Rob Booker is a forex seminar entertainer, a forex "systems" marketer and he is not a successful trader. I can say this from plenty of personal experience: I attended two of his seminars, co-taught another one with him in Canada, and am mentioned in his book. Once Rob held a contest to see who could submit the most profitable system. A guy wrote an elaborate description of a "winning system" and submitted it, knowing full well that it was a system that was a guaranteed loser. Rob awarded him first place, lol, and never tested the system! Rob makes nearly all of his (big) money from selling systems-of-the-month (stuff you can easily find online.) He has not been seen on FF since professional trader Phil McGrew (look him up here--his posts are gold) made him his "buddy" and would speak the truth whenever Rob would post. Stay far away from this clown. 
Both types of contracts are binding and are typically settled for cash for the exchange in question upon expiry, although contracts can also be bought and sold before they expire. The forwards and futures markets can offer protection against risk when trading currencies. Usually, big international corporations use these markets in order to hedge against future exchange rate fluctuations, but speculators take part in these markets as well. 
Since the market is made by each of the participating banks providing offers and bids for a particular currency, the market pricing mechanism is based on supply and demand. Because there are such large trade flows within the system, it is difficult for rogue traders to influence the price of a currency. This system helps create transparency in the market for investors with access to interbank dealing. 
