Research Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research Portfolio - Essay Example 81). Due to the increased level of global trade, the foreign exchange, market has grown since as early as 1980 to present. It is estimated that on average, global foreign exchange turnovers have increased from $1.7 trillion in the year 1998 to $3.98 trillion in the month of April, 2010 (Weithers, 2012, pp. 221). Amidst all this growth, the foreign exchange market has had its challenges and emerging issues which affect its operations and growth. One of the major challenges facing international trade is global and regional recessions such as the global credit crunch and the EU financial crisis. Economic openness or regions also highly impact the forex market. Some of the emerging issues in the foreign exchange market include financial instruments such as in spot transactions, forwards, swaps, future and options. Hedge funds have also developed with the growth of the forex market. The following project will be investigating the contemporary issues in the foreign exchange market and thei r effects Research questions First, what are the emerging financial instruments in the foreign exchange market and their effects on the market? Second, what are the effects of regional and global recessions on the foreign exchange market? Third, what is the relationship between economic openness of economies and the foreign exchange market? Fourth, what are the major determinants of the exchange rates in the global market? Fifth, what are the challenges in the foreign exchange market? Data To answer the first question, I will collect data from existing literature about developments in financial instruments in the dynamic foreign exchange market. These include turn overs in the options and future markets. Google scholar has credible sources on information. World Bank’s website (data.worldbank.com) has reliable data on facts such as volumes of forex exchange trade, economic openness of countries and variables which could indicate intensities of regional and global recessions. T hese include GDP and Public Debt levels of countries studies. Data will be collected over the period from 1990 to 2010 from countries most actively involved in the foreign exchange market such as the UK, Japan and the US Proposed methodology A correlation coefficient will be calculated to determine if there is any relationship between emerging issues, such as options, futures, economic openness and business cycles, and the development of the global foreign exchange market. I will use a regression model to estimate the effect of the former variable (emerging issues such as options and futures turnovers, economic openness and business cycles) on the later variable (global foreign exchange market turn overs). Emerging issues are the independent variables while the global foreign exchange market is the dependent variable. The following model will be estimated F = C + a*O +b* Fu + c*Eo + d*Bc Where; F – foreign exchange market turnover C – Constant O – Options turn o vers Fu – Futures turn overs Eo – Economic openness index Bc – Business cycle indicator References DeLong, G., Smith, R.C., Walter, I., (2012), Global Banking, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Weithers, T, (2012), Foreign exchange: A practical guide to the fx markets volume 309 of wiley finance, New York: John Wiley & Sons. Effects of banking market structure on firm performance Financial institutions such as banks are important elements of economic and social