TLDR: FX is getting to where equities and derivative markets have been for a while<p>FX is an OTC market. There are no official &quot;exchanges&quot;. Most trading happens either on the interbank markets or via brokers like ICAP, BGC, etc.<p>Over the last few years, the spreads (difference between a buy and sell price) have compressed. FX Clients (i.e. corporations, hedge funds etc.) who would trade directly with their preferred banks; now aggregate feeds from multiple banks and brokers to attempt to get the best possible price.<p>This automation and increase in client sophistication has led directly to tailored market making and sophisticated risk management. The number of players in the FX market has increased as the technology has commoditised. Things like the latency and quality of your market making feed have become differentiators.<p>All of the above has resulted in the market going electronic and a massive reduction in the proportion of trades being quoted and managed by human traders. In most banks, market making is now done by algorithms that aggregate market data and other information from a variety of sources.<p>Traders have either become specialised to niche currencies (Asian, Emerging Markets, etc.) or at dealing with extremely large trades. Their job is now all about determining the type of rate (i.e. which algo) a client should get and how the risk from those trades is managed (aggressively, passively, etc.).<p>I have worked on FX desks (as a developer) for 10+ years. I have seen spot trading desks shrink incredibly, with old school traders being replaced by quants and quant-developers. The algorithmic trading space in FX is not as sophisticated as that in equities of derivatives, but is getting there.