Global markets as global conversations

Abstract

Financial markets are one of the most iconic and influential structures of our time. The foreign exchange market in particular is also the most genuinely global market—and the largest market worldwide, with an average daily turnover of 1.8 trillion US dollars. The foreign exchange market is also structurally like a massive conversational interaction system; many of its transactions are conducted through electronically mediated ‘conversations’. Transactions not conducted through conversations but through an electronic broker also display a sequential turn-taking structure. In this paper, I analyze the streaming ‘flow’ architecture of this market in terms of its sequential structures and their technological and economic aspects. I also specify and analyze several types of texted sequences that articulate and illustrate the response-based interaction system of this market. I argue that informational sequences are particularly important; the informational liquidity of this market sustains and supports the market's economic liquidity.