《金融英语》郭书彩6章

The foreign exchange market (Currency, Forex, or FX) market is where currency trading takes place. It is where banks and other official institutions that facilitate the buying and selling of foreign currencies. FX transactions typically involve one party purchasing a quantity of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another. The foreign exchange market that we see today started evolving during the 1970s when world over countries gradually switched to floating exchange rate from their erstwhile exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system till 1971.

Today, the FX market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Traditional daily turnover was reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements. Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euro money’s annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.

The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as US Dollar, Pound Sterling, etc., and the need for trading in such currencies.

外汇市场，是国际间外汇买卖的交易场所，它是银行和其他官方机构促进货币的买卖活动的场所。外汇交易的典型形式为一方花费一定数量的一种货币换取一定数量的另一种货币。我们今天所见的外汇市场在1970年代经历起经历不断的发展，当时很多国家将他们过往的固定汇率制度（根据不雷顿森林体系）转换为浮动汇率制。

现在，外汇市场是世界上规模最大、流动性最强的市场之一，市场参与者包括各大银行，各中央银行、货币投机者、企业、政府，以及其他机构。全球外汇市场和其他相关市场的每日平均交易额不断上升。跟据国际结算银行的报告，2007年4月传统的每日成交量突破32亿美元。从那时起，市场一直在整张。根据《欧洲货币》的年度外会调查，2007年到2008年间，交易额增长了41%。

外汇市场的目的是为了促进交易和投资。正是因为世界多种货币共存，如美元、英镑等，以及用这些货币进行交易的需要，才使得对外汇市场的需求不断增加。

The foreign exchange market is unique because of

·its huge trading volume representing the largest asset class in the world leading to high liquidity;

·its geographical dispersion;

·its continuous operation: 24 hours a day except weekends, i.e. trading from 20:15 GMT on Sunday until 22:00 GMT Friday;

·the variety of factors that affect exchange rates;

·the low margins of relative profit compared with other markets of fixed income; and

·the use of leverage to enhance profit and loss margins and with respect to account size.

外汇市场的独特性体现在以下几个方面：

?巨大的交易量表明其属于世界上资产最多的类别，也使其成为世界上流动性最好的市场。

?地理上分散。

?不间断运转:除周末外24小时不停运转，交易从格林尼治标准时间星期天20:15开始一直到格林尼治标准时间星期五的22:00结束。

?多种因素影响汇率。

?相对其它市场而言较低的保证金比例。

As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal of perfect competition, notwithstanding currency intervention by central banks.According to the Bank for International Settlements, as of April 2010, average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion, a growth of approximately 20% over the $3.21 trillion daily volume as of April 2007. Some firms specializing on foreign exchange market had put the average daily turnover in excess of US$4 trillion.[4]

The $3.98 trillion break-down is as follows:

·$1.490 trillion in spot transactions

·$475 billion in outright forwards

·$1.765 trillion in foreign exchange swaps

·$43 billion currency swaps

·$207 billion in options and other products

因此，尽管有时中央银行会干预汇市，外汇市场被认为是最接近完全竞争的市场。根据国际清算银行2010年4月的统计，全球外汇市场平均每天的交易量估计为3.98万亿美元，比2007年4月的3.21万亿美元增加了大概20%。一些专业的外汇公司认为外汇市场每天的交易量超过了4万亿美元。

每天3.98万亿美元的交易量细分如下：

? 1.49万亿为现货交易

?4750亿为远期合约

? 1.765万亿为外汇掉期

?430亿为货币掉期

?2070亿为期权和其它交易类别

The foreign exchange market is the most liquid financial market in the world. Traders include large banks, central banks, institutional investors, currency speculators, corporations, governments, other financial institutions, and retail investors. The average daily turnover in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. According to the 2010 Triennial Central Bank Survey, coordinated by the Bank for International Settlements, average daily turnover was

US$3.98 trillion in April 2010 (vs $1.7 trillion in 1998).[3] Of this $3.98 trillion, $1.5 trillion was spot transactions and $2.5 trillion was traded in outright forwards, swaps and other derivatives.

Trading in the United Kingdom accounted for 36.7% of the total, making it by far the most important center for foreign exchange trading. Trading in the United States accounted for 17.9%, and Japan accounted for 6.2%.[5]

Turnover of exchange-traded foreign exchange futures and options have grown rapidly in recent years, reaching $166 billion in April 2010 (double the turnover recorded in April 2007). Exchange-traded currency derivatives represent 4% of OTC foreign exchange turnover. Foreign exchange futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts.

