Categories
Forex Course

20. Brief History and Introduction to The Forex Brokers

Brief History

The economy of all the nations after the end of World War II was at stake. Not a single country saw a growth in its economy during this period. So, there had to be someone to fix this all up. Hence, the major Western banks stepped in to strengthen and stabilize the economy on a global scale. They established the well-known Bretton Woods System, which got Gold into focus, as it got paired with/against the US dollar and other currencies. This system did bring the economy to balance to some extent but slowly started becoming inefficient and outdated as the major countries began to expand at a good rate.

With this under consideration, the system was abolished and was replaced by a much efficient system for the valuation of currencies. Precisely, this system was called the free-floating type system, where currency exchange rates were determined by supply and demand factors. During the final decade of the 20th century, the internet came into existence. This brought drastic changes in the way how trading in the markets works. With the facility of internet, the banks came up with their own trading platforms, and these platforms enabled traders to keep a watch on the live quotes of the currencies and also provided smooth and swift execution of trades.

Taking this forward, as the market began to grow substantially, the so-called ‘retail brokers’ made their entry to the market. With these brokerages, traders with small capital could also participate in the market. Moreover, retail brokers even offered great leverage for trading, which attracted more traders to take part in the market.

Retail Forex Brokers

Retail forex brokers are intermediaries who facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers. Based on how clients’ are fulfilled, brokers are of two types, namely, Market Makers and Electronic Communication Networks.

Market Makers

As the name pretty much suggests, these brokers ‘make’ the market. A market maker acts as a bookie who takes the opposite side of its customers’ trades. So, basically, the trades here are between a retail trader and the broker. Since the broker takes the opposite position of his customers, he is actually trading against them. In layman terms, market makers need losers to profit from. Trading with this kind of brokers, customers don’t really reach the real market, as they’re placing bets on the quotes provided by the broker.

Electronic Communication Network

Trading with an ECN broker is different from that of market makers. Here, the interest of the customer is aligned with that of the broker. An ECN broker passes on its customers’ orders through to liquidity providers or the interbank market. So, unlike the case of market makers, their trades are actually matched with the real market. And as far as revenue of these brokers is concerned, they always make a profit from the spreads (bid/ask price) or trading fees. Since they connect the clients to deal with the interbank market, they form the network where communication takes place electronically.

That’s about the introduction to Forex brokers. Take the below quiz to know if you have understood the lesson correctly.

[wp_quiz id=”48281″]
Categories
Crypto Guides

Bitcoin – The First Scalable Cryptocurrency Ever!

In the previous article, we have discussed the evolution and properties of cryptocurrencies. Now, let’s understand Bitcoin, which is the first scalable cryptocurrency.

Introduction

It has been around 11 years since Bitcoin has come into our lives. I am saying that because everyone who knows about bitcoin, at some point, would have wondered should they invest in it or not. Some have invested and gained so much from it. I’m sure you would have heard of the term Bitcoin millionaires. Of course, some have seen losses as well. Ever since the inception of Bitcoin, there is so much talk and hype about cryptocurrencies. Some governments have even made some changes to the existing laws to support cryptocurrencies. While some governments made laws against this digital currency. It all began with one crypto, Bitcoin. Hence, it is important for us to know the evolution of Bitcoin, which is still considered as a synonym of cryptocurrency.

How it all began?

It all began when a pseudonymous person called Satoshi Nakamoto released a whitepaper on October 31, 2008. The white paper described the blockchain technology and the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. When the technologists read the document, many thought it is ground-breaking technology and wanted to see it working in rea, while some wanted to explore the properties of blockchain other than cryptocurrencies. Nakamoto not only released the white paper but also mined the first block of the Bitcoin network in Jan 2009. Thus, he began the journey of Bitcoin.

The first-ever recorded transaction

The first recorded purchase transaction using Bitcoin happened in May 2010. Laszlo Hanyecz, a computer programmer,  paid 10,000 BTC for 2 Pizzas, and it was merely $25 back then. At today’s price of the bitcoin, the pizzas cost around $80 million. Cryptonizers celebrate that day as Bitcoin Pizza day to date.

Price history

In July 2010, the price of one Bitcoin was at $0.08. In February of 2011, the price came up to $1. Then it gradually started increasing as more and more people came to know of it and started investing. By June 2011, the price surged to $11. By April 2013, the bitcoin achieved a three-digit rate of $266. By November, the same year, it reached a four-digit figure of $1242.

Picture Credits – bitcoinwiki.org

From there on, there have been fluctuations depending on the demand and various rumors about the coin. In 2017 December, the price rose to $19,783.06, the highest ever. As of October 2019, the price of one Bitcoin is $8,300.

Birth of new coins from Bitcoin

Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold are two coins forked from the Bitcoin blockchain. These are some of the major altcoins (alternate coins) in today’s cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin inspired the birth of many other cryptocurrencies. We can say that these altcoins emerged only after Bitcoin proved the market potential. Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP are some of the examples.

Emergence of the cryptocurrency market

Cryptocurrency exchanges started their operations after the rise of new cryptos in the market. Bitcoinmarket.com is the first exchange ever. However, the exchange is defunct now. In July of the same year, Mt.Gox was launched as well. Around 2013 and in early 2014, nearly 75% of the Bitcoins transaction across the world happened through Mt.Gox. In 2014, they had to liquidate the funds because nearly 850,000 bitcoins were stolen from the exchange. This is the biggest disaster in Bitcoin history ever.

Bottom line

At present, everything in our life is getting digitalized. So why not the currency we use? Bitcoin is that new-age digital currency which has a massive potential to transform the currency space. It is not too much to say that it has achieved the same already. Let’s see what more wonders this crypto can create in the near future. Stay tuned for more exciting and engaging content. Cheers!