European Unit of Account European Unit of Account The European Unit of Account (EUA) was a unit of account used in the European Communities from 1975 to 1979, when it was replaced at parity by the European Currency Unit, in turn replaced at parity in 1999 by the euro. Initially it was used for Lomé Convention and European Investment Bank operations before being gradually introduced into other sectors of Community activity. The EUA was a basket of European currencies, originally designed to have the same value in mid-1974 as the IMF special drawing rights basket, both worth US$1.20635; they immediately moved apart in value.
Currency pair = Cable = GBP/USD. The currency pairs that do not involve USD are called "cross currency pairs", such as GBP/JPY. Pairs that involve the euro are often called "euro crosses", such as EUR/GBP. Currencies are traded in fixed contract sizes, specifically called lot sizes, or multiples thereof. The standard lot size is 100,000 units. Many retail trading firms also offer 10,000-unit (mini lot) trading accounts and a few even 1,000-unit (micro lot). The officially quoted rate is a spot price. In a trading market however, currencies are offered for sale at an offering price (the "ask price"), and traders looking