Most developed countries permit the trading of derivative products (like futures and options on futures) on their exchanges. All these developed countries already have fully convertible capital accounts. Some governments of emerging economies do not allow foreign exchange derivative products on their exchanges because they have capital controls. The use of derivatives is growing in many emerging economies.[6] Countries such as Korea, South Africa, and India have established currency futures exchanges, despite having some capital controls.

Foreign exchange trading increased by 20% between April 2007 and April 2010 and has more than doubled since 2004.The increase in turnover is due to a number of factors: the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class, the increased trading activity of high-frequency traders, and the emergence of retail investors as an important market segment. The growth of electronic execution and the diverse selection of execution venues has lowered transaction costs, increased market liquidity, and attracted greater participation from many customer types. In particular, electronic trading via online portals has made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. By 2010, retail trading is estimated to account for up to 10% of spot turnover, or $150 billion per day (see retail foreign exchange platform).

Foreign exchange is an over-the-counter market where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, so there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading center is the United Kingdom, primarily London, which according to The City UK estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 34.6% in April 2007 to 36.7% in April 2010. Due to London's dominance in the market, a particular currency's quoted price is usually the London market price. For instance, when the International Monetary Fund calculates the value of its Special Drawing Rights every day, they use the London market prices at noon that day.

市场规模和流动性

外汇市场是世界上流动性最好的金融市场。交易方包括大型银行、中央银行、机构投资者、货币投机者、公司、政府、其它金融机构和散户投资者。

在英国交易的金额占总数的36.7%，这使英国成为全球最重要的外汇交易中心。排名第二和第三的分别为美国(占17.9%)和日本(占6.2%)。[5]

外汇期货和期权的交易量最近几年持续增长，在2010年4月达到了每天1660亿美元(比2007年4月翻了一倍)。外汇衍生品交易占据了4%的外汇场外交易份额。外汇期货合同于1972年首先在芝加哥商品交易所上市。

大部分发展中国家允许国内交易所的外汇衍生品交易(例如货币期货和期权)。这些发展中国家已经允许资本帐户的完全自由兑换。许多新兴国家不断增加对外汇衍生品的需求。[6]例如韩国、南非和印度已经建立起了外汇期货交易市场，尽管其对外汇资本帐号有一定的管制。

外汇市场交易量从2007年4月到2010年4月间增长了20%，并且是2004年的2倍。[8]多种因素导致了外汇交易量的增长，其中包括外汇日益成为一种重要的资产类别、频繁交易者的增加、散户投资者逐步成为外汇市场的重要组成。电子交易降低了交易成本，提高了市场流动性并吸引了很多不同类型的客户。特别是外汇经济商通过互联网使得外汇交易更容易进行。到2010年，小额的外汇交易估计占到现货交易总量的10%，也就是每天1500亿美元。

因为外汇交易属于场外交易，经纪人/经销商之间直接撮合，所以不需要通过交易所或结算所。交易量最大的地方是英国，主要是伦敦，根据TheCityUK的估计，英国的市场份额从2007年4月的34.6%增加到2010年4月的36.7%。因为伦敦在市场中的主导地位，所以一个外汇报价往往是指的伦敦的市场价格。例如，当IMF计算其每天的特别提款权价值时，他们使用的就是伦敦中午时分的市场价格。

Unlike a stock market, the foreign exchange market is divided into levels of access. At the top is the interbank market, which is made up of the largest commercial banks and securities dealers. Within the interbank market, spreads, which are the difference between the bid and ask prices, are razor sharp and not known to players outside the inner circle.The difference between the bid and ask prices widens (for example from 0-1 pip to 1-2 pips for a currencies such as the EUR) as you go down the levels of access. This is due to volume.

市场参与者

和股票市场不一样，外汇市场分成不同的等级。处于最高级的是银行同业市场，由最大型的商业银行和投资银行组成。银行同业市场的买卖点差非常小并且市场外的参与者无从知晓。下一个级别的点差将增大，这一切都是因为交易量。

If a trader can guarantee large numbers of transactions for large amounts, they can demand a smaller difference between the bid and ask price, which is referred to as a better spread.The levels of access that make up the foreign exchange market are determined by the size of the "line" (the amount of money with which they are trading). The top-tier interbank market accounts for 53% of all transactions. From there, smaller banks, followed by large multi-national corporations (which need to hedge risk and pay employees in different countries), large hedge funds, and even some of the retail market makers. According to Galati and Melvin, “Pension funds,

insurance companies, mutual funds, and other institutional investors have played an increasingly important role in financial markets in general, and in FX markets in particular, since the early 2000s.” (2004) In addition, he notes, “Hedge funds have grown markedly over the 2001–2004 period in terms of both number and overall size”.[9] Central banks also participate in the foreign exchange market to align currencies to their economic needs.

