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.
Many top Canadian banks trade on the currency market on a daily basis, with some trading taking 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. This is done by way of using substantial amounts of money from their foreign exchange reserves. In general, central banks play an important role on the foreign exchanges in New York, Tokyo, and London. While there are other forex trading locations, these three are the most important in terms of trading.
Retail foreign exchange traders make use of retail forex platforms, participating indirectly on the currency market through banking establishments and brokers. The share of forex brokers is insignificant, with the volume estimated at just two percent of the total 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. The first desk is known as the non-dealing desk, as it is, in most cases, traded by the proprietary. This is where trading takes place. The dealing or trading desk is the second desk, and off-exchange trading is carried out there.
Investment management firms constitute another group of participants on the currency 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. Some firms also conduct currency overlay operations in order to limit the risk and generate profits.
Hedge funds are aggressively managed, private funds, which make use of sophisticated strategies and tools in order to generate high returns. These funds use advanced strategies, such as derivative, long, short, and leveraged positions when participating in the domestic and international markets. Hedge funds have been blamed for currency speculation since the 90s. They control huge amounts of equity and play against central banks when the latter aim to support some 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. Considering that they do not trade large volumes, like banks and speculators, their activities do not have a substantial short-term effect. However, cash flows have impact on the currency rates in the long run.
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