Currency Pairs in Forex

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Currency Pairs

In order to trade currencies, they must first be paired together. The USD/CHF is the US Dollar and the Swiss Franc paired together. This way we can monitor the changes in the currency rate between the two. A currency’s value only changes relative to another country’s currency. Using charts, we can see how the market moves(For more infor read our article – How to Read MT Forex Charts ). Using “technical analysis”, we can determine if the chart will move up or down. If the chart moves up, we want to buy, and if the chart moves down, we want to sell.
The first currency in a pair is called the Base Currency, the second is called the Quote Currency. In the example USD/CHF, the USD is the Base currency and the CHF is the Quote currency. The value of the pair means that 1 unit of the Base currency will cost so much of the Quote currency. If the USD/CHF is priced at 0.9679, that means it will cost 0.9679 Franc to buy 1 US Dollar.

Here an example  of EUR/USD Currency Pair:

Types of Currency Pairs:

Majors, Crosses, Exotics

Major Currency Pairs

The “majors” –  currencies that are the major countries that are paired vs. the USD (plus their nick names in parenthesis):
EURUSD – Euro vs. the U.S. dollar (the Anti-dollar)
GBPUSD – British pound vs. the U.S. dollar (Sterling, Cable)
USDJPY – U.S. dollar vs. the Japanese yen (the Yen)
USDCHF – U.S. dollar vs. the Swiss franc (Swissie)
USDCAD – U.S. dollar vs. the Canadian dollar (Loonie)
AUDUSD – Australian dollar vs. the U.S. dollar (Aussie)
NZDUSD – New Zealand dollar vs. the U.S. dollar (Kiwi or Kiwi dollar)

Currency Crosses

The “Crosses” – pairs that are not paired vs. the USD:
EURCHF – Euro vs. the Swiss franc
EURJPY – Euro vs. the Japanese yen
EURGBP – Euro vs. the British pound
EURCAD – Euro vs. the Canadian dollar
EURAUD – Euro vs. the Australian dollar
EURNZD – Euro vs. the New Zealand dollar
GBPCHF – British pound vs. the Swiss franc
GBPJPY – British pound vs. the Japanese yen
GBPAUD – British pound vs. the Australian dollar
CADJPY – Canadian dollar vs. the Japanese yen
AUDJPY – Australian dollar vs. the Japanese yen
AUDCAD – Australian dollar vs. the Canadian dollar
AUDNZD – Aussie dollar vs. the New Zealand dollar
AUDCHF – Australian dollar vs. the Swiss franc
NZDJPY – New Zealand dollar vs. the Japanese yen
CHFJPY – Swiss franc vs. the Japanese yen

Exotic Currency Pairs

The “exotics” –  pairs that are emerging economies rather than developed nations. Here are a few of the exotics Currency pairs:
USDTRY – U.S. dollar vs. the Turkish lira
EURTRY – Euro vs. the Turkish lira
USDZAR – U.S. dollar vs. the South African rand
USDMXN – U.S. dollar vs. the Mexican peso
USDSGD – U.S. dollar vs. the Singapore dollar

Our advice for newbies – tarde on demo and on Major Currency Pairs. Before trading don’t forget read our Forex outlook for Major Currency Pairs