 Home » Trendlines » Ask Our Expert » Past Q&A » What is the size of Forex market?
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 I'm working on an investigation
about FOREX and I'm having a really hard time trying to understand the dimensions
of the market and the average personal trading experience. Do you know:
- Average amount of money 1 person invests in the market
- Amount of transactions realized in one period of time
- How big the average transactions are?
- How long the life of an average client is?
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-Laura, Argentina
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 Laura, wow!
You ask some tough questions. First, the Forex market is off-exchange and without
a central exchange to collect the data you need to answer those questions, it's
almost impossible to get reliable answers.
Every 3 years the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) publishes the
"Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity"
report. The last report was published in April 2007. They surveyed 54 central banks
and monetary authorities from around the world and produced a document that is the
source for many of the statistics you see published on Forex websites today.
For example, the figures you read about the $3.2 trillion daily market turnover
comes from the April 2007 BIS report. Companies use that figure ($3.2 trillion daily)
in their marketing campaigns in an attempt to convince the public that there is
so much liquidity in the market, it is an easy place to make money. In fact, the
spot market accounts for only about 31% of that figure and the retail Forex market
(where you and I trade) accounts for only a small percentage of that number.
At any rate, you might be able to glean enough information from studying that report
to answer some of your questions. You can
download a copy of the report
here or you can go directly to the
Bank for International Settlements
website.
You can also find out more about the BIS by visiting the
ForexTurtle Links page.
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-Tom, ForexTurtle USA
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