FOREX (Foreign Exchange) is an international financial market where currencies are bought and sold freely. Many of the major currencies have been traded freely from the early 1970s but back then forex was only open to the very big players. With the invention of the internet, it has opened the doors to a much wider spectrum of traders. You can even start trading with as little as $100.
It is the most liquid financial market in the world with in excess of one trillion dollars traded daily, this is far greater than any other financial market. One can not be certain of the exact numbers as unlike futures, stocks etc there is no centralized exchange. The market is traded from midnight on Monday (GMT) to midnight on Friday.
The Forex market has a very wide spectrum of traders from the very small to the very large including Central banks, banks, corporations, hedge funds, portfolio managers and small speculators. The forex market is often used by big business’ to hedge their currency risks on theirs imports and exports
