Introduction to Stock Trading

How often have you heard people say that investing in stocks and shares is like gambling? The truth is that investing in stocks is gambling in the same way as doing any business is gambling because there is always an element of risk in every business.
What is a stock?
A stock, in simple words, is a share in the ownership of a company. Starting and expanding a company on a large scale needs capital, something which individuals or group of individuals cannot afford. The company, therefore, offers to sell its share to the general public. When a company sells it’s privately held shares to new investors for the first time, it is called an IPO-Initial Public Offering or going public.
For example, when you start a company you can issue five shares to raise capital. So each share would be worth 20% or one fifth of the company’s ownership. Therefore, if an individual holds one share and buys another, he owns 40% or two fifth of the company. It must be understood that in normal course a stock, share or equity mean the same thing.
The idea underlying the ownership of a stock is that the shareholders can make claims to the profits and assets of the company.
The fact, however, remains that every public traded company normally issues millions of shares. Therefore, owning a few shares does not mean that you can visit the company any time and start issuing orders or inspecting the records. A stock holding only gives you certain rights such as voting to elect the board of directors of the company or owing some assets.
Normally the ownership of stock is represented by an attractively designed and important stock certificate, which is actually a piece of paper that represents a share or ownership of the company. With the advancement of technology investors usually do not get those paper certificates like their old time counterparts. Stock ownership is, therefore, recorded electronically.
Transfer of shares
The stock is, moreover, held in street name. Street name means that the stock is held in broker’s name and not in the customer’s name. This allows the ownership to be transferred more easily when a stock is bought or sold. This is a time saving procedure for the investors as they do not have to go down to the broker’s office every time they wish to buy or sell their stock.
How do the stocks trade?
Suppose you want to buy or sell stocks. Would you like to advertise your intention to buy or sell them in the local newspapers? And what if you don’t find buyers or sellers even after advertising? It is precisely to answer all such issues, the stock exchange came into existence.
The exchanges act as intermediaries between the buyers and sellers and facilitate stock trading. Typically, electronic exchanges are more efficient, which is why even the face-to-face exchanges normally have electronic transaction services.
There are two main types of exchanges, physical and virtual.
Physical stock exchanges: As the name itself suggests, these exchanges have a physical presence or in other words, they are located in buildings.
Virtual stock exchanges are electronic exchanges, which are linked through computer networks. The entire process of stock trading takes place electronically or online.
Typical examples of stock exchanges are the NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX.
NYSE
NYSE or the New York Stock Exchange is an example of a physical stock exchange where trading takes place face to face. Whenever you hear the term “listed exchange”, it refers to the NYSE. Of course computers do assist in the trading process.
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ market is the virtual exchange also known as the OTC-over the counter market. There is no trading floor, no specialist, and no central location. Instead all the trading takes place via a computerized network of dealers.
AMEX
The American Stock Exchange or the AMEX is the third largest stock exchange in the US. Prior to NASDAQ’s emergence, it was the second biggest exchange. Currently the stocks traded at the AMEX are primarily the small cap or the lower market capitalization when compared to larger companies.

