Cash transactions are transactions between tourists and people who need foreign exchange cash for other purposes, including cash and foreign exchange traveler's checks. Spot trading is a transaction between big banks, and it is also a transaction between big banks acting as agents for big customers. After the transaction is concluded, the payment and delivery of funds shall be completed within two working days at the latest; Contract spot trading is a way for investors to sign foreign exchange contracts with financial companies, which is suitable for public investment; Futures trading is conducted at the agreed time and at the established exchange rate, and the amount of each contract is fixed; Option trading is an option to trade in advance whether to buy or sell a certain currency in the future; Forward transactions are delivered on the date stipulated in the contract, and the contract can be large or small, and the delivery period is flexible. Strictly speaking, foreign exchange firm trading and foreign exchange margin trading, which investors are familiar with, belong to contract spot trading among the main varieties of foreign exchange trading.
On the one hand, the diversification of foreign exchange transactions puts forward various requirements for foreign exchange transactions, especially the volatility of exchange rates is increasing. In order to avoid losses caused by exchange rate changes, importers and exporters have produced forward foreign exchange transactions and futures foreign exchange transactions. On the other hand, it is the result of the continuous development of the financial industry in major industrial countries. In recent ten years, the financial commodities in major industrial countries have become increasingly diversified, infiltrated and "grafted" with each other. For example, with the development of commodity futures such as soybeans and cotton, foreign exchange has also joined the ranks of futures. In the field of stock, there has been equity trading, and foreign exchange trading has also introduced "right" trading, which has developed into foreign exchange option trading.
Judging from the number of foreign exchange transactions, the proportion of foreign exchange transactions generated by international trade in the whole foreign exchange transactions is declining. According to statistics, the current proportion is only about 4%. Then, it can be said that the mainstream of foreign exchange transactions is investment, with the aim of making profits from exchange rate fluctuations. Therefore, spot, contract spot and futures transactions account for the largest proportion in foreign exchange transactions, while spot transactions are mainly transactions between banks. This article does not intend to describe them in detail. The following will mainly introduce contract spot foreign exchange trading and futures foreign exchange trading which are suitable for public investment and very popular in major industrial countries.