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Currency Converter

INSTRUCTIONS: Enter the amount to be converted and the initial currency. Then select the currency you wish the initial amount to be converted into. The result will be shown below after you click the "Convert Button". Disclaimer

An exchange system quotation is given by stating the number of units of "term currency" (or "price currency" or "quote currency") that can be bought in terms of 1 "unit currency" (also called "base currency"). For example, in a quotation that says the EURUSD exchange rate is 1.4320 (1.4320 USD per EUR), the term currency is USD and the base currency is EUR.

How Are Currencies Traded?

Currencies are traded against each other. Each pair of currencies constitutes an individual currency product and is traditionally noted XXX/YYY, where XXX and YYY represent the three-letter currency codes. For example, EUR/USD (Euro versus the US Dollar) may be bought or sold on the FOREX market.

Increased demand for a currency is due to either an increased transaction demand for money, or an increased speculative demand for money. The transaction demand for money is highly correlated to the country's level of business activity, gross domestic product (GDP), and employment levels.

The more people there are unemployed, the less the public as a whole will spend on goods and services. Central banks typically have little difficulty adjusting the available money supply to accommodate changes in the demand for money due to business transactions.

Where is the Foreign Exchange Market?

Most of currency exchange takes place between international banks. There is no central exchange like those used to trade equities. The largest three foreign exchange trading centers are in New York, Tokyo and London, of which London is the largest. Other large trading centers are located in Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, Frankfurt and elsewhere

A market based exchange rate will change whenever the values of either of the two component currencies change. A currency will tend to become more valuable whenever demand for it is greater than the available supply. It will become less valuable whenever demand is less than available supply (this does not mean people no longer want money, it just means they prefer holding their wealth in some other form, possibly another currency).

The Foreign Exchange (FOREX) rates shown and used the the exchange calculations are derived from publicly available data sources. Please see our disclaimer.