{"id":7767,"date":"2010-03-20T17:59:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-20T21:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/fx\/?p=7767"},"modified":"2010-03-20T17:59:56","modified_gmt":"2010-03-20T21:59:56","slug":"major-forex-currency-pairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2010\/03\/20\/major-forex-currency-pairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Forex Currency Pairs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Andrew Daigle<\/strong> &#8211; Forex currencies are always traded in pairs. For  example, EUR\/USD, which means Euro over US dollars, would be a typical  pair. In this case, the Euro, being the first currency can be called the  base currency. The second currency, by default USD, is called the  counter or quote currency. As mentioned, the first currency is the base,  therefore in a pair you can refer the amount of that currency as being  the amount required to purchase one unit of the second currency. So, if  you want to buy the currency pair, you have to buy the EURO and sell the  USD simultaneously. On the other hand, if you are looking to sell the  currency pair, you have to sell the EURO and buy the USD. As a part of  forex trading strategies the most important thing is to understand the  currency pairs, or more precisely in a Forex transaction, what currency  you will be selling or buying. Having good knowledge of major currencies  of the world is important while learning forex trading.<\/p>\n<p>Major currencies US Dollar \u2013 The United States  dollar is the world\u2019s main currency \u2013 a universal measure to evaluate  any other currency traded on Forex. All currencies are generally quoted  in US dollar terms. Under conditions of international economic and  political unrest, the US dollar is the main secure currency, which was  proven particularly well throughout the past Southeast Asian crisis. As  it was indicated, the US dollar became the leading currency toward the  end of the World War II, as the other currencies were almost pegged  against it.<\/p>\n<p>Euro \u2013 The Euro was designed to become the premier  currency in forex trading by simply being quoted in American terms. Like  the US dollar, the Euro has a strong international presence stemming  from members of the European Monetary Union. The currency stays plagued  by inadequate growth, high unemployment, and government resistance to  structural changes. The pair was also weighed in 1999 and 2000 by  outflows from foreign investors, particularly Japanese, who were forced  to liquidate their losing investments in euro-denominated assets.<\/p>\n<p>Japanese Yen \u2013 The Japanese Yen is the third most  traded currency in the world; it has a much smaller international  presence than the US dollar or the Euro. The Yen is very liquid around  the world.<\/p>\n<p>British Pound \u2013 Until the end of the Second World  War, the Pound was the currency of reference. The currency is heavily  traded against the Euro and the US dollar, but has a spotty presence  against the other currencies.<\/p>\n<p>Swiss Franc \u2013 The Swiss Franc is the currency of a  major European country that belongs neither to the European Monetary  Union nor the G-7 countries. Although the Swiss economy is relatively  small, the Swiss Franc is one of the four major currencies, closely  resembling the strength and quality of the Swiss economy and finance.  Typically, it is believed that the Swiss Franc is a stable currency.<\/p>\n<p>Canadian Dollar &#8211; Canada decided to use the dollar  instead of a Pound Sterling system because of the ubiquity of Spanish  dollars in North America in the 18th century and early 19th century and  because of the standardization of the American dollar. The Province of  Canada declared that all accounts would be kept in dollars as of January  1, 1858, and ordered the issue of the first official Canadian dollars  in the same year.<\/p>\n<p>Australian Dollar &#8211; The Australian Dollar was  introduced in February 14, 1966, not only replacing the Australian Pound  but also introducing a decimal system. Following the introduction of  the Australian Dollar in 1966, the value of the national currency  continued to be managed in accord with the Bretton Woods gold standard  as it had been since 1954. Essentially the value of the Australian  Dollar was dealt with reference to gold, although in practice the US  dollar was used.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>About the Author<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Andrew Daigle is the owner, creator and author of  many successful websites including ForexBoost, a free Forex educational  site to learn Forex trading strategies and a ForexBoost blog for keeping  online Forex trading records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Andrew Daigle &#8211; Forex currencies are always traded in pairs. For example, EUR\/USD, which means Euro over US dollars, would be a typical pair. In this case, the Euro, being the first currency can be called the base currency. The second currency, by default USD, is called the counter or quote currency. As mentioned, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2010\/03\/20\/major-forex-currency-pairs\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Major Forex Currency Pairs&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}