What are these pro-traders talking about? Who or what are Matie and Guppy? Are they distant relatives or secret code words to enter a sorority? Too many questions, but the answers are too few. Fret not! Today you gonna boost your knowledge and find out how traders in the professional community call currencies. Some nicknames are funny; others carry exciting stories. Uncover all of them and become a seasoned trader who is no newbie to FX slang.
The EUR/GBP is called Chunnel. It refers to the Channel Tunnel – the road that connects the UK with the Eurozone through France. EUR and this tunnel came into operation at the same time, that is why the currency pair took this nickname.
When Big Ban hasn’t yet been completed, and the Internet was the wildest dream, the UK and the US got connected by a steel cable beneath the Atlantic Ocean. It let two counties transmit currency prices from London to New York markets.
Traders call EUR/JPY - Yuppy or Euppy. Just smash EUR and JPY together, omit some letters in the middle, pronounce it fast, and you’ll get this nickname. Sounds nice! P.S. Don’t mix it up with trendy yuppies (young urban professionals).
It is the first-level association with Japan. But if you think about this, the currency does behave like a real ninja. The US Dollar somewhat shadows it, but when the economy of the USA weakens, the value of USD/JPY rises.
Yes, Matie is AUD/USD. You may have heard a more common name – Aussie and Ozzie, which are pretty self-explanatory. Nobody knows Matie’s true origin, but they say it caught on due to the Australians’ fondness of calling everybody ‘mate’.
GBP/JPY includes too many consonants in a row. So, to simplify its pronunciation, Guppy was invented. It is just a condensed name of the two currencies, which is easier to remember and to use when speaking.
Swissy stands for USD/CHF. Not much imagination involved here since CHF is a Swiss Franc. When it comes to this currency, one doesn’t need to be wordy. CHF is classy without further ado!
Loonie is the nickname given to USD/CAD. If you know how the Canadian one-dollar coin looks like, you won’t be surprised with the reference. It displays a cute common loon – a bird that is very popular in Canada.
NZD/USD is known as Kiwi. That’s the fest of creativity among traders! The national symbol of New Zealand stands for the most popular currency pair, including NZD. It is a very common name used not only by traders but journalists as well.
USD/RUB & EUR/RUB are unexpectedly named Barney & Betty. Do you have any clue why? Traders couldn’t have chosen a more distinct association with rubble, they preferred the Flintstones couple. Well, who are we to judge?!