I just discovered a problem: when you usually check forex quotes, those currency symbols are really easy to confuse. For example, ￥ can mean both Chinese yuan and Japanese yen. And $ is even more exaggerated—more than 30 countries use it. Seeing $50, you have no idea whether it’s USD, CAD, or TWD. No wonder professional traders are used to writing USD$ and CNY￥ like this to be clear.

What’s most interesting is that the same symbol can mean completely different things in different fields. ฿ in forex is Thai baht, but in the crypto space it becomes Bitcoin. If you mix them up, it can be a hassle. Also, the shortcut keys for inputting these currency symbols on Mac and Windows are different. On Mac, the euro is Shift+option+2; on Windows, it’s Alt+E. It really feels hard to remember.

In fact, the most practical thing is to remember the symbol combinations for the major currency pairs—like EUR/USD and GBP/JPY. After you’ve looked at forex for a while, you’ll naturally become familiar with them. But for people who are just getting started, you do need a complete reference table of currency symbol pairs. How do you usually quickly tell these symbols apart? Do you have any memory tips?