Spot trading offers challenging opportunities where the rewards would be worth taking calculated risks. The features of the Forex Market that make this possible are:

- Liquidity: the Forex Market can absorb trading volumes that beat the capacity of any other market.
- Instant access: A source of considerable attraction to the Forex Market is the 24-hour nature of the market.
- Flexible settlement: In the Forex Market, a position can be established for any specific period of time, while closing out a position can be done swiftly and easily.
- Recognisable Trends: Each individual currency shows a substantial and identifiable pattern of trends providing opportunities for diversification within the Spot Forex Market.

Spot transactions may last for only a few minutes, or as long as a maximum of 2 days.

The main factors influencing exchange rates are the balance of payments of a country, the state of the economy, implications drawn from chart analysis as well as political and psychological factors. In addition, fundamental economic forces such as inflation and interest rates are constantly influencing currency prices. Faith in a government’s ability to stand behind its currency also has an impact on currency price. Activities by currency managers, generally on behalf of an investment fund, have also become a factor moving the market. While they may behave independently and view the market from a unique perspective, most, if not all, are aware of important technical chart points in each major currency. As major support or resistance levels are approached, the behavior of the market becomes more technically oriented and the reactions of many currency managers are often predictable and similar. These market periods may result in sudden and dramatic price swings as substantial amounts of capital are invested in similar positions. Well advised individuals can profit from these fluctuations by buying a specific currency when it is weaker and selling it when it is stronger. The flexibility of the Forex Market also allows for an individual to “sell short”, or benefit from a market moving down in value.

One of the greatest benefits of the Forex Market is the leverage effect. Simply said, leverage is a smaller amount of money controlling a much larger amount of money. The individual buys or sells one currency against another currency in multiples of his/her available funds. For instance, a leverage factor of 100 allows the individual to hold a 100,000 U.S. Dollar position with a mere 1,000 US Dollar deposit.

The leverage factor allows individuals to profit from very small market movements with a relatively modest investment.