Until relatively recently, the only practical way for you to play currency (FX) markets was by wading into the potentially treacherous waters of futures contracts. This often required you to have a separate account unrelated to your stock brokerage account. Yes, you could trade on margin, putting up as little as a few thousand dollars. But because of the contract size, even a very small move against you could have been disastrous. For example, a euro FX contract is for 125,000 euros (US$185,000 at current rates). A $.0001 per Euro change equals $12.50 per contract. More often than not, investors who tried this kind of trading got beat up pretty badly for their effort unless they initially put up most of the value of the contract. But now, with currency ETFs, you can trade through your stock brokerage account and gain access to this lucrative market with an initial outlay of, say, only $1,000-$2,000 and not have to worry that a minor move in the wrong direction might wipe out your entire investment.