A Guide to Desiphering Forex Quotes - SigmaForex
The first time that many people pull up forex quotes and try to make sense of
them can be confusing for those who are only familiar with common stock
exchange quotes. The only real similarity between common stock quotes and forex
quotes is the nature of the information that they provide. While a forex quote
does, ultimately, tell you the price, it is not as cut and dry and it would be
with common stock and requires a bit of interpretation.
The first part of the quote lets the forex trader know which currency is
involved. The nation listed first is referred to as the base currency. This
means the trader currently holds that currency and he is using it to buy the
quote currency, sometimes called the trade currency. For example, a quote that
reads USD/JPY means that the forex trader currently holds United States Dollars
and wants to trade them for Japanese Yen. Forex quotes always begin this way,
with the two currencies involved forming what's called the cross.
Quick fact : The Forex market is by far the largest financial market in the
world, and includes trading between large banks,central banks, currency
speculators,multinational corporations, governments, and other financial
markets and institutions.
The second part of forex quotes that a person needs to pay attention to is the
pricing portion of the quote. To continue the example from above, if the quote
reads USD/JPY=117.57, then the trader knows that for every $1 (USD) he trades,
he will get 117.57 Japanese Yen (JPY) in return. While that may seem really
simple, there are a few more details of these quotes that a forex trader needs
to take note of before making the trade.
Did you know that the average daily trade in the global forex markets currently
exceeds US$ 2-2.5 trillion !
Following the initial line of the quote, which contains the two currencies that
form the cross and the exchange rate, is another line of information. This is
probably more familiar to common stock traders. Bid prices and ask prices,
which make up an integral part of forex quotes, function in forex much the same
way. The bid price is the price at which a trader can sell the currency or in
other words, that is the price that people are willing to pay for it. The buy
price is what a trader will have to pay if he wants to buy the currency. There
is usually a difference between the bid and the buy numbers, but it is seldom
substantial.
Sigma Forex is leading European professional online trading Brokers registered in the Switzerland and most of the EU countries. It was founded by professional private investors including (banks, traders, brokers, and software developers), which enabled Sigma to identify the essential needs of the Forex participants from the start.
Since 2003, Sigma’s aim has been to provide the best, powerful and most suitable currency trading technology along with superiority in execution, competitive services, and dependable customer service. Over the past years, Sigma has quickly become one of the world’s leading online retail currency trading institutions, providing integrated global trading systems, analysis techniques and the most reliable and sophisticated online trading software. We offer internet trading through Meta Trader. This trading platform is very stable and reliable. It is highly regarded and very popular among traders.

