Initially, the value of goods was expressed in terms of other goods, i.e. an economy based on barter between individual market participants. The obvious limitations of such a system encouraged establishing more generally accepted means of exchange at a fairly early stage in history, to set a common benchmark of value. In different economies, everything from teeth to feathers to pretty stones has served this purpose, but soon metals, in particular gold and silver, established themselves as an accepted means of payment as well as a reliable storage of value.
Originally, coins were simply minted from the preferred metal, but in stable political regimes the introduction of a paper form of governmental IOUs (I owe you) gained acceptance during the Middle Ages. Such IOUs, often introduced more successfully through force than persuasion were the basis of modern currencies.
Before World War I, most central banks supported their currencies with convertibility to gold. Although paper money could always be exchanged for gold, in reality this did not occur often, fostering the sometimes disastrous notion that there was not necessarily a need for full cover in the central reserves of the government.
At times, the ballooning supply of paper money without gold cover led to devastating inflation and resulting political instability. To protect local national interests, foreign exchange controls were increasingly introduced to prevent market forces from punishing monetary irresponsibility.
In the latter stages of World War II, the Bretton Woods agreement was reached on the initiative of the USA in July 1944. The Bretton Woods Conference rejected John Maynard Keynes suggestion for a new world reserve currency in favour of a system built on the US dollar. Other international institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) were created in the same period as the emerging victors of WW2 searched for a way to avoid the destabilising monetary crises which led to the war. The Bretton Woods agreement resulted in a system of fixed exchange rates that partly reinstated the gold standard, fixing the US dollar at USD35/oz and fixing the other main currencies to the dollar - and was intended to be permanent.
The Bretton Woods system came under increasing pressure as national economies moved in different directions during the sixties. A number of realignments kept the system alive for a long time, but eventually Bretton Woods collapsed in the early seventies following president Nixon's suspension of the gold convertibility in August 1971. The dollar was no longer suitable as the sole international currency at a time when it was under severe pressure from increasing US budget and trade deficits.
The following decades have seen foreign exchange trading develop into the largest global market by far. Restrictions on capital flows have been removed in most countries, leaving the market forces free to adjust foreign exchange rates according to their perceived values.
But the idea of fixed exchange rates has by no means died. The EEC (European Economic Community) introduced a new system of fixed exchange rates in 1979, the European Monetary System. This attempt to fix exchange rates met with near extinction in 1992-93, when pent-up economic pressures forced devaluations of a number of weak European currencies. Nevertheless, the quest for currency stability has continued in Europe with the renewed attempt to not only fix currencies but actually replace many of them with the Euro in 2001.
The lack of sustainability in fixed foreign exchange rates gained new relevance with the events in South East Asia in the latter part of 1997, where currency after currency was devalued against the US dollar, leaving other fixed exchange rates, in particular in South America, looking very vulnerable.
But while commercial companies have had to face a much more volatile currency environment in recent years, investors and financial institutions have found a new playground. The size of foreign exchange markets now dwarfs any other investment market by a large factor. It is estimated that more than USD 3,000 billion is traded every day, far more than the world's stock and bond markets combined.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Liberty Reserve
Liberty Reserve is an e-currency account-based system operated by Liberty Reserve S.A. (based in Costa Rica). It allows fast, reliable and secure transactions between the members of the system. The customers can buy and sell Liberty Reserve e-currency via authorized dealers and various exchange services.
One of the disctinctive features of Liberty Reserve that gives the system an advantage against other similar e-currencies is the privacy option. Each selected transaction within the system can optionally be made private by the account holder. Another interesting feature is the wallet-based spending, which allows creation of separate wallets apart from the main account to hold small amounts of money. These wallets have separate security details to ensure better protection of the main balance.
Since the late 2006 Liberty Reserve became one of the most popular payment methods among the Forex traders from many Asian, South American and African countries, because it doesn't require credit card or bank account verification and is not strictly regulated by the authorities. Many trader-friendly Forex brokers list Liberty Reserve as one of the deposit/withdrawal option. Here is a short list of recommended Forex brokers that support Liberty Reserve:
InstaForex
FXOpen
Forex4you
MasterForex
You can also open account with Liberty Reserve for free.
One of the disctinctive features of Liberty Reserve that gives the system an advantage against other similar e-currencies is the privacy option. Each selected transaction within the system can optionally be made private by the account holder. Another interesting feature is the wallet-based spending, which allows creation of separate wallets apart from the main account to hold small amounts of money. These wallets have separate security details to ensure better protection of the main balance.