如果一个交易员可以保证大量大量的交易，他们可以为了更好的流通而需求一个更小的买卖价差。组成外汇市场使用权的水平是由“行”（与他们交易的金额）的大小所决定的。顶级的银行同业拆息市场占所有交易的53％。从那里，规模较小的银行需要追随大型跨国公司（这需要在不同的国家，以对冲风险，并支付员工），大型对冲基金，甚至一些零售市场庄家。据加拉茨和梅尔文，“养老基金，保险公司，共同基金，以及其他机构投资者在一般金融市场中发挥了越来越重要的作用，特别是在外汇市场，自21世纪初。”（2004年），此外他指出，“对冲基金有显着增长，在2001-2004年期间的数量和整体规模”。为了调整货币以满足他们的经济增长，中央银行也参与外汇市场。

Banks

The interbank market caters for both the majority of commercial turnover and large amounts of speculative trading every day. Many large banks may trade billions of dollars, daily. Some of this trading is undertaken on behalf of customers, but much is conducted by proprietary desks, which are trading desks for the bank's own account. Until recently, foreign exchange brokers did large amounts of business, facilitating interbank trading and matching anonymous counterparts for large fees. Today, however, much of this business has moved on to more efficient electronic systems. The broker squawk box lets traders listen in on ongoing interbank trading and is heard in most trading rooms, but turnover is noticeably smaller than just a few years ago.

银行

每天银行间交易市场为大量的成交额和大量的投资动机提供交易。每天，许多大型银行可能有数十亿美元的交易。代表客户进行一些交易，但有多少是由专有部门，这是银行自己的帐户的交易柜台进行。直到最近，外汇经纪商为了更大的费用做大量的业务，促进银行同业拆息交易及匹配匿名的契约。然而，今天，这项业务已经移动到更高效的电子系统。经纪人通过扬声器让贸易商听取关于正在进行的银行同业拆息交易和在交易室中被听到的大量消息，但是营业额明显比几年前更小。

Commercial companies

An important part of this market comes from the financial activities of companies seeking foreign exchange to pay for goods or services. Commercial companies often trade fairly small amounts compared to those of banks or speculators, and their trades often have little short term impact on market rates. Nevertheless, trade flows are an important factor in the long-term direction of a currency's exchange rate. Some multinational companies can have an unpredictable impact when very large positions are covered due to exposures that are not widely known by other market participants.

商业公司

这个市场的一个重要组成部分，来自寻求外汇支付的商品或服务的公司的财务活动。商业公司通常相当小的数额相比，银行或投机者的贸易，以及他们的交易往往很少对市场利率的短期影响。不过，商贸流通货币的汇率的长期方向的一个重要因素。一些跨国公司可以有一个不可预知的影响非常大的岗位涵盖由于没有得到广泛的其他市场参与者的风险。

Central banks

National central banks play an important role in the foreign exchange markets. They try to control the money supply, inflation, and/or interest rates and often have official or unofficial target rates for their currencies. They can use their often substantial foreign exchange reserves to stabilize the market. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of central bank "stabilizing speculation" is doubtful because central banks do not go bankrupt if they make large losses, like other traders would, and there is no convincing evidence that they do make a profit trading.

The mere expectation or rumor of a central bank foreign exchange intervention might be enough to stabilize a currency, but aggressive intervention might be used several times each year in countries with a dirty float currency regime. Central banks do not always achieve their objectives. The combined resources of the market can easily overwhelm any central bank.[10] Several scenarios of this nature were seen in the 1992–93 European Exchange Rate Mechanism collapse, and in more recent times in Southeast Asia.

