trading volume, operating continuously across global time zones and involving participants ranging from central banks and commercial banks to institutional funds and retail traders. Understanding the scale, structure, and composition of the forex market provides useful context for anyone trading currencies or currency-related instruments.
This article draws on data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Triennial Central Bank Survey, which is the most comprehensive and widely cited source of global foreign exchange market data, published every three years.
How Big Is the Forex Market?
The BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey is conducted every three years and collects data on foreign exchange and over-the-counter derivatives markets from central banks and monetary authorities worldwide. It is the authoritative source for global forex market volume statistics.
According to the 2022 BIS Triennial Survey, global foreign exchange market turnover averaged approximately $7.5 trillion per day in April 2022. This represents a significant increase from the $6.6 trillion daily average recorded in the 2019 survey and the $5.1 trillion recorded in the 2016 survey, reflecting the continued growth of currency markets over time.
To put this figure in context, $7.5 trillion per day is larger than the annual GDP of most individual countries and dwarfs the daily turnover of global equity markets by a substantial margin. The scale of the forex market is one reason it is often described as the most liquid financial market in the world.
What Drives Such Large Volume?
The forex market's size reflects the diversity and volume of its participants and the range of purposes for which currencies are traded.
International trade and commerce requires the conversion of currencies when goods and services are bought and sold across national borders. Multinational corporations convert revenues, manage costs, and hedge currency exposure as a routine part of their business operations.
Cross-border investment, including the purchase of foreign equities, bonds, real estate, and direct investment in foreign businesses, requires currency conversion. As global capital flows have grown over decades, the associated currency transactions have grown with them.
Central banks and monetary authorities buy and sell currencies as part of managing their foreign exchange reserves and implementing monetary policy objectives, including exchange rate management.
Institutional investors, including pension funds, asset managers, and hedge funds, trade currencies both as an asset class and to hedge the currency exposure embedded in their international investment portfolios.
Interbank trading, where banks trade currencies with each other to manage their own balance sheet positions and provide liquidity to clients, represents a large portion of total market volume.
Retail trading, conducted by individual traders through online brokers, represents a smaller but significant and growing share of overall market activity.
How the Market Is Structured by Instrument
The BIS survey categorises forex market turnover by instrument type. The three main categories are spot transactions, outright forwards, and foreign exchange swaps.
Foreign exchange swaps, which involve the simultaneous purchase and sale of identical amounts of currency for different value dates, accounted for the largest share of daily turnover in the 2022 survey at around 51% of total volume. These are primarily used by banks and institutions for short-term liquidity management and are not the same as the overnight swap charges applied to retail CFD and forex positions.
Spot transactions, involving the exchange of currencies at the current market rate for delivery within two business days, accounted for around 28% of total turnover. Spot transactions are the basis for retail forex trading and are the instrument type most retail traders interact with directly.
Outright forwards and currency options made up the remaining share.
Most Traded Currency Pairs
The BIS survey also provides data on the most traded currency pairs by volume. The US dollar remains the dominant currency in global forex markets, appearing on one side of the vast majority of all transactions.
The most traded currency pair consistently across BIS surveys is EURUSD, which alone accounts for a substantial share of total spot forex volume. USDJPY is consistently the second most traded pair. GBPUSD, AUDUSD, and USDCAD are also among the most actively traded pairs globally.
Currencies are often grouped into three tiers by trading volume. Major pairs involve the US dollar against another major currency (EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, CAD, AUD, NZD) and account for the largest share of global volume. Minor pairs, also called cross pairs, involve two major currencies neither of which is the US dollar. Exotic pairs involve one major currency paired against a currency from an emerging or smaller economy, and typically carry lower liquidity and wider spreads.
Where Forex Trading Takes Place
The forex market is decentralised, meaning there is no single exchange or central marketplace where all trades are processed. Instead, trading occurs across a network of banks, brokers, electronic trading platforms, and their clients.
