格雷格.麥克法蘭
你手中的柬埔寨瑞爾可能是最漂亮的風俗畫，當你在吳哥窟和吳哥城享用他們的故事時，已故國王諾羅敦·西哈努克以莊嚴的面貌看左邊的人。但是在國際貿易中，它們卻沒有那麼多效用。事實上，絕大多數貨幣都存在在本國以外流通受限制的問題。盡管全世界有180多種貨幣在流通，外匯交易大多數時間僅涉及6種貨幣。這是帕托雷原理在真實應用中一個極端的例子。我們來列舉一下這些貨幣和它們是怎樣支配市場的。
所有的國際旅行者都能證實，全球對美元的需求是巨大的且沒有激烈的競争。在蒙古國烏蘭巴托機場的出租車司機只收取一種外幣，而且既不是盧佈也不是人民幣。由於一個相對穩定的政府，一個歷史性動態經濟，和始終不變的價值（低膨脹），美元稱為了全世界實易的交換媒介。或者相對文雅一點的詞匯，世界的主要儲備貨幣。
美元是外國政府在國際交易中主要的儲備貨幣。美國旅客在國外的優勢很明顯，但是美元的尊貴地位也使那些從未離開過國土的人受益。美國的個人和機構不僅可以在跨國採購中降低交易成本，還可以以更低的利率貸款。此外，由於美元相對其他貨幣的恒定的儲備價值，使得進口到美國的花費更少。（雖然不可避免的是，美國出口則相應的更昂貴）
美元在世界各地的地位並不均衡。任何兩種貨幣在市場中進行交易的時候，有44%的概率其中一種是美元。一些國家的經濟和美國交織強烈或者依賴美國，這些國家已經非正式的接受了美元作為他們的流通貨幣。例如巴哈馬元和百慕大元為例，已經被法定與美元完全等價。
貨幣交易當然需要第二種貨幣。當美元（或者任何其他貨幣）被交易時，絕大多數時間他們都被用來和直到這個世紀才以物理形式存在的歐元交易。作為從葡萄牙到芬蘭、從斯洛文尼亞到斯洛伐克廣大地區任意地區的官方貨幣，這個世界上流通第二的貨幣每天被超過五億的非洲和歐洲人使用，在這方面甚至讓美元相形見绌。隨著歐元區的擴張，它今年開始迎接拉脫維亞和立陶宛在2015年的加入，歐元在外匯交易中的重要性只會增加。
經歷過20世紀80年代並且有意識的美國人可能記得那時對日本走出廢墟並在經濟上統治世界的隐憂。日元相對美元的價值增加了兩倍，日本也利用這個原因在美國各個機構的採購中獲利。因為日本經濟如此依賴國際貿易，日元在外匯市場逐漸變得重要。但是近年來，日本中央銀行盡量保持利率接近零。美國聯邦儲備銀行也採取了類似的政策，這導致的結果之一就是在過去幾年裡日元對美元的價值喪失了四分之一。
在20世紀50年代，美國的經濟與其他國家相比具有比現在更強大的優勢。即便如此，美元也沒有贏得全球通用儲備貨幣的稱號。在大英帝國的衰落階段，英鎊不能完全的作為國際交易的媒介，一個自古以來它所占據的位置。更像今天的歐元，一些國家但不都是英聯邦成員，把英鎊視為與其本國貨幣同等效力或者適當的使用。現在，英鎊是世界上第四大流通貨幣，在外匯市場中出現的幾率是6%。
為什麼英鎊失寵了呢？簡短的回答就是自然界沒有真空。在第二次世界大戰期間英國政府將英鎊的價值設置在與美元固定的匯率。這不是要反過來證明後者重要性的事實。一系列的金融災難導致英鎊在1949年和1976年兩次貶值，摧毀了謹慎的英國人的存款，從而鞏固了美元作為世界儲備貨幣的地位。
其中一個以英鎊衍生出自己貨幣價值的國家及時從貨幣貶值中逃脫出來，澳元1966年發行以取代當時澳大利亞瀕臨崩潰的英鎊，從那時起在和澳大利亞經濟規模不相稱的水平交易作為亞太和太平洋地區儲備貨幣使用。近年來澳元在和其他主要貨幣交易時取得了巨大的地位，當前和美元交易價格已經接近歷史頂峰。
另一種帶有更大國際意義的貨幣是瑞士法郎。瑞士法郎是世界第六大交易貨幣，盡管被結合起來還沒有美國幾個縣大的兩個國家（瑞士和 列支敦斯登）作為法定貨幣使用。瑞士中央銀行是另一個維持零膨脹率的中央貨幣機構，瑞士法郎對美元自2012年以來一只保持相當穩定。瑞士的政治穩定和分散的政治結構使瑞士法郎被全世界貨幣市場需求。瑞士沒有準備加入歐元區，盡管週圍國家都使用歐元。在整個西歐大陸，瑞士和挪威是唯一兩個拒絕使用歐元的國家。
總結
一些投資者存儲外國貨幣以避免在自己國家貨幣動蕩時受到損失。另外一些人則投資那些不需要操作的信譽好的股票。不管什麼原因，外匯是21世紀金融界重要的組成部分。貨幣運用的越多越穩定，人們交易它的可能性就越大。
The 6 Most-Traded Currencies And Why They're So Popular
By Greg McFarlane
Your Cambodian riel notes are probably great conversation pieces, the late King Norodom Sihanouk’s solemn visage glancing at the people to your left as you regale them with tales of your visit to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. But as international trading commodities, those notes don’t have quite as much utility. In fact, the overwhelming majority of currencies are of limited use outside their countries of issue. Even though there are 180 currencies in circulation throughout the world and majority of worldwide foreign exchange transactions involve a mere half-dozen of those currencies. It’s an extreme instance of the Pareto principle, with real-world applications. Here’s a look at those select currencies, and how they came to dominate the markets.
