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You may have noticed that in each party, when calling up a currency pair, one currency is quoted first, and the other is quoted second. For example, in USD/JPY, Ms. United Stated comes first, followed by Mr. Japan. In EUR/USD, Mr. Europe comes first followed by Ms. United States. This pattern is fixed and doesn’t change.
Now, this has nothing to do with whether or not the country of a currency is culturally expected to let ladies go first. In fact, in Japan for example, it is exactly the opposite. In real life, men are expected to enter first to make sure everything is safe.
The first currency in the pair is called the base currency and the second is called the quote currency. As the base and quote come together, the currency pair shows how much of the quote currency is needed to purchase one unit of the base currency. We will talk more about this in your next coffee break.
