One of the biggest advantages of trading forex is that you can trade literally right around the clock during the working week (ending with the US session on Friday and starting with the Japanese session on Monday). With no central exchange regulating transactions or data feed the various entities that make up the forex market - banks, funds, corporations etc. - can trade where they like, when they like in as big a quantity as they like.

Or can they? Well, as the map above shows, nearly but not quite. In particular, the three hour gap between the US session closing and the Oceanic session opening means that business could happen then but rarely would, at least if businesses were doing anything of any size.

It's an old graph but the relative numbers are still spot on with most activity occurring in the first half of the European session and then a second surge once New York opens.

That actually makes things very comfortable for European players as the peaks of activity occur when they're busiest throughout the day - only slightly less so for the US. Asia and Oceania have a thin time of it, however, even though the Yen is the third largest traded currency in the world.

As all the major traded currency pairs involve pairing with the US Dollar it's not exactly a surprise to hear that the buck is the largest traded currency in the world, but as forex traders we're more interested in how the various currency pairs compare with each other and the graphic here tells the story.

The EUR/USD pairing is undoubtedly the 800lb gorilla of the forex world, followed by the USD/JPY and some way behind by the GBP/USD. The USD/CHF is a poor fourth. However, in terms of sheer tradability, the GBPUSD is streets ahead of any of its competitors and anyone not trading that pair every day is leaving serious money on the table.