Forex market outweighs all markets in terms of trading volume and number of participants. More than $8 trillion transactions occur every day.
The Forex market is a controlled and non-manipulated market due to its volume, which makes it highly reliable.
Big investors cannot destroy small investors by using bigger collateral.
With the development of the Internet, Forex has been fully integrated into the digital finance system. It is enough to have a smart device and internet to invest.
With the leverage system, large positions can be entered at low cost. As the risks of the positions that can be entered decrease, the chances of winning increase.
In addition to the purchase process, sales transactions can be entered into positions and profit can be made with an opportunity that is not available in physical positions. Thus, the physical markets sector has the opportunity to distribute its risks through trade, as it provides the opportunity to balance (hedge) as well as profit.
The history of the Forex market goes back to the days of the barter economy. In the barter economy, goods had a value among the goods to be exchanged. Later, with the invention of money and the increase in national and international trade, the value of a commodity began to be expressed in monetary terms. This situation has necessitated the determination of an equivalent value for the currencies of different countries in international trade. The increasing volume of international trade in the 20th century brought the currency of each country to be fixed on Gold prices. However, problems in the system in question led to the signing of the Bretton Woods agreement, in which currencies were pegged to both Gold and the US Dollar.
Bretton Woods Agreement
Currencies of the countries that are party to the Bretton Woods Agreement and agreed to fix their national currencies to gold prices began to appreciate against the US Dollar. The dollar remained the only national currency that could be converted to gold.
Smithsonian Agreement With
This agreement, the value of the US dollar was reduced by 8 percent compared to foreign currencies. However, it was seen that the devaluation rate of the US Dollar was insufficient in a short time. As a result of speculative attacks against the dollar, on February 12, 1973, the US dollar lost 10 percent of its value again. As the said movement was also insufficient, the foreign exchange markets had to be closed between 1-18 March 1973. With the reopening of markets on March 19, Asian and European currencies were allowed to fluctuate freely against the Dollar. While this was initially thought of as a temporary development, it is considered the beginning of a new era (flexible exchange rate).
All these regulations allow exchange rates to move freely and are the building blocks of a flexible exchange rate system. Today, currencies can be bought and sold independently of other country currencies. This positively affects the efficiency and depth of the Forex market. The main participants of the Forex market, where foreign currency can be freely bought and sold, can be listed as private/public banks, central banks, individuals and companies trying to hedge exchange rate risks, and individual investors operating speculatively.