Financial instrument

Best to go look at the provision directly. It is here:

Financial Instrument

what isn't a MiFID financial instrument

A good place to look (if your interest level counts as “fiendish”) is the snappily titled Commission Delegated Regulation 2017/565/EU (EUR Lex) of 25 April 2016 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU (EUR Lex) of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards organisational requirements and operating conditions for investment firms and defined terms for the purposes of that Directive.

At any rate, it makes clear, at Article 10, that Spot FX is not a financial instrument.

Conduct of Business

This is an article about the FCA’s conduct of business rules, known by its chapter in the FCA Sourcebook, COBS, which implement, among other things, MiFID (directive 2004/39/EC (EUR Lex) and implementing directive 2006/73/EC (EUR Lex)).