The short version
- Shares mostly trade on central exchanges; forex trades over the counter between dealers; crypto is spread across many competing exchanges.
- Your order is filled either by a dealer quoting its own price or by matching with other orders, which is what ECN trading means.
- Opening hours, leverage limits and investor protection differ sharply between the three.
Financial markets explained simply: a market is any arrangement that lets a buyer and a seller agree a price and swap an asset. The details of that arrangement, though, change everything about what you pay, when you can trade and who protects you when something breaks. This entry lines up the three markets covered on FeroxTrader, currencies, shares and crypto, so their differences are easy to see.
Financial markets explained by what is traded
| Forex | Stocks | Crypto | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What changes hands | One currency for another | Ownership shares in companies | Tokens recorded on a blockchain |
| Where it trades | Dealer network, no single venue | Regulated exchanges, plus some off-exchange venues | Many exchanges competing worldwide, plus direct wallet-to-wallet |
| Usual hours | Sunday 17:00 to Friday 17:00 New York | Weekday sessions per exchange | Around the clock, every day |
| Typical retail access | Broker, often via CFDs | Stockbroker or investment platform | Crypto exchange or app |
Gold and stock indices sit alongside these. Retail traders usually reach them through the same brokers that offer forex, often as contracts for difference, which track a price without passing on ownership.
Exchanges versus over-the-counter markets
An exchange is a central venue with a rulebook. Everyone's orders meet in one place, trades are reported, and prices are public. The New York Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange are examples. Shares in a given company therefore have one reference price at any moment, even if a few other venues trade them too.
An over-the-counter (OTC) market has no single centre. Forex is the largest example: banks, funds and brokers quote prices to one another over electronic networks. There is no official EUR/USD price, only the prices dealers are showing right now, which are usually very close to each other because anyone can compare them.
Crypto borrowed a bit of each. Each crypto exchange runs its own order book, much like a stock exchange, but there are hundreds of them, each with its own price, and large trades are also arranged privately OTC. That is why Bitcoin never has just one price.
Who is on the other side of your trade
When you click buy, someone has to sell. With retail forex and CFD brokers that someone is set up in one of two broad ways.
Dealing desk or market maker
The broker quotes its own buy and sell prices and takes the opposite side of your trade itself, then manages the combined risk of all its clients. You usually pay through the spread alone. The arrangement is legal and common, but it does mean the broker's income can depend on how its clients' trades turn out, which is why regulators require firms to manage that conflict.
ECN and STP models
ECN trading stands for trading through an electronic communication network: your order is passed into a pool where prices from banks and other liquidity providers compete, and it is matched with the best available quote. Spreads can be very tight, sometimes close to zero on the busiest pairs, and the broker instead charges a separate commission per lot. Straight-through processing (STP) is a similar idea in which the broker passes orders to one or more liquidity providers without taking the other side itself.
Neither model is automatically better. What matters is the total cost of a round trip and how orders are filled during fast markets. The trading fees entry shows how to compare a wide-spread, no-commission account with a tight-spread, commission account.
On crypto exchanges the order book model dominates: you trade against other customers, and the exchange earns maker and taker fees. Some apps, however, simply quote a price and fill you from their own inventory, which works more like a dealing desk.
Prices, spreads and liquidity
Every market shows two prices: the bid, which buyers are offering, and the ask, which sellers want. The difference is the spread. If EUR/USD shows 1.08500 bid and 1.08508 ask, the spread is 0.8 pips (0.00008 divided by the pip size of 0.0001).
Liquidity describes how much can be traded near those prices. A liquid market, such as a major currency pair or a large US share during New York hours, absorbs big orders without moving much. An illiquid one, such as a small token on a minor exchange at 3am, can jump several percent on a modest order. Low liquidity shows up as wider spreads and slippage, and it is often a bigger cost than any listed fee.
Hours: why crypto never closes and shares do
Stock exchanges keep fixed weekday sessions in local time: 09:30 to 16:00 in New York, 08:00 to 16:30 in London, and a split session with a lunch break in Tokyo and Hong Kong. Forex follows the business day around the globe, opening on Sunday evening New York time and closing on Friday evening. Crypto has no closing bell.
The practical consequence is the gap. News that breaks at the weekend moves crypto immediately, while shares and currencies absorb it all at once when they reopen. The board on our home page shows which venues are open at this moment.
Regulation and who protects what
Stockbrokers and forex brokers in major financial centres must be authorised, keep client money separate from their own, and follow rules on leverage and marketing. In the UK and EU, for example, retail clients can use at most 30:1 leverage on major currency pairs, 5:1 on individual shares and 2:1 on crypto CFDs, and a position is closed out if the margin level falls to 50%.
Crypto regulation is newer and patchier. Some countries now license crypto service providers and set custody standards; others barely supervise them. Stock trades in the US settle one business day after the trade date; a crypto transfer settles on-chain within minutes, but with no central body able to reverse it.
Where to read next
- How forex trading works: pips, lots, sessions and leverage.
- How the stock market works: shares, dividends and indices.
- How crypto works: ledgers, wallets and exchanges.
Reader questions
Is ECN trading cheaper than a standard account?
Not always. ECN-style accounts usually have tighter spreads but add a commission per lot, so the fair comparison is the total cost of opening and closing the same position on each account.
Why is there no single price for Bitcoin?
Bitcoin trades on many separate exchanges, each with its own order book. Traders who buy where it is cheaper and sell where it is dearer keep prices close together, but small gaps always remain.
Is forex traded on an exchange?
Spot forex is mostly traded over the counter between banks and dealers. Currency futures do trade on exchanges, but most retail forex trading happens through brokers quoting OTC prices.
Sources
- European Securities and Markets Authority, product intervention measures on CFDs
- UK Financial Conduct Authority, rules on CFDs for retail clients
- US Securities and Exchange Commission, T+1 settlement cycle