Friday 17 February 2012

Currency Nicknames - Popular Or Geeky?

Currencies are like a bunch of kids in high school, fighting for popularity. Some currencies are geeky and some are perfect candidates for prom king and queen! Each and every currency has a nickname and unlike high school kids none of the currencies get "offended" when you use its nickname!
Why a forex trader needs to know currencies nicknames? Well, simply because if you don't you will have a hard time following news, participate in conversation or understand comments of the other forex traders. Imagine listening to financial commentary and not understanding the main words!
Here is a list of the most common currency nicknames:
US Dollar USD = Buck
Euro EUR = Fiber
British Pound GBP = Cable
Canadian Dollar CAD = Loonie
Swiss Franc CHF = Swissy
Japanese Yen JPY = Yen
Australian Dollar AUD = Aussie
New Zealand Dollar NZD = Kiwi
Like any nickname, currency nicknames have meaning behind them. For example, you might wonder why US Dollar is widely called a Buck. The simple answer to it is that in the late 1700s and early 1800s paper money weren't in use yet. Instead, buckskins were used for trading. At some point the word "buckskins" were shortened to just a "buck".
The nickname for Canadian Dollar - "Loonie" came from the bird on the Canadian coin.
British Pound is called "Cable" and is probably named so because of the Trans-Atlantic cable between US and Britain.
How about Euro? What does Fiber mean? I really don't have a good answer for it. Maybe because it is "easy to digest"? After all, Euro is one of the most traded currencies now-a- days!
And Kiwi for New Zealand dollar has nothing to do with a kiwi fruit! Actually it comes from kiwi - a kind of bird that can't fly which happens to be a national symbol of New Zealand.
Now that you are familiar with currency nicknames you won't look around for help while listening to financial reports and in case you forget you can always come back here and review.
Check out more forex articles, tutorials and forex brokers reviews at http://www.forexexplore.com

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