Forex history
It’s thought to be created in 1973, after the old ‘gold standard’ system (The idea of the ‘gold standard’ was simple. It stated that every currency could have been easily converted into satisfying quantities of gold. That system has been used since 1717 till 1971 .) broke down as a consequence of President Richard Nixon’s decision. But the last ten years mean a real growth of popularity of Forex. It’s well visible on the number of transactions finalized through SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). In 1973, there were 239 banks in 15 countries and about 10,000 deals made every day. Data from 2003 says about 10,000,000 transactions by 7,600 participants from about 200 countries. The growth is impressive and still higher and higher. Looking for the reason we should start with easy like never before access to data sources from all over the world. The economic speculations, transactions data or – what’s also quite influential – rumors are publicly known. The information spreads faster than ever. The thing is to use it right and gain the highest profits before the rivals manage to overtake you.
There are a few banks that dominated ‘Forex’. German Deutsche Bank (20,96% of market share), Swiss UBS AG (14,58%) and two from United Kingdom – Barclays Capital (with 10,45%) and Royal Bank of Scotland (8,19%). Those four banks (data from May 2009) are responsible for over 50% of overall market’s volume.