Who are the big players in the forex market

Big commercial banks, central banks, hedge funds, commercial companies & institutions, and wealthy individual speculators are the big players in the forex market. Every professional forex trader must know who are the big players in the forex market. If you don’t know about major financial markets players, then how could you beat them?

Who are the big players in the forex market
Who are the big players in the forex market

Until 1991 we, the retail traders or individual traders could not trade with their tiny amount of balance. Only big boys then controlled the market and traded here. But, thanks to the advent of the internet, personal pc, and some other modern pieces of equipment, we can now trade the forex market & spot market.

Let’s discuss who are the big players in the forex market

4 major forex market players

Big Banks/Major Banks

Don’t you ever wonder if this market is decentralized, then who fixes bid and ask rates? No matter how you hate forex spreads, you will have to deal with it. And the super banks or big banks unitedly named as the interbank market are the ones who play the major roles to fix spread.

These interbank have to make huge transactions every single day for both themselves and their clients. Here is the name of 10 super banks who influenced the foreign currency market most 

List of ” who are the big players in the forex market (banks)”

  • Deutsche Bank
  • UBS AG
  • Royal Bank of Scotland 
  • Citi 
  • Bank of America 
  • JPMorgan
  • Barclays Capital 
  • Goldman Sachs
  • HSBS
  • Morgan Stanley
  • Large Commercial companies
who are the big players in the forex market big banks
who are the big players in the forex market-big banks

These are the major players in the market. Suppose if ford wishes to import its motor parts from japan, how could they pay Japanese sellers? For this very reason, first and foremost, ford needs to exchange the US dollar for the Japanese yen. So for making this entire procedure, ford must have taken the help of commercial banks.

In international cross-border mergers and acquisitions, enough currency conversations develop. And these currency conversations fluctuate prices heavily.

Government and central Banks 

Not only commercial banks but also big central banks like the Bank of England (BOE), European Central Bank ( BCB), Federal Reserve (Fed) are also heavily involved in the forex market.

Different countries have to operate international trade payments handle foreign exchange reserves so that they need to engage in the forex market on a regular basis.

Sometimes, just like The Swiss National Bank (SNB), many central banks have to adjust interest rates to control inflation and deflation. In These ways, they affect the forex market.

Even if any central bank thinks that its currency is overvalued, they tend to buy or sell its currency in an enormous amount. This buying and selling make thunder in the market.

Hedge Funds & Big corporations

  • Bridgewater Associates
  • Elliott Management
  • Davidson Kempner Capital Management
  • AQR Capital Management
  • Renaissance Technologies
  • Millennium Management
  • Citadel Advisors
  • BlackRock Advisors
  • Man Group
  • Two Sigma Investments

The speculators 

There are other types of market participants in the forex market. For example, we, the retail traders, are called speculators. Although speculators have a negligible effect on the market, we are still a part of this vast industry.

We, the speculators, buy currencies, hoping that we will sell these in the near future when the exchange rates are high. And we sell any currency hoping to make a profit if the price falls in the near future. These actions are called speculations.

Speculators observe every price movement very closely, and if their predictions become right, they win and profit. And if speculation goes wrong, then vice versa happens. So it means they made a loss if the price doesn’t go with their speculation directions.

Top 5 individual speculators & investors list in the world 

  • George Soros : In 1992, George, alone, broke the Bank of England, netting a profit of $1 billion after shorting GBP by 10 billion pounds.
  • Bill Lipschutz : In 1979s he made $250,000 from $12,000.
  • Andrew Krieger : On October 19th, 1987, Andrew made $300 million dollars when he shorted New Zealand’s dollar against 400:1 leverage!
  • Paul Tudor Jones : In 1987, generated $100 million for his firm that year alone! 
  • Bruce Kovner : In 1987, Kovner founded Caxton Associates LP, a hedge fund that has averaged over 20% annualized returns since inception

There are some other promising analysts, traders, and individual speculators who also influence the market heavily.

Akil StokesErnest KlokowRich FriesenQuillan Roberto Black
Anton KreilEric FurstenbergMohsen HassanSamuel Kavanagh
Matthew ThayerMonwabisi NjezaRaghee HornerKen Chigbo
Daniel savageAndrew MitchemMaxwell BakerJoe Pena
Rayner TeoMarc WaltonJOSHUA BUNKERChris Capre
Vladimir RibakovAlex du PlooyDAVE JASONBRAD GILBERT
Ezekiel ChewPierre du PlessisNeerav VaderaSascha Gogolin
LEWIS GLASGOWFederico SellittiMark HutchinsonJared Martinez
Joyce OwensTyson ClaytonKalen KwanGary Fichardt
Taylor FrameChris PulverSpencer GornyNikki Sitze
Dale WoodsBill AddissBrock PierceNial Fuller
Steve SuminskiTim PesutJustin BennettScott McCormick
Thomas FranklinCraig WeilStefan TheronNavin Prithyani
Phillip KoncharPaddy OsbornAsanka WeeratungeDilpreet Chahal
Alastair CraigMarcus RaiyatMarc Gibson-McKennaElliot Gore
LUCAS DOWNEYMarcel SchoutenRon WilliamJC Parets
DANIEL JASSYFARNOOSH TORABIDAVID GREENJason Shelley
Christopher EagleCarmine AnatrielloKristina KostovaMAX GANIK
IAN KINGLEX SOKOLINANDREW RUSSAKOFFJamie Palmer
JAMES EARLYJohn JoannouHuzefa HamidJOHN JAGERSON
Michael HearneGORDON SCOTTLuke PerryAndrew Lockwood

Trading strategies to beat the big players

If you want to survive the market then you need to build up a profitable strategy. There are 4 types of strategy

Scalping stratgey

Day trading stratgey

Swing trading strategy

Position trading strategy

First, you need to understand what types of traders are you! if you are a scalper and you have enough time to sit in front of the screen then you can scalp. If you trade only the busiest session of the day then go for day trading. For swing trading, you don’t need to give much time. Just pick the best setups from the market. That’s it. And Last but not least position trading. If you want to trade only the best setups of the market then go for position trading with daily charts or weekly charts. These strategies are made of default indicators and customized indicators.

Default indicator based trading stratgey

There are plenty of solid strategies made up from default indicators which are found at the mt4 or mt5 platform. Like RSI indicator strategy, Bollinger band strategy, moving average strategy

Custom indicator stratgey

Many successful millionaire traders like customized indicators like 2 line MACD indicator and automatic support and resistance indicator. But be aware before using a custom indicator. You need to practice first these customized indicators at the demo accounts before switching to real accounts.

Major currency pairs to beat who are the big players in the forex market

  • EUR/USD
  • GBP/USD
  • USD/JPY
  • USD/CHF
  • USD/CAD
  • EUR/GBP
  • GBP/JPY

Interestingly, most of the pairs mentioned above are related to the US dollar. In some pairs, USD is the base currency and in some pairs, USD is the counter currency.

The Bottom Line 

Regardless of profitable or losing, Investors need to know who trades forex and why they do so if any wish becomes a part of this game.

Central banks fluctuate market through monetary policy&currency intervention, hedge funds, big corporations, individual investors, speculators trade wishing to make a profit, and last but not the least big companies and big banks trade currency for managing worldwide business and hedge the risk. Retail brokers, market maker brokers all are part of this industry.

Professional trader’s opinion about the big players in the forex market

“Major players in this market tend to be financial institutions like commercial banks & central banks”

Katrina Munichiello

“Banks, commercial companies, hedge funds, central banks and individual speculators participate in it and exchange currencies on a daily basis for both speculative and hedging purposes”

Milan Cutkovic

Sources