Stock Research

As in other fields, the internet revolution has created the fierce competition amongst the share brokers. If the broker takes regular and methodical steps to educate the investor on topics that interest him studying which one thinks that profits can be increased, that is the best service the broker can provide. The main participants in the stock exchange are investors, market analysts, traders and other institutions concerned with investment business. Most of them depend upon research and analysis to do the trade, for which they create specialized cells. Transferring the research findings for the benefit of the clients has become the important part of their operations.
The vast amount of study material on shares available online, has thrown up a new class of research scholars who conduct research on the share market in their individual capacity. Research by such individuals is likely to be without any bias.Stock Research education is available to the investors, with tools like charting software, books, service providers, training and a number of different research techniques.
Any package of stock research education must involve the following for the correct evaluation of the intrinsic worth of the share:
Fundamental Analysis Technical Analysis
Fundamental analysis contains the use of economic and financial data to assess solvency, efficiency and liquidity and the earning potential of the specified company. For this analysis, the documents required are the annual report and the relevant financial statements, legal observations by the corporate officers, statistics related to the industry, market trends and the macro-economic data. The goal of the fundamental analyst is to locate the undervalued shares and tender advice to buy them in anticipation of appreciation of value.
Technical analysis views the actual history of trading and the price of the share or index. A chart is used for this purpose. A technical analyst proceeds on the belief that securities move in trends. Such trends continue until something happens to change the trend. With this approach sometimes the analysis could be wrong and patterns and levels can not be detected properly. But such an eventuality is rare. In majority of the cases, the analysis is right.
Buying and selling activity affects the price of the traded shares. A trader has the reason either for buying or selling the share. Traders often act alone but the weight of the numbers has a direct influence on short term prices. They succeed in creating confusion and uncertainties in the minds of buyers or sellers and their actions contribute to the upswings and downswings in the price of a share.
This is the context where stock research education has the important role to play. With charts and technical indicators you are able to study group behaviors and sentiments of the investors. This study is considered both science and art. It is science, because scientific tools like mathematical formula, statistics and computers are used in the study.
Stock research education helps one to determine the relative strength of buyers and sellers; judge the mood of the market and determine the favorable time to buy and sell the equities. To articulate the theory how the price is expected to move and to formulate a stop-loss strategy. The important principle as for the technical analysis of stock market research is-history repeats itself and it happens so, quite often.

Stock Options

Stock Options


Stock Options provide the holder the right to buy or sell particular shares at a fixed pre-determined price within a fixed period of time. A new investor needs to understand the process of exercising the rights of such options, before embarking on this form of trade. Like any other branch of trade and commerce, Stock Market too has a terminology of its own. For an investor it is necessary to familiarize and know about their applications and implications. Let me begin with the conditions and mood of the market, which is the main concern of the brokers and investors.
A bearish view of the market is when one expects the share price to fall; not of a particular share, but share market as a whole.
A bullish view is exactly the opposite of the above condition. One expects the share market as a whole to rise and show aggressive tendency.
A neutral view is when the share market is neither bullish nor bearish. The movement is very restricted and hence strategies for trading will have to be appropriately modified as per the demand of a particular share. The situational aspects matter much and each decision is on its merits.
The terms that relate to the mechanics and operations are:
Call Options is when all procedures and steps are predetermined as for the right of the holder to buy the underlying share. They refer to the price and the time.
Put Options give the holder the right to sell the underlying stock at a fixed pre-determined price within a certain, fixed period of time.
Strike price is the fixed, pre determined price at which you can trade (both buy and sell) the shares. This cannot be changed throughout the duration of the option contract.
Expiry is the date at which the option contract stands terminated. This cannot be changed throughout the life of the option, and thereafter the contract is null and void.
Most of the shares are never traded at par. You pay premium for the shares doing well in the market and that are assessed to have assured prospects of growth. Premium is the amount that you are willing to pay for the options contract. Each share has set prices for trading. The amount you pay for the share depends on the level of strike price to the current share price. That amount is the premium. Premium is inclusive of both the options time value and the intrinsic value.
Stock option contact’s value or premium is decided by various factors. Five such factors are important and are material the contract. They are, the price of the share, the strike price, the date of expiry, the cumulative cost required to hold a position in the stock (inclusive of interest plus dividend) and the estimate of the expected volatility of the share price. The strike price refers to the price at which an underlying share can be sold or purchased. A stock price must go above (for calls) or go below (for puts) the strike price, before a position can be exercised for a profit.
Stock Option contracts can be done for most individual shares that are traded in the Exchanges. The US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), however, has implemented restrictions that prevent US traders from trading non US stock options, so US traders can only trade US stock options. The contract must contain the information relating to Symbol, Currency, Exchange, Multiplier, Expiration Date, Last trading Date, Strike Price, Type, Exercise Style, Maximum Size and Tick Size.
Long Term Stock Options (LEAPS)
Most of the options are short term the expiry date being up to 3 months. LEAPS expire anywhere from 9 to 30 months. These are good for long term trades, to seek protection for profit from an existing trade. All other trading procedures are similar.
Forward stock market and contracts are meant for the experienced players in shares. A new investor should desist from exercising these options.

Forex trading example

Forex trading example

Trader x has an account of USD 50'000.

He buys EUR/USD 500'000 @ 1.1500 at the market and places a stop loss order at 1.1460.

