The foreign exchange market is the “place” where    currencies are traded. Currency exchanges are important to everyone all over the world whether they realise it or not. Any produce purchased and brought into the country whether it is a piece of cheese or a car, currencies are exchanged during foreign exchange and business.

The huge demand for foreign exchange is the reason why the Forex market is
the largest and most liquid financial market in the world. From 1997 to the end of 2000, daily trading volume from Forex trading has surged from 5 billion to 1.5 trillion dollars. Despite this unbelievable growth, the foreign exchange market continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. No other financial market has demonstrated this stellar growth in volume.

One unique aspect of this international market is that there is no central market place for currency exchange. Instead, trade is conducted electronically over-thecounter (OTC), which means that all transactions occur via computer networks between traders around the world, rather than on one centralised exchange. The market is open 24 hours a day, five and a half days a week.

Currencies are traded worldwide in the major financial centres of London, New York, Tokyo, Zurich, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and Sydney – across almost every time zone. This means that when the trading day in the U.S. ends, the Forex market begins in Tokyo and Hong Kong. As such, the Forex market can be extremely active any time of the day, with price quotes changing constantly.