The online Forex market, as its name suggests, has no centralized physical address like the NYSE or the London Stock Exchange. It is in reality a global electronic network of currency dealers, who produce an incredibly high volume of monetary transactions in each twenty-four hour period.

A single day of online Forex trading will see the equivalent of nearly two trillion US dollars exchanging hands as traders buy and sell currencies. How much is that? Well, If you consider that the combined daily transactions of the US Bond and stock markets total about four hundred billion dollars, it’s impressive.

And with the arrival of home computers with Internet access, and the relaxation of certain monetary policies, the online Forex trading market is no longer the exclusive domain of movers and shakers who had the big bucks necessary to qualify as currency traders in prior years.

Currency trading is now available for all investors, and because of the generous leverage terms, or up to 100:1, many small investors are allowed to control significant sums of money without having a lot of their own capital in a trade. Someone who has only $1000, with that sort of leverage, can be trading currencies in $100,000 lots.

Understanding Online Forex Trading
There are many different trading platforms through which small investors can practice their online Forex trading; and, because the currency markets are conducting business around the clock three hundred and sixty-five days a year, there is no time of day during which online Forex trading is unavailable. Online Forex trading is open to banks, hedge funds, international conglomerates, and individual investors alike.