Even for those of us that have been around the block a time or two, 2011 was one for the record books.

After yet another Japanese yen intervention by the Ministry of Finance, investors and traders around the world are questioning the “real” impact on the currency’s eternal price appreciation.

Exchange rates tend to react to new events with more immediacy and perhaps even more volatility than other markets. This is one of the reasons currency trading can be so challenging. Successful traders must quickly process new information as it happens, and determine what impact the latest development may have on exchange rates.

Observers of the Forex markets over the last decade know that the U.S. dollar has suffered something of a secular decline against almost all currencies, what is less apparent is that some of the surprising ‘star’ currencies over this time have put in some surprising ‘non-performances’ as we near year-end 2011.