What if Forex ?
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Euro Crosses
CURRENCY PAIRCOUNTRIESFX GEEK SPEAKEUR/CHFEurozone / Switzerland“euro swissy”EUR/GBPEurozone / United Kingdom“euro pound”EUR/CADEurozone / Canada“euro loonie”EUR/AUDEurozone / Australia“euro aussie”EUR/NZDEurozone / New Zealand“euro kiwi”EUR/SEKEurozone / Sweden“euro stockie”EUR/NOKEurozone / Norway“euro nockie”
Yen Crosses
CURRENCY PAIRCOUNTRIESFX GEEK SPEAKEUR/JPYEurozone / Japan“euro yen” or “yuppy”GBP/JPYUnited Kingdom / Japan“pound yen” or “guppy”CHF/JPYSwitzerland / Japan“swissy yen”CAD/JPYCanada / Japan“loonie yen”AUD/JPYAustralia / Japan“aussie yen”NZD/JPYNew Zealand / Japan“kiwi yen”
Pound Crosses
PAIRCOUNTRIESFX GEEK SPEAKGBP/CHFUnited Kingdom / Switzerland“pound swissy”GBP/AUDUnited Kingdom / Australia“pound aussie”GBP/CADUnited Kingdom / Canada“pound loonie”GBP/NZDUnited Kingdom / New Zealand“pound kiwi”
Other Crosses
PAIRCOUNTRIESFX GEEK SPEAKAUD/CHFAustralia / Switzerland“aussie swissy”AUD/CADAustralia / Canada“aussie loonie”AUD/NZDAustralia / New Zealand“aussie kiwi”CAD/CHFCanada / Switzerland“loonie swissy”NZD/CHFNew Zealand / Switzerland“kiwi swissy”NZD/CADNew Zealand / Canada“kiwi loonie”
Exotic Currency Pairs
No, exotic pairs are not exotic belly dancers who happen to be twins.
Exotic currency pairs are made up of one major currency paired with the currency of an emerging economy, such as Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Turkey, or Hungary.
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The chart below contains a few examples of exotic currency pairs.
Wanna take a shot at guessing what those other currency symbols stand for?
Depending on your forex broker, you may see the following exotic currency pairs so it’s good to know what they are.
Keep in mind that these pairs aren’t as heavily traded as the “majors” or “crosses,” so the transaction costs associated with trading these pairs are usually bigger.
CURRENCY PAIRCOUNTRIESFX GEEK SPEAKUSD/BRLUnited States / Brazil“dollar real”USD/HKDUnited States / Hong KongUSD/SARUnited States / Saudi Arabia“dollar riyal”USD/SGDUnited States / Singapore“dollar sing”USD/ZARUnited States / South Africa“dollar rand”USD/THBUnited States / Thailand“dollar baht”USD/MXNUnited States / Mexico“dollar mex”USD/RUBUnited States / Russia“dollar ruble” or “Barney”USD/PLNUnited States / Poland“dollar zloty”USD/CLPUnited States/ Chile
It’s not unusual to see spreads that are two or three times bigger than that of EUR/USD or USD/JPY.
Due to the overall lower degree of liquidity, exotic currency pairs tend to be far more sensitive to economic and geopolitical events.
For example, a political scandal or unexpected election results can cause an exotic pair’s exchange rate to swing violently.
So if you want to trade exotics currency pairs, remember to factor this in your decision.
For those of y’all who are really mesmerized by exotics, here’s a more comprehensive list.
