THE DAILY CHART: Our coveted currency

The Australian dollar is now well within striking distance of reaching parity with the US dollar. Sportsbet slashed its odds of the historic event occurring by the end of the year from $3.50 to $1.66, which is remarkable considering that parity predictions for 2010 were pretty much off the table by July, when the local currency had slumped to 82 US cents. But the Australian dollar doesn't need to be near-par with the greenback to get the attention of currency traders – as this graph from Business Insider shows, trading volume in the Australian dollar has grown an astonishing 388 per cent since 2001.



Even the trading volume of the highly sought Canadian Loonie hasn't kept pace with the Aussie dollar, which is leading the incredibly strong overall growth of currency trading. Since the beginning of 2001, global currency trading has risen 221 per cent to the point where nearly $US4 trillion is traded every 24 hours – the equivalent of China's GDP is changing hands in less than a day and a half on a constant basis. You can argue that forex is simply evolving into a more mature asset class, but you'd also have to ask is this kind of growth sustainable?