Robert G. Williams is Voehringer Professor of Economics at Guilford College. Originally a Central Americanist scholar, he turned his attention to world currency markets in 1995.His previous books include States and Social Evolution - Coffee and the Rise of National Governments in Central America (UNC Press 1994).

This is a nontechnical exploration into the mechanics of the foreign exchange market, which Williams (Guilford College) nicely motivates by starting with an ordinary retail transaction--an ATM withdrawal of local currency in a foreign country--and tracing it through the wholesale foreign exchange markets to show what actually happens. In doing so, the author provides an intuitive way to explore the most important and arguably the most efficient market in the world, which makes international trade, investment, and financial transfers possible. Individual chapters deal with the nature of spot and forward foreign exchange transactions; how deals get arranged, consummated, and settled; who the major players are; the nature of trading strategies; the sources of exchange rate volatility; the sources of market shocks; and the comparative roles of the euro and the dollar. The discussion is up-to-date, and the use of dialogue makes the book very accessible to the intelligent but uninformed reader. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; all levels of undergraduates. Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein Professor of Finance, Corporate Governance and Ethics at the Stern School of Business, New York University 'Currency trade is made accessible through the recounting of a series of personal experiences of the author, and professional encounters ranging from bank managers to backroom traders...endeavours to bring abstract concepts of currency exchange down to earth and portray in simple terms the geographical and structural organisations of global currency.' Oxfam Reviews of Journals 'Ambitious and informative...a colourful history of international finance.' Tribune, November 2006

• Introduction: Encounter with a Moneychanger1. A Glance at Foreign Exchange at Breakfast2. A Visit to the Local Bank: What Do Money Changers Buy and Sell?3. How Do Money Changers Arrange Deals?4. Who Are the Actors in the World's Biggest Market?5. Where Deals are Made: Historical Geography of Money Changer EnclavesWhy Do Money Changers Cluster Where They Do?Paradox of Clustering in a Computer-linked World6. Professor Smith Gets FX'd in Tokyo: Could He Have Profited from a Currency Forecast?7. Inside the Trading Room: Philosophies behind Trading StrategiesVision No. 1: It's All Supply and DemandVision No. 2 : It's All FundamentalsVision No. 3: It's All Technical8. Behind the Fish Tank: What Causes Rates to Change?9. How Currencies are Delivered: Snapshot of an Evolving SystemA Visit with a Payments Systems ExpertAppendix to Chapter 9: Diagrammatic Notes on Currency Delivery Channels10. The Big Apple: Electronic Dollar Deliveries through CHIPS11. Time to Settle Up: CHIPS Closes the International Dollar Day at the New York Fed 4:30-5:00 pmCHIPS Upgrades to Real Time Final Settlement 2001Finally, a Delivery System Safe from Foreign Exchange Settlement Risk:Continuous Linked Settlement Bank begins in 2002Lessons of September 11, 2001 for Global Payments12. In the City of London after the Russian Default: Anatomy of Currency Storms of the 1990s?13. The Euro in its InfancyPrologueThe Potential of the Euro as a World Currency The Euro-Revolution in Stocks and BondsThe Transition of the Real Economy to Euro14. Doubts about the Euro and the new Central BankA European Central Banker Waits on the SidelinesDoubts about TARGET, the Official Euro Payments SystemReflections on the Future of the World Monetary SystemWrap-up Session with Walter BlassUpdate Appendix: Euro Developments after the 1999 London Interviews15. Testing the Dollar's Hegemony: Will the Adjustments be Smooth?Source of the Dollar Doubts: How long will Foreigners Finance US Overspending?Dollar Testing Episodes and the Evolution of Market StoriesEpisode 1: Spring and Summer 2002Episode 2: The Buildup to WarEpisode 3: Fall of 2003Episode 4: 2004 Presidential Elections and their AftermathRelief for the Dollar: Spring and Summer 2005A Smooth or Turbulent Adjustment: Greenspan vs VolckerThe Run on the Dollar in the Late 1970sThe Political Economy of Sterling's Decline as Global CurrencyLong-run Lessons for the Dollar's Loss of HegemonyA Hopeful Conclusion

Robert G. Williams is Voehringer Professor of Economics at Guilford College. Originally a Central Americanist scholar, he turned his attention to world currency markets in 1995.His previous books include States and Social Evolution - Coffee and the Rise of National Governments in Central America (UNC Press 1994).

