Currency Trading Information

ISO 4217 in Forex Trading


ISO 4217 is an international standard describing three letter codes to define the names of currencies established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The first two letters of the code are the two letters of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes (which are similar to those used for national top-level domains on the internet) and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself. So Japan's currency code becomes JPY-JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the names dollar, franc and pound being used in dozens of different countries, all with wildly differing values.

The standard also defines the relationship between the major currency unit and any minor currency unit. Often, the minor currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but 1/10 or 1/1000 are also common. Some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya (UM) = 5 khoums, and Madagascar has 1 ariary = 5 iraimbilanja.

ISO 4217 includes codes for not only currencies, but also codes for precious metals (gold, silver, palladium and platinum; normally measured in troy ounces) and certain other entities used in international finance, e.g. Special Drawing Rights. There are also special codes allocated for testing purposes (XTS), and to indicate no currency transactions (XXX). These codes all begin with the letter "X". ISO 3166 never assigns country codes beginning with "X", so ISO 4217 can use "X" codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes.

Supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO are normally also represented by codes beginning with an "X". However, the Euro is represented by the code EUR; although EU is not an ISO 3166-1 country code, it was used anyway, and in order to do so EU was added to the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list to represent the European Union. The predecessor to the Euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU.

More detail about ISO 4217 can be found on wikipedia.org

The author blog: Online Forex Resource - http://forexbroker.blogspot.com

  


MORE RESOURCES:

The Moscow Times

Ruble Rises Against Currency Basket After Central Bank Steps In
Bloomberg - 21 hours ago
Total currency trading volumes reached a record $8.5 billion yesterday, compared with daily trading of about $3 billion to $4 billion, said Denis Uvchukhov, ...
Russian assets tumble amid worries about ruble MarketWatch
Big Summer Sell-Off Hits the Russian Stock Market New York Times
Russian Stocks, Bonds Tumble as Central Bank Props Up Ruble Bloomberg
MarketWatch
all 32 news articles


KBS

Gov't to Ease Foreign Currency Trading Rules
KBS, South Korea - 21 hours ago
Most forms of personal foreign currency trading under ten-thousand dollars will be permitted starting next year. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said ...


Citizen

Dollar slips from highs as yen gets stronger
International Herald Tribune, France - 17 hours ago
"Market players are cautious about unrest in global financial markets, which is strengthening sentiment for the dollar," said Kim Sung Soon, a currency ...
Land Of The Rising Yen Forbes
Yen Rises Against Euro, Dollar on Deepening Recession Concerns Bloomberg
Yen Posts Weekly Gains on US Job Losses, Global Economic View Bloomberg
Bloomberg - Bloomberg
all 471 news articles


Mexico's Peso Declines for Second Week on Oil, Global Slowdown
Bloomberg - 12 hours ago
... for global growth,'' said Omer Esiner, a senior market foreign-exchange analyst at Ruesch International Inc., a currency trading company in Washington. ...
US dollar strengthens to fresh multi-month highs versus major ... RTT News
all 5 news articles


3 News NZ

NZ dollar takes a bath in choppiest trading in years
New Zealand Herald, New Zealand - 14 hours ago
"It's pretty much consistent with what we're seeing across the rest of the forex market," said Royal Bank of Canada currency strategist Sue Trinh. ...
Kiwi dollar slumps Stuff.co.nz
all 40 news articles


Hindu Business Line

NSE currency futures trade drifts to realistic levels
Hindu Business Line, India - 12 hours ago
“At present, banks are using currency derivatives only for proprietary trading. One will see real liquidity once customers start accessing the markets. ...


India Infoline.com

US Shares End Trading Week Mixed
Newsroom America, New Zealand - 9 hours ago
In currency trading, the dollar gained against the euro and traded flat against the yen, while the price of gold fell 40 US cents to be worth US$802.80 an ...
Wall Street rebounds as financials rally India Infoline.com
all 67 news articles


Brazil's Currency Has Biggest Weekly Decline in 5 1/2 Years
Bloomberg - 9 hours ago
``There are a lot of outflows with all the bad news from world markets,'' said Adilson Goes, currency-trading director in Sao Paulo at brokerage Levycam CCV ...


Wall Street Journal Blogs

Currency Trading’s Growing Asian Hub
Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - Aug 28, 2008
A decade ago, some government officials in Southeast Asia lambasted currency traders, blaming them for driving down the value of many Asian currencies. ...


LIVENEWS.com.au

Dollar drops on falling commodity prices
The Age, Australia - Sep 2, 2008
Mr Waterer said commodities prices would dominate currency trading during the overnight session. "If we see an extension of that commodity weakness, ...
Dollar at lowest level for a year NEWS.com.au
$A weaker at noon, down 1.6 US cents Sydney Morning Herald
$A finishes at weakest level for a year The Age
Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney Morning Herald
all 341 news articles

currency trading - Google News

Article List | Index | Site Map
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved.