At first, the foreign exchange quotes may look quite complicated with a mix of facts and figures. Honestly, there are only a few things that you'll need to remember. The first currency is always the base currency and the value is always at 1. This is the starting point to understanding how to trade the forex. The base currency is generally the U.S. dollar and it is used as the base currency in most forex quotes. In a conversion such as the USD/GBP, the British Pound is converted to $1 to indicate the market value. Therefore, you'll see the U.S. dollar as $1 and the British Pound would show the amount in Pounds that equals one U.S. dollar. If the amount of the British Pound was to move upward, then the currecy quote would increase, and that increase would show that the U.S. dollar has grown in strength against the British Pound. Their are times when the British Pound, Euro, or Australian Dollar are used as the base currency, and when the amounts of the U.S Dollar rise against those other currencies, it shows a weakening of the U.S. Dollars against them.

If the market begins to rise, it means that the base currency is strengthening in comparison to the other currency that is being traded. It's a fairly simple way of seeing the strength or weaknesses of the currency that is your base currency. If your trading multiple currencies, then it will take more effort to analyze the quotes and figure out the best times to trade which currencies.

If your trading on the foreign exchange, your likely to see a two-sided quote with the bid and offer. The bid represents the position in the market where the trader will sell the currency, while the offer is the position in the foreign exchange market where you can buy the base currency.