Since the late 2006 Liberty Reserve became one of the most popular payment methods among the Forex traders from many Asian, South American and African countries, because it doesn't require credit card or bank account verification and is not strictly regulated by the authorities. Many trader-friendly Forex brokers list Liberty Reserve as one of the deposit/withdrawal option. Here is a short list of recommended Forex brokers that support Liberty Reserve:
InstaForex
FXOpen
Forex4you
MasterForex
You can also open account with Liberty Reserve for free.
Moneybookers
Moneybookers is a British electronic payment, storage and money transfer system that is operated by Moneybookers Ltd., which is owned by Investcorp Technology Partners. Moneybookers was founded in 2001 and by its functionality is a competitor of other popular payment system PayPal. Like PayPal, Moneybookers doesn't offer any electronic currency, but the account balance can be uploaded and is measured in the common currency units.
Moneybookers requires mandatory account owner verification, which can be done via confirming the credit card, the bank account or the physical address. All three methods can be used together to increase the transfer limits that are active for all customers.
Moneybookers charges fees for sending the funds, which is usually quite convenient for the sellers and providers of the various paid on-line services.
Moneybookers is less popular in the world than PayPal or WebMoney, but is a convenient electronic payment system to use with the Forex brokers. It's a secure payment system that isn't anonymous and complies with the British anti-fraud laws. Unlike PayPal, Moneybookers is fully available to the residents of almost all countries in the world, making it potentially more widespread system.
Here is the short list of the Forex brokers that accept Moneybookers:
eToro
InstaForex
AvaFX
LiteForex
To open account with Moneybookers, please go to http://www.moneybookers.com.
Moneybookers requires mandatory account owner verification, which can be done via confirming the credit card, the bank account or the physical address. All three methods can be used together to increase the transfer limits that are active for all customers.
Moneybookers charges fees for sending the funds, which is usually quite convenient for the sellers and providers of the various paid on-line services.
Moneybookers is less popular in the world than PayPal or WebMoney, but is a convenient electronic payment system to use with the Forex brokers. It's a secure payment system that isn't anonymous and complies with the British anti-fraud laws. Unlike PayPal, Moneybookers is fully available to the residents of almost all countries in the world, making it potentially more widespread system.
Here is the short list of the Forex brokers that accept Moneybookers:
eToro
InstaForex
AvaFX
LiteForex
To open account with Moneybookers, please go to http://www.moneybookers.com.
Paypal
PayPal is an electronic payment, storage and money transfer method that is operated by PayPal Inc., which is owned by eBay Inc. Founded in 2000 PayPal was one of the first and currently is one of the most popular on-line services for money transferring. Although there is account balance associated with each PayPal account, PayPal doesn't employ virtual currency units (unlike e-gold and WebMoney), remaining a pure payment system.
PayPal accounts are anonymous and are based on the customer's e-mail address. But the credit card is required to add the funds into the balance or send payments to other customers.
PayPal charges fees for receiving funds and for withdrawing funds from the account balance to the bank accounts outside U.S. The sender of the funds doesn't pay any fees if transfer occurs only inside the payment system.
PayPal is a convenient electronic payment system to use with the Forex brokers. Because all payments are instant, you can use your credit card without exposing it to anyone except PayPal and there are enough various brokers that accept PayPal for funding purposes. Unfortunately, PayPal doesn't allow residents of certain countries (the majority of the countries) to accept PayPal payments, making it useless to the Forex traders from such countries.
Here is the short list of the Forex brokers that accept PayPal:
eToro
AvaFX
InstaForex
Easy-Forex
To open account with PayPal, please go to http://www.paypal.com.
PayPal accounts are anonymous and are based on the customer's e-mail address. But the credit card is required to add the funds into the balance or send payments to other customers.
PayPal charges fees for receiving funds and for withdrawing funds from the account balance to the bank accounts outside U.S. The sender of the funds doesn't pay any fees if transfer occurs only inside the payment system.
PayPal is a convenient electronic payment system to use with the Forex brokers. Because all payments are instant, you can use your credit card without exposing it to anyone except PayPal and there are enough various brokers that accept PayPal for funding purposes. Unfortunately, PayPal doesn't allow residents of certain countries (the majority of the countries) to accept PayPal payments, making it useless to the Forex traders from such countries.
