Sometimes when talking to other forex traders you might hear a reference to a nickname that you do not understand.
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“I'm looking to long 10 lots in Cable, what are you thinking?”
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“Hmm, have you taken a look at Fiber? Support looks like it might be breaking across the board.”
Wait, what? I thought we were talking forex trading over here? Although It may seem strange at first, these are nicknames for different forex currency pairs!
Let us take a look at the two forex currency pair nicknames that get used the most, Cable and Fiber.
GBP/USD – Cable:
Back in the mid-19th century, before the invention of satellites and fiber optics, the exchange rate between the British Pound Sterling (GBP) and the US Dollar (USD) was transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean via submarine cable. The first such cable between the London and NY exchanges was laid in 1858 and the rest, as they say, is history!
Traders love to talk about the good old days and this piece of forex trading history has stuck with traders' generations onwards.
EUR/USD – Fiber:
What about the brand spanking new Euro that was first introduced in only 1999? EUR/USD of course does not quite have the same romantic history to draw upon that Cable does. So what do traders do? Well, being the funny bunch that they are, they’ve gone and simply ‘upgraded’ the old Cable to a state-of-the-art Fiber Optic line. Hence the nickname Fiber!
The nickname Fiber is simply a play on words on the first nicknamed Cable. Isn't it funny how nicknames like this just stick!
Of course, there are many more forex currency pair nicknames going around which we have listed for you here:
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AUD/USD – Aussie
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NZD/USD – Kiwi
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USD/CHF – Swissy
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USD/CAD – Loonie
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GBP/JPY – Guppy
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EUR/JPY – Yuppy
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EUR/GBP – Chunnel
Get on your VT Markets MT4 demo and find the currency pairs with nicknames yourself. Now you never have to feel left out of a conversation with other forex traders again!