what is an indirect quote 
the term indirect quote is a currency quotation in the foreign exchange market that expresses the variable amount of foreign currency required to buy or sell one unit of the domestic currency an indirect quote is also known as a quantity quotation since it expresses the quantity of foreign currency required to buy units of the domestic currency in other words the domestic currency is the base currency in an indirect quote while the foreign currency is the counter currency understanding indirect quotesan indirect quote is the opposite or reciprocal of a direct quote also known as a price quotation which expresses the price of one unit of a foreign currency in terms of a variable number of units of the domestic currency as the u s dollar usd is the dominant currency in global foreign exchange markets the convention is to generally use direct quotes that have the u s dollar as the base currency and other currencies like the canadian dollar cad japanese yen jpy and indian rupee inr as the counter currency exceptions to this rule are the euro and commonwealth currencies like the british pound gbp australian dollar aud and new zealand dollar nzd which are typically quoted in indirect form for example gbp 1 usd 1 30 consider the example of the cad which we assume is trading at 1 2500 to the u s dollar in canada the indirect form of this quote would be c 1 us 0 8000 i e 1 1 2500 however the conventional quotation in foreign exchange markets is 1 2500 which is an indirect quote from the u s perspective because it shows how much of a foreign currency cad is required to get 1 usd conversely usd 0 8000 would be a direct quote in an indirect quote a lower exchange rate implies that the domestic currency is depreciating or becoming weaker continuing with the above example if the usd cad quotation now changes to us 1 c 1 2300 indirect quote then that means the usd domestic currency has gotten weaker as less cad would be needed to get 1 usd the direct quote which is 0 8130 1 1 2300 shows that 1 cad will get you usd 0 8130 as opposed to 0 8000 currency crosses