FXStreet, one of the largest  Forex  Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Read this Term portals on the web, is slowly but steadily increasing its market grip and presence - after tapping myfxbook and forexcrunch to its advertising network FXS has recently tapped FXTimes, another upcoming market commentary portal and launched the Trader Talk feature.

Those with good memory will remember that I wrote about FX Times when it just launched in November 2009. FX Times was CMS Forex's attempt at establishing its own forex portal. While it wasn't highly popular it did offer several nice tools and widgets which were used by other websites.

Since CMS Forex's retail client base was acquired by Gain many interesting things happened to the former CMS Forex group, in fact it split into several independent pieces. CMS Forex clients were moved to Gain Capital. CMS Forex itself is still registered as an RFED with  CFTC  CFTC The 1974 Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) in the United States created the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The Commission protects and regulates market activities against manipulation, fraud, and abuse trade practices and promotes fairness in futures contracts. The CEA also included the Sad-Johnson Agreement, which defined the authority and responsibilities for the monitoring of financial contracts between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. These are today the largest regulators and authorities in the United States. The Commission works to guarantee that trading on the U.S. futures exchanges are fair and honest and maintain integrity in the marketplace. There are 11 U.S. Futures Exchanges. The Commission is outside of the political realm and is not controlled by any party. To ensure this at no time can more than three members represent the same political party.The CFTC has recently given the go-ahead to a startup exchange that wants to attract individual traders to the risky world of futures. The Small Exchange, headed by a former executive of T.D. Ameritrade Holding Corp., won approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on in 2020 to become the newest U.S. futures exchange. The current exchanges in the U.S. under the regulatory authority of the CFTC include the following: Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) CME Group International Monetary Market (IMM) Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME / GLOBEX) New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and (COMEX) Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) NEX Group plc (NXG.L) Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) 2001 New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) 2005 Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) 2007 TSX Group's Natural Gas Exchange Partnership 2008 European Climate Exchange 2010 Chicago Climate Exchange (CCE) 2010 NYSE 2013 London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) Nadex (formerly HedgeStreet) OneChicago (Single-stock futures (SSF's) and Futures on ETFs) Nasdaq Futures Exchange (NFX) The 1974 Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) in the United States created the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The Commission protects and regulates market activities against manipulation, fraud, and abuse trade practices and promotes fairness in futures contracts. The CEA also included the Sad-Johnson Agreement, which defined the authority and responsibilities for the monitoring of financial contracts between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. These are today the largest regulators and authorities in the United States. The Commission works to guarantee that trading on the U.S. futures exchanges are fair and honest and maintain integrity in the marketplace. There are 11 U.S. Futures Exchanges. The Commission is outside of the political realm and is not controlled by any party. To ensure this at no time can more than three members represent the same political party.The CFTC has recently given the go-ahead to a startup exchange that wants to attract individual traders to the risky world of futures. The Small Exchange, headed by a former executive of T.D. Ameritrade Holding Corp., won approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on in 2020 to become the newest U.S. futures exchange. The current exchanges in the U.S. under the regulatory authority of the CFTC include the following: Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) CME Group International Monetary Market (IMM) Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME / GLOBEX) New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and (COMEX) Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) NEX Group plc (NXG.L) Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) 2001 New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) 2005 Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) 2007 TSX Group's Natural Gas Exchange Partnership 2008 European Climate Exchange 2010 Chicago Climate Exchange (CCE) 2010 NYSE 2013 London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) Nadex (formerly HedgeStreet) OneChicago (Single-stock futures (SSF's) and Futures on ETFs) Nasdaq Futures Exchange (NFX) Read this Term and jointly with VT Systems will continue offering VT Trader as a charting package as well as for practice purposes while being Gain's IB. VT Trader itself will soon be launched by Gain Capital. And the last piece in the puzzle is the FX Times portal which has parted ways with CMS Forex group and is now an independent news and market analysis provider.

FXS is also growing quite nicely as can be seen by stats published on Francesc's blog and is from time to time launching new features such as Trader Talk - A New Forex & Market Digest News Feed For Market Talk Section. A team of experts and journalists monitor more than 50 sources including trading desks, broker platforms, big bank movements, private investors, and more in order to digest the most interesting events and offer FXstreet.com readers a useful and unique information feed.

FXS here is starting to rival with other forex advertising rings (there are only a couple of these) such as Mediacougar which unite several brands under one advertising umbrella and offer a more balanced and perhaps more effective deal for both advertisers and publishers. However I'm not a very big fan of monopolies and if FXS will tap more and more sites to its advertising network this may be a serious threat to smaller, independent, websites which won't have too many options left.

FXS seems to be on the right way here and I wouldn't be surprised if it followed EuroInvestor's acquisition path sooner than later.