As any international traveler will confirm, the demand for United States Dollars across the globe is enormous and without serious competition. The cab drivers at the Ulan Bator airport in Mongolia will take only one non-Mongolian currency, and it’s neither the Russian ruble or the Chinese yuan. Thanks to a relatively stable government, a historically dynamic economy, and consistent value (low inflation) over time, the U.S. dollar serves as the de facto universal medium of exchange. Or to use the chosen term of art, the world’s primary reserve currency.
As the reserve currency, the U.S. dollar is the predominant one held by foreign governments for international transactions. The advantage to American travelers abroad is obvious, but the U.S. dollar’s exalted status also benefits those who never leave the country. American individuals and institutions not only save on transaction costs when purchasing across borders, but can borrow money at lower rates. Furthermore, imports to the United States cost less thanks to the U.S. dollar’s consistent store of value vis-à-vis other currencies. (Though the inevitable flip side to this is that U.S. exports are correspondingly more expensive.)
The U.S. dollar’s dominance across the world is not slim. Any time a pair of currencies are traded for each other in the marketplace, there’s a 44% chance that one of the currencies being purchased or sold is the redoubtable greenback. Some countries’ economies are so intertwined with or dependent on the United States’ that those nations have unofficially adopted the U.S. dollar as their own. The Bahamian dollar and the Bermudian dollar, for instance, are set de jure as exactly equivalent to their U.S. counterpart.
A currency transaction requires a second currency, of course. And when U.S. dollars (or any other currency) are traded, a plurality of the time they’re being traded for a currency that didn’t even exist in physical form until this century - the euro. As the official currency of everywhere from Portugal to Finland, from Slovenia to Slovakia, the second most-traded currency in the world is used daily by more than half a billion people throughout both Europe and Africa, dwarfing even the U.S. dollar in that respect. As the eurozone continues to expand – it began this year by welcoming Latvia, and Lithuania is scheduled come on board in 2015 – the euro’s importance in foreign exchange will only increase.
Americans who were alive and conscious during the late 1980s may remember the mildly xenophobic fear that Japan was finally about to emerge from the ashes of ruin and take over the world, economically speaking. The Japanese yen tripled in value relative to the U.S. dollar, and Japanese interests took advantage of this by purchasing positions in various U.S. institutions. With Japan’s economy so contingent on international trade, the yen became gradually more important in forex markets. But in recent years, Japan’s central bank has kept interest rates as close to zero as possible. While the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States has ostensibly adopted a similar policy, one result is that the yen has lost nearly a quarter of its value vs. the U.S. dollar over the last couple of years.
In the 1950s, the United States economy was even larger relative to the rest of the world’s than it is today. Yet even then, the U.S. dollar still had yet to claim the title of universal reserve currency. In the declining stages of the British Empire, the sun had not quite yet set on the pound sterling as the medium of choice for international transactions - a position it had occupied since time out of mind. Much like the euro today, several countries – most but not all of them Commonwealth members - used the pound either side-by-side with their own domestically minted currencies, or in place thereof. Today, the pound is the world’s fourth most-traded currency, appearing in about 6% of all forex transactions.
Why did the pound fall out of favor? The short answer is that nature abhors a vacuum. During World War II, the U.K. government set the value of the pound in terms of the U.S. dollar at a fixed rate. That it wasn’t the other way around testified to the reality of the latter’s importance. A series of British financial calamities led to the pound being devalued in 1949, and again in 1967, which decimated the savings of prudent Britons and, by extension, served to solidify the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.
One of those countries that had derived its own currency’s value from the pound sterling got out just in time to escape that last devaluation. The Australian dollar was created in 1966 to replace Australia’s defunct pound, and has since gone on to serve as something of a reserve currency for much of the Asia-Pacific region and Oceania, trading at levels disproportionate to the size of the Australian economy. The “Aussie” has gained significant ground against other major currencies in recent years, and currently trades at close to an all-time zenith against the U.S. dollar.
Another country whose currency carries greater global significance than would be expected is Switzerland. The Swiss franc is the sixth most-traded currency in the world, despite being legal tender in only two countries (the other being Liechtenstein), which combined are smaller than several U.S. counties. The Swiss National Bank being another central monetary authority with a zero-inflation policy, the franc’s value has remained remarkably stable in terms of the U.S. dollar since 2012. Switzerland’s own internal stability and decentralized political structure have made the franc desirable in world currency markets. Switzerland has made no provision for ever joining the eurozone, even though every surrounding country uses the euro. In all of continental Western Europe, Switzerland and Norway remain the only holdouts.
The Bottom Line
Some investors want foreign currencies in order to hedge against the volatility of their own nations’ currencies. Others want a position in a reputable security that doesn’t require taking possession of anything physical. Regardless of the reason, forex is an integral part of 21st century finance. And the more widely used and reliable the currency, the greater the likelihood of people buying and selling it every day.
本文翻譯由兄弟財經提供
文章來源：http://www.investopedia.com/articles/general/022814/rewrite-6-mosttraded-currencies-and-why-theyre-so-popular.asp