At this point his maximum risk is USD 2'000 and his margin utilisation is 10%, well above the minimum.

During the day the forex market fluctuates and initially moves down to 1.1480.

At this point trader x has an unrealised loss of USD 1'000 and his margin utilisation has fallen to 9.60% reflecting the effect of the downward move on his margin capacity.

Later still the price moves back up to 1.1550 and trader x decides to take profit. He sells at 1.1550 making a USD 2'500 profit which represents a 5% return on his account value. Note that trader x took only a risk of USD 2'000 and made a return of USD 2'500 this equates to a risk/reward ratio of 1.25. A high risk reward ratio is what every trader should be aiming for.

The viewer should note that the example above is a random case scenario and in no way is meant to allude that the potential for profit is greater than the potential for loss in foreign exchange trading.

Familiarize yourself with forex trading with our free forex demo account.

Buying / Selling

Buying / Selling

First, the traders should determine whether they want to buy or sell. If they want to enter a short order - whereby they will profit if the exchange rate falls - they simply need to click on the SELL rate. The opposite holds true for traders who enter buy orders: they can simply click on the BUY rate, and thus will profit if the exchange rate goes up.

Example of How Buying / Selling Works

As with all markets, there are two prices for every currency pair. The difference between these two prices is the spread, or the cost of the trade. In this example, the spread is three pips. On the 10k position, a pip on the EUR/USD currency pair is worth $1.

USD/CHF

USD/CHF

In this example the USD is the base currency and thus the "basis" for the buy/sell. If you think the US dollar is undervalued, you would execute a BUY USD/CHF order. By doing so you have bought US dollars in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the Swiss Franc. If you believe that due to instability in the Middle East and in U.S. financial markets the dollar will continue to weaken, you would execute a SELL USD/CHF order. By doing so you have sold US dollars in the expectation that they will depreciate against the Swiss franc.

GBP/USD

GBP/USD

In this example the GBP is the base currency and thus the "basis" for the buy/sell. If you think the British economy will continue to be the leading economy among the G8 nations in terms of growth, thus buying the pound, you would execute a BUY GBP/USD order. By doing so you have bought pounds in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the US dollar. If you believe the British are going to adopt the Euro and this will weaken pounds as they devalue their currency in anticipation of the merge, you would execute a SELL GBP/USD order. By doing so you have sold pounds in the expectation that they will depreciate against the US dollar.

USD/JPY

USD/JPY

In this example the US dollar is the base currency and thus the "basis" for the buy/sell. If you think that the Japanese government is going to weaken the yen in order to help its export industry, you would execute a BUY USD/JPY order. By doing so you have bought U.S dollars in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the Japanese yen. If you believe that Japanese investors are pulling money out of U.S. financial markets and repatriating funds back to Japan, and this will hurt the US dollar, you would execute a SELL USD/JPY order. By doing so you have sold U.S dollars in the expectation that they will depreciate against the Japanese yen.

EUR/USD

EUR/USD

In this example Euro is the base currency and thus the "basis" for the buy/sell. If you believe that the US economy will continue to weaken and this will hurt the US dollar, you would execute a BUY EUR/USD order. By doing so you have bought Euros in the expectation that they will appreciate versus the US dollar. If you believe that the US economy is strong and the Euro will weaken against the US dollar you would execute a SELL EUR/USD order. By doing so you have sold Euros in the expectation that they will depreciate versus the US dollar.

Quoting Currency Pairs

Quoting Currency Pairs

Currencies are quoted in pairs, such as EUR/USD or USD/JPY. The first listed currency is known as the base currency, while the second is called the counter or quote currency. The base currency is the "basis" for the buy or the sell. For example, if you BUY EUR/USD you have bought Euros (simultaneously sold dollars). You would do so in expectation that the Euro will appreciate (go up) relative to the US dollar.

