Forex

Forex is the foreign exchange market on which currencies are traded against each other to exchange rates that vary continuously.

The word "Forex" is a contraction of the words Foreign Exchange. 
Economic Importance
 This market, global in nature, is the second largest financial market in the world in terms of overall volume, behind the interest rate. However, it is the most concentrated and the first for the liquidity of the most treaties, such as the euro / dollar: the average daily volume of trade was in 2007, 3210 billion USD, an increase of 71% volumes compared to the previous study in 2004 (to nearly four thousand billion dollars (four billion) daily). All figures below are from the three-year study on the foreign exchange market by the BIS (Bank for International Settlements)
The average volume is as follows:

    1 005 billion in spot transactions,
    362 billion in futures and
    1 714 billion in swaps
almost solely in OTC transactions,
Transactions in volume were:

    43% between banks;
    40% between a bank and a fund manager or a nonbank financial institution;
    and finally to 17% between a bank and a non-financial
    and also individuals that use the platforms of the banks
To provide coverage for their clients, 24 hours 24, each bank has a large trading room on three continents. In a team located in Asia or Australia succeeds another located in Europe and finally a third located in North America, and so on.
However, despite this world and this time spread between continents, a substantial part of market activity is physically located in London.
According to the latest report of the BIS as of 2010, trading on the foreign exchange market increased by 20% since 2007 to reach 3.981 trillion dollars. The United Kingdom and the United States remains far ahead of trade, with more than 36.7% of market share to 17.9% for London and the United States. France is far behind, with only 3% of world trade, a significant decline since 1995. In addition, the vast majority of transactions are speculative (and do not last more than 7 days) and not commercial.History 
Floating rates and fixed rates
It should make the distinction between so-called floating currencies and fixed currency called. The rate of a currency is fixed arbitrarily set by a state (indexed on a major currency in general as the euro or U.S. dollar) and can be amended only by a decision of that State. The rate of a floating currency depends, in turn, only to market fluctuations, he suffered just the influence of supply and demand.

Major currencies like the euro, the U.S. dollar, British pound, Canadian dollar ... are examples of floating currencies. The so-called exotic currencies such as the Chinese yuan, are examples of currencies at fixed rates.

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