What Is Traded on Forex?

The simple answer is MONEY.

Because you’re not buying anything physical, forex trading can be confusing.

Think of buying a currency as buying a share in a particular country, kinda like buying stocks of a company. The price of the currency is usually a direct reflection of the market’s opinion on the current and future health of its respective economy.

In forex trading, when you buy, say, the Japanese yen, you are basically buying a “share” in the Japanese economy. You are betting that the Japanese economy is doing well, and will even get better as time goes. Once you sell those “shares” back to the market, hopefully, you will end up with a profit.

In general, the exchange rate of a currency versus other currencies is a reflection of the condition of that country’s economy, compared to other countries’ economies.

By the time you graduate from this School of Pipsology, you’ll be eager to start working with currencies.

Major Currencies

Symbol	Country	Currency	Nickname
USD	United States	Dollar	Buck
EUR	Euro zone members	Euro	Fiber
JPY	Japan	Yen	Yen
GBP	Great Britain	Pound	Cable
CHF	Switzerland	Franc	Swissy
CAD	Canada	Dollar	Loonie
AUD	Australia	Dollar	Aussie
NZD	New Zealand	Dollar	Kiwi

Currency symbols always have three letters, where the first two letters identify the name of the country and the third letter identifies the name of that country’s currency.

Take NZD for instance. NZ stands for New Zealand, while D stands for dollar. Easy enough, right?

The currencies included in the chart above are called the “majors” because they are the most widely traded ones.

We’d also like to let you know that “buck” isn’t the only nickname for USD.

There’s also: greenbacks, bones, benjis, benjamins, cheddar, paper, loot, scrilla, cheese, bread, moolah, dead presidents, and cash money.

So, if you wanted to say, “I have to go to work now.”

Instead, you could say, “Yo, I gotta bounce! Gotta make them benjis son!”

Or if you wanted to say, “I have lots of money. Let’s go to the shopping mall in the evening.”

Instead, why not say, “Yo, I gots mad scrilla! Let’s go rock that mall later.”

Did you also know that in Peru, a nickname for the U.S. dollar is Coco, which is a pet name for Jorge (George in Spanish), a reference to the portrait of George Washington on the $1 note?

They call me Coco yo!

Sifiso Nkwanyana

Author & Editor

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