What you Get from a Foreign Exchange Converter

in News
— 8 Sep, 2013

What you Get from a Foreign Exchange Converter

Description: This article looks at the information you get with a foreign currency and why you need it.

When you use a foreign exchange converter, there are certain pieces of information that you may receive. This information is not only the amount you have to pay for a certain currency – there are a number of other pieces of information that you may or may not get from the foreign exchange converter. It is best to note that not all converters will offer all of this information. However, the bulk of this information is very useful people who trade forex.

Foreign Exchange Converter Rates

The current foreign exchange rate is the most important piece of information that you should receive from these converters. There are two ways that this information can be given to you:

The rate that you would have to pay through a financial institution – This way of displaying the rate is helpful to travellers more than traders. The amount generally includes any interbank rate which gives you a true portrayal of what you are going to pay for foreign currency.
The actual real-time market rate – This rate is what a trader will need to see. There are a number of ways that this can be displayed. The first is as a simple figure stating that one unit of one currency is equal to a certain amount in another currency. The other way this can be show in a real-time listing, where the ask and bid prices are given. This is possibly the best way for a trader to get the information, as it relates to them in a useful way.

Historical Rates

If you are looking at foreign exchange for trading or for personal travel, it is best that you see the historic values. Many foreign exchange converters will give you the historic values of currency. The most common method of providing this information is with a line graph which shows how the currency has moved over a certain amount of time. This time period could be 30 days to 90 days, and you are generally able to decide on what you want to look at.

Some foreign exchange converters will offer you historic values of multiple currencies on a single graph. This may not be very handy for the traveller but does help forex traders quite a bit. You should also be able to change certain parameters of the graph, including which value you are getting, and the frequency of the graph’s data points.

Why you Need this Information

If you are simply using a foreign exchange converter when travelling, you may wonder why you need the historical values. Using this information, you will be able to see whether you should buy your foreign currency now or wait a bit. You may get a better price if you wait until a time closer to your trip. Of course, if the currency is strengthening against your local currency then you should buy the currency now to save money.

Forex traders should not only know the current price of a currency, but the historic values as well. It is only through knowing this information that you are able to make a good trade.