 I think one of the key attractions of the foreign exchange market is its accessibility. It doesn't really close apart from weekends and as such that means that if a trade does go bad for whatever reason the novice trader is able to get out of the trade. More to the point if the trade goes very very well they also have the ability to get out of the trade at any time of the day or night during the week. The foreign exchange market tracks a very wide range of traders with very different perspectives. For example businesses might have a longer term view on currency movements and want to hedge risk. Others want to actually speculate and take risk. Then some investors are looking to move from one currency to another for investment purposes. I think one of the key drivers of markets over the course of the past few months has been trade tensions namely between the US and China and to a lesser extent the US and the European Union. If you implement a tariff onto a range of goods and services the importers and exporters of those goods and services have a choice to make. They can either raise their prices to absorb the cost of that tariff ultimately making them more expensive to consumers. Alternatively they can absorb that tariff increase into their margins so in essence tariffs can actually crimp stock market growth because they essentially crimp profit potential or they can drive up inflationary pressures. Political news can have a big impact on exchange rates over time. The Federal Reserve might suddenly want to raise interest rates then the foreign exchange market will quickly react to that. But one's got to remember that currency is not just about one central bank it's about the other central banks as well. So you can't just look at it in isolation you have to have a sort of global overview. For me the big question is is not whether or not the dollar is going to go up. Just look at what the price chart is telling you about the supply and demand dynamics between the US dollar and other currencies. To draw an analogy if you're betting on the horses generally as a punty you study the form you study whether or not the ground is firm or hard. It's the same thing when it comes to currency trading. Make a trading decision based on what the price action has done in the past. Set your risk management strategy accordingly and keep your losses small and run your profits. Technology has greatly influenced the foreign exchange market over the years. You can draw charts in real time and of course you can even use Twitter feeds to trade off of those. So technology has definitely influenced the amount of trading the volumes of trading and also the type of trading that goes on.