Familiarizing with the conventions of foreign currency exchange market will help avoid confusions with the terminologies involved.

Average people are accustomed to think of a currency as a medium of exchange while assuming that it has a natural value. On the other hand, Forex dealers think of a currency in terms of a particular currency pair. This approach often leads to misunderstandings when a novice is trying to read currency exchangegraphs or to calculate the proper value of a foreign currency exchange transaction. Actually, the Forex market terminology is not so difficult to understand if you are equipped with proper market conventions.

First of all, the currency exchange rates always involve a currency pair. The exchange rates are presented in the form of two rates, namely a bid price and an ask price. Thus, the quote GBP/USD 2.1034/40 means that that a dealer accepts to pay one British pound for 2.1034 U.S. dollars, while he is willing to accept deals to sell one British pound for 2.1040 U.S. dollars. In this case, the British pound is the base currency, which must be placed on the left hand of the rate according to market convention. . In addition, the U.S. dollar, which represents the quote or term currency in this quotation, is placed on the right hand of the quotation. Many financial centers around the world use market convention in which the order of the base and the term currency is as follows : EUR – GBP – AUD – NZD – USD – others. Furthermore, there are also direct and indirect quotations. Direct quote is a quotation in which the exchange rate is in the format GBP 0.4573 = USD 1.0000. On the other hand, the indirect quote uses the format 1 GBP = USD 2.1040.

Switching between direct and indirect quotes can be confusing for novice market observers because if the British pound is appreciating, the left hand rate of the direct quote will decrease, and vice versa. A common market convention is to quote foreign currency exchange rates to four decimal places. However you can see also exchange rates quoted to five, three or two decimal places.

Other market conventions include methods of conducting deals on the Forex market. A spot transaction is a deal in which the two parties make a contract involving a particular exchange rate and amount to be transacted on the spot value date. On this date, the deal is finalized and the two parties exchange the agreed amount of the two currencies at the agreed exchange rate. According to market conventions, the spot value is two business days from the date of the transaction.

These are the basic market conventions you should be familiar with when reading Forex news and analysis or conducting a basic research on the foreign currency exchange market. The Forex market terminology related to different types of deals or derivatives is much more sophisticated, but there is no need to familiarize yourself with it unless you are planning to enter the Forex market as a professional dealer.