Quote Currency

The quote currency, also called the counter currency, is the second currency listed in a forex pair. In EUR/USD, the US dollar is the quote currency. The exchange rate shows how many units of the quote currency are needed to purchase one unit of the base currency. Profits and losses on the trade are typically realized in the quote currency before being converted to your account currency.

The quote currency is the denomination in which the price is expressed. When EUR/USD trades at 1.0850, each euro costs 1.0850 US dollars. This means the quote currency determines the scale of the number you see on the chart. JPY pairs like USD/JPY often trade around 150, not because the currencies are drastically different in value, but because it takes about 150 yen to buy one dollar.

For example, if you buy 1 standard lot of EUR/USD at 1.0850 and the price rises to 1.0900, the profit is calculated directly in US dollars, which is the quote currency. At 50 pips gain, that is 500 US dollars before any currency conversion. If your account is denominated in euros, your broker then converts the USD profit into EUR at the current rate. This is why two identical trades can produce slightly different P&L amounts in different account currencies.

In copy trading, the quote currency determines how your profit or loss is denominated before conversion to your account currency. SteadyFlowFX's 9 algorithms trade across 8 pairs with different quote currencies, and your broker converts realized P&L automatically. Understanding the quote currency helps subscribers interpret individual trade results before they appear as account balance changes.