When someone says he is trading currencies, what he actually means is he is betting that one currency will get stronger in relationship to another currency. For example, an FX trader might set up a trade that the euro will get stronger against the U.S. dollar, the Australian dollar will get stronger against the Japanese yen, or that the Swiss franc will get stronger against the British pound.

The concept that one currency will move and get stronger against another currency is the basis of FX trading. A currency trader will place trades in what are called FX pairs. FX pairs are two currencies and their prices relative to each other. As the overall currency market participants buy and sell a currency against other currencies, their prices move up and down against each other. These prices are reflected in the quote that is shown in your trading platform for that FX pair.

Sample Trades to Consider

As an example, after studying the overall economic conditions, fundamental country information, and other factors, you might consider that the value of the U.S. dollar is underpriced against the relative value of the euro. You might reach this conclusion after a big run-up in the euro, geopolitical events, etc. The difference and movement in the relative values of the U.S. dollar and the euro are measured and traded in the currency pair EUR/USD. In this case the EUR part of the pair stands for euro and the USD part stands for the U.S. dollar.

In the currency pair EUR/SEK, the first part, EUR, is called the base currency. The second part of the pair, SEK, is called the counter currency. Additionally, the first two letters of the symbol of a currency SE stand for the country (Sweden) and the last letter K stands for the currency (krona).

The FX pair EUR/USD represents the value of the euro relative to the U.S. dollar. At any given moment during trading hours the euro will be worth a more or lesser amount in dollars, depending upon trading conditions. If, during the trading day, the value of one euro is determined to be worth a certain amount in dollars as determined by market participants and conditions, that value will be reflected in the quote of that FX pair.

For example, if during trading hours one euro is determined to be worth $1.31, the quote for that FX pair would be EUR/USD 1.31. In another example, in the pair Australian dollar/Swiss franc (AUD/CHF), if one Australian dollar bought 0.9340 Swiss francs, the quote for the FX pair would be AUD/CHF .9340. When the AUD gets stronger against the CHF, the quote of the AUD/CHF will move up. If at one moment the AUD buys .9250 CHF, the quote will be AUD/CHF .9250. As the AUD gets stronger and the exchange rate changes between the AUD and the CHF, the one AUD buys incrementally more CHFs. If in the next moment the market determines that one AUD should buy .9300 CHFs, then the new quote that currency traders around the world will see is AUD/CHF changing from .9250 to its new value of .9300.