Book Review

The foreign exchange market is huge, fascinating and yet widely misunderstood by participants and non-participants alike. This is because its unanswered questions are numerous. For instance, what is the purpose of the $4 trillion per day trading volume? What determines currency trends and who are the players in the FX arena? Does FX drive other financial markets, or is it the passive end-product of all other markets? FX is without clear supply and demand factors, so how do traders determine sentiment and price direction?
Much is written in an effort to answer these questions, but a lot of it is just noise. In the 12 pieces here, Barbara Rockefeller and Vicki Schmelzer draw on their combined 50 years experience in foreign exchange to cut through the clatter and provide an elegant and razor-sharp look at this market. Their analysis is accurate, useful and enlivened by many anecdotes and examples from historic market events. They cover:

– How the matrix concept can help observers understand foreign exchange market action
– What professional FX traders take into consideration before entering into positions
– Whether the FX market can be forecast
– The interplay between foreign exchange and other financial markets
– How technology has levelled the playing field between big and small players, and at what cost
– Whether the prospect of reserve currency diversification away from the dollar is likely

The toolkit that central banks use to manage national economies and the effect of this on currencies.