Forex
Forex shows you live exchange rates for the major currency pairs, which move every share, metal, or cash balance you hold in a currency other than your own.
Currency matters to you even if you never trade it. A US share you hold gains or loses with the pound-dollar rate as well as with its own price; gold is priced in dollars; a company that earns abroad reports in pounds. Sharp currency moves also spill into stock markets, as exporters and importers are repriced. The page shows the major pairs, EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF and others, each with a live quote and a chart.
A pair is quoted as the amount of the second currency one unit of the first buys, so GBPUSD at 1.25 means one pound buys one dollar twenty-five. The quote is a bid and an offer like any other, and the spread on the major pairs is very small. These are over-the-counter prices with no order book. Precious metals and bitcoin are quoted the same way against the dollar on their own pages.
Related pages
| Commodities | Commodities is gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, priced in dollars on this same feed. The pound-dollar rate here is what turns those into sterling for you. |
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| Crypto | Crypto is bitcoin against the dollar, quoted like a currency pair on the same feed. |
| Quote | Each pair has a full quote page like a share, with bid, offer, change, and chart. |