Foreign exchange market

The foreign exchange market (forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized market for the trading of currencies. This includes all aspects of buying, selling and exchanging currencies at current or determined prices. In terms of volume of trading, it is by far the largest market in the world. The main participants in this market are the larger international banks. Financial centres around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of multiple types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends. The foreign exchange market does not determine the relative values of different currencies, but sets the current market price of the value of one currency as demanded against another.

The foreign exchange market works through financial institutions, and it operates on several levels. Behind the scenes banks turn to a smaller number of financial firms known as “dealers,” who are actively involved in large quantities of foreign exchange trading. Most foreign exchange dealers are banks, so this behind-the-scenes market is sometimes called the “interbank market”, although a few insurance companies and other kinds of financial firms are involved. Trades between foreign exchange dealers can be very large, involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Because of the sovereignty issue when involving two currencies, forex has little (if any) supervisory entity regulating its actions.

Reserve

Reserve or reserves may refer to:

Economics

Places

Military reserve

A military reserve, reserve formation, or simply reserve, is a group of military personnel or units which are initially not committed to a battle by their commander so that they are available to address unforeseen situations or exploit suddenly developing opportunities. Such forces may be held back to defend against attack from other enemy forces, to be committed to the existing battle if the enemy exposes a vulnerability, or to serve as relief for troops already fighting. Some of the different categories of military reserves are: tactical reserve, operational reserve, strategic reserve.

A military reserve is different from a military reserve force, which is a military organization composed of military personnel who maintain their military skills and readiness in a long-term part-time commitment to support their country if needed. Military reserve refers to specific trained pre-organized forces operating as an on call basis from the main military force.

Background

The concept of reserve forces dates at least to early Roman legionary formations. In the early Roman legion, the soldiers were divided by wealth and age, with the poorer and younger Hastati forming the first line, followed by the Principes, and the wealthier and older Triarii. The first two lines were expected to do the majority of the fighting, with the third line held in reserve, both as a last resort and to deter routing.

Reserve (accounting)

In financial accounting, reserve is any part of shareholders' equity, except for basic share capital. In nonprofit accounting, an "operating reserve" is the unrestricted cash on hand available to sustain an organization, and nonprofit boards usually specify a target of maintaining several months of operating cash or a percentage of their annual income, called an Operating Reserve Ratio.

There are different types of reserves used in financial accounting like capital reserves, revenue reserves,statutory reserves, realized reserves, unrealized reserves.

Equity reserves are created from several possible sources: