How to Read a Forex Quote
The first time you look at a live forex price, it can look like a confusing string of numbers. Once you know what each part represents, it becomes second nature.
Base currency and quote currency
Every forex pair is written as Base/Quote — for example, EUR/USD. The first currency (EUR) is the base currency; the second (USD) is the quote currency. The price tells you how much of the quote currency it takes to buy one unit of the base currency.
So if EUR/USD = 1.1000, that means 1 Euro is worth 1.10 US Dollars.
Bid and ask
Every live quote actually shows two prices, not one:
- Bid — the price at which you can sell the base currency
- Ask (or "offer") — the price at which you can buy the base currency
The ask is always slightly higher than the bid — that small gap is the spread, covered in an earlier article. A quote might look like: EUR/USD 1.10495 / 1.10508 — here, 1.10495 is the bid and 1.10508 is the ask.
Reading price direction
If EUR/USD rises from 1.1000 to 1.1050, the Euro has strengthened against the Dollar — it now takes more Dollars to buy one Euro. If it falls to 1.0950, the Euro has weakened.
This matters for your trade direction: buying EUR/USD is a bet the Euro will strengthen against the Dollar; selling it is a bet the Euro will weaken.
Decimal places and pips
Most pairs are quoted to 4 or 5 decimal places (with Yen pairs quoted to 2 or 3). The second-to-last digit is generally the "pip" — the standard unit of price movement covered in the pips/lots article.
Try it live
The best way to get comfortable reading quotes is watching them move in real time. Check DeskTerminal's live Market page to see actual bid/ask behavior across major pairs, gold, and crypto.
This is educational content only, not financial advice.
Reading a Live Quote, Step by Step
Say you see: GBP/USD 1.26845 / 1.26858.
The first number (1.26845) is the bid — the price you could sell British Pounds at right now. The second (1.26858) is the ask — the price you'd pay to buy. The difference, 0.00013, or 1.3 pips, is the spread.
If you buy at the ask (1.26858) and the price later rises to 1.27000, you could sell at the new bid price for a profit. If instead the price falls to 1.26700, selling there would realize a loss — the same underlying mechanic covered earlier, just now with a specific, readable example in front of you. With practice, reading a live two-sided quote like this becomes automatic within a few trading sessions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the two numbers in a forex quote mean?
They're the bid (the price you can sell at) and the ask (the price you can buy at) — the ask is always slightly higher, and that gap is the spread.
What is the base currency in a quote?
It's the first currency listed in a pair — in EUR/USD, EUR is the base currency, and the quote tells you how many US Dollars it takes to buy one Euro.
Why do some quotes have 5 decimal places and others have 3?
Most pairs are quoted to 4-5 decimal places; pairs involving the Japanese Yen are quoted to 2-3 decimal places instead — this is just a market convention based on the relative value of the currencies involved.
How do I know if a currency is strengthening or weakening?
If the price of a pair rises, the base currency is strengthening against the quote currency. If it falls, the base currency is weakening — e.g. EUR/USD rising means the Euro is getting stronger relative to the Dollar.