[3] What is the global Forex market?
Today, the Forex market is a nonstop cash market where currencies of nations
are traded, typically via brokers. Foreign currencies are continually and
simultaneously bought and sold across local and global markets. The value of
traders' investments increases or decreases based on currency movements.
Foreign exchange market conditions can change at any time in response to
real-time events.
The main attractions of short-term currency trading to private investors are:
• 24-hour trading, 5 days a week with nonstop access (24/7) to global
Forex dealers.
• An enormous liquid market, making it easy to trade most currencies.
• Volatile markets offering profit opportunities.
• Standard instruments for controlling risk exposure.
• The ability to profit in rising as well as falling markets.
• Leveraged trading with low margin requirements.
• Many options for zero commission trading.
A brief history of the Forex market
The following is an overview into the historical evolution of the foreign
exchange market and the roots of the international currency trading, from the
days of the gold exchange, through the Bretton-Woods Agreement, to its
current manifestation.
The Gold exchange period and the Bretton-Woods Agreement
The Bretton-Woods Agreement, established in 1944, fixed national currencies
against the US dollar, and set the dollar at a rate of USD 35 per ounce of gold.
In 1967, a Chicago bank refused to make a loan in pound sterling to a college
professor by the name of Milton Friedman, because he had intended to use
the funds to short the British currency. The bank's refusal to grant the loan
was due to the Bretton-Woods Agreement.
Bretton-Woods was aimed at establishing international monetary stability by
preventing money from taking flight across countries, thus curbing speculation
in foreign currencies. Between 1876 and World War I, the gold exchange
standard had ruled over the international economic system. Under the gold
version: September 2006 / 12 of 111
