World Currencies

Any Forex trading transaction is made of the buying of one currency and the simultaneous selling of another currency. The two Forex trading currencies being traded are called the currency pair. A currency quote is made of these two pairs of Forex trading currencies, situated together and divided by a line (for example, EUR/USD).
Currencies are always quoted in pairs, such as GBP/USD, USD/CAD or USD/JPY. The reason they are quoted in pairs is because in every foreign exchange transaction, you are simultaneously buying one currency and selling another.

The US Dollar is usually the centerpiece of Forex and Precious Metal Trading and is typically considered the BASE value. The main exceptions for this are the EUR, GBP and the AUD currencies, which appear before the USD in a quote.

In order to visualize the interrelation between the two pairs, think of the movement of a Teeter-Totter. So if your chart reads something like USD/CAD 101.09 this means that $1 US dollar is equal to 101.09 Canadian Dollars. This currency shows your profits and losses for the Forex trading transaction.

The first listed currency to the left of the slash (“/”) is known as the base currency (in this example, the US, Dollar), while the second one on the right is called the counter or quote currency (in this example, the Canadian, Dollar or Loonie). USD/CAD = 1.7500.
When buying, the exchange rate tells you how much you have to pay in units of the quote currency to buy one unit of the base currency. In the example above, you have to pay 1.7500 Canadian, dollar to buy 1 US Dollar. When selling, the exchange rate tells you how many units of the quote currency you get for selling one unit of the base currency. In the example above, you will receive 1.7500 Canadian Dollars when you sell 1 US Dollar. The base currency is the “basis” for the buy or the sell. If you buy EUR/USD this simply means that you are buying the base currency and simultaneously selling the quote currency.
You would buy the pair if you believe the base currency will appreciate (go up) relative to the quote currency. You would sell the pair if you think the base currency will depreciate (go down) relative to the quote currency.

Cross currencies are types of Forex trading currency pairs that both do not consist of the USD. For example; the pair CHF/JPY, worth 84.50 which would mean that one Swiss franc is equal to 84.50 Japanese yen. Sometimes not all of the currencies are available for you to buy and sell, so you should check this factor out when choosing an online Forex trading site.

The most popular currencies along with their symbols are shown below.

Forex currency symbols are always three letters, where the first two letters identify the name of the country and the third letter identifies the name of that country’s currency.

FOREX Trading Period

The Forex market is unique within the world markets. It’s like a Super Center where the market is open 24-hours a day. At any time, somewhere around the world a financial center is open for business, and banks and other institutions exchange currencies every hour of the day and night with generally only minor gaps on the weekend.