Last week, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published their eagerly awaited report on the development of the international Foreign Exchange Markets.
It appears that the daily traded FX volume increased from $ 1.880 billon in April 2004 to $ 3.210 billion in April 2007.
Figures and statistics from central banks and monetary authorities are put together every three years in order to monitor developments in the world’s largest unregulated markets.
A number of factors are most likely responsible for this growth. These include an expansion in the activity of investor groups (including hedge funds); an expansion of retail investors; a trend for institutional investors with a longer-term investment horizon and the rise of “technical trading”, particularly “algorithmic trading”.