This is a nontechnical exploration into the mechanics of the foreign exchange market, which Williams (Guilford College) nicely motivates by starting with an ordinary retail transaction--an ATM withdrawal of local currency in a foreign country--and tracing it through the wholesale foreign exchange markets to show what actually happens. In doing so, the author provides an intuitive way to explore the most important and arguably the most efficient market in the world, which makes international trade, investment, and financial transfers possible. Individual chapters deal with the nature of spot and forward foreign exchange transactions; how deals get arranged, consummated, and settled; who the major players are; the nature of trading strategies; the sources of exchange rate volatility; the sources of market shocks; and the comparative roles of the euro and the dollar. The discussion is up-to-date, and the use of dialogue makes the book very accessible to the intelligent but uninformed reader. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; all levels of undergraduates. Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein Professor of Finance, Corporate Governance and Ethics at the Stern School of Business, New York University 'Currency trade is made accessible through the recounting of a series of personal experiences of the author, and professional encounters ranging from bank managers to backroom traders...endeavours to bring abstract concepts of currency exchange down to earth and portray in simple terms the geographical and structural organisations of global currency.' Oxfam Reviews of Journals 'Ambitious and informative...a colourful history of international finance.' Tribune, November 2006

• Introduction: Encounter with a Moneychanger1. A Glance at Foreign Exchange at Breakfast2. A Visit to the Local Bank: What Do Money Changers Buy and Sell?3. How Do Money Changers Arrange Deals?4. Who Are the Actors in the World's Biggest Market?5. Where Deals are Made: Historical Geography of Money Changer EnclavesWhy Do Money Changers Cluster Where They Do?Paradox of Clustering in a Computer-linked World6. Professor Smith Gets FX'd in Tokyo: Could He Have Profited from a Currency Forecast?7. Inside the Trading Room: Philosophies behind Trading StrategiesVision No. 1: It's All Supply and DemandVision No. 2 : It's All FundamentalsVision No. 3: It's All Technical8. Behind the Fish Tank: What Causes Rates to Change?9. How Currencies are Delivered: Snapshot of an Evolving SystemA Visit with a Payments Systems ExpertAppendix to Chapter 9: Diagrammatic Notes on Currency Delivery Channels10. The Big Apple: Electronic Dollar Deliveries through CHIPS11. Time to Settle Up: CHIPS Closes the International Dollar Day at the New York Fed 4:30-5:00 pmCHIPS Upgrades to Real Time Final Settlement 2001Finally, a Delivery System Safe from Foreign Exchange Settlement Risk:Continuous Linked Settlement Bank begins in 2002Lessons of September 11, 2001 for Global Payments12. In the City of London after the Russian Default: Anatomy of Currency Storms of the 1990s?13. The Euro in its InfancyPrologueThe Potential of the Euro as a World Currency The Euro-Revolution in Stocks and BondsThe Transition of the Real Economy to Euro14. Doubts about the Euro and the new Central BankA European Central Banker Waits on the SidelinesDoubts about TARGET, the Official Euro Payments SystemReflections on the Future of the World Monetary SystemWrap-up Session with Walter BlassUpdate Appendix: Euro Developments after the 1999 London Interviews15. Testing the Dollar's Hegemony: Will the Adjustments be Smooth?Source of the Dollar Doubts: How long will Foreigners Finance US Overspending?Dollar Testing Episodes and the Evolution of Market StoriesEpisode 1: Spring and Summer 2002Episode 2: The Buildup to WarEpisode 3: Fall of 2003Episode 4: 2004 Presidential Elections and their AftermathRelief for the Dollar: Spring and Summer 2005A Smooth or Turbulent Adjustment: Greenspan vs VolckerThe Run on the Dollar in the Late 1970sThe Political Economy of Sterling's Decline as Global CurrencyLong-run Lessons for the Dollar's Loss of HegemonyA Hopeful Conclusion

Robert G. Williams is Voehringer Professor of Economics at Guilford College. Originally a Central Americanist scholar, he turned his attention to world currency markets in 1995.His previous books include States and Social Evolution - Coffee and the Rise of National Governments in Central America (UNC Press 1994).