Here is the short list of the Forex brokers that accept PayPal:
eToro
AvaFX
InstaForex
Easy-Forex
To open account with PayPal, please go to http://www.paypal.com.
Web Money
WebMoney is an electronic currency system operated by WM Transfer Ltd. There are several e-currencies circulating in this system, with the most popular being - WMZ (equals to $1 U.S.), WME (equals 1 euro) and WMR (equals 1 Russian ruble).
WebMoney utilizes several methods for their customers to access system accounts - WebMoney Keeper Classic (the most secure and fully functional access with highly sophisticated software), WebMoney Keeper Lite (less secure, but still protected access - via Internet browser). Other methods are available but are rarely used. WebMoney can boast more than 100 million dollars daily turnaround funds and millions customers around the world. Though, WebMoney started as a Russian payment system, it is now became an internationally popular e-currency system with a large number of representatives in all over the world and the developed deposit/withdrawal system.
WebMoney is a highly secure on-line payment system, offering security through the special protected key-files - even if your password is hacked your funds are still secure. While generic WebMoney accounts are anonymous, money withdrawal transaction involve personal identification. These ways make WebMoney far more secure than e-gold, PayPal or any other on-line payment system.
WebMoney is a good alternative for those Forex traders which search for fast, secure and easy-to-use method to fund their accounts without the troublesome worries with credit cards or bank wires. Many Forex brokers support WebMoney as the deposit/withdrawal option. Here is a short list of recommended Forex brokers supporting WebMoney.
FXOpen
InstaForex
eToro
FXCast
Marketiva
To open account with WebMoney, please go to http://www.wmtransfer.com.
WebMoney utilizes several methods for their customers to access system accounts - WebMoney Keeper Classic (the most secure and fully functional access with highly sophisticated software), WebMoney Keeper Lite (less secure, but still protected access - via Internet browser). Other methods are available but are rarely used. WebMoney can boast more than 100 million dollars daily turnaround funds and millions customers around the world. Though, WebMoney started as a Russian payment system, it is now became an internationally popular e-currency system with a large number of representatives in all over the world and the developed deposit/withdrawal system.
WebMoney is a highly secure on-line payment system, offering security through the special protected key-files - even if your password is hacked your funds are still secure. While generic WebMoney accounts are anonymous, money withdrawal transaction involve personal identification. These ways make WebMoney far more secure than e-gold, PayPal or any other on-line payment system.
WebMoney is a good alternative for those Forex traders which search for fast, secure and easy-to-use method to fund their accounts without the troublesome worries with credit cards or bank wires. Many Forex brokers support WebMoney as the deposit/withdrawal option. Here is a short list of recommended Forex brokers supporting WebMoney.
FXOpen
InstaForex
eToro
FXCast
Marketiva
To open account with WebMoney, please go to http://www.wmtransfer.com.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Brief history of Forex trading
Initially, the value of goods was expressed in terms of other goods, i.e. an economy based on barter between individual market participants. The obvious limitations of such a system encouraged establishing more generally accepted means of exchange at a fairly early stage in history, to set a common benchmark of value. In different economies, everything from teeth to feathers to pretty stones has served this purpose, but soon metals, in particular gold and silver, established themselves as an accepted means of payment as well as a reliable storage of value.
Originally, coins were simply minted from the preferred metal, but in stable political regimes the introduction of a paper form of governmental IOUs (I owe you) gained acceptance during the Middle Ages. Such IOUs, often introduced more successfully through force than persuasion were the basis of modern currencies.
Before World War I, most central banks supported their currencies with convertibility to gold. Although paper money could always be exchanged for gold, in reality this did not occur often, fostering the sometimes disastrous notion that there was not necessarily a need for full cover in the central reserves of the government.
At times, the ballooning supply of paper money without gold cover led to devastating inflation and resulting political instability. To protect local national interests, foreign exchange controls were increasingly introduced to prevent market forces from punishing monetary irresponsibility.
In the latter stages of World War II, the Bretton Woods agreement was reached on the initiative of the USA in July 1944. The Bretton Woods Conference rejected John Maynard Keynes suggestion for a new world reserve currency in favour of a system built on the US dollar. Other international institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) were created in the same period as the emerging victors of WW2 searched for a way to avoid the destabilising monetary crises which led to the war. The Bretton Woods agreement resulted in a system of fixed exchange rates that partly reinstated the gold standard, fixing the US dollar at USD35/oz and fixing the other main currencies to the dollar - and was intended to be permanent.
