History of Forex Trading Briefly!

Initially, the value of goods was expressed in terms of other goods, ie an economy based on barter between individual market. The obvious limitations of such a system encouraged establishing more generally accepted means of exchange at a fairly early stage of history, to establish a common benchmark of value. In different economies, from teeth to feathers to pretty stones has served this purpose, but soon metals, notably gold and silver, have been established as a means of payment accepted and reliable storage of value . Originally, coins were simply minted from the preferred metal, but stable political regimes in the introduction of a paper form of government notes (I owe you) gained acceptance during the Middle Ages. Notes, often introduced more successfully through force of persuasion are the foundation of modern currencies.Before World War, most central banks supported their currencies with convertibility to gold. Although paper money could always be traded for gold, in reality this does not happen often, promoting the sometimes disastrous notion that was not necessarily a need for full coverage of central reserves of government.At time, the balloon supply of paper money without gold cover led to devastating inflation and resulting political instability. To protect local national interests, foreign exchange controls 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 U.S.. UU. in July 1944. The Bretton Woods Conference rejected John Maynard Keynes suggestion for a new global reserve currency in favor of a system built on the U.S. dollar. Other international institutions like 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 destabilizing monetary crises leading to war . The Bretton Woods agreement resulted in a system of fixed exchange rates that partly restore the gold standard, fixing the U.S. dollar in USD35/oz and fixing the other major currencies against the dollar - and was destined 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 seventies after President Nixon suspended gold convertibility in August 1971. The dollar was no longer adequate as sole international currency at a time which was under strong pressure from U.S. budget deficits.The rising and trade following decades have seen the currency market become the world's largest market by far. Restrictions on capital flows have been eliminated in most countries, leaving the market forces free to adjust the exchange rates according to their perceived values.But the idea of fixed exchange rates has by no means dead . 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 economic pressures forced devaluations accumulated a number of weak European currencies. However, the quest for currency stability has continued in Europe with the new attempt to solve not only the currencies but actually replace many of them with the euro in 2001.The lack of sustainability in exchange rates fixed assumed new prominence to events in Southeast Asia in the latter part of 1997, after which the currency was devalued the currency against the U.S. dollar, leaving other fixed exchange rates, particularly in South America , looking very vulnerable.But while commercial companies have had to face an environment much more volatile currency in recent years, investors and financial institutions have found a new park. The size of the foreign exchange markets and market dwarfs any investment by a large factor. It is estimated that more than USD 3,000 billion is traded every day, far more than the world stock and bond markets combined.