CNN
CNN are renowned for being the first truly global 24 hour a day news channel and the inspiration for many copy-cat channels.
They have also been very much on the ball when it came to the use of the internet as a medium for disseminating information, and while the CNN site may not be as popular as Reuters or Blomberg or Yahoo!, it does contain a large array of features, tools and information that are very useful for anyone interested in currency.
The currency page is kept mercifully simple. At the top left of the page (below the menus) is a cross rate table. The table consists of only 4 currencies: GBP; USD; JPY; EUR which means that you can tell at a glance what the rates are. Normal cross rate tables you have to read, like a chart.
At the top of the cross rate table are a couple of links: one to “Asia pacific” one to “Europe”. Clicking on either of those two links will take you to a new table specific to that region, but instead of a cross rate table it is a list of regional currencies all against the USD.
Below this table is the currency converter. Using it is very easy.
If you wanted to convert $5,000 Singapore dollars to Hungarian Forints you would start by filling in the box labelled “Amount”.
For simplicity's sake it is easier to enter any amount of base