foreign exchange market

Foreign exchange market

Largely banks that serve firms and consumers who may wish to buy or sell various currencies.

Copyright © 2012, Campbell R. Harvey. All Rights Reserved.

Foreign Exchange Market

A market for the trading of currencies. For example, one may buy dollars or sell pounds on a forex market. Foreign exchange is one the largest and most liquid markets in the world. Trading occurs over-the-counter, and most of the major players are governments, banks, and speculators. Forex markets are often used in hedging strategies.

Farlex Financial Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All Rights Reserved

foreign exchange market

a MARKET engaged in the buying and selling of FOREIGN CURRENCIES. Such a market is required because each country involved in INTERNATIONAL TRADE and investment has its own domestic currency and this needs to be exchanged for other currencies in order to finance trade and capital transactions. This function is undertaken by a network of private foreign exchange dealers and a country's monetary authorities acting through its central banks.

The foreign exchange market by its very nature is multinational in scope. The leading centres for foreign exchange dealings are London, New York and Tokyo.

Foreign currencies can be transacted on a ‘spot'basis for immediate delivery (see SPOT MARKET), or can be bought and sold for future delivery (see FORWARD MARKET). Some two-thirds of London's foreign exchange dealings in 2000 were spot transactions.

The foreign exchange market may be left unregulated by governments, with EXCHANGE RATES between currencies being determined by the free interplay of the forces of demand and supply (see FLOATING EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEM), or they may be subjected to support buying and selling by countries' central banks in order to fix them at particular rates (see FIXED EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEM).

Collins Dictionary of Business, 3rd ed. © 2002, 2005 C Pass, B Lowes, A Pendleton, L Chadwick, D O’Reilly and M Afferson

foreign exchange market

a MARKET engaged in the buying and selling of FOREIGN CURRENCIES. Such a market is required because each country involved in INTERNATIONAL TRADE and FOREIGN INVESTMENT has its own domestic currency, and this needs to be exchanged for other currencies in order to finance trade and capital transactions. This function is undertaken by a network of private foreign exchange dealers and a country's monetary authorities acting through its central banks.

The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is multinational in scope. The leading centres for foreign exchange dealings are London, New York and Tokyo.

Foreign currencies can be transacted on a ‘spot’ basis for immediate delivery (see SPOT MARKET) or can be bought and sold for future delivery (see FUTURES MARKET). Some two-thirds of London's foreign exchange dealings in 2004 were spot transactions.

The foreign exchange market may be left unregulated by governments, with EXCHANGE RATES between currencies being determined by the free interplay of the forces of demand and supply (see FLOATING EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEM), or they may be subjected to support-buying and selling by countries’ CENTRAL BANKS in order to fix them at particular rates. See FIXED EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEM, TOBIN TAX.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005