Trading characteristics

There is no unified or centrally cleared market for the majority of FX trades, and there is very little cross-border regulation. Due to the over-the-counter (OTC) nature of currency markets, there are rather a number of interconnected marketplaces, where different currencies instruments are traded. This implies that there is not a single exchange rate but rather a number of different rates (prices), depending on what bank or market maker is trading, and where it is. In practice the rates are often very close, otherwise they could be exploited by arbitrageurs instantaneously. Due to London's dominance in the market, a particular currency's quoted price is usually the London market price. A joint venture of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Reuters, called Fxmarketspace opened in 2007 and aspired but failed to the role of a central market clearing mechanism.              


Most traded currencies[3]
Currency distribution of reported FX market turnover[14]Rank Currency ISO 4217 code
(Symbol)  % daily share
(April 2010)
1  United States dollar USD ($) 84.9%
2  Euro EUR (€) 39.1%
3  Japanese yen JPY (¥) 19.0%
4  Pound sterling GBP (£) 12.9%
5  Australian dollar AUD ($) 7.6%
6  Swiss franc CHF (Fr) 6.4%
7  Canadian dollar CAD ($) 5.3%
8  Hong Kong dollar HKD ($) 2.4%
9  Swedish krona SEK (kr) 2.2%
10  New Zealand dollar NZD ($) 1.6%
Other Currencies 18.6%
Total[notes 1] 200%