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Compare markets

Put up to four markets on the same ruler. The shapes do most of the explaining.

Market 1 Market 2 Market 3 Market 4

Used cars 50 Demanding The market almost everyone uses, where depreciation is the carry cost and outstanding finance is the trap.
Foreign exchange 50 Demanding The deepest market on earth, made hazardous for individuals almost entirely by the leverage it is sold with.

	Used cars	Foreign exchange
Exit difficulty	2	1
Volatility	3	3
Leverage	3	5
Carry cost	5	4
Fraud risk	4	4
Protection gap	3	3
Barrier to entry	1	1
Expertise needed	3	3
Difficulty	50 Demanding	50 Demanding
In a sentence	The largest and most accessible physical asset market in Britain, with a wholesale layer most buyers never see and a depreciation curve nobody escapes.	The largest market on earth by turnover, running continuously from Sunday evening to Friday night, and overwhelmingly used for plumbing rather than speculation.
Unit	One vehicle	A standard lot of 100,000 units of the base currency
Smallest realistic trade	A few hundred pounds	A micro lot of 1,000 units, or any amount at a bureau
Settlement	Immediate, with V5C transfer to DVLA	T+2 for spot, same day for many electronic platforms

The fingerprint measures how demanding a market is to take part in. It is not a rating or a recommendation.