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Information > Financial Terms > This page Free Market Generally, the open market where prices are determined by free and open competition between buyers and sellers, where volume and prices are free to express truly the prevailing conditions. In the U.S., security exchanges are truly free and competitive markets, free of any trading limits as to price fluctuation or as to positions of traders, long or short. Commodity exchanges, however, are subject to daily price fluctuation limits and, for certain commodities, limits on positions of traders imposed by the COMMODITY EXCHANGE AUTHORITY. All forms of manipulation, by statute and administrative regulation, are forbidden on both stock and commodity exchanges. In FOREIGN EXCHANGE, where exchange controls are imposed by various countries, floating market rates for exchange transactions relative to specified currencies may be actually floating rates "managed" by governmental intervention, forward premiums and discounts being left to the interplay of market forces in the foreign exchange markets. Back to Information |