The Foreign Exchange uses currencies from a lot of countries to create a trading market where trillions are traded and exchanged day after day. This market is similar to the stock exchange, as people buy and sell, but the market and the overall results are much, much larger. The largest institutional players involved in the foreign exchange markets include Deutsche Bank, UBS, Citigroup, and others such as HSBC, Barclays, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, and still others such as Goldman Sachs, ABN Amro, Morgan Stanley, and so on.
To enter the foreign exchange markets, you may contact any of these big investment banks or broker houses, but keep in mind how bad they have been burned in the 2008 financial crisis. Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers went down the drain, losing billions in risky areas like subprime mortgage markets and - guess what - the forex market. All others must have been bailed out by their respective governments. So you can't be absolutely sure that your hard-earned money is safe when you bet on the big players. Certainly, anybody can get involved in the forex market, but it does take time to find out what is hot, what is not, and just where you should place your money at any given time. Still, the smartest thing would be to invest first in your own education and learn the secrets of currency trading, technical analysis and market psychology. If you want to get involved in forex trading and start to make profits right now, you can use a reliable forex signal provider as a shortcut. Such forex signals are available online and you can subscribe for a monthly fee which is usually somewhere between 20 and 200 US$. But before subscribing, always check the past performance of the service provider and examine thoroughly the design and content quality of the website. Only reliable forex signals will make you money, not losers provided by scammers!
Institutional investors are the largest players on the currency markets, as they have billions of dollars to invest every day, to earn interest and this is just one method of how they make profits on the money you save in their bank. Think about the bank that you deal with regularly. Do you know if you can go there, and obtain money from another country if you are heading out on vacation? If not, that bank is most likely not part of the forex market. If you have to know whether your bank is involved in forex trading, you can ask any manager or you may look at the financial information sheets that banks are to report to the public every quarter.
If you are new to the currency markets, it is essential to realize there is no one person or one institution that controls all the transactions that are being made in the Foreign Exchange. Many currencies are traded, and will originate from any lands around the globe. The currencies that are most frequently traded in the forex markets include those of the US dollar, the Eurozone euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound sterling and the Swiss franc as well as the Australian dollar. These are just a few of the currencies that are traded on the currency markets, with many other country's currencies to be included as well. The main trading centers for the currency trading markets are Tokyo, New York and London but with other smaller trading centers located throughout the globe as well
by Tibor Varga
References and Bibliography
Tibor Varga(41) is an ex-CEO, now full-time forex trader, technical analysis expert and forex signal provider, editor of
SureForexSignals.com. To be consistently profitable in trading forex markets he uses a proprietary system based on sequential analysis and neural network technology. FREE 30-DAY TRIAL!!!