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Spot FX is a deal to exchange one currency for another at today’s price, with delivery two business days later. It is the base price that every other currency product is built on.
In a spot FX trade two parties agree a rate now and swap the currencies on the spot date. For most pairs the spot date is two business days after the trade, written T+2. USD/CAD settles in one day. The rate you see on a screen labelled EUR/USD is the spot rate.
A German importer owes $1 million on Friday. On Wednesday it buys $1 million against euros at a spot rate of 1.1000, paying 909,091 euros. The dollars land in its account on Friday, two business days later. That is a spot contract. If it had wanted the dollars next month at a fixed rate, it would have used a forward instead.
When you trade EUR/USD at a retail broker you are not taking delivery of euros. You trade a contract that tracks the spot rate, either a CFD or a rolling spot contract. It never settles. Instead the broker rolls it each night and charges or pays a rollover rate. The price moves with spot, but the product is different, and the rules that apply to it are the CFD rules.
Spot is the reference for everything else. Forwards are spot plus an interest adjustment. Options are priced off spot. In April 2025 spot trades were $3 trillion a day, 31% of all FX turnover, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
See FX for the market as a whole and FX options for the contract that gives a right rather than a duty. The market hours tool shows when spot is most active.
A deal to exchange two currencies at a rate agreed now, with the money moving on the spot date, normally two business days later.
They are different products. A CFD tracks the spot price but never delivers the currency. It rolls over each night and carries a financing charge.
Sources: BIS Triennial Survey, April 2025. Checked 25 September 2026.
Risk warning: trading forex and CFDs on margin carries a high risk of losing money. Most retail accounts lose money. Never trade with money you cannot afford to lose.