In 1986, Caterpillar made a 100 million profit trading the forex and would have actually had an operating loss for the year on their normal business if it wasn't for that profit.
In 2002, Bank of America made a $530 million profit in forex trading as stated under "Global Investment Income" on their annual statement.
Daimler Chrysler sells cars, correct? In 2003, they made more money on foreign exchange than by selling cars and half of their second quarter operating profit was from currency trades.
Foreign currency exchange used to be the playground of only the very rich. The past decade it has been opened up so someone with as little as a few hundred dollars can trade the forex.
This has spawned an industry all of its own teaching people to trade the forex. Seminars, charting systems, currency trading systems, signal systems and software have all been created to instruct people how to trade the forex.
Interestingly enough, the range of what a person can pay for this instruction varies dramatically. A person may or may not actually learn how to trade the forex profitably after spending thousands.
For example, a one- or two-day forex seminar typically will cost thousands. Companies market software that costs thousands. Signal companies typically charge monthly fees of hundreds of dollars to send the numbers to a person and the numbers are just plugged in.
None of these costs can assure that someone will actually make money in the forex. In fact, over 90% of new forex traders lose their accounts.
With the appropriate resources, a person can earn 20% monthly on their money and as they build their account up, an exponential force can dramatically increase their account.
For example, a person begins with $1,000 and sees their account grow to $2,000. The trader can add risk to their account by adding a lot. So, instead of making $400, which would be 20% on that $2,000, the trader would make $800 by having added a lot. You can see the exponential power of the forex.
Unfortunately, this power is what gets new traders in trouble. Not every trade is a win. With a few wins under a trader's belt, the newbie believes he or she can add more lots to their trade, and then they end up with a huge loss.
It is advised that the beginning forex trader begin with some of the e-books or online resources that are less expensive at first to ensure their success trading this market.
Brian Sater is a forex consultant and the author of "How to Easily Make Forex Money Online" to assist the beginner trader and the trader who is not making money trading forex. The author is providing one to two free trades per month to help the forex trader achieve a net average of 20% per month on their account. The e-book is located at http://www.forexmoneyonline.com