The biggest market ...
The Forex market is the largest in the world by turnover. It is estimated that in an average every day trading equivalent to 6.5 trillion US dollars (data from April 2016).
...without limits
1973 - the year of the beginning of modern foreign exchange market. It was then closed over the restrictive state banking and began a complete international exchange in the currency markets. Of course, it was not like a modern electronic version. In fact, the first steps to modernize the trade was made to Reuters in the same year, when it was introduced the use of computer monitors for stock trading. In the 80s, Reuters again presented Reuter Dealing system, which essentially worked in the private network in real time in the chat and was then rather advanced.
Financial centers around the Forex
UK, USA, Singapore and Japan occupy more than two thirds of the foreign exchange market. In April 2016, the UK (London) traded on average at 2.4 trillion dollars, the USA (new York)- $ 1.3 trillion per day. Singapore reached 517 billion USD.
Seven "wonders"
Over 85% of world price movements on the Forex market takes place on seven currency pairs. It is USD/JPY, GBP/USD, EUR/USD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD and USD/CHF. Trade on these pairs is the most profitable. The most popular currency is US dollars, which accounted for 87% of all transactions.
Currency slang
GBP / USD is often called "cable". The name comes from the time when the London and new York stock exchanges were connected by underwater cable across the Atlantic. It was a time when nobody had ever heard of fiber optics and satellites.
Unfavorable statistics
Almost all, but rather 95% of novice traders lose their capital in the first six months of operation. This is mainly due to lack of experience. Of the remaining 5%, only half said that may make a similar trade for a living.
Large running the show...
A large part of the foreign exchange market "busy" Bank. Here is a list of the 10 best players with a share of approximately 80% in the Forex market:
| Rank | Institution |
Market share
|
| 1 | German Bank | 14.6% of |
| 2 | City | 12.3% of |
| 3 | Barclays Investment Bank |
11%
|
| 4 | UBS AG | 10,5% |
| 5 | HSBC |
6,8%
|
| 6 | JPMorgan | 6,7% |
| 7 | Royal Bank of Scotland | 5,9% |
| 8 | Credit Suisse | 4,7% |
| 9 | Morgan Stanley | A 3.5% |
| 10 | Goldman Sachs | 3,1% |
A profitable business
Some banks allocate 20 to 30% of its budget on operations with foreign currency and receive from 40 to 60% of the profits from trade.