How an FX Trade Works

How an FX Trade Works

In the FX market you can buy or sell one currency for another. When you buy a currency, you are said to be "long" in that currency and when you sell a currency, you are said to be "short" in that currency. As the value of one currency rises or falls relative to another, traders decide to buy or sell currencies in order to make profits - since the objective is to earn a profit from their position. Placing a trade in the foreign exchange market is simple and the mechanics of a trade are virtually identical to those found in other markets. Because of the symmetry of currency transactions, you are always simultaneously long in one currency and short in another. An open position is one that is live and ongoing. As long as the position is open, its value will fluctuate in accordance with the exchange rate in the market. To close out your position, you conduct an equal and opposite trade in the same currency pair. For example, if you have gone long in one lot of EUR/USD you can close out that position by subsequently going short in one EUR/USD lot (at the prevailing bid price).

What is Forex Trading

Forex, FX, or Foreign Exchange, is the simultaneous exchange of one country's currency for that of another. FOREXYARD offers leading online trading platforms for individuals that wish to speculate on the exchange rate between two currencies. In doing so, speculators purchase or sell one currency for another with the hope of making a profit when the value of the currencies changes in favor of the speculator as a result of events that takes place across the globe. This market of exchange has more daily volume - both buyers and sellers - than any other market in the world. The FX market is available 24-hours a day, five days a week. Furthermore, the Forex Market is the largest financial market in the world with daily reported volume of over $1.4 trillion changing hands between buyers and sellers across the globe, making it one of the most exciting markets for trading. Although currency trading is inherently governmental (central banks) and institutional (commercial and investment banks), technological innovations, like the internet, have made it easy for individuals to take part in the currency trading markets and to trade via intermediaries online.

Currency Trading Summary

Currency Trading Summary

While this online forex tutorial only represents a fraction of all there is to know about forex trading, we hope that you've gained some insight into this topic. We also encourage those of you who are interested in potentially trading in the online forex market to learn more about the complexities and intricacies that make this market unique.

Let's recap:

* The forex market represents the electronic over-the-counter markets where currencies are traded worldwide 24 hours a day, five and a half days a week. The typical means of trading forex are on the spot, futures and forwards markets.
* Currencies are "priced" in currency pairs and are quoted either directly or indirectly.
* Currencies typically have two prices: bid (the amount that the market will buy the quote currency for in relation to the base currency); and ask (the amount the market will sell one unit of the base currency for in relation to the quote currency). The bid price is always smaller than the ask price.
* Unlike conventional equity and debt markets, forex investors have access to large amounts of leverage, which allows substantial positions to be taken without making a large initial investment.
* The adoption and elimination of several global currency systems over time led to the formation of the present currency exchange system, in which most countries use some measure of floating exchange rates.
* Governments, central banks, banks and other financial institutions, hedgers, and speculators are the main players in the forex market.
* The main economic theories found in the foreign exchange deal with parity conditions such as those involving interest rates and inflation. Overall, a country's qualitative and quantitative factors are seen as large influences on its currency in the forex market.
* Forex traders use fundamental analysis to view currencies and their countries like companies, thereby using economic announcements to gain an idea of the currency's true value.
* Forex traders use technical analysis to look at currencies the same way they would any other asset and, therefore, use technical tools such as trends, charts and indicators in their trading strategies.
* Unlike stock trades, forex trades have minimal commissions and related fees. But new forex traders should take a conservative approach and use orders, such as the take-profit or stop-loss, to minimize losses.

Foreign Exchange Risk and Benefits

Foreign Exchange Risk and Benefits

The Good and the Bad
We already have mentioned that factors such as the size, volatility and global structure of the foreign exchange market have all contributed to its rapid success. Given the highly liquid nature of this market, investors are able to place extremely large trades without affecting any given exchange rate. These large positions are made available to forex traders because of the low margin requirements used by the majority of the industry's brokers. For example, it is possible for a trader to control a position of US$100,000 by putting down as little as US$1,000 up front and borrowing the remainder from his or her forex broker. This amount of leverage acts as a double-edged sword because investors can realize large gains when rates make a small favorable change, but they also run the risk of a massive loss when the rates move against them. Despite the foreign exchange risks, the amount of leverage available in the forex market is what makes it attractive for many speculators.

