Anyone who has changed pounds into euros before a holiday has already watched a market move. The rate on Monday is rarely the rate on Friday, and the reason is different from the one that makes petrol cost more this month than last, or that sends a favourite retailer’s shares jumping after a company update. Each of these prices is set in its own market, with its own set of pressures.
This guide explains five of those markets in plain language: currencies, commodities, indices, stocks and futures. All five are offered inside a single account by AURUM GROUP, a professional multi-asset trading platform, which makes them a handy way to see how different one market can be from the next.
The pound and the euro: why exchange rates keep shifting
An exchange rate is the price of one currency measured in another. It moves when the outlook for one economy changes compared with the other. Decisions on interest rates, new inflation figures and statements from central banks are the usual triggers.
The scale of this market is hard to overstate. The Bank for International Settlements reports that foreign exchange turnover reached $9.6 trillion a day in April 2025.
Because currencies are always priced in pairs, a move can come from either side. The pound can fall against the euro because of news in the UK, or because of news in the eurozone. Reading a pair properly means checking both.
Gold and oil: prices that follow physical goods
Commodities are things that are grown, dug up or pumped out of the ground. Their prices mostly follow supply and demand. A poor harvest, a change in oil production or an unusually cold winter can all shift a price, because each changes how much is available or how much people need. Seasons matter too, since crops and energy demand both follow the calendar.
Oil touches everyday life in an obvious way, since it feeds into what fuel costs at the pump. Gold has a different reputation. It often draws attention when people feel uncertain about the wider economy.
Shares and indices: one company or the whole market
A share is a small piece of a single company, so its price reacts to news about that company: a set of results, a new product, a change of leadership. Reading a company update usually means looking at a few plain numbers: how much it sold, how much it spent and what it expects next. An index bundles many shares into one number, which is how people usually describe how “the market” is doing.
Because an index blends many businesses, a bad day for one company barely moves it, while that company’s own share price might fall sharply. For a newcomer, this makes an index an easier thing to follow than dozens of individual companies.
Futures: a price with a date on it
Futures are probably the market most beginners have heard of least. The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s investor education site describes a futures contract as “an agreement to buy or sell a specific quantity of a commodity or financial instrument at a specified price on a particular date in the future.”
The date is the important detail. A futures price reflects what the market expects for an asset by that date, so every contract has a built-in expiry that shares and currencies do not have. A farmer and a bakery agreeing today on a price for wheat to be delivered in three months is the everyday idea that futures grew out of. AURUM GROUP lists these on a dedicated futures markets page, which is the natural place to check contract size and expiry before anything else.
Following several markets without getting lost
Experts at AURUM GROUP say the most common beginner mistake is to treat every chart as if it told the same story. A currency chart, an oil chart and a share chart can look alike, yet the news behind each one is different.
One simple habit helps. Pick a market, jot down the two or three things that usually move it, and follow the headlines about those for a week. Then repeat the exercise with a second market, and a third. It costs nothing and needs no position in any market.
Having all five asset classes under one login at AURUM GROUP means that comparison can happen in a single place. Five markets carry five sets of pressures, and knowing which is which makes the daily headlines much easier to follow. The multi-asset range at AURUM GROUP gives a useful map for that exercise.
