The foreign exchange market (forex, FX, or currency market)

is a global decentralized market for the trading of currencies. In terms of volume of trading, it is by far the largest market in the world.^[1] The main participants in this market are the larger international banks.Financial centres around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of multiple types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends. The foreign exchange market determines the relative values of different currencies.^[2]

The foreign exchange market works through financial institutions, and it operates on several levels. Behind the scenes banks turn to a smaller number of financial firms known as “dealers,” who are actively involved in large quantities of foreign exchange trading. Most foreign exchange dealers are banks, so this behind-the-scenes market is sometimes called the “interbank market”, although a few insurance companies and other kinds of financial firms are involved. Trades between foreign exchange dealers can be very large, involving hundreds of millions of dollars.^{[citation needed]} Because of the sovereignty issue when involving two currencies, Forex has little (if any) supervisory entity regulating its actions.