currency
USD = US dollar
EUR = Euros
JPY = Japanese Yen
British pound = pound sterling
CHF = Swiss Franc
CAD = Canadian dollar
AUD = Australian dollar
NZD = New Zealand Dollar
Currency pairs are the basis of forex trading. The foreign exchange market is where one country's currency is traded for another country's currency. Forex is always traded in pairs. There are six main currency pairs in the forex market:
EUR/USD = “Euros”
USD/JPY = “Yen Dollar”
GBP/USD = “cable” or “pound sterling”
USD/CHF = “Switzerland”
USD/CAD = “Canadian Dollar” (Canadian dollar is referred to as “Loonie”)
AUD/USD = “Australian Dollar”
NZD/USD = “Kiwi”
With statistical trading tools that determine each currency's strongest or weakest relative to other currencies, you can choose to trade the strongest currency against the weakest currency. EUR-USD is the most popular and has the largest transaction volume. Statistics show that 70% of transactions on Forex are carried out on EUR/USD. This is characterized by Interbank and central banks which are also called market makers. Private traders like you and me are the “small fish” in the forex trading pool. If you analyze your trades, you immediately know whether the best trade at that time was indeed the EUR-USD currency pair or another pair.
Now you know which pair you want to trade. The unit or price used in trading is called a pip, and is the smallest price increase that a currency can achieve. Also known as pips.
The standard unit size of a transaction is a lot. One standard lot is equal to 100,000 units of the base currency, or 10,000 units if it is a mini account (a type of trading account), or 1,000 units if it is a mini account (a type of trading account). Some dealers offer the ability to trade any unit size, down to just 1 unit.