This is a nontechnical exploration into the mechanics of the foreign exchange market, which Williams (Guilford College) nicely motivates by starting with an ordinary retail transaction--an ATM withdrawal of local currency in a foreign country--and tracing it through the wholesale foreign exchange markets to show what actually happens. In doing so, the author provides an intuitive way to explore the most important and arguably the most efficient market in the world, which makes international trade, investment, and financial transfers possible. Individual chapters deal with the nature of spot and forward foreign exchange transactions; how deals get arranged, consummated, and settled; who the major players are; the nature of trading strategies; the sources of exchange rate volatility; the sources of market shocks; and the comparative roles of the euro and the dollar. The discussion is up-to-date, and the use of dialogue makes the book very accessible to the intelligent but uninformed reader. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; all levels of undergraduates. Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein Professor of Finance, Corporate Governance and Ethics at the Stern School of Business, New York University 'Currency trade is made accessible through the recounting of a series of personal experiences of the author, and professional encounters ranging from bank managers to backroom traders...endeavours to bring abstract concepts of currency exchange down to earth and portray in simple terms the geographical and structural organisations of global currency.' Oxfam Reviews of Journals 'Ambitious and informative...a colourful history of international finance.' Tribune, November 2006

• Introduction: Encounter with a Moneychanger1. A Glance at Foreign Exchange at Breakfast2. A Visit to the Local Bank: What Do Money Changers Buy and Sell?3. How Do Money Changers Arrange Deals?4. Who Are the Actors in the World's Biggest Market?5. Where Deals are Made: Historical Geography of Money Changer EnclavesWhy Do Money Changers Cluster Where They Do?Paradox of Clustering in a Computer-linked World6. Professor Smith Gets FX'd in Tokyo: Could He Have Profited from a Currency Forecast?7. Inside the Trading Room: Philosophies behind Trading StrategiesVision No. 1: It's All Supply and DemandVision No. 2 : It's All FundamentalsVision No. 3: It's All Technical8. Behind the Fish Tank: What Causes Rates to Change?9. How Currencies are Delivered: Snapshot of an Evolving SystemA Visit with a Payments Systems ExpertAppendix to Chapter 9: Diagrammatic Notes on Currency Delivery Channels10. The Big Apple: Electronic Dollar Deliveries through CHIPS11. Time to Settle Up: CHIPS Closes the International Dollar Day at the New York Fed 4:30-5:00 pmCHIPS Upgrades to Real Time Final Settlement 2001Finally, a Delivery System Safe from Foreign Exchange Settlement Risk:Continuous Linked Settlement Bank begins in 2002Lessons of September 11, 2001 for Global Payments12. In the City of London after the Russian Default: Anatomy of Currency Storms of the 1990s?13. The Euro in its InfancyPrologueThe Potential of the Euro as a World Currency The Euro-Revolution in Stocks and BondsThe Transition of the Real Economy to Euro14. Doubts about the Euro and the new Central BankA European Central Banker Waits on the SidelinesDoubts about TARGET, the Official Euro Payments SystemReflections on the Future of the World Monetary SystemWrap-up Session with Walter BlassUpdate Appendix: Euro Developments after the 1999 London Interviews15. Testing the Dollar's Hegemony: Will the Adjustments be Smooth?Source of the Dollar Doubts: How long will Foreigners Finance US Overspending?Dollar Testing Episodes and the Evolution of Market StoriesEpisode 1: Spring and Summer 2002Episode 2: The Buildup to WarEpisode 3: Fall of 2003Episode 4: 2004 Presidential Elections and their AftermathRelief for the Dollar: Spring and Summer 2005A Smooth or Turbulent Adjustment: Greenspan vs VolckerThe Run on the Dollar in the Late 1970sThe Political Economy of Sterling's Decline as Global CurrencyLong-run Lessons for the Dollar's Loss of HegemonyA Hopeful Conclusion