中央银行

各国中央银行在外汇市场中发挥的重要作用。他们试图控制货币供应量，通货膨胀，和/或利率，并经常有本国货币的官方或非官方目标利率。他们可以使用他们往往是大量的外汇储备以稳定市场。然而，央行的成效“稳定投机”是值得怀疑的，因为央行不破产，如果他们做出巨大的损失，像其他商人，并没有令人信服的证据表明，他们不赚钱的交易。

仅仅预期或传闻中央银行外汇干预可能不够稳定货币，但积极的干预可能会用在一个国家每年几次肮脏浮动的汇率制度。中央银行并不总是实现其目标。市场的综合资源，可以很容易地压倒任何央行。这种性质的几种情况，在一九九二至九三年度的欧洲汇率机制崩溃，并在东南亚更近倍。

Hedge funds as speculators

About 70% to 90%of the foreign exchange transactions are speculative. In other words, the person or institution that bought or sold the currency has no plan to actually take delivery of the currency in the end; rather, they were solely speculating on the movement of that particular currency.Hedge funds have gained a reputation for aggressive currency speculation since 1996. They control billions of dollars of equity and may borrow billions more, and thus may overwhelm intervention by central banks to support almost any currency, if the economic fundamentals are in the hedge funds' favor.

对冲基金投机者

约70％?90％的外汇交易是投机性的。换言之，买入或卖出货币的个人或机构有没有打算采取实际交付货币，最终，相反，他们只在特定货币的波动投机。对冲基金都获得了积极的声誉自1996年以来的货币投机活动。他们控制着数十亿美元的股权，并可能借用数十亿美元，

并因此可能压倒央行干预，以支持几乎所有的货币，如果经济基本面的对冲基金的青睐。

Investment management firms

Investment management firms (who typically manage large accounts on behalf of customers such as pension funds and endowments) use the foreign exchange market to facilitate transactions in foreign securities. For example, an investment manager bearing an international equity portfolio needs to purchase and sell several pairs of foreign currencies to pay for foreign securities purchases.

Some investment management firms also have more speculative specialist currency overlay operations, which manage clients' currency exposures with the aim of generating profits as well as limiting risk. Whilst the number of this type of specialist firms is quite small, many have a large value of assets under management), and hence can generate large trades.

投资管理公司

投资管理公司（通常代表客户，如养老基金和捐赠管理大型帐户的）使用的外汇市场，以方便外国证券交易。例如，附有国际股票投资组合的投资经理，需要购买和出售外币的几个对支付购买外国证券。

一些投资管理公司，也有更多的投机专家的货币覆盖操作，管理，客户产生的利润，以及限制风险的目的货币风险。虽然这种类型的专业公司的数量是相当小的，有很多的大的价值所管理的资产），并因此可以产生大的行业。

Retail brokers, while largely controlled and regulated by the CFTC and NFA might be subjected to foreign exchange scams.

零售经纪人，可能会受到外汇诈骗而在很大程度上受到控制和CFTC及NFA监管，。

Other

Money transfer/remittance companies perform high-volume low-value transfers generally by economic migrants back to their home country. In 2007, the Aite Group estimated that there were $369 billion of remittances (an increase of 8% on the previous year). The four largest markets (India, China, Mexico and the Philippines) receive $95 billion. The largest and best known provider is Western Union with 345,000 agents globally

汇款公司 /汇款公司执行高容量低价值的转移一般由经济移民返回本国。爱特集团在2007年，估计有369亿美元的汇款美元（比上一年增加8％）。四个最大的市场（印度，中国，墨西哥和菲律宾）获得950亿美元。最大和最知名的供应商是西联国际汇款公司在全球有345,000个代理商。

There is no unified or centrally cleared market for the majority of trades, and there is very little cross-border regulation. Due to the over-the-counter (OTC) nature of currency markets, there are rather a number of interconnected marketplaces, where different currencies instruments are traded. This implies that there is not a single exchange rate but rather a number of different rates (prices), depending on what bank or market maker is trading, and where it is. In practice the rates are often very close, otherwise they could be exploited by arbitrageurs instantaneously. Due

to London's dominance in the market, a particular currency's quoted price is usually the London market price. Major trading exchanges include EBS and Reuters, while major banks also offer trading systems. A joint venture of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Reuters, called Fxmarketspace opened in 2007 and aspired but failed to the role of a central market clearing mechanism.

The main trading center is London, but New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore are all important centers as well. Banks throughout the world participate. Currency trading happens continuously throughout the day; as the Asian trading session ends, the European session begins, followed by the North American session and then back to the Asian session, excluding weekends.

