Where the figures come from

What is a broker? The source of the picture · Taiwan

A broker carries buy and sell instructions into the market — and prints every figure on the price chart.

A broker is the company that carries out buy and sell instructions in the market. In front of a chart it is also the source the picture is printed from: the market decides the shape of a move, the source decides the figures at the edge and the clock along the bottom.

Currencies and gold change hands on global networks no private person can reach directly; a broker is the way in. It takes an instruction — an order — carries it out at the price of that moment (executing it), and hands back the window the result is drawn in. That market is what forex is.

Two windows on one instrument

Open one instrument on two screens from two different sources and the drawing is one event told twice: the same rise in the same stretch of the day, the long candle long in both. That part belongs to the market.

The detail is where the two part company. The figure at the right edge can end differently. A candle can be recorded as closing a minute apart. One window may begin its day earlier, so a shape that is one block here is two there. None of it disagrees about what happened — it is a difference in who prints.

What the market draws, what the source prints

On the picture	Comes from	What a second source can change
The shape of the move	The market: trades actually made	Almost nothing — it happened once
The figure at the right edge	The source, quoting this moment	The last digits, and which of the two prices is drawn
The hour under a candle	The clock the window runs on	The hour written beside one trade

The middle column answers «who drew this»; the names sit in trading words.

Three things a source hands over besides prices

A program that draws it. Exness Terminal in a browser, the Exness Trade app on a phone, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5.
The settings the drawing obeys. How far back a window scrolls, and how much time one candle stands for, are set in that program, not by the market.
A record kept beside the picture. Costs are written there as figures against each trade, never as shapes on the drawing.

Gold on a gold chart is usually a contract following the price — what a CFD is.

What the source charges, and where that is stated

A broker earns from small charges on trading itself, and none of them is a shape.

Charge	When it applies	Where it is stated
Spread	The moment a trade opens	Two quotes: one to buy at, one slightly lower to sell at
Commission	Per trade, on some account types	In the terms of that type, not a wider spread
Swap	A trade still open overnight	By the platform, before the trade is placed

So a trade costing nothing does not exist: the amounts are small but real.

Does the account behind it change the picture?

An account is a reader’s own space inside that system, and the money in it — the balance — is a figure held there, never a line across the window. Two readers with different amounts behind them see one drawing. What moves is the figure at the edge: the charge folded into the two quotes is set per account type. A demo account runs on virtual money; opening a funded one takes documents. Neither decides what the market drew.

The honest part: knowing whose figures are on the screen changes who to ask about a figure, not what follows it — no source draws the block after the right edge. Exness is one example of a global online broker, operating since 2008, with a demo carrying no time limit; a demo result is not a promise of the same result on a real account. Negative Balance Protection keeps an account from falling below zero, and everything deposited can still be lost. This site is an independent guide, not a broker: it opens no accounts, holds no money and takes no documents.

Questions asked with two windows open

Whose prices are drawn in the window?

Those quoted by the broker the account was opened with.

The figure at the edge differs on another screen. Which one is the price?

Both, each inside its own window: buying and selling prices are two figures at once.

Does the shape of a move belong to the source that drew it?

It does not. A source decides how trades are printed, not whether they happened.

Which clock decides the minute a candle closed?

The one the window runs on — copy the label as printed.

Does the size of a trade change how the picture looks?

No — prices hold no record of how much anyone bought.

Where does the spread sit on the drawing?

Nowhere as a shape: it is the distance between the two quotes.

If a bank also holds money, why does it not come with a price window?

Another job — savings, payments, lending. A broker carries instructions into the market.

Is the list of past trades part of the picture?

No — it is the record kept beside it, not a shape on it.

Would a second source show a move this one missed?

Not the move itself — only the figure at the edge and the clock under it.

Look at something next

What is a CFD?

What is traded when the gold on screen is not gold.

Understand CFDs

Reading a chart

What a window prints, said in one sentence.

Read one out loud

Trading words

Spread, order, swap: what each word points at.

Open the glossary

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