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Forex Currency Charts

. Dollar weakness drives EUR/USD higher
. US recovery and strong influx of foreign demand will send EUR/USD lower

. Japanese government intervention to weaken their currency sends USD/JPY higher
. Gains in Nikkei and demand for Japanese assets drive USD/JPY down

. High yield and attractive growth in the UK drives GBP/USD higher
. Speculation about UK adopting the euro will send the GBP/USD lower

. Global stability and global recovery will send USD/CHF higher
. USD/CHF rallies on geopolitical instability

. Swiss government uses verbal intervention to weaken the franc, sending EUR/CHF higher
. If inflation took off in Germany and France it could drive EUR/CHF lower

. Rising commodity prices sends AUD/USD higher
. Drought hurts Australian economy and AUD/USD

. Canadian economic underperformance against US sends USD/CAD higher
. Higher interest rates and rebounding labor market in Canada will help to drive USD/CAD lower

. Increased tourism and migration into New Zealand drives the NZD/USD higher
. Weakness in the Australian dollar sends the NZD/USD lower

. Speculation about UK adopting the euro will send the EUR/GBP higher
. Faster UK growth over Eurozone growth will drive EUR/GBP lower

. Fears of Japanese banking crisis will send EUR/JPY higher
. Eurozone recession will drive EUR/JPY lower

. Interest rate hikes by the Bank of England will send GBP/JPY higher
. Strong demand for Japanese assets will drive GBP/JPY lower

. Middle East conflict and volatility in oil prices will drive CHF/JPY higher
. Geopolitical stability will send CHF/JPY lower

. Interest rate hikes by the Bank of England will send GBP/CHF higher
. Speculation about UK adopting the euro will send the GBP/CHF lower

. Recessionary conditions in Australia would send EUR/AUD higher
. Rising commodity prices would boost EUR/AUD lower

. German economic rebound and Canadian weakness will send EUR/CAD higher
. Canadian economic strength and German weakness will send EUR/CAD lower

. Rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of Australia will drive AUD/CAD higher
. Droughts hurt Australia's domestic economy and will send AUD/CAD lower

. Japanese investment in Australia will drive AUD/JPY higher
. Falling commodity prices hurt Australia's economy, sending AUD/JPY lower

. External shocks to Asian tourism such as SARS and North Korea risks will send NZD/JPY higher
. Decline in immigration will hurt New Zealand's growth prospects and send NZD/JPY lower

. Pessimism towards the Japanese economy will drive CAD/JPY higher
. Concern about decreased US demand for Canadian exports will send CAD/JPY lower

Currencies are quoted in pairs. The first listed currency is known as the base currency, while the second is called the counter or quote currency.

Base Currency is the currency in which an investor or issuer maintains its book of accounts. In the FX markets, the US Dollar is normally considered the 'base' currency for quotes, meaning that quotes are expressed as a unit of $1 USD per the other currency quoted in the pair. The primary exceptions to this rule are the British Pound, the Euro and the Australian Dollar.

Bid - An expression indicating a desire to buy a commodity at a given price; the opposite of Offer.

Ask - Also called Offer. Indicates a willingness to sell a futures contract at a given price.

There are 3 main types of charts in forex. They are the line chart, bar chart, and candlestick chart.

The line chart is constructed by connecting daily closing prices.

The bar chart is a depiction of the price performance of a currency pair, made up of vertical bars at set intraday time intervals (e.g. every 30 minutes). Each bar has 4 'hooks', representing the opening, closing, high and low (OCHL) exchange rates for the time interval.

The candlestick chart is a variant of the bar chart, except that the candlestick chart depicts OCHL prices as 'candlesticks' with a wick at each end. When the opening rate is higher than the closing rate the candlestick is black (sometimes - red). When the closing rate exceeds the opening rate, the candlestick is white (sometimes - green).

Technical indicators (for example, RSI, MACD, Bollinger bands, Stochastic) help to analyse the price movements, expressed in forex charts.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is a popular oscillator. The name Relative Strength Index is slightly misleading, as the RSI does not compare the relative strength of two securities, but rather the internal strength of a single security. A more appropriate name might be Internal Strength Index. Relative strength charts that compare two market indices, which are often referred to as Comparative Relative Strength.

Indicator of Bollinger borders (BOL) is represented by two lines, which are built on the distance equal to certain amount of standard deviations. Since the value of standard deviation depends on volatilessness of the price, the lines controls their width automatically. The width increasing when the market is more vilatile and decreasing when the market is less volatile.

MACD - is the most famous indicator, which is built on the basis of difference of the average values. This indicator was suggested by Jerald H. Appler as the difference between two exponentially smoothed averages (EMA).

MACD is the most effective under conditions when the market swings with high amplitude in trading. The most frequently used signals of MACD are intersections, overbuying/overselling states and divergences.

The Stochastic Oscillator (STO) shows the moments, when the price reaches the border of its trade diapason within predefined period of time (this is an indicator of speed of changing or the Impulse of Price). It contains of 2 curves: the fast (%K) and the slow (%D).