foreign exchange market
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Foreign exchange market
Foreign Exchange Market
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).
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.