The #Foreign Exchange @Market is the stock exchange on
which several different @countries across several different
time zones trade their domestic and international
commodities in various @currencies. Currency is the
denomination or monetary division used in a particular land
(such as the U.S. dollar or the Euro). When multiple
currencies are in use, they are typically expressed as a ratio
called a cross-rate that shows the amount of a second
@currency that is equivalent to the first listed. Determining
what the equivalent is would be referred to as @currency
conversion.
Several countries in Europe, which have now consolidated
their @currencies to agree on the Euro (since 1999) trade on
Forex, as it is called for short. Britain, which to this point
has opted to continue using the pound sterling, also takes
part in international #trade, as well as the United States,
Japan, and Australia. Each of these @countries utilizes its own
currency for standard trading purposes, with options for
investment in #foreign currencies. Determining whether or
not this is worthwhile depends on the currency conversion
rate.
The value of a #nation’s @currency is determined by its
government and federal bank (the Federal Reserve, better
known as the FED, is the federal bank of the United States).
Purposeful change in the rate of conversion by a government
is referred to as valuation – devaluation is taking value and
strength from the @currency, and revaluation adds strength
and purchase power to the @currency. If the same change to
the rate of conversion occurs naturally through events and
the volatility of the #market, it is then called appreciation and
depreciation.