The currency market is also the only market that is truly open 24 hours a day with decent liquidity throughout the day. For traders who may have a day job or just a busy schedule, it is an optimal market to trade in. As you can see from the chart below, the major trading hubs are spread throughout many different time zones, eliminating the need to wait for an opening or closing bell. As the U.S. trading closes, other markets in the East are opening, making it possible to trade at any time during the day


While the forex market may offer more excitement to the investor, the risks are also higher in comparison to trading equities. The ultra-high leverage of the forex market means that huge gains can quickly turn to damaging losses and can wipe out the majority of your account in a matter of minutes. This is important for all new traders to understand, because in the forex market - due to the large amount of money involved and the number of players - traders will react quickly to information released into the market, leading to sharp moves in the price of the currency pair.

Though currencies don't tend to move as sharply as equities on a percentage basis (where a company's stock can lose a large portion of its value in a matter of minutes after a bad announcement), it is the leverage in the spot market that creates the volatility. For example, if you are using 100:1 leverage on $1,000 invested, you control $100,000 in capital. If you put $100,000 into a currency and the currency's price moves 1% against you, the value of the capital will have decreased to $99,000 - a loss of $1,000, or all of your invested capital, representing a 100% loss. In the equities market, most traders do not use leverage, therefore a 1% loss in the stock's value on a $1,000 investment, would only mean a loss of $10. Therefore, it is important to take into account the risks involved in the forex market before diving in.

Differences Between Forex and Equities
A major difference between the forex and equities markets is the number of traded instruments: the forex market has very few compared to the thousands found in the equities market. The majority of forex traders focus their efforts on seven different currency pairs: the four majors, which include (EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF); and the three commodity pairs (USD/CAD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD). All other pairs are just different combinations of the same currencies, otherwise known as cross currencies. This makes currency trading easier to follow because rather than having to cherry-pick between 10,000 stocks to find the best value, all that FX traders need to do is “keep up” on the economic and political news of eight countries.

The equity markets often can hit a lull, resulting in shrinking volumes and activity. As a result, it may be hard to open and close positions when desired. Furthermore, in a declining market, it is only with extreme ingenuity that an equities investor can make a profit. It is difficult to short-sell in the U.S. equities market because of strict rules and regulations regarding the process. On the other hand, forex offers the opportunity to profit in both rising and declining markets because with each trade, you are buying and selling simultaneously, and short-selling is, therefore, inherent in every transaction. In addition, since the forex market is so liquid, traders are not required to wait for an uptick before they are allowed to enter into a short position - as they are in the equities market.

Due to the extreme liquidity of the forex market, margins are low and leverage is high. It just is not possible to find such low margin rates in the equities markets; most margin traders in the equities markets need at least 50% of the value of the investment available as margin, whereas forex traders need as little as 1%. Furthermore, commissions in the equities market are much higher than in the forex market. Traditional brokers ask for commission fees on top of the spread, plus the fees that have to be paid to the exchange. Spot forex brokers take only the spread as their fee for the transaction. (For a more in-depth introduction to currency trading, see Getting Started in Forex and A Primer On The Forex Market.)

foreign exchange rate

foreign exchange rate

Rate at which one currency may be converted into another. also called rate of exchange or exchange rate or currency exchange rate.

Currency Trading

Currency Trading

The foreign exchange market (forex or FX for short) is one of the most exciting, fast-paced markets around. Until recently, forex trading in the currency market had been the domain of large financial institutions, corporations, central banks, hedge funds and extremely wealthy individuals. The emergence of the internet has changed all of this, and now it is possible for average investors to buy and sell currencies easily with the click of a mouse through online brokerage accounts.

Daily currency fluctuations are usually very small. Most currency pairs move less than one cent per day, representing a less than 1% change in the value of the currency. This makes foreign exchange one of the least volatile financial markets around. Therefore, many currency speculators rely on the availability of enormous leverage to increase the value of potential movements. In the retail forex market, leverage can be as much as 250:1. Higher leverage can be extremely risky, but because of round-the-clock trading and deep liquidity, foreign exchange brokers have been able to make high leverage an industry standard in order to make the movements meaningful for currency traders.

Extreme liquidity and the availability of high leverage have helped to spur the market's rapid growth and made it the ideal place for many traders. Positions can be opened and closed within minutes or can be held for months. Currency prices are based on objective considerations of supply and demand and cannot be manipulated easily because the size of the market does not allow even the largest players, such as central banks, to move prices at will.

