WHAT IS FOREX
Forex is an interbank market that was created in 1971 when international trade transitioned from fixed to floating exchange rates. Since then the rates of currencies relative to each other are determined by the most obvious means which is the exchange at a mutually agreed rate.
This market surpasses the others in its volume. For example, the daily turnover of world securities market is estimated at $3 hundred billion, while Forex approaches 1 to 3 TRILLION US dollars in the same amount of time.
However, Forex is not a market in a traditional sense. It doesn't have a fixed location of the trading floor as, for example, futures market does. The trading is done over the telephone and at the computer terminals in hundreds of banks around the world simultaneously.
Forex is open 24 hours a day, and the currency exchange operations are maintained throught working days of the week. Almost every time zone (London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney) has dealers willing to quote currencies.
