The foreign exchange market dwarfs the combined operations of the New York, London, and Tokyo futures and stock exchanges. Daily turnover on the spot market is approximately US$1.5 trillion per day. How did the foreign exchange market grow to be the most powerful and important market in the world? How can you benefit from this market?

The foreign exchange market directly impacts every bond, equity, private property and manufacturing asset investment accessible to foreign investors. Foreign exchange rates play a major role in financing government deficits, equity ownership in companies and real-estate holdings.
With its tremendous liquidity, 24-hour trading and constantly fluctuating prices, the distinctive nature of the FX market makes it ideal for technical or quantitative trading.

A global economy creates unprecedented opportunity. New markets are emerging and expanding to a size not seen before. Among the most dynamic of the markets opening up to investors is the Foreign Exchange Market (FOREX) - the largest marketplace in the world. Unless you are among the rare handful of Americans who has opened a foreign bank account or purchased foreign securities, you probably do not consider yourself to be a currency investor.

But you are! Whether you realize it or not, every time you make an investment, or even a product purchase, you have become a currency investor. Everything you own is in U.S. Dollars- your mortgage, your bank account, and even your stocks and bonds. By holding Dollars, you have chosen not to own British Pounds, Euros, Swiss Francs or Japanese Yen. By investing in, and with, the U.S. currency, each of your transactions immediately becomes dependent on the integrity and value of the Dollar. For the past twenty years, that fact may have cost you more than you realize.

Many prudent people think of foreign currencies as "risky". But holding U.S. Dollars is not without risk. Because as the Dollar falls, your earnings and spending potential shrinks. In two decades the Dollar has lost up to 75% of the value it once had against the Swiss Franc, the Japanese Yen and the German Mark, the latter of which is the engine and dominant component of the new Euro.

The FOREX market provides the investor a means of managing the effects of the currency exchange risk and taking advantage of fluctuations in currency exchange rates.

The Foreign Currency Exchange, or better known as the FOREX, trades upwards of $2.5 trillion dollars a day.

Yes that is Trillion with a “T” and the FOREX is 1,000 times larger than the NYSE. Basically, this is an international market that is the largest in the world, coupled with the highest leverage possible.

Large banking institutions have taken advantage of the lucrative leverage available in the FOREX for the last 30 years. Now this same leverage is available to you, the individual investor. In 1998, James Dicks was a key instrument in lobbying congress to make this investment opportunity available to the general public.

A very simple definition of foreign exchange is the exchange of the currency of one country with that of another country in order to complete a transaction. With the advent of international trade and the absence of an international monetary unit, one of a nation's prime concerns is the rate at which its own local currency can be exchanged for units of a foreign currency.

This system of global trading in foreign currency is known as the Foreign Exchange Market, or FOREX. In comparison to the average daily trading volume of $300 Billion in the U.S. Treasury Bond market and the less than $10 Billion exchanged in the U.S. stock markets, the FOREX market trades to the tune of more than $1.6 Trillion a day.

It is by far the largest and most liquid market in the world.

FOREX is unlike any traditional market. There is no centralized physical location for trading activity as there is for equities or futures trading. Most FOREX transactions occur via telephone and computer links among banks, financial institutions, corporate customers and brokers at numerous locations around the globe. It operates on a 24-hour basis extending from one time zone to another across the world's major financial centers.