The foreign exchange (FX) market is an international marketplace for trading currencies. In FX transactions, one currency (sometimes shortened to CCY) is exchanged for another. Currencies are denoted with a three-letter code and currency pairs are written CCY1/CCY2 where the exchange rate for the currency pair is the number of CCY2 it costs to buy one CCY1. Therefore, trading EUR/USD FX involves exchanging amounts of EUR and USD. If the FX rate goes higher, CCY1 is getting relatively stronger against CCY2 since it will cost more CCY2 to buy one CCY1. If the FX rate goes lower, CCY1 is getting relatively weaker against CCY2 because one CCY1 will buy fewer CCY2.

If a currency pair has both elements from the list in Exhibit 1.1, it is described as a G10 currency pair.

The most commonly quoted FX rate is the spot rate, often just called spot. For example, if the EUR/USD spot rate is 1.3105, EUR 1,000,000 would be exchanged for USD 1,310,500. Within a spot transaction the two cash flows actually hit the bank account (settle) on the spot date, which is usually two business days after the transaction is agreed (called T+2 settlement). However, in some currency pairs, for example, USD/CAD and USD/TRY (Turkish lira), the spot date is only one day after the transaction date (called T+1 settlement).

Another set of commonly traded FX contracts are forwards, sometimes called forward outrights. Within a forward transaction the cash flows settle on some future date other than the spot date. When rates are quoted on forwards, the tenor or maturity of the contract must also be specified. For example, if the EUR/USD 1yr (one-year) forward FX rate is 1.3245, by transacting this contract in EUR10m (ten million euros) notional, each EUR will be exchanged for 1.3245 USD (i.e., EUR10m will be exchanged for USD13.245m in one year's time). In a given currency pair, the spot rate and forward rates are linked by the respective interest rates in each currency. By a no-arbitrage argument, delivery to the forward maturity must be equivalent to trading spot and putting the cash balances in each currency into “risk-free” investments until the maturity of the forward. This is explained in more detail in Chapter 5.

Differences between the spot rate and a forward rate are called swap points or forward points. For example, if EUR/USD spot is 1.3105 and the EUR/USD 1yr forward is 1.3245, the EUR/USD 1yr swap points are 0.0140. In the market, swap points are quoted as a number of pips. Pips are the smallest increment in the FX rate usually quoted for a particular currency pair. In EUR/USD, where FX rates are usually quoted to four decimal places, a pip is 0.0001. In USD/JPY, where FX rates are usually only quoted to two decimal places, a pip is 0.01. In the above example, an FX swaps trader would say that EUR/USD 1yr swap points are at 140 (“one-forty”).

Pips (sometimes called “points”) are also used to describe the magnitude of FX moves (e.g., “EUR/USD has jumped forty pips higher” if the EUR/USD spot rate moves from 1.3105 to 1.3145). Another term used to describe spot moves is figure, meaning one hundred pips (e.g., “USD/JPY has dropped a figure” if the USD/JPY spot rate moves from 101.20 to 100.20).

FX swap contracts contain two FX deals in opposite directions (one a buy, the other a sell). Most often one deal is a spot trade and the other deal is a forward trade to a specific maturity. The two trades are called the legs of the transaction and the notionals on the two legs of the FX swap are often equal in CCY1 terms (e.g., buy EUR10m EUR/USD spot against sell EUR10m EUR/USD 1yr forward). FX swaps are quoted in swap point terms (the difference in FX rate) between the two legs. In general, swap points change far less frequency than spot rates in a given currency pair.

A trader takes up a new FX position by buying USD10m USD/CAD spot at a rate of 0.9780. This means buying USD10m and simultaneously selling CAD9.78m. This position is described as “long ten dollar-cad,” meaning USD10m has been bought and an equivalent amount of CAD has been sold. If USD10m USD/CAD had been sold at 0.9780 instead, the position is described as “short ten dollar-cad.” Note that the long/short refers to the CCY1 position. The concept of selling something you don't initially own is a strange one in the real world but it quickly becomes normal in financial markets where trading positions can flip often between long (a net bought position) and short (a net sold position).

