{{Short description|Slang term for GBP/USD exchange rate}} {{multiple issues| {{one source|date=March 2024}} {{notability|date=March 2024}} }} The term '''cable''' is a slang term used by [[foreign exchange]] traders to refer to the exchange rate between the [[pound sterling]] and [[US dollar]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/47c32ec4-6a34-11e4-8fca-00144feabdc0 |title=Traders' forex chatroom banter exposed |newspaper=[[Financial Times]] |first1=Claer |last1=Barrett |first2=John |last2=Aglionby |date=November 12, 2014 |quote=A trader from HSBC visits multiple chatrooms in an attempt to manipulate the 4pm WMR fix, declaring he is a net seller in "cable" (a slang term for GBP/USD currency pairing)}}</ref> The term originated in the mid-19th century, when the exchange rate between the US dollar and sterling began to be transmitted across the Atlantic by a [[submarine communications cable]].
The first [[Transatlantic telegraph cable|Transatlantic Cable]] was laid under the Atlantic Ocean in 1858, but it failed after only about a month of fitful service. The first truly successful cable across the Atlantic was completed in July 1866, reliably transmitting currency prices between the [[London]] and [[New York City]] Exchanges. The first such exchange rate to be published in ''[[The Times]]'' appeared in their issue of 10 August 1866.
Transatlantic communications are now mainly carried by [[optical fibre]] cables, supplemented to a small degree by [[satellites]], but forex traders' nickname for the sterling/dollar pair still harks back to the old days of copper telegraph cables.
==References== {{Reflist}} [[Category:Foreign exchange market]]