Symbols Guide - Forex (Format & Contributors)

Symbols Guide - Forex (Format & Contributors)

The foreign exchange market, or Forex, exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest market in the world, in terms of cash value traded, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions.

Below is information about symbol formatting, Forex contributors and spot & forward rate codes. For a list of the currency codes to construct the forex cross-rate symbols, please visit Symbols Guide - FOREX (Currency Codes).

Forex Symbol Formatting
The format for forex symbols vary depending on whether the US Dollar is involved in the currency pair or not. All forex contributors are included in these composite symbols. Please see the below section for each format.

US Dollar per Currency
This format is used when crossing the US Dollar with another currency. Please note that in most cases the quote is the amount of US Dollars per 1 of the specified currency, but in some cases the quote is the reverse, that is the amount of currency per US Dollar (ex. Yen, Swiss Franc). Click here for a list of Currency Codes.  The items marked with a '*' are reported as US$ per currency, instead of currency per US$.

Currency Code,,Spot/Forward Code,Exchange code
Examples:
EUR A0-FX
JPY A0-FX

Currency per Currency
This format is used when crossing one currency with another currency.

1st Currency Code,2nd Currency Code,<space>,Spot/Forward Code,Exchange code
Examples:

EURJPY A0-FX
GBPEUR A0-FX

Single Forex Contributor Symbols
Individual contributors can be separated out (Gain, FXDD, etc) and compared against the composite symbols. The contributor codes used in these symbols can be found using the table near the end of this article. Please note that because the Forex marketplace is comprised of a variety of banks, institutions and corporations, it is they that decide what currency cross-rates they wish to report and during what hours. While Forex is a 24-hour, 6 day a week market, many contributors do not participate in quoting all currencies nor do some keep quoting continuously during a 24 hour period. 

Currency Code(s),@Contributor Code,<space>,Spot/Forward Code,Exchange code
Example: EUR@FXDD A0-FX, GBPEUR@GFT A0-FX

Download Sample Quote Window (FX Contributors.quo)

History Data
For most composite symbols, we supply 10+ years of daily data. With the single contributor symbols, data has been collecting since May 2006. In terms of intraday data, we supply 10 days of tick data and up to 3 months, 120 days, of minute interval data (like most other instruments eSignal supports)

Forex Spot & Forward Rate Codes

Precious Metal and Coin Codes