Learn about the symbols of the various currencies along with which are considered the Majors, the Major Pairs and the Cross Pairs.
As you may have noticed, the symbols (abbreviations) for all currencies have three letters. The first two letters denote the name of the country and third letter stands for the name of that country’s currency.
As an example, let’s look at the USD. The US stands for United States and the D stands Dollar.
The currencies on which the majority of traders focus are called the “majors”. hese most widely traded currencies are represented on the grid below…
Symbol Country Currency Nickname
AUD Australia Dollar Aussie
CAD Canada Dollar Loonie
CHF Switzerland Franc Swissy
EUR Eurozone countries Euro Euro
GBP Great Britain Pound Cable
JPY Japan Yen Yen
NZD NeW Zealand Dollar Kiwi
USD United States Dollar Buck
Not to be confused with major currencies are the major currency pairs. The Major Pairs are any currency pair with USD in them. For example, the EURUSD would be considered a Major Pair.
Currency pairs without the USD in them are referred to as Cross Pairs. The EURJPY would be an example of a Cross Pair.
To carry this one step further, any EUR pair without the USD in it would be referred to as a Euro Cross. So the EURJPY would be a member of the EURO Cross group. Other member of that group would be EURGBP, EURCHF, EURNZD, EURCAD and EURAUD.
Other currency groups of this type would be comprised of the JPY crosses, GBP crosses, AUD crosses, NZD crosses and the CHF crosses.
---Written by Richard Krivo
To contact Richard, please email instructor@dailyfx.com. You can follow Richard on Twitter@RKrivoFX .
To be added to his distribution list, please send an email with the Subject Line “Notification” to rkrivo@fxcm.com.
DailyFX provides forex news on the economic reports and political events that influence the currency market.
Learn currency trading with a free practice account and charts from FXCM.
There are no comments yet