International money-market FOREX is the newest world market. In 1971 a new exchange system finally refused from a principle of defining of money's buying power according to cost of their gold equivalent (Gold Standard). Money of agreement participating countries stopped having an official gold content. The exchange started to take place on a foreign exchange market (FOREX) at uncontrolled prices.

FOREX trading is carried out by: state and commercial banks, broker and dealer companies, retirement funds, insurance companies, transnational corporations, etc. FOREX working time is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, what gives an opportunity to play at any time on currency prices' staggers, which caused by economic, social or political factors. It’s enough to have a computer connected to the Internet.

Nowadays FOREX daily sales are $ 4-5 billions. This is the biggest trade ground in the world according to capacity tender. The main trade turnover is carried out by trading of American dollar with four primary world currencies: Euro, British pound, Japanese jena and Swiss franc.

FOREX bases on a principle of uncontrolled currencies' conversion, which presupposes a lack of state interference in closing of currency exchange deals (no official exchange rate, no limitation of a direction, prices and capacity of a deal). It is also bases on guarantees of liberty of such operations.

FOREX as a currency exchange desk gives an opportunity to exchange one currency to another according to the most profitable rate without excess commissions. It’s enough just to open a special currency account and install a trade platform.

Trade sessions.

Despite that FOREX is opened around the clock and daily, the activity on it might be divided into four trade sessions: Pacific, Asian, European and American.

Pacific (23.00-7.00 MSC) and Asian (03.00-11.00 MSC) sessions.
The softest Pacific session is the first to open with tender in Wellington (New Zealand) and Sydney (Australia). Asian session opens after it in Tokyo (Japan), Hong Kong (Hong Kong) and Singapore (Singapore). During Asian session following paired deals are the most active: dollar to jena (USD/JPY), euro to jena (EUR/JPY), Australian dollar to dollar USA (AUD/USD). Asian trade session is an ideal time zone for channel trade systems.

European trade session (10.00-18.00 MSC)
European trade session opens by the end of Pacific and Asian sessions with tender in the biggest European financial trade centers: London (Great Britain), Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Zurich (Switzerland). During European session tender have the biggest capacities - about 30% of all international money-market. During this session pairs with British pound (GBP) and euro (EUR) are traded most actively. Economic news appear at this time, so fundamental analysis figures in exchange rates motion.

American session (16.00-00.00 MSC).
American session opens approximately by the middle of European session with tender in New York (USA). During a joint operation of American and European sessions the main liquidity is on pairs dollar - Swiss franc (USD/CHF), British pound - dollar (GBP/USD), dollar - Canadian dollar (USD/CAD) and, of course, euro - dollar (EUR/USD). In the middle of American session Los Angeles becomes more intensive and European session closes, that's why liquidity of European cross-rates (EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF) falls. The most changeable period starts, because economic data in USA are the most important for the market (dollar is the basic FOREX currency). The first half of the session submits only to fundamental factors, but during the second half there is a possibility to trade according to technical tools.

The main factors influenced on exchange rates:

- Discount rates and announcements of the Central Bank;
- Indexes of economic growth (GNP, GDP, industrial output);
- Condition of trade and external account;
- Level of money supply in domestic market;
- Inflationary expectations;
- Labor-market data;
- Confidence to national currency.