How are foreign currencies quoted and priced?
Currencies are designated by three letter symbols. The standard symbols for some of the most commonly traded currencies are: EUR Euros USD United States dollar CAD Canadian dollar GBP British pound JPY Japanese yen AUD Australian dollar CHF Swiss franc Forex transactions are quoted in pairs because you are buying one currency while selling another. The first currency is the base currency and the second currency is the quote currency. The price, or rate, that is quoted is the amount of the second currency required to purchase one unit of the first currency. For example, if EUR/USD has an ask price of 1.2178, you can buy one Euro for 1.2178 US dollars. Currency pairs are often quoted as bid-ask spreads. The first part of the quote is the amount of the quote currency you will receive in exchange for one unit of the base currency (the bid price) and the second part of the quote is the amount of the quote currency you must spend for one unit of the base currency (the ask or offer price). In