Interesting Forex Facts

If you're interested in some random Forex facts, this is the place to be. When you initially it started in the Forex market or find out about it, all of the information available can be a little bit overwhelming. If this is the case for you, here are some of the basic facts that tell you a little about the foreign exchange market.

Fact #1 - Market Volume

The Forex market is without a doubt the biggest financial market in the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Forex market has a daily volume of approximately $4.71 trillion. That's a lot of cash changing hands every day. If you were to compare that to the stock market, you'd be looking at a number of a little over $300 billion every day. Pretty big difference, wouldn't you say?

Fact #2 - Major Currency Pairs

While Forex brokers will let you trade many different currency pairs, a select few are considered to be the majors. The major currency pairs in the Forex market are EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CHF and USD/CAD and sometimes the NZD/USD is also thrown into the mix.

About 85% of all of the trading in the Forex market is comprised of these pairs. This is an overwhelming majority of the money.

Fact #3 - Who is Trading?

Although the foreign exchange market is definitely a global market, a few players are more active than others. Over one-third of the trades in the market (34.1%) are generated from the United Kingdom. By comparison, the next biggest player in the market is the United States with a little over 16% of the trades everyday. This leaves the other half of the market to the rest of the world.

Fact #4 - Currencies Traded

When looking at the Forex market, you will notice a trend as far as which currencies are commonly traded. The United States dollar is by far the most commonly traded currency in the world, since it is considered to be the "reserve currency." Over 80% of transactions in the Forex market involve the United States Dollar.

In second place is the Euro with about 37% of the daily volume. The Japanese Yen comes in third with about 20% of the daily volume in the market.

The Potential

If you're like me, you see the vast potential that is present in the foreign exchange market. If these numbers mean something to you and you understand that there is some money to be made, check out the rest of this site. If you're just getting started in the market, get started with a primer on the market here . Then move on to information about , trading systems , software , and eventually Forex brokers .

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