Question on the bases in the pairs

Beginner Questions
1

I have the demo from ODL. The Spot prices show as
EURUSD, AUDUSD, USDJPY…

Why do not show as USDEUR, USDAUD, JPYUSD…?

I know we can calculate USDEUR from EURUSD. Why does the price quote the EUR as base instead of USD and etc? Any reasons?

TIA

Sean

2

I just tried to google the answer but to no avail, I did
wonder this myself some time ago, but I felt I had more
problems with the charts than finding out the answer.

Maybe there is a historian in the ranks who may be able to
help. :confused:

3

Hey there,

I’m a newbie myself, but I believe that in a currency cross, the stronger currency is listed first. Therefore, if the Euro ever depreciated enough that 1 USD bought more than 1 EUR, the cross would be listed as USDEUR. I am not positive about this, I will try and grab a source for you.

4

That is incorrect. The traded currency pairs are set as you see them having been established that way by whoever makes that decision for the inter-bank market. I’ve posted about this elsewhere on the site, but don’t recall where. The quick answer is that the major currencies have the following order of base dominance:

  1. EUR
  2. GBP
  3. AUD
  4. NZD
  5. USD
  6. CHF
  7. CAD (or switched with CHF, not sure)
  8. JPY