Similarly, prices in international commodity markets are quoted in US dollars, ensuring transparency on a global scale and omitting costly pricing in two or more currencies. Second, in the absence of a significant shock triggering an abrupt change in the international use of one currency, the sheer size of stocks relative to flows or turnover is likely to mean a gradual adjustment.
Thus, changes in the currency composition in major market segments are likely to be gradual, because the respective stocks tend to be large, at least if we assume that such changes will occur only through a currency diversification of the respective flows. For example, the stock of global foreign exchange reserves at the end of 2007 amounted to USD 6.4 trillion.