| Forex is the foreign exchange market where
currencies are bought and sold. It began back in the 1970s with the introduction of
free exchange rates and floating currencies. Thanks to the internet more and more people
are able to reap the profits of the currency market with global Forex trading.This is a
market that trades as over US$1 trillion a day. It trades more than any other market.
There are some distinct differences in the currency market compared to the stock market.
Money moves much faster so no single investor has the ability to actually affect market
price and trades are able to open and close within seconds which is not possible on the
stock market.You need to choose a trading strategy that works for you. Different
strategies work for different traders to dont try to makes something work, instead find
the right trading strategy for you.Its important to understand that trends move prices
so a smart investor will make trends their friend and even go so far as to examine
historical trends. |
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FOREX.com is a registered Futures
Commission Merchant and a division of GAIN Capital Group. A pioneer in online
foreign exchange, GAIN Capital Group provides forex trading & asset management
services to institutional investors and professional money managers in over 140
countries.At FOREX.com, individual forex traders can take advantage of the market
expertise and financial strength of GAIN Capital Group and access an institutional
currency trading platform, FOREXTrader, along with powerful real-time forex charts,
professional forex market research, and a suite of advanced forex trading tools. For
traders new to the forex market, FOREX.com offers forex training programs, forex minis,
and information about trading the forex market. The foreign exchange (currency or forex or
FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another.
It is by far the largest financial market in the world, and includes trading
between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations,
governments, and other financial markets and institutions. |
| The average daily trade in the
global forex markets currently exceeds US$1.9 trillion. Retail traders (individuals) are a
small fraction of this market and may only participate indirectly through brokers or
banks.Exchange-traded forex futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts.
Forex futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, but only accounts for about 7% of
the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe
(5/5/06, p. 20).Average daily global turnover in traditional foreign exchange market
transactions totaled $2.7 trillion in April 2006 according to IFSL estimates based on
semi-annual London, New York, Tokyo and Singapore Foreign Exchange Committee data. Overall
turnover, including non-traditional foreign exchange derivatives and products traded on
exchanges, averaged around $2.9 trillion a day. This was more than ten times the size of
the combined daily turnover on all the worlds equity markets. Foreign exchange trading
increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001.
This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an
increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The
interbank market caters for both the majority of commercial turnover and large amounts of
speculative trading every day. A large bank may trade billions of dollars daily. Some of
this trading is undertaken on behalf of customers, but much is conducted by proprietary
desks, trading for the bank's own account.Until recently, foreign exchange brokers did
large amounts of business, facilitating interbank trading and matching anonymous
counterparts for small fees. Today, however, much of this business has moved on to more
efficient electronic systems, such as EBS (now owned by ICAP), Reuters Dealing 3000
Matching (D2), the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg and TradeBook(R). |