交易特点

主要的外汇交易没有统一或集中的清算中心，而且极少有跨境监管。因为其场外市场的性质，外汇市场由一些相互关联的交易市场组成。这也意味着不存在一个单一的汇率，具体的汇率取决于其所交易的银行、做市商和交易地点。不过实际上汇率通常是非常接近的，否则的话瞬间的套利将抹平这种差价。芝加哥商品交易所和路透社于2007年成立了一个叫Fxmarketspace的合资公司，他们希望在外汇市场建立起中央市场结算机制，但是他们的举动失败了。

最主要的交易中心是伦敦，但纽约、东京、香港和新加坡也都是非常重要的中心。外汇交易除周末外24小时不间断，当亚洲交易时段结束时，欧洲交易时段开始，然后接着是北美交易时段，接着又回到亚洲时段。

Fluctuations in exchange rates are usually caused by actual monetary flows as well as by expectations of changes in monetary flows caused by changes in gross domestic product (GDP) growth, inflation (purchasing power parity theory), interest rates (interest rate parity, Domestic Fisher effect, International Fisher effect), budget and trade deficits or surpluses, large cross-border M&A deals and other macroeconomic conditions. Major news is released publicly, often on scheduled dates, so many people have access to the same news at the same time. However, the large banks have an important advantage; they can see their customers' order flow.

Currencies are traded against one another. Each currency pair thus constitutes an individual trading product and is traditionally noted XXXYYY or XXX/YYY, where XXX and YYY are the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currencies involved. The first currency (XXX) is the base currency that is quoted relative to the second currency (YYY), called the counter currency (or quote currency). For instance, the quotation EURUSD (EUR/USD) 1.5465 is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, meaning 1 euro = 1.5465 dollars. The market convention is to quote most exchange rates against the USD with the US dollar as the base currency (e.g. USDJPY, USDCAD, USDCHF). The exceptions are the British pound (GBP), Australian dollar (AUD), the New Zealand dollar (NZD) and the euro (EUR) where the USD is the counter currency (e.g. GBPUSD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, EURUSD).

The factors affecting XXX will affect both XXXYYY and XXXZZZ. This causes positive currency correlation between XXXYYY and XXXZZZ.

汇率的波动通常是由实际货币流动、GDP的可能变化、通货膨胀、利率、Domestic Fisher effect、International Fisher effect、政府预算、国际收支、大型跨国并购和其它宏观条件所引起的。重大的消息会公开发布，并且通常是在事先约定的日期，所以许多人同时可以得到同一个消息。

一种货币总是和另一种货币进行买卖。因此每种货币对构成单独的交易品种，并且传统上标注为XXXYYY或XXX/YYY，XXX和YYY是指的货币ISO 4217国际三字母代码。第一种货币为(XXX)基础货币，由第二种货币(YYY)报价，第二种货币被称为相对货币(或报价货币)。举例来说EURUSD(EUR/USD) 1.5465是指欧元以美元做出的报价，意思是1欧元= 1.5465美元。影响XXX的因素会同时影响XXXYYY和XXXZZZ。

On the spot market, according to the 2010 Triennial Survey, the most heavily traded bilateral currency pairs were:

·EURUSD: 28%

·USDJPY: 14%

·GBPUSD (also called cable): 9%

根据到2010年的三年期统计，在现货市场，交易量最大的货币对是：

?EURUSD: 28%

?USDJPY: 14%

?GBPUSD: 9%

and the US currency was involved in 84.9% of transactions, followed by the euro (39.1%), the yen (19.0%), and sterling (12.9%) (see table). Volume percentages for all individual currencies should add up to 200%, as each transaction involves two currencies.

涉及美国的货币是在84.9％的交易，其次是欧元（39.1％），日元（19.0％）和英镑（12.9％）。所有个别货币量的百分比应添加达到200％，每笔交易涉及两种货币。

Trading in the euro has grown considerably since the currency's creation in January 1999, and how long the foreign exchange market will remain dollar-centered is open to debate. Until recently, trading the euro versus a non-European currency ZZZ would have usually involved two trades: EURUSD and USDZZZ. The exception to this is EURJPY, which is an established traded currency pair in the interbank spot market. As the dollar's value has eroded during 2008, interest in using the euro as reference currency for prices in commodities (such as oil), as well as a larger component of foreign reserves by banks, has increased dramatically. Transactions in the currencies of commodity-producing countries, such as AUD, NZD, CAD, have also increased.

自从欧元在1999年1月诞生以来，交易量一直不断增长，美元能否保持目前在外汇市场的中心货币地位是各方公开辩论的话题。直到现在，交易非欧洲货币ZZZ兑换欧元通常会影响到EURUSD和USDZZZ这两种货币对的交易，但EURJPY例外。随着美元在2008年的贬值，一些人表示出对使用欧元来标价大宗商品(例如石油)的兴趣，银行也显著的增加了欧元做为外汇储备的一部分。一些出口大宗商品的国家例如澳大利亚、新西兰、加拿大，他们的货币交易量也增加了。