USD American Dollar
EUR International European Currency — Euro
AUD Aussie, Australian Dollar
CAD Canadian Dollar
GBP British Pound Sterling
CHF SWF — Swissie, Swiss Frank
JPY YEN Japanese Yen
The rest currencies are considered to be the Minor Currencies. And, finally the Commodity currencies are of those countries, the internal trading of which is based on the export of raw materials-oil, gas, metals, etc. Actually, there is a quite large range of such currencies, but the most important ones are Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the New Zealand dollar.
There is also a classification of currency pairs by the USD presence in them. The major currency pairs are those in which there is the U.S. dollar (as a base or as the quoted currency). Currency pairs having USD neither in base nor in quote currency are called cross pairs. The beginners had better trade with the major currencies, and the experienced traders deal with cross pairs, as for effective trading with them it is required to have good economic knowledge of different countries. Here are some examples of cross pairs: GBP/JPY, EUR/JPY and GBP/EUR.
Basically, currency pairs are traded in volumes of 100,000 units of base currency (standard lots), 10,000 units (mini lots) or 1,000 units (micro lots).
Standard = 1 lot = 100 000
Mini = 0.1 lot =10 000
Micro = 0.01 lot = 1000
Just for keeping in mind let’s bring an example. If you open a position of 1 lot for GBP/USD for the ask price of 1.5000, you are purchasing 100,000 British Pound while selling 150,000 USD. In case of opening a micro position (0.01 lot), for GBP/USD for the bid price of 1,5000 you are selling 1000 British Pounds, while purchasing 1,500 US Dollars.
