Cable (GBP/USD)

Cable is the market nickname for GBP/USD, the pound sterling quoted against the US dollar. The name dates from the nineteenth century, when sterling-dollar rates were transmitted between London and New York over a transatlantic telegraph cable, and dealers still use the word on trading desks today. Cable is one of the major pairs and among the most actively traded, with its busiest hours during the London session and the London-New York overlap. It responds to Bank of England policy, UK inflation and labour data, and to anything that moves the dollar. Sterling has a reputation for larger intraday swings than the euro, so cable often shows a wider average range than EUR/USD.