The forex market provides plenty of opportunity for investors. However, in order to be successful, a currency trader has to understand the basics behind currency movements.

The goal of this forex tutorial is to provide a foundation for investors or traders who are new to the foreign currency markets. We'll cover the basics of exchange rates, the market's history and the key concepts you need to understand in order to be able to participate in this market. We'll also venture into how to start trading foreign currencies and the different types of strategies that can be employed.

Forex Broker Go Out of Business?

Forex Broker Go Out of Business?

Retail forex is a fairly new business, having started in 1998, and really only taken off in 2001. Initially, many forex brokers started with little capital. As the market has matured and become more mainstream, the requirements to stay in business have become more rigorous. The NFA (National Futures Association) is increasing capital requirements for US based firms – forex dealers will now need to have at least US$5 million in net excess capital.

This is a relatively small amount for a large firm, but only 1/3 of forex brokers will be able to meet these requirements. That leaves around 10 brokers in the US. The remainder will have to either find new capital or close their operations later in December when the new regulation takes effect.

The risk is that there may be delays in getting your money back if your broker is forced to close.

What is Forex Arbitrage?

Forex arbitrage is a trading strategy where a speculator attempts to make a profit by exploiting the inefficiency in currency pairs. This inefficiency is always self correcting, so the window of opportunity for profiting from the spread is very limited.
How to Calculate the Arbitrage

In order to calculate the arbitrage traders use forex arbitrage calculators. There are a number of free forex calculators available for download on the internet. Prior to initiating trades, speculators should use free demo accounts to see if trading the arbitrage can be a profitable venture. A trader would need accounts with forex brokers in multiple locations around the world. Most arbitrage techniques require trading in two to three currency pairs.

Current account

The balance of trade is the difference between a nation's exports of goods and services and its imports of goods and services, if all financial transfers and investments and the like are ignored. A nation is said to have a trade deficit if it is importing more than it exports.

In economics, the current account is one of the two primary components of the balance of payments, the other being the capital account. It is the sum of the balance of trade (exports minus imports of goods and services), net factor income (such as interest and dividends) and net transfer payments (such as foreign aid).

The current account balance is one of two major metrics of the nature of a country's foreign trade (the other being the net capital outflow). A current account surplus increases a country's net foreign assets by the corresponding amount, and a current account deficit does the reverse. Both government and private payments are included in the calculation. It is called the current account because goods and services are generally consumed in the current period.[1]

Positive net sales abroad generally contributes to a current account surplus; negative net sales abroad generally contributes to a current account deficit. Because exports generate positive net sales, and because the trade balance is typically the largest component of the current account, a current account surplus is usually associated with positive net exports.

The net factor income or income account, a sub-account of the current account, is usually presented under the headings income payments as outflows, and income receipts as inflows. Income refers not only to the money received from investments made abroad (note: investments are recorded in the capital account but income from investments is recorded in the current account) but also to the money sent by individuals working abroad, known as remittances, to their families back home. If the income account is negative, the country is paying more than it is taking in interest, dividends, etc. For example, the United States' net income has been declining exponentially since it has allowed the dollar's price relative to other currencies to be determined by the market to a point where income payments and receipts are roughly equal.[citation needed] The difference between Canada's income payments and receipts have been declining exponentially as well since its central bank in 1998 began its strict policy not to intervene in the Canadian Dollar's foreign exchange.[2] The various subcategories in the income account are linked to specific respective subcategories in the capital account, as income is often composed of factor payments from the ownership of capital (assets) or the negative capital (debts) abroad. From the capital account, economists and central banks determine implied rates of return on the different types of capital. The United States, for example, gleans a substantially larger rate of return from foreign capital than foreigners do from owning United States capital.

In the traditional accounting of balance of payments, the current account equals the change in net foreign assets. A current account deficit implies a paralleled reduction of the net foreign assets.

Nominal and real exchange rates

• The nominal exchange rate e is the price in foreign currency of one unit of a domestic currency.
• The real exchange rate (RER) is defined as , where P^f is the foreign price level and P the domestic price level.

