What is "Forex" ?
Foreign exchange market, also known as Forex, trades currencies, and it's main purpose is to help the worldwide trade and investment. With the help of it, banks can buy, sell and trade international currencies.
The foreign exchange market is practically a "tool" for international businesses to convert one currency to another. Example: if a european business wants to buy goods from U.S. even though they have U.S. dollars, not Euros, it can with the help of Forex.
This site is an informative one. We only want to explain better the Forex concept, about online currency trading.
WORLD FOREX: Small Respite For The Dollar
By Gary Stride Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--The dollar gained some respite Friday with help coming from all sides. Ever since the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Sept. 7 the dollar has come under relentless selling pressure with the cards stacked firmly against the greenback. The market returned from the holiday season to be confronted with the prospect of the dollar being used as a funding currency as U.S. interest rates sank below those of its major peers. Global stock markets rallied, gold surged through $1000 a troy ounce and oil more than doubled in value from its December 2008 lows as the markets latched onto the U.S. Federal Reserves emphasis on an extended period of low rates. The euro racked up 11 successive days of gains against the dollar, culminating in a fresh 2009 high of $1.4768 Thursday. However, all good things must come to an end, or at least a pause and the combination of a negative close for most of the major global stock markets dented risk appetite overnight. The Dow may have only closed down a tidy 0.1% but it broke a three-day run of gains and the Nikkei retraced 0.7% Friday and the closely watched Shanghai Composite index a more worrying 3.2%. Add to that a sharp fall in sterling overnight on reports that the U.K.'s Lloyds Banking Group had failed its latest Financial Services Authorities stress test and would be forced to abandon its plan to withdraw from the government's asset-insurance plan, and a short covering rally in dollar/yen ahead of a five-day holiday weekend for Japanese markets all lent the greenback support. The only data of note Friday showed the U.K. posted a record budget deficit of GBP10.4 billion for August, while the government's borrowing requirements ballooned to GBP16.1 billion in August from GBP8.0 billion in July. However, the pound, which had early dropped to GBP0.90 against the euro for the first time in four months and a one-week low of $1.6298, survived the data run unscathed. With no U.S. data on offer Friday, the dollar may be in for a little more respite if the soft tone to stocks prevails. However, many technical analysts are advocating a sell-on rally strategy for the dollar, with near-term targets of $1.50 for the euro and the 2009 low of Y87.10. At 0915 GMT the dollar traded at Y91.15, up from Y91.03 in late U.S. trade Thursday, the euro was down at $1.4675 from $1.4740 and the pound fetched just $1.6325 from $1.6445. -By Gary Stride, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9481; gary.stride@dowjones.com TALK BACK: We invite readers to send us comments on this or other financial news topics. Please email us at TalkBackEurope@dowjones.com. Readers should include their full names, work or home addresses and telephone numbers for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments.
FOREX-Dollar edges higher as risk appetite wanes again
* Waning risk appetite plugs dollar's safe-haven appeal * Dollar hits session high vs yen on Japan finmin comments * Dollar has first up week vs yen in six weeks * Sterling dips as Lloyds' news fans financial jitters (Recasts; adds comment, updates prices, changes byline, dateline, previous LONDON) By Nick Olivari NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The dollar climbed against most major currencies on Friday, coming off a one-year low against the euro as waning risk appetite cut demand for higher-yielding currencies and other assets. The dollar has retreated broadly since March as investors shifted into riskier assets due to increasing signs the global economy is recovering, and it extended its losses this week as equities and commodities rallied. But the U.S. currency gained a respite on Friday as investors trimmed their positions ahead of holidays in Japan and Singapore next week, although the trend for broad dollar weakness was seen as likely to persist. "The risk aversion, risk appetite trade has been going on for four or five months," said Joseph Trevisani, senior market analyst at FX Solutions in Saddle River, New Jersey. "Are we growing, are we not." With no major U.S. data scheduled for release on Friday, foreign exchange investors are taking their cues from flows into equity and commodity markets. Midway through the New York session, the euro EUR= dipped to $1.4722, down 0.1 percent from U.S. trading late on Thursday. It hit a one-year high on Thursday and has risen more than 2.7 percent so far this month. The dollar index .DXY, which measures the dollar's value against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.3 percent to 76.387, having bounced off Thursday's one-year low of 76.010. "We've obviously had a fairly big move. There's not much in terms of news or catalyst to drive the market further ... It's just time for a period of consolidation after some big moves," said Derek Halpenny, European head of currency research at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ in London. Comments by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that there was no threat to the United States from multiple reserve currencies had little immediate effect on the market. [ID:nLI168886] YEN PULLS BACK, STERLING SLUMPS Against the yen, the dollar rose as high as 91.63 yen JPY= according to Reuters data, after Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said he did not want to be perceived as backing a strong yen. [ID:nTKU105559] It was last up 0.2 percent at 91.24 yen, having rebounded from a seven-month low hit on Wednesday. For the week, the euro rose 0.8 percent against the dollar. The dollar gained percent against the yen, the first week of gains in six trading weeks. The dollar index was 0.3 percent lower on the week. Sterling hit a four-month low against the euro EURGBP= on news the UK had set tougher-than-expected conditions to the potential exit of Lloyd's Bank from a state-run scheme to protect its assets. Britain's Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) said on Friday it was weighing alternatives to the scheme to insure it against credit losses. [ID:nLI109343] Sterling also slumped 1 percent to $1.6277 GBP=. The Australian dollar AUD= fell 0.5 percent to $0.8672, down from a 13-month high hit on Thursday. The New Zealand dollar fell 0.3 percent to $0.7086 NZD=, off a 13-month high hit on Thursday.