The largest and most liquid financial market in the world today, without a doubt, has got to be the foreign exchange market. There are many who trade in this area and include large banks, currency speculators, governments, central banks, corporations and many other financial institutions. The average daily volume grows everyday with a daily turnover in April 2007 of 3.2 trillion US dollars.
Since that time, forex trading has only grown more. The Euromoney’s annual FX Poll tells us that between 2007 and 2008, this market grew another forty-one percent. London’s part of this total is thirty-four percent which makes it the global center for foreign exchange. New York comes in second with sixteen percent and Tokyo is third with six percent. Added to this is the traditional turnover of derivatives which account for 2.1 trillion.
Despite having some control of the capital account, some emerging countries like South Africa, India and Korea have already experimented with the currency futures exchanges. The Wall Street Journal reports that FX futures volumes has grown about seven percent in total foreign exchange volume. This is an over the counter market with no physical location or clearing house but the largest trading center is in the United Kingdom and primarily in London.
Fri, Jun 25, 2010
The Markets