WHAT IS FOREX

WHAT IS FOREX

The Foreign Exchange, also referred to as the "Forex" or "Spot FX" market, is the largest financial market in the world, with over $1.2 trillion changing hands every single day. If you compare that to the $25 billion a day volume that the New York Stock Exchange trades, you see how giant the Foreign Exchange really is. In fact it is three times larger than all of the US Equity and Treasury markets combined!

What is traded on the Foreign Exchange? The answer is money. Forex trading is where the currency of one nation is traded for that of another. Therefore, Forex trading is always traded in pairs. The most commonly traded currency pairs are traded against the US Dollar (USD). They are called ‘the majors'. The major currency pairs are the Euro Dollar (EUR/USD); the British Pound (GBP/USD); the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY); and the Swiss Franc (USD/CHF). Because there is not a central exchange for the Forex market, these pairs and their crosses are traded over the telephone and online through a global network of banks, multinational corporations, importers and exporters, brokers and currency traders.

Traditionally, currency trading has been a 'professionals only' market available exclusively to banks and large institutions, however, because of the rise of the new E-economy, online Forex trading firms are now able to offer trading accounts to 'retail' traders like you and I. Now almost anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can trade currencies just like the world's largest banks do. There are now over 10 million trading accounts worldwide up from 10 million in 2005.