FOREX or foreign exchange trading is the trade of currencies from different countries. There are many currencies around the world but there are only seven major currencies in /forex trading/ represented by their three-letter abbreviations namely the US dollar (USD), British pound (GBP), the Japanese Yen (JPY), Euro (EUR), the Canadian dollar (CAD), Swiss Franc (CHF) and the Australian dollar (AUD). For starters, be familiar with these names as it is important in reading FOREX quotes.
FOREX quotes are listed in pairs such as EUR/USD wherein the first currency is called the base currency and the second is the counter. The base currency always has the value of 1. Right after the currency pair is an amount such as in EUR/USD 1.4200. This amount is the value of the base currency when traded with the second currency. In the given example, one Euro is equal to 1.4200 US dollars.