Want to Know More About Forex Quotes?

If you want to make money trading on the Forex it is essential that you understand the information given in Forex quotes.
Forex quotes are different in format to the more familiar stock exchange quotes and they can be a little bit difficult to understand when you are first getting started trading on the foreign exchange markets. So the first step in your Forex trading career is to learn how to read the quotes provided by the exchange. The quote is broken down into different parts and it is important to understand each part and the information that it gives.
The first part of a Forex quote is what is known as the across this identifies the two currencies that this particular quote deals with. For instance if the quote shows USD/GBP this means that the quote shows the relationship between the US dollar and the British pound.
The next part of the Forex quote gives you the actual prices involved for that currency pair, for example if the USD/GBP quote is 0.50236 this means that for every US dollar you would receive 0.50236 British pounds. So far so good, the next piece of information is perhaps the most important. These shows the bid and offer price, sometimes they're also called the bid and ask price.
This is exactly the same information as is normally shown on stock prices when they are quoted on the stock market, the bid price is the price at which the currency has been sold or to put it another way if you want to sell US dollars against British pounds and the bid prices 0.50243 that is a price in pounds that other dealers are prepared to pay for your dollar. The ask for offer price is the price at which other dealers are prepared to sell you the currency in question, so if the price was quoted as 0.50256 that is the price in British pounds that you have to pay for each dollar. The difference between the bid and asking price is known as the spread this is the commission taken by foreign exchange dealers to cover their costs in providing you with their services.
It is possible to deal in over 60 different currencies with most major Forex brokerages but the vast majority of trading is done in what are known as the majors, these consist of the US dollar, the British pound, the Euro, the Japanese yen, the Swiss franc and the Canadian dollar. Most speculators tend to specialise in just one or two other pairs, for instance I myself only trade the USD/GBP.
When you first start trading Forex quotes can seem a little intimidating but just take your time and you will soon develop confidence and be able to read them with out any problems.