• Approximately $3.98 trillion is traded on the Foreign Exchange Market daily, about 53 times more than on the New York Stock Exchange where $74 billion is exchanged daily.

• Foreign exchange rates are used for trading on the foreign exchange market and serve as a reference point for a foreign exchange transaction.

• An optimistic trading market is called a bull market whereas a downbeat one is called a bear market. The connotations are apparently derived from the way each animal attacks, a bull striking upward while a bear swipes downward.

• The GBPUSD currency pair is referred to as cable because the London and New York stock exchanges were connected by a giant steel cable running under the Atlantic before fiber optics and global satellites took over.

• The US dollar is known as the king currency as it features in more than 84.9% of trades on the foreign exchange market.

• Spot contracts are so-called because they happen on the spot and the rate is determined by the supply and demand for currencies. Like any market, if the demand for a currency increases the value appreciates against other currencies and when demand drops the value depreciates. Forex spot rates are determined by the sum total of all banks participating in buying and selling currencies among themselves all day long.

• As recent as the mid-1990s, only corporations and banks with more than $40 million liquidity were allowed to trade on the foreign exchange market. With the advent of the internet, this is no longer the case and all types of traders are allowed to do foreign exchange transactions.

• Up to 90% of the trading volume on the foreign exchange market is done by speculators. The profits speculators make depend on market liquidity. During weekends when the markets are closed or big events like the Superbowl when very few trades take place, it is harder for speculators to make big profits.

• Foreign exchange markets are always awake as they center on big cities like New York, Tokyo, London, and Sydney, depending on which country is awake and trading at the time.

• There is no central foreign exchange market. Foreign exchange can be likened to an OTC market where trading can take place between two parties through various modes of communication such as email, telephone, and proprietary electronic trading systems without the involvement of a physical centralized exchange.

• The foreign exchange market is by far the largest in the world in terms of trading volume with participants that include central banks, international corporations, hedge funds, retail forex brokers, investors, and investment management firms.

• Banks and other online remittance service providers are allowed to add a markup on foreign exchange rates and to charge fees. Central banks do not direct on foreign exchange conversion rates charged for foreign transactions.