Non-resident participation in trading on the Bond Exchange, measured as the sum of their purchases and sales as a percentage of total purchases and sales of bonds, increased markedly from a level of about 9 per cent in early 2004 to as high as 18,9 per cent in early 2005.
The floating exchange rates that then followed meant that the world was left without an easily understood, credible monetary anchor. Hence the increasing quest for methodologies promoting financial stability. The other major feature of global financial markets has been the trends in capital flows. A major surge in capital flows started around the 1870s and continued till World War I.