February 27th, 2008
Forex Trading And Currency Exchange - A History In 500 Words
Forex trading and currency exchange find they first roots in the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 that aimed at putting into place a system of exchange rate management that, although did not become fully operative until 1959, as a matter of fact remained into place until 1971. The main feature of the Bretton Woods system was the obligation for each Country participating at the agreement to adopt a monetary policy that maintained the exchange rate of its currency within a fixed range; in addition, the IMF should have the power to bridge imbalances (temporarily). This is exactly what forex is not about: forex trading has at its base a floating currency exchange regime, that is, a model that uses a floating exchange rate at the base of its exchange rate system. How would it be possible to trade foreign currency (forex) imbalances if the rates were fixed or “pegged” against each other?