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Who invened forex?

Forex, short for foreign exchange, is the global market for trading currencies. It is the largest and most liquid market in the world, with an average daily trading volume of over $5 trillion. But who invented forex?

The concept of exchanging currencies has been around for centuries. In fact, it is believed that the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians were the first to use currency, around 2000 BC. However, the modern forex market as we know it today has a more recent history.

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The Bretton Woods Agreement, signed in 1944, established a fixed exchange rate system, where the value of currencies was pegged to the US dollar, which in turn was pegged to gold. This system allowed for stable international trade and investment, but it also had its drawbacks.

As the US economy grew in the 1960s, so did its trade deficit, which meant that more dollars were leaving the country than coming in. This led to a decrease in the value of the dollar, and other countries started to demand gold for their dollars. In 1971, US President Richard Nixon announced that the US would no longer exchange dollars for gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system and creating a floating exchange rate system.

This new system allowed currencies to fluctuate freely against each other, creating opportunities for traders to profit from the changes in exchange rates. The first currency trading platform was created in the 1970s by a group of bankers and computer experts, led by Richard Olsen and Michael Stumm.

In 1996, Olsen and Stumm founded a company called OANDA, which became the first online forex trading platform. This allowed retail traders to access the forex market from their home computers, opening up the market to a wider audience.

Since then, the forex market has grown exponentially, with new technology and trading platforms making it easier and more accessible than ever before. Today, anyone with an internet connection can trade currencies from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

In conclusion, while the concept of exchanging currencies has been around for centuries, the modern forex market as we know it today was born out of the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, and the development of online trading platforms in the 1990s. Richard Olsen and Michael Stumm were the pioneers of online currency trading, and their company OANDA paved the way for the widespread adoption of forex trading by retail investors.

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