I know you’ve been expecting it so here it is: The largest and most up-to-date report detailing the average trading volumes by retail 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
Largest retail Forex Broker
Forex Broker
In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well.
In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well.
Read this Term FXCM with Oanda coming in at a distant second place. It looks like FXCM’s world Forex domination is all but complete and all that is left for others is the competition for 2nd and 3rd places. Good luck Oanda, Gain, Saxo and GFT.
The numbers as were officially, and to some extent unofficially, released by the brokers themselves:
The figures are incomplete as some brokers such as FXDD, FX Solutions and CMS simply don’t report or disclose their numbers.
It is my estimate that the non-reporting, non-disclosing brokers are able to contribute at least 20-30B more to the daily traded volume, meaning that the total reported and estimated volume is in the range of $130-140 billion dollars a day.
A year ago I was sure retail Forex growth was about to slow down, guess I was wrong. Who wonders if $140B is the limit?
* - based on 2007 numbers and taking the average retail volumes growth since into account
** - based on report that GFT and Gain were pretty identical in size in 2007 and currently have similar cash piles
I know you’ve been expecting it so here it is: The largest and most up-to-date report detailing the average trading volumes by retail 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
Largest retail Forex Broker
Forex Broker
In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well.
In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well.
Read this Term FXCM with Oanda coming in at a distant second place. It looks like FXCM’s world Forex domination is all but complete and all that is left for others is the competition for 2nd and 3rd places. Good luck Oanda, Gain, Saxo and GFT.
The numbers as were officially, and to some extent unofficially, released by the brokers themselves:
The figures are incomplete as some brokers such as FXDD, FX Solutions and CMS simply don’t report or disclose their numbers.
It is my estimate that the non-reporting, non-disclosing brokers are able to contribute at least 20-30B more to the daily traded volume, meaning that the total reported and estimated volume is in the range of $130-140 billion dollars a day.
A year ago I was sure retail Forex growth was about to slow down, guess I was wrong. Who wonders if $140B is the limit?
* - based on 2007 numbers and taking the average retail volumes growth since into account
** - based on report that GFT and Gain were pretty identical in size in 2007 and currently have similar cash piles
