GBPUSD definition

GBP/USD is the exchange rate between the British pound and the US dollar, showing how many US dollars one pound will buy. It ranks among the most actively traded pairs in the world, at about 7.6% of the roughly $9.6 trillion that changes hands in the global forex market each day (BIS Triennial Survey, 2025), so liquidity is deep and spreads are tight. Traders call it "Cable", after the transatlantic telegraph cable that once carried its quotes.

The pound is the base currency and the dollar the quote currency, so a quote of 1.2700 means one pound is worth 1.2700 US dollars. A rising price means the pound is strengthening against the dollar, a falling price the reverse. You trade GBP/USD as a forex CFD, taking a view on the price rather than buying pounds outright: go long if you expect the pound to rise, short if you expect it to fall. Moves are measured in pips, the fourth decimal place, and your profit or loss is the pips gained or lost times your position size.

Cable is driven by the policy gap between the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve, and it is unusually sensitive to UK domestic news: growth and inflation figures, fiscal announcements and political events can all swing the pound sharply. Because the dollar side reacts to US data at the same time, the pair can move on both economies at once, which is part of why it has a reputation for sizeable intraday ranges.