The Bretton Woods system came under increasing pressure as national economies moved in different directions during the sixties. A number of realignments kept the system alive for a long time, but eventually Bretton Woods collapsed in the early seventies following president Nixon's suspension of the gold convertibility in August 1971. The dollar was no longer suitable as the sole international currency at a time when it was under severe pressure from increasing US budget and trade deficits.
The following decades have seen foreign exchange trading develop into the largest global market by far. Restrictions on capital flows have been removed in most countries, leaving the market forces free to adjust foreign exchange rates according to their perceived values.
But the idea of fixed exchange rates has by no means died. The EEC (European Economic Community) introduced a new system of fixed exchange rates in 1979, the European Monetary System. This attempt to fix exchange rates met with near extinction in 1992-93, when pent-up economic pressures forced devaluations of a number of weak European currencies. Nevertheless, the quest for currency stability has continued in Europe with the renewed attempt to not only fix currencies but actually replace many of them with the Euro in 2001.
The lack of sustainability in fixed foreign exchange rates gained new relevance with the events in South East Asia in the latter part of 1997, where currency after currency was devalued against the US dollar, leaving other fixed exchange rates, in particular in South America, looking very vulnerable.
But while commercial companies have had to face a much more volatile currency environment in recent years, investors and financial institutions have found a new playground. The size of foreign exchange markets now dwarfs any other investment market by a large factor. It is estimated that more than USD 3,000 billion is traded every day, far more than the world's stock and bond markets combined.
Originally, coins were simply minted from the preferred metal, but in stable political regimes the introduction of a paper form of governmental IOUs (I owe you) gained acceptance during the Middle Ages. Such IOUs, often introduced more successfully through force than persuasion were the basis of modern currencies.
Before World War I, most central banks supported their currencies with convertibility to gold. Although paper money could always be exchanged for gold, in reality this did not occur often, fostering the sometimes disastrous notion that there was not necessarily a need for full cover in the central reserves of the government.
At times, the ballooning supply of paper money without gold cover led to devastating inflation and resulting political instability. To protect local national interests, foreign exchange controls were increasingly introduced to prevent market forces from punishing monetary irresponsibility.
In the latter stages of World War II, the Bretton Woods agreement was reached on the initiative of the USA in July 1944. The Bretton Woods Conference rejected John Maynard Keynes suggestion for a new world reserve currency in favour of a system built on the US dollar. Other international institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) were created in the same period as the emerging victors of WW2 searched for a way to avoid the destabilising monetary crises which led to the war. The Bretton Woods agreement resulted in a system of fixed exchange rates that partly reinstated the gold standard, fixing the US dollar at USD35/oz and fixing the other main currencies to the dollar - and was intended to be permanent.
The Bretton Woods system came under increasing pressure as national economies moved in different directions during the sixties. A number of realignments kept the system alive for a long time, but eventually Bretton Woods collapsed in the early seventies following president Nixon's suspension of the gold convertibility in August 1971. The dollar was no longer suitable as the sole international currency at a time when it was under severe pressure from increasing US budget and trade deficits.
The following decades have seen foreign exchange trading develop into the largest global market by far. Restrictions on capital flows have been removed in most countries, leaving the market forces free to adjust foreign exchange rates according to their perceived values.
But the idea of fixed exchange rates has by no means died. The EEC (European Economic Community) introduced a new system of fixed exchange rates in 1979, the European Monetary System. This attempt to fix exchange rates met with near extinction in 1992-93, when pent-up economic pressures forced devaluations of a number of weak European currencies. Nevertheless, the quest for currency stability has continued in Europe with the renewed attempt to not only fix currencies but actually replace many of them with the Euro in 2001.
The lack of sustainability in fixed foreign exchange rates gained new relevance with the events in South East Asia in the latter part of 1997, where currency after currency was devalued against the US dollar, leaving other fixed exchange rates, in particular in South America, looking very vulnerable.
But while commercial companies have had to face a much more volatile currency environment in recent years, investors and financial institutions have found a new playground. The size of foreign exchange markets now dwarfs any other investment market by a large factor. It is estimated that more than USD 3,000 billion is traded every day, far more than the world's stock and bond markets combined.
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