Who are the big players in the forex market? How can I compete with the big banks? Corvin Codirla, ex-hedge fund manager and trader comments. The Forex Market: Who Trades Currency And Why. The big players will be pension funds, insurance companies, big asset managers, central banks themselves. These are people with physical transactions of cash, not just speculators. If forex is a zero-sum game am I competing with others? Not all participants have the same objective. Central banks have an objective of maintaining a certain percentage of the reserve currency.