The Foreign Exchange Market

The Foreign Exchange Market is the stock exchange on which several different countries across several different time zones trade their domestic and international commodities in various currencies.

Currency is the denomination or monetary division used in a particular land (such as the U.S. dollar or the Euro). When multiple currencies are in use, they are typically expressed as a ratio called a cross-rate that shows the amount of a second currency that is equivalent to the first listed. Determining what the equivalent is would be referred to as currency conversion.

Several countries in Europe, which have now consolidated their currencies to agree on the Euro (since 1999) trade on Forex, as it is called for short. Britain, which to this point has opted to continue using the pound sterling, also takes part in international trade, as well as the United States, Japan, and Australia. Each of these countries utilizes its own currency for standard trading purposes, with options for investment in foreign currencies. Determining whether or not this is worthwhile depends on the currency conversion rate.

The value of a nation’s currency is determined by its government and federal bank (the Federal Reserve, better known as the FED, is the federal bank of the United States).

Purposeful change in the rate of conversion by a government is referred to as valuation – devaluation is taking value and strength from the currency, and revaluation adds strength and purchase power to the currency. If the same change to the rate of conversion occurs naturally through events and the volatility of the market, it is then called appreciation and depreciation.

The Foreign Exchange Market