USD/CAD spot jumps up to 0.9900 after it was bought at 0.9780: The trader is a hero! Time to sell USD/CAD spot and lock in the profit. Selling USD10m USD/CAD spot at 0.9900 results in selling USD10m against buying CAD9.9m. The initial bought USD10m and new sold USD10m cancel out, leaving no net USD position, but the initial sold CAD9.78m and new bought CAD9.9m leave CAD120k profit. This is important: FX transactions and positions are usually quoted in CCY1 terms (e.g., USD10m USD/CAD) while the profit and loss (P&L) from the trade is naturally generated in CCY2 terms (e.g., CAD120k).

A long position in a financial instrument makes money if the price of the instrument rises and loses money if the price of the instrument falls. Mathematically, the intraday P&L from a long spot position is:

where is the initial spot rate and is the new spot rate.

Exhibit 1.2 shows the P&L from a long spot position. As expected, P&L expressed in CCY2 terms is linear in spot.

A short position in a financial instrument makes money if the price of the instrument falls and loses money if the price of the instrument rises. The intraday P&L from a short spot position is also:

However, the notional will be negative to denote a short position.

Exhibit 1.3 shows the P&L from a short spot position. Again, P&L expressed in CCY2 terms is linear in spot.

If the P&L from these spot deals is brought back into CCY1 terms, the conversion between CCY2 and CCY1 takes place at the prevailing spot rate. Therefore, the CCY1 P&L from a spot position is:

At lower spot levels, an amount of CCY2 will be worth relatively more CCY1 (spot lower means CCY2 stronger and CCY1 weaker). At higher spot levels, an amount of CCY2 will be worth relatively fewer CCY1 (spot higher means CCY1 stronger and CCY2 weaker). This effect introduces curvature into the P&L profile as shown in Exhibit 1.4.

Practical Aspects of the FX Market

The international foreign exchange market is enormous, with trillions of dollars' worth of deals transacted each day. The most important international center for FX is London, followed by New York. In Asia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore are roughly equally important.

The USD is by far the most frequently traded currency with the majority of FX trades featuring USD as either CCY1 or CCY2. EUR/USD is the most traded currency pair, followed by USD/JPY and then GBP/USD.

FX traders draw a distinction between major currency pairs: the most commonly traded currency pairs, usually against the USD, and cross currency pairs. For example, EUR/USD and AUD/USD are majors while EUR/AUD is a cross. FX rates in cross pairs are primarily determined by the trading activity in the majors. The FX market is highly efficient so if EUR/USD spot is trading at 1.2000 and AUD/USD spot is trading at 0.8000, EUR/AUD spot will certainly be trading at 1.5000 (1.2/0.8).

Exhibit 1.5 is a mocked-up screen-grab of a market-data tool showing live spot rates in major G10 currency pairs. In practice these rates change (tick) many times a second.

G10 currency pairs are (mostly) freely floating with no restrictions on their trading. The G10 FX markets are tradable 24 hours a day between Wellington Open (9 a.m. Wellington, New Zealand time) on Monday through to New York Close (5 p.m. New York time) on Friday.

In G10 pairs, the market convention for quoting a currency pair can be deduced from this ordering: EUR > GBP > AUD > NZD > USD > CAD > CHF > NOK > SEK > JPY. For example, the CAD against GBP FX rate is quoted in the market as GBP/CAD. Unfortunately, with market convention rules there are often exceptions. For example, the majority of the market quotes EUR against GBP as EUR/GBP but some U.K. corporates trade in GBP/EUR terms since GBP is their natural notional currency.

Emerging market (EM) countries often have mechanisms in place to control currency flows. For example, some EM currencies have limited spot open hours and some peg their currency at a fixed level or maintain it within a trading band by buying and selling spot or by restricting transactions. When trading in an emerging market currency it is vital to learn exactly how the FX market functions in that country. EM majors are quoted as the number of EM currency to buy one USD (i.e., USD/CCY).

In currency pairs with restrictions on spot transactions, Non-Deliverable Forward (NDF) contracts are often traded. NDFs settle into a single cash payment (usually in USD) at maturity rather than the two cash flows in a regular FX settlement. The fix, a reference FX rate published at a certain time every business day in the appropriate country, is used to determine the settlement payment.

Up-to-date FX rates can be found on the Internet using, for example, Yahoo finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/) or XE.com (http://www.xe.com/).