Add up every trade that's done:turnover is the total sum.
The total value traded in a market over a given period.
Foreign exchange is the largest financial market by this measure; the Bank for International Settlements publishes a survey of its turnover every three years.
In plain words
Turnover is the total value of everything traded in a market over a period, such as a day. Each trade is counted once at its full value, so a market in which the same money changes hands many times has a high turnover.
See it move
Turnover: the largest here
Why it matters
Turnover is the usual measure of how large and how active a market is. Foreign exchange is the largest financial market by this measure, with daily turnover counted in trillions of US dollars in the surveys published by the Bank for International Settlements.
Worked example
An example only. The figures are round and invented for the arithmetic: they are not market prices.
Three EUR/USD trades take place in an hour, for 1 million, 2 million and 3 million euros, all at a rate of 1.1000.
- 1Turnover in euros1 + 2 + 3 = 6 million euros.
- 2In US dollars6,000,000 × 1.1000 = 6,600,000 US dollars.
- 3Who gained or lost on the trades plays no part in the count.
Turnover for the hour is 6 million euros, or 6.6 million US dollars.
A common mistake
Turnover is not profit, and it is not the amount of money invested in a market. It measures activity: a single sum traded back and forth ten times adds ten times its value to turnover.
Check yourself
Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade.