Recently, when I was doing foreign exchange trading, I found that many people aren’t very clear about the currency symbols of different countries—especially those symbols that look alike. They’re really easy to mix up. For example, the ￥ symbol: in Japan, it stands for the Japanese yen; in China, it stands for the Chinese yuan (Renminbi). Without the currency code (JPY￥ or CNY￥), you basically can’t tell them apart.

In fact, the most common one is the $ symbol. It looks simple, but it’s used in more than 30 countries. The US dollar is US$, the New Taiwan dollar is NT$, Canada uses C$, Australia uses A$... and each one is different. That’s also why, in international transactions, you must make it clear—otherwise problems can easily happen.

What’s most interesting is that the same symbol can mean different things in different fields. For example, the ฿ symbol: in the foreign exchange market, it represents the Thai baht; but in cryptocurrencies, it becomes the symbol for Bitcoin.

Speaking of the euro exchange rate symbol, € is especially important in foreign exchange trading because EUR/USD is one of the most active currency pairs in the world. Seeing € tells you that transactions involve euros, such as euro/yen (EUR/JPY). A currency pair refers to the exchange rate between two currencies: the one in front is the base currency, and the one after is the quote currency.

By the way, if you often need to enter these symbols, on Mac, the euro symbol is Shift+option+2, the pound sterling is Option+3, and the US dollar is Shift+4; on Windows, the euro is Alt+E, the pound sterling is Alt+L, and the US dollar is also Shift+4. Use it a few more times and you’ll get used to it.