The RER is based on the GDP deflator measurement of the price level in the domestic and foreign countries (P,P^f), which is arbitrarily set equal to 1 in a given base year. Therefore, the level of the RER is arbitrarily set, depending on which year is chosen as the base year for the GDP deflator of two countries. The changes of the RER are instead informative on the evolution over time of the relative price of a unit of GDP in the foreign country in terms of GDP units of the domestic country. If all goods were freely tradable, and foreign and domestic residents purchased identical baskets of goods, purchasing power parity (PPP) would hold for the GDP deflators of the two countries, and the RER would be constant and equal to one.

Exchange rate deffination

In finance, the exchange rates (also known as the foreign-exchange rate, forex rate or FX rate) between two currencies specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. It is the value of a foreign nation’s currency in terms of the home nation’s currency.[1] For example an exchange rate of 95 Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) to the United States dollar (USD, $) means that JPY 95 is worth the same as USD 1. The foreign exchange market is one of the largest markets in the world. By some estimates, about 3.2 trillion USD worth of currency changes hands every day.

The spot exchange rate refers to the current exchange rate. The forward exchange rate refers to an exchange rate that is quoted and traded today but for delivery and payment on a specific future date.

An exchange system quotation is given by stating the number of units of "term currency" (or "price currency" or "quote currency") that can be bought in terms of 1 "unit currency" (also called "base currency"). For example, in a quotation that says the EUR/USD exchange rate is 1.4320 (1.4320 USD per EUR), the term currency is USD and the base currency is EUR.

There is a market convention that determines which is the base currency and which is the term currency. In most parts of the world, the order is: EUR – GBP – AUD – NZD – USD – others. Thus if you are doing a conversion from EUR into AUD, EUR is the base currency, AUD is the term currency and the exchange rate tells you how many Australian dollars you would pay or receive for 1 euro. Cyprus and Malta which were quoted as the base to the USD and others were recently removed from this list when they joined the euro. In some areas of Europe and in the non-professional market in the UK, EUR and GBP are reversed so that GBP is quoted as the base currency to the euro. In order to determine which is the base currency where both currencies are not listed (i.e. both are "other"), market convention is to use the base currency which gives an exchange rate greater than 1.000. This avoids rounding issues and exchange rates being quoted to more than 4 decimal places. There are some exceptions to this rule e.g. the Japanese often quote their currency as the base to other currencies.

Quotes using a country's home currency as the price currency (e.g., EUR 0.63 = USD 1.00 in the euro zone) are known as direct quotation or price quotation (from that country's perspective) [1] and are used by most countries.

Quotes using a country's home currency as the unit currency (e.g., EUR 1.00 = USD 1.58 in the euro zone) are known as indirect quotation or quantity quotation and are used in British newspapers and are also common in Australia, New Zealand and the eurozone.

* direct quotation: 1 foreign currency unit = x home currency units
* indirect quotation: 1 home currency unit = x foreign currency units

Note that, using direct quotation, if the home currency is strengthening (i.e., appreciating, or becoming more valuable) then the exchange rate number decreases. Conversely if the foreign currency is strengthening, the exchange rate number increases and the home currency is depreciating.

Market convention from the early 1980s to 2006 was that most currency pairs were quoted to 4 decimal places for spot transactions and up to 6 decimal places for forward outrights or swaps. (The fourth decimal place is usually referred to as a "pip"). An exception to this was exchange rates with a value of less than 1.000 which were usually quoted to 5 or 6 decimal places. Although there is no fixed rule, exchange rates with a value greater than around 20 were usually quoted to 3 decimal places and currencies with a value greater than 80 were quoted to 2 decimal places. Currencies over 5000 were usually quoted with no decimal places (e.g. the former Turkish Lira). e.g. (GBPOMR : 0.765432 - EURUSD : 1.5877 - GBPBEF : 58.234 - EURJPY : 165.29). In other words, quotes are given with 5 digits. Where rates are below 1, quotes frequently include 5 decimal places.

In 2005 Barclays Capital broke with convention by offering spot exchange rates with 5 or 6 decimal places on their electronic dealing platform[2]. The contraction of spreads (the difference between the bid and offer rates) arguably necessitated finer pricing and gave the banks the ability to try and win transaction on multibank trading platforms where all banks may otherwise have been quoting the same price. A number of other banks have now followed this.