How is the exchange rate formed?

Question

Fintech

good evening.
such a question - how is the exchange rate formed, say the euro against the dollar?
with futures and options for indices and other things - it's understandable. there are buyers, sellers, the cost of contracts and centralized trading where all current and pending orders are visible.
the course is formed by means of a glass.
on forex or euro futures, there is complete decentralization and there is no order book. How is the course formed then?
meaning in what. with a glass, everything is clear in terms of a major player. but with the euro futures is completely incomprehensible in this context. does it exist or is everything somehow formed differently than collecting liquidity with subsequent distribution?
something like this. I would be very grateful if someone can explain to me the essence of this issue.

Answer 1

There are also buyers and sellers, applications are also visible on the exchange and the rate is formed in approximately the same way.

Answer 2

I am far from finance and I do not know any of the concepts above, but it always seemed to me that exchange rates are formed by the stock exchange.
Let's say we have a dollar/euro pair. People come to the stock exchange with bags of dollars and euros. And, for example, someone has a bag of dollars and he needs euros. And he considers an adequate price of 0.9 euros for 1 dollar. And he says that he has 10k dollars, which he will sell at that price.
Those who have euros, but who need dollars, look - you can take a dollar for 0.9 euros. If it suits them, then they buy, if not, then they make their offers. For example, 1 dollar for 0.8 euros.
As a result, offers are obtained from both sides with different costs and volumes. The gap between the offer to buy and sell is the same difference that is shown in banks. If you want to buy / sell immediately - change with the most profitable option. If you want more profitable - put your offer and wait until there is someone who wants to buy now.
Therefore, for example, if someone comes and buys a large amount of currency, there is a large gap between buying and selling (which decreases over time as offers move closer to sell faster).
You can see this more visually in the graph example. For example, here is for bitcoin(market depth). The volume of bitcoins that are ready to buy / sell for a different amount of $ is shown. And the current rate is where they are ready to pay so much for it.
Where the blue ones are those who want to sell bitcoins, and the red ones are those who would like to buy them.

Answer 3

It may not be relevant anymore, but why are you not satisfied with the currency section on the MICEX? There you have a glass and everything you need. USDRUB_TOD and TOM (currency delivery today/tomorrow). In Currenex, you need to read who withdraws where (not a forex expert). But you are right about decentralization. For example, the same Yandex is traded on more than one exchange (there are both in Moscow and on foreign exchanges), but in our times of technological progress, arbitration must equalize prices between different sites.

Answer 4

The government says it's all speculators doing! ))