Quite the confusion is afoot in the financial markets. Tighter regulation, rising inflation, energy sector disruptions, social unrest and wars have taken a toll on the world's economies. How come Forex, as a means of investment, has come up on top as a global trend in 2022? Against the backdrop of current events, the international broker’s expert team at OctaFX has gathered some answers.

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Media OutReach - 10 October 2022 - The financial world is enduring some important shifts and shocks right now. This has been going on for at least two and a half years—since the start of the global coronavirus pandemic. Now—because of the monetary policies implemented by most national economies—inflation is spreading and raging on every continent like a virus. It leaves no country untouched. Ordinary people lose their savings, funds, and the purchasing power of their national currencies. Governments regulate as much as they can. But current circumstances, many of which are quite unprecedented in recent memory, led to policies restricting some financial markets. Among them—the Forex market. But the thing is that it is Forex investments that have gained traction recently, having become an international trend by now. Now that we know where we are at, we can take a look back into the history of financial investments—specifically, how it pertains to the Foreign Exchange market. The plain history of making investments Making investments goes way back. Thousands of years ago, people of different tribes, villages, and regions found routes and means to exchange goods of all kinds: farm animals, precious metals and rocks, or domesticated wheat, to just name a few. Each of these ancient transactions and trades were investments—as capital, as trust in future trade relations, or often as a means of survival. The Foreign Exchange market as a hub of making investments is almost as old—since at least the invention of the coin as an exchange currency, so at least around 600 B.C. It can be considered as a dynamic basket of foreign currencies and a network of exchanges. To put it even more bluntly, Forex represents the process of changing one currency into another. The Foreign Exchange market is decentralised by nature. Today, it exists completely online and utilises a vast variety of different countries, currencies, and commodities. Making a huge leap into the present day, Forex experiences a significant global revival as a way of making investments. The age of quarantine, home office and lockdowns, mass lay-offs, and blunt economic uncertainty fueled by inflation forced many people into researching alternative approaches to generating additional or passive income online. Forex came out on top. Why did this trend emerge now? Many factors contributed to a heightened interest in Foreign Exchange. As we alluded to in the beginning, developments in geopolitics, the world economy, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic created a bundled sense of uncertainty in the financial markets. Due to the war in Ukraine, the E.U.'s compounded economy and its euro have significantly weakened. This ongoing process made it possible for the U.S. dollar to catch up to full equivalence, which has not been done since 2002, twenty years ago. This strong performance of the American currency made even retail raise their attention, looking for strong opportunities to engage. Where Forex has gained traction, other assets like stocks and real estate have weakened. The reason is, again, rising instability and insecurity in the respective markets. Less people choose to enter these for fear of miscalculation. Commodities can be traded and invested in via Forex, as well. Whereas crucial ones like natural gas and crude oil have constantly risen in price. One of the aspects for crude oil to explode in value being the OPEC countries not yielding to the U.S.' demands in significantly upping monthly production. Whereas natural gas was priced at 43.99 USD in June 2020 and went up to 483.23 USD in June 2022—an increase by 998.49 per cent. Only through Forex could one have taken advantage of a ten-fold, dramatic price movement like this. Forex—among the best types of investment Since investments can be legitimate sources of passive income, let us have a rundown of the most solid and relevant assets that can serve as investments—especially, as they relate to Foreign Exchange. Gold is a historically proven type of investment—a magnificent long-term hedge against inflation, it has a strong track record. The downside is probably its physicality: unlike with Forex, gold needs to be stored somewhere safe and robust. The more one has, the more storage and safety becomes an issue. Much like gold, real estate is a heavy-duty path to making an investment. The advantage is security and relatively low price volatility. Also, the owner can rent their real estate, by which they generate...