Forex trading can be tracked down to ancient times. Forex trading is actually the longest of all the other markets’ histories as there have always been people trading currencies with each other.

The Gold Standard put their mark in Forex history and changed it forever in 1886. A certain weight of gold was the point of value for foreign currencies. This standard was the fixed trading value. The British pound was defined as 123.27 grains of gold. The British banks defined the exact assessment of the value which aided in setting the UK standard currency as stable.

After World War II the economic status of the biggest nations of the world changed dramatically. The UK suffered insurmountable financial blow. While the US remained unharmed and their financial state stable even after the war. The US dollar then became the new standard of the financial market. This international financial framework leads the dollar to becoming the new global reserve currency. This new settlement started the tracking and monitoring of currencies as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and launched the World Bank. This aimed at setting up the international monetary stability.

The Forex market as we know it today was actually established in 1971. The making of the market was to accommodate the floating exchange rates as they gradually materialized. By the year 1972, major countries had economical difficulties and generated the floating of their currencies. With the Smithsonian agreement, the European market tried to detach them from the dependency on the US dollar. This was possible with the agreements of the currencies' unlimited variety and flexibility. This gave way to the free-floating currency system. This free-floating system was officially mandated in 1978. Since then, prices were floated everyday along with volumes, speed and price volatility.

With advancing technology and computers, cross-border capital movement picked up its pace. This extended the market range all the way through Asian, European and American time zones. Forex trading rose dramatically from $70 billion a day in the 1980s and $1.5 trillion daily only 20 years later.