You may have noticed in your daily life or trading that all currency symbols (abbreviations) are composed of three letters. The first two letters represent the name of the country, while the third letter represents the name of the country's currency. As an example, let's look at the US dollar (USD) : US stands for the United States and D stands for the US dollar.
The currencies that most traders pay attention to are called major currencies. The following table lists the most widely traded currencies and their symbols:
On the other hand, a straight order is any currency pair that contains the US dollar and another major currency, such as EUR/USD in the chart below.
A pair that does not contain the US dollar is called a cross. The EUR/JPY chart below is a cross.
To be more precise: any euro pair that does not contain the US dollar is called a Euro cross, and EUR/JPY is a member of the Euro cross. This group also includes EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF, EUR/CAD, and EUR/AUD. More types of crosses include JPY crosses, GBP crosses, AUD crosses, NZD crosses, and CHF crosses.