Definitions
Currency exchange rates of different countries are expressed by national currencies.
This is a so called direct quotation system. For example, In Japan one US dollar (USD) will be equal to some amount of Japanese Yens (JPY), while in New York one Japanese Yen will be equal to some amount of cents (or dollars).Direct quotation shows how many units of national currency there are in one US dollar.
For example, a quotation USD/JPY – 120.56 means that one US dollar is equal to 120.56 Japanese Yens.
Great Britain, Europe, New Zealand, Australia belong to those few countries that use indirect quotation system.
Indirect quotation is a quotation that shows how many US dollars there are in one unit of national currency.
Quotation GBP/USD – 1/5855 means that one British Pound is equal to US $ 1.5855, EUR/USD – 1.0343.
So, abbreviation XXX/YYY in shows how many units of YYY currency there are in one unit of XXX currency. Therefore, currency exchange rate (quotation) is a quantity of YYY currency given for 1 unit of XXX currency.
If currency exchange rate is shown by USD/YYY abbreviation, it means we deal with currency pair of direct quotation.
If currency exchange rate is shown by XXX/USD abbreviation, it means we deal with currency pair of indirect quotation.