FOREX or Foreign Exchange Currency Market is International Money Market being organized in 1971 when International Trade has turned from fixed rate of exchanges to the floating rates. And at the same time the rate of one currency relative to another is determined by the most obvious way — the exchange with such their ratio for which both sides are agreed.

It’s the largest Market in the world with its daily turnover of 1.5 trillion dollars that many times exceeds the amount of daily auction at New-York Stock Exchange (Big Board). This market exceeds all the other ones by the amount. So, for instance, daily amount of the World Equity Market is about $ 300 milliard. But FOREX market is valued at 1-3 trillion a day.

FOREX has no any Currency Exchange, thousands of banks, tens of thousands different funds and International Corporations, brokerage and dealer houses from the entire world operating around the clock, with different purposes, they purchase and sell one currencies for other. This market originally was meant only for its large participants, minimal sum to operate at this market some years ago was still not less than $ 500.000. And only when arising of Internet and opportunity to carry out all the transactions on currency purchase and sale from own home computer during the last 6 years, this market was flooded by small funds, Companies and traders from all the world selling at them remaining at home or in the office when suitable time for them, and at present, an ordinary trader may get money at the same level at which the large market participant do.

Now FOREX market is opened for small-scale investors. As distinct from the large sums being required by banks and brokerage houses before, comparatively strongly lowered Marginal requirements have become available for many at once; now permitting practically any person to speculate with “large sharks”. Besides, petty investors may make use of Internet advantages which make this market such an available the one it was only for large stags before.

Trading in precious metals is done in a similar way as the trading on currencies, using spot trading. Spot trades are the opposite of futures contracts, which usually expire before any physical delivery of the goods. If the spot metal trading was not settled immediately, traders would expect to be compensated for the time value of their money for the duration of the delivery. Because these contracts are settled electronically, the precious metal market is essentially instantaneous.

A Future contract is contract to buy or sell a specific quantity of a commodity or financial instrument for delivery in a specific time in the future, made under terms and conditions established by a federally regulated futures exchange market. The future contract items include trading of currencies, financial indices (such as Dow Jones), commodities (such as Sugar & Coffee), precious metals (such as Gold & Silver) and energy futures (such as Crude Oil & Natural Gas).

The largest futures exchange in the U.S. is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which was formed in the late 1890s when the only futures contracts offered were for agricultural products. The 1970s saw the emergence of currency futures in major currencies, plus some other types of futures. Today's futures exchanges are significantly larger, with hedging of financial instruments via futures comprising the majority of the futures market activity. Futures exchanges play an important role in the operation of the global financial system.

Futures can be used either to hedge or to speculate on the price movement of the underlying asset. For example, a producer of sugar could use futures to lock in a certain price and reduce risk (hedge). On the other hand, anybody could speculate on the price movement of sugar by going long or short using futures. The main difference between “options” and “futures” is that options give the holder the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at expiration, while the holder of a futures contract must fulfill the terms of this contract at the time of expiration. In real life however, the actual delivery rate of the goods specified in futures contracts is extremely low. This is because hedging or speculating on the prices of the contracts can be done without actually holding the contract until expiry and delivering the goods

CFD’s CFD stands for Contracts for Difference. It is a contract between two parties (Buyer and Seller) through which the seller will pay to the buyer the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at a specific time. CFD’s can be applied to a wide range of assets, and UIG offers CFD contracts on U.S. stocks, giving clients the opportunity to trade on these stocks at their standard trading times. CFD traders also benefit from leverage, as well as the ability to go long or short.