CURRENCY CODECOUNTRYCURRENCY CODECOUNTRYAEDUAE DirhamARSArgentinean PesoAFNAfghanistan AfghaniGELGeorgian LariMYRMalaysian RinggitAMDArmenian DramGYDGuyanese DollarMZNMozambique new MeticalAWGAruban FlorinIDRIndonesian RupiahOMROmani RialAZNAzerbaijan New ManatIQDIraqi DinarQARQatari RialBHDBahraini DinarIRRIranian RialSLLSierra Leone LeoneBWPBotswana PulaJODJordanian DinarTJSTajikistani SomoniBYRBelarusian RubleKGSKyrgyzstanian SomTMTTurkmenistan new ManatCDFCongolese FrancLBPLebanese PoundTZSTanzanian SchillingDZDAlgerian DinarLRDLiberian DollarUZSUzbekistan SomEGPEgyptian PoundMADMoroccan DirhamWSTSamoan TalaEEKEstonian KroonMNTMongolian TugrikMWKMalawi KwachaETBEthiopian BirrTHBThai BahtTRYNew Turkish LiraZARSouth African RandZWDZimbabwe DollarBRLBrazilian RealCLPChilean PesoCNYChinese Yuan RenminbiCZKCzech KorunaHKDHong Kong DollarHUFHungarian ForintILSIsraeli ShekelINRIndian RupeeISKIcelandic KronaKRWSouth Korean WonKWDKuwaiti DinarMXNMexican PesoPHPPhilippine PesoPKRPakistani RupeePLNPolish ZlotyRUBRussian RubleSARSaudi Arabian RiyalSGDSingaporean DollarTWDTaiwanese Dollar
DID YOU KNOW? There are 180 legal currencies in the world, as recognized by the United Nations. That’s a lot of potential currency pairs! Unfortunately, not all of them are readable. Forex brokers tend to offer traders up to 70 currency pairs.
Aside from the three main categories of currency pairs, there are other “groups” of currencies that are thrown around in the FX world which you should be aware of.
G10 Currencies
The G10 currencies are ten of the most heavily traded currencies in the world, which are also ten of the world’s most liquid currencies.
Traders regularly buy and sell them in an open market with minimal impact on their own international exchange rates.
COUNTRYCURRENCY NAMECURRENCY CODEUnited StatesdollarUSDEuropean UnioneuroEURUnited KingdompoundGBPJapanyenJPYAustraliadollarAUDNew ZealanddollarNZDCanadadollarCADSwitzerlandfrancCHFNorwaykroneNOKSwedenkronaSEKDenmarkkroneDKK
The Scandies
Scandinavia is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties.
The term “Scandinavia” in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
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Together, their currencies are known as the “Scandies“.
Back in the day, Denmark and Sweden established the Scandinavian Monetary Union to merge their currencies to a gold standard. Norway joined later.
This meant that these countries now had one currency, with the same monetary value, with the exception that each of these countries minted their own coins.
But then World War I happened, and the gold standard was abandoned and the Scandinavian Monetary Union disbanded. These countries decided to keep the currency, even if the values were separate from one another. And this remains the state of things.
If you notice their currency names, they all look similar. That’s because the word “krone or krona” literally means “crown”, and the differences in spelling of the name represent the differences between the North Germanic languages.
Crown currencies. What a cool name huh?
I don’t know about you, but saying “Hook me up with some crowns yo.” sounds way cooler than “Hook me up with some dollahs yo.”
COUNTRYCURRENCY NAMECURRENCY CODEDenmarkkroneDKKSwedenkronaSEKNorwaykroneNOK
SEK and NOK also have cool nicknames, “Stockie” and “Nokie“.
So when paired with the U.S. dollar, USD/SEK is read “dollar stockie” and USD/NOK is read “dollar nockie”.
CEE Currencies
“CEE” stands for Central and Eastern Europe.
Central and Eastern Europe is a term encompassing the countries in Central Europe, the Baltics,Eastern Europe, and Southeast Europe (the Balkans), usually meaning former communist states from the Eastern Bloc (Warsaw Pact) in Europe.
Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) is an OECD term for the group of countries comprising Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and the three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Regarding the FX market, there are four main CEE currencies to be aware of.
COUNTRYCURRENCY NAMECURRENCY CODEHungaryforintHUFCzech RepublickorunaCZKPolandzlotyPLNRomanialeu