Forex trading is, by far, the largest market in the world, trading over $8 trillion in assets each day, having grown seven-fold in the last 25 years. At th🧸e heart of this world are national and international groups like the ACI Financial Markets Association (ACI FMA), which began as a small gathering of foreign exchange professionals from nine countries in Paris in the 1950s.

What started as a friendly set of smaller clubs quickly became a formal organization uniting forex traders and dealers across borders. Today, the ACI has more than 9,000 members in 63 national associations across six continents, including traders, brokers, and other professionals involved in foreign exchange, money markets, and related fields. The association operates through a network of national chapters, and it plays a crucial role in connecting traders, providing education, and instituting ethics standards in the indust🦹ry.

Understanding Forex Associations

A nation or region's forex (FX) club will usually be affiliated with the Paris-based , an umbrella organization for wholesale financial market professionals. ACI was founded in 1955. Today, ACI FMA’s 9,000 members are present in over 60 countries across the globe. Its LinkedIn professional forum has more than 7,000 followers. ACI FMA website is an open window on the Association, which also publishes several newsletters to their members.

Forex clubs are a generic term and not related to Forex Club, a privately held, for-profit company that provides trading platforms for FX, stocks, commodities, energy, and related instruments. Forex clubs, however, can include forex trading meetups, and informally arranged meetings of individuals interested in trading the FX markets as a career. According to the social aggregating site Meetup, as of September 2024, there are over 233 forex trading groups with a total of 100,525 members.

The large numbers of formal and informal forex clubs reflect the size of the global foreign exchange market. The FX market is the largest and most liquid in the world, with 90% of all trades involving the U.S. dollar (USD). The market is many multiples larger than the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:futures market and global equities market, according to dꦯata from the Bank for International Settlement 🐎(BIS).

ACI FMA and Trading Industry Standards

All ACI members, and thus all members of their affiliated associations, must adhere to the principles contained in the FX Global Code. This code includes global Principles of Good Practice in the foreign exchange market and was created to protect the integrity and liquidity of the wholesale foreign exchange market. It replaced national codes of conduct in 2017, with revisions in 2021, and covers the FX, over-the-counter (OTC), and related financial markets. It's maintained by the , which was formed in 2017 to support a more tranᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚsparent global FX market.

The FX Global Code saw severജal significant changes between its 🍎2017 and 2021 versions:

• Greater clarity on pre-hedging: One of the primary updates involved amendments to 11 of the original 55 principles to improve clarity and relevance. The 2021 revision introduced illustrative examples to better align with current practices, particularly about pre-hedging, which was less defined in the initial version.

• Anonymous trading: The code now places a stronger emphasis on transparency in anonymous trading, encouraging platforms to disclose policies on user tags and voluntarily reveal the code-signatory status of users.
• Algorithmic trading: The ACI's guidance on algorithmic trading has been expanded, emphasizing the need for liquidity providers to disclose any conflicts of interest that may affect client orders.
• Data transparency: The 2021 code strengthens the focus on data transparency, particularly regarding market data policies on multi-dealer platforms, emphasizing the importance of detailing user access and data frequency.
• Settlement risk: The updated code advocates for using payment-versus-payment mechanisms and discourages strategic failures to pay to mitigate systemic risks that this could cause.
  
• Standardized disclosures: The introduction of standardized disclosure cover sheets for 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:liquidity providers and FX platforms aims to simplify and standardize information available to clients, enabling better-informed decisions.
  

Membership in ACI FMA

The membership of the ACI, and thus forex clubs, is not limited to FX or financial market participants. They typically include representatives from central banks, consultants, investment banks, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:asset managers, hedge funds, commercial banks, regulators,ไ and academics. By including suc✅h a diverse group of professionals related to FX markets, one of the chief goals of forex clubs is to provide a forum for sharing best practices in these markets.

In addition to networking, forex clubs affiliated with ACI have access to educational programs and specialized certifications for the FX, fixed-income, money market, derivatives, and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:repo markets.

The Bottom Line

The ACI FMA is a global trade association that promotes ethical conduct and best practices within the wholesale financial markets. Established in 1955, it has significantly influenced industry behavior and market practice by developing and promoting its model code, which served as a precursor to❀ the FX Global Code. Today, the ACI FMA continues to support market participants through its educational programs, certifications, attestation services, and global network of National Associations.

Beyond the ACI FMA, various other forex groups exist worldwide, including national associations like the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:National Futures Association and Futures Industry Association in the U.S. These organizations serve similar purposes in their respective areas, fostering collaboration, promoting education, and advocating for market integrity.