Currency templates question

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

Regarding currency templates, I'm really surprised about the screenshots on the help page: https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/hel ... rency.html
For example, with USD as default currency you have the following setting:
Default currency: USD
Currency 2: USD (constant ratio)
Currency3: YEN (YEN->USD)
Currency4: EUR (EUR->USD)
Currency5: CAD (CAD->USD)

Is this really correct? (please tell me it's not, or I've understood wrongly since 3 years.. )
What gives me correct results (I think) is this setting:
Default currency: USD
Currency 2: USD (constant ratio)
Currency3: YEN (USD->YEN)
Currency4: EUR (USD->EUR)
Currency5: CAD (USD->CAD)


Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

I think the confusion is just a matter of how we have typed the label. By (YEN->USD) for example we mean you have an investment there that is priced such that it describes how many YEN would be equal to 1 USD. Since 111 Yen are equal to 1 USD, this would be an investment that has a price around 0.009.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

Understood, so this is the correct setting:
Default currency: USD
Currency 2: USD (constant ratio)
Currency3: YEN (USD/YEN)
Currency4: EUR (USD/EUR)
Currency5: CAD (USD/CAD)

Indeed, the label (XXX -> YYY) is quite confusing. It is not a standard notation for describing an exchange rate, yes?
Setting the currencies / exchange rates is not the easiest part to understand. For an hour, and because of a strange behavior with one on my investments, I doubted my settings.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

I'm not sure there is a standard for how to label these exchange rates? Each exchange rate is how many of that item are equal to 1 of the default currency. For example, if you look at the constant exchange rate, the dialog is labelled this way. How many are equal to 1 default.

[Djobydjoba]

The XXX/YYY notation is used most of the time. (but the slash "/" is removed sometimes: XXXYYY) With XXX represents 1 of the default currency.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_pair

EUR/USD (= how many USD for 1 EUR)
EUR/AUD (= how many AUD for 1 EUR)
USD/JPY (= how many JPY for 1 USD)
AUD/USD
etc.

But probably the confusion with the label XXX -> YYY is just with me.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Yes, according to that wikipedia documentation, our labels are backwards from the standard. Good to know, and going forward we'll try to switch to this format.

[Djobydjoba]

Yes, the XXX/YYY format is used by all the forex traders, and in all the trading platforms.

[Mark]

Thanks, good to know, I will try and update those screenshots.

[Mark]

Thanks for the help, this documentation has been updated:

https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/hel ... rency.html

(you might need to reload the page, the images have been updated)

[Djobydjoba]

Great, back to the standard

But the code for the Yen is JPY, not YEN.
The ISO currency codes here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217

Why not use the ISO code of 3 letters in the column symbol too, instead of the Symbol €, $, etc..?
€ and $ we know them, but for the other currencies it is not used/known (even for the Yen symbol), at least worldwide. For example I didn't know that the symbol for CAD was C. Really, the codes of 3 letters are used in all the financial readings related to currencies (USD, EUR, CAD, JPY...), and not the symbols.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Personally, I like the shorter symbol labels, as they take up less space on reports/etc. It is completely up to the end user though, what labels to use for each currency.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

I've just updated my post above with this information:

the code for the Yen is JPY, not YEN.
The ISO currency codes here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217

[Djobydjoba]

Personally, I like the shorter symbol labels, as they take up less space on reports/etc. It is completely up to the end user though, what labels to use for each currency.

Okay, yes, indeed.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Good point/catch on YEN/JPY. I have just updated that page to use JPY instead of YEN.

[Djobydjoba]

Perfect! Thanks.