The United Kingdom, primarily London, has historically been the largest single location for forex trading by volume, a position it has held for decades. According to the 2022 BIS survey, the United Kingdom accounted for approximately 38% of global forex turnover, more than any other single country. The United States was the second largest centre, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.
London's dominance reflects its position as a global financial centre with a time zone that overlaps with both Asian and US trading hours, a large concentration of international banks and financial institutions, and decades of market infrastructure development.
The London and New York Sessions
The structure of the forex market across time zones means that trading activity and liquidity are not uniform around the clock. The most active periods are the London session and the New York session, and particularly the window during which both sessions overlap.
The London session, which runs from approximately 08:00 to 17:00 UK time, is the most active single session by volume. The New York session, running from approximately 13:00 to 22:00 UK time, is the second most active. The overlap between the two sessions, roughly 13:00 to 17:00 UK time, consistently produces the highest intraday liquidity and tightest spreads on major pairs. This window is therefore of particular interest to traders who prioritise execution quality and spread cost.
The Asian session, centred on Tokyo, Sydney, and Singapore, handles lower overall volume on most major pairs but is more active for JPY pairs and certain Asian currency pairs. The transition between the Asian close and the London open can produce brief periods of lower liquidity.
Retail Forex Trading
While institutional participants account for the majority of global forex turnover by volume, retail forex trading has grown substantially over the past two decades. The availability of online trading platforms, lower minimum deposits, and access to leverage through retail brokers has made currency trading accessible to individual traders globally.
Retail forex trading is conducted primarily through contracts for difference (CFDs) and margin FX products offered by online brokers. Retail traders access the market through these brokers, which aggregate orders and provide pricing derived from interbank and institutional liquidity.
Retail trading volume represents a smaller share of total market turnover than institutional activity, but the retail market's growth has been significant, driven by expanding access in emerging markets particularly across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and by the development of mobile trading platforms that have lowered the practical barriers to entry.
Currency Distribution
The US dollar's dominance in global forex markets is a consistent finding across BIS surveys. In the 2022 survey, the US dollar was on one side of approximately 88% of all forex transactions, reflecting its role as the global reserve currency and the primary vehicle currency for international trade and finance.
The euro was the second most traded currency, involved in approximately 31% of all transactions. The Japanese yen, British pound, Australian dollar, and Canadian dollar were among the next most traded currencies.
The Chinese renminbi has grown in its share of global forex turnover across successive BIS surveys, reflecting China's expanding role in international trade and the gradual opening of its capital account, though it remains a smaller share of total volume than the major Western currencies.
Market Hours and the Five-Day Week
Unlike equity markets, which operate within defined exchange hours, the forex market operates continuously from the Monday opening in Wellington, New Zealand through the Friday close in New York. This continuous operation across time zones means forex is accessible to traders in most parts of the world at any hour.
The market is, however, not uniformly liquid throughout this period. Volume and liquidity follow the rhythm of major financial centre openings and closings, with the periods of session overlap producing the most active conditions and the hours between the US close and the Asian open typically producing the thinnest liquidity on major pairs.
Trading at TIOmarkets
TIOmarkets offers trading on 70+ forex currency pairs across major, minor, and exotic categories, available on MT4 and MT5 on desktop, web, and mobile. Account types include the Standard account (spreads from 1.1 pips, $0 commission, $20 minimum deposit), the Raw account (spreads from 0.0 pips, $6 commission per round turn lot, $250 minimum deposit), and the VIP Black account (spreads from 0.3 pips, $0 commission, $1,000 minimum deposit).
The Nano account is available on MT5 with a $20 minimum deposit and 0.001 minimum lot size. A Standard account is created automatically on registration. All accounts support hedging. Spreads are variable and typically higher than minimum figures shown.
A swap-free Islamic account is available: contact TIOmarkets for eligibility and instrument details. Copy trading is also available, allowing followers to copy strategy providers in real time across MT4 and MT5.
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