About Forex

If everyone in the world used the same currency, there would be no need for a foreign currency exchange market or foreign exchange rates. However, our world consists of several national currencies and as individuals or companies from one country trade across borders, the need for foreign currency arises. For example, when a U.S. importer buys French wine, either the importer needs Euros to pay the French merchant or the French merchant must accept US Dollars and then convert them to Euros.

The Foreign Exchange is not traded on a physical exchange like the stock market. It is traded via the telephone or through the Internet. This electronic structure has contributed to making the FOREX the largest marketplace in the world. With over $1.5 trillion dollars traded per day versus $25 billion per day traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Foreign Exchange market offers many trading opportunities due to the low cost of executing the transactions and the speed at which the execution occurs. The (spot) FOREX market is open 24 hours a day, six days a week, Sunday evening through Friday afternoon.

Market Hours

The spot FX market is unique to any other market in the world, as trading is available 24-hours a day. Somewhere around the world, a financial center is open for business, and banks and other institutions exchange currencies, every hour of the day and night with generally only minor gaps on the weekend. Essentially foreign exchange markets follow the sun around the world, giving traders the flexibility of determining their trading day.

How market hours work:
Time Zone New York GMT
Tokyo Open 7:00 PM 0:00
Tokyo Close 4:00 AM 9:00
London Open 3:00 AM 8:00
London Close 12:00 PM 17:00
NY Open 8:00 AM 13:00
NY Close 5:00 PM 22:00

Market Participants

Until recently, the Forex market wasn't accessible to the retail trader or individual speculator. With the large minimum transaction sizes and often-stringent financial requirements, banks, hedge funds, major currency dealers and the occasional high net-worth individual speculator were the principal participants. These large traders were able to take advantage of the many benefits offered by the Forex market versus other markets - including vast liquidity, 24-hour market access, and the strong trending nature of the world's primary currency exchange rates.

E-gold vs Paypal

E-Gold and Paypal are the two main options for E-Currency available. E-Gold is backed by actual gold reserves in a bank in Panama while Paypal is backed by actual currency. Paypal has established itself as the main company of choice for buying online. Getting a Paypal account is free however you would have to verify your identity with credit card.

Get a FREE e-gold account now

It costs nothing to open an e-gold account. There is no credit check. There is no minimum balance requirement. There is no concept of a "merchant account" in that all e-gold accounts may spend e-gold or receive e-gold payments. Please click HERE to sign up your own e-gold account for FREE.

What is e-gold?

e-gold is an electronic currency, issued by e-gold Ltd., a Nevis corporation, 100% backed at all times by gold bullion in allocated storage.

Other e-metals are also issued: e-silver is 100% backed by silver, e-platinum is 100% backed by platinum, and e-palladium is 100% backed by palladium. However, the most popular e-metal (by an overwhelming margin) is e-gold.

e-gold is integrated into an account based payment system that empowers people to use gold as money. Specifically, the e-gold payment system enables people to spend specified weights of gold to other e-gold accounts. Only the ownership changes - the gold in the treasury grade vault stays put.

More about e-gold at www.e-gold.com