Forex stands for foreign exchange market, with a variety of participants being involved in financial transactions. Among them are banks, central banks, and commercial companies which trade currencies in the financial markets. Other players include hedge funds, retail foreign exchange traders, and investment management firms.
The top banks participate in the currency market daily, and only part of the trading takes place on behalf of customers. The bulk of trading, however, takes place for the benefit of banks' own accounts. Central banks fall into another group of participants in that they aim to control interest rates, inflation, and the money supply. For these reasons, central banks have official and unofficial rates for their currencies. Stabilizing the market is one of the main goals of central banks. They do this by using considerable amounts from their foreign exchange reserves. Generally, central banks have a major role to play on the currency markets in London, Tokyo, and New York. Other forex locations exist as well, but these are considered the most important ones.
Retail foreign exchange traders fall into another category of participants that use retail forex platforms and participate on the foreign exchange market indirectly, using the services of brokers and banks. The share of retail foreign exchange traders is insignificant, making for just 2 percent of the whole volume. The National Futures Association has announced that the volume of retail forex trading has increased considerably, especially over the last couple of years. At the same time, forex fraud is also a more prominent phenomenon. Retail forex traders work with two main types of trading desks. One of them is the non-dealing desk, with trading in the hands of the proprietary. Foreign exchange trading takes place on this desk. The dealing or trading desk is the second desk, and off-exchange trading is carried out there.
Investment management firms are another player on the foreign exchange market. Endowments, pension funds, and other entities have large accounts, which are managed by investment management firms. Trading on the currency market is done by carrying out transactions in different foreign securities. Currency overlay operations are also carried out to generate profits and reduce risks.
Hedge funds are privately managed funds with an aggressive approach, which employ sophisticated strategies to generate profits. Hedge funds employ advanced strategies, among which short, long, derivative, and leveraged positions in the international and domestic markets. Since the 1990s, hedge funds have been known for aggressive currency speculation. Controlling billions in equity, hedge funds can easily play against the efforts of any central bank to support certain currency. It should be noted that more than 70 percent of transactions on the currency market are speculative.
Finally, commercial companies also trade on the currency market with the aim of increasing the holding of stockholders. Given that commercial companies trade a relatively small volume, unlike speculators and banks, their transactions do not have much of a short-term impact on exchange rates. At the same time, currency rates are influenced by cash flows in the long run.
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