Who is involved in forex trading?
Since there is no centralized market for foreign exchange trading, forex trading is a rather pricey club to join. For practical purposes, you have to be a major institutional presence to effectively make forex trades. Because of the requirement to have huge amounts of cash, the primary players in the forex market are banks. Banks make up the unofficial core of the forex market. This is the inter-bank market, where massive investment banks trade billions of dollars worth of currencies back and forth. Central banks, (such as the U.S. Federal Reserve or the Bank of Canada), also play an important role as they intervene in the forex market to help control the price of their own currencies. Increasingly, hedge funds and other investment firms with significant holdings are becoming involved in this market. Can individuals participate in the forex market? Because large institutions such as banks dominate the forex trading scene, it is hard for individuals to get involved in the market. Indeed
