Foreign Exchange Market: An Introduction

It is an understatement to say that the forex markets of the world are immense. The high level of turnover indicates that the forex market is an efficient market, ie price discovery is sound. It is a quote-driven market (as opposed to an order-driven market) and it is firmly the banks’ province. They quote bid and offer rates simultaneously once the volume of the transaction is disclosed, and the quote recipient can deal either side of the quote. As in the spot forex market, the derivative forex market is efficient, allowing, for example, a company to do a large forward deal as quickly as a spot deal. The company can also do currency swaps, forward-forwards, option date forwards, and more, at the drop of a hat. In this book all aspects of the forex market are covered: organisational structure, cross rates, spreads, quotation conventions, role and importance of exchange rates, participants, relationship with the balance of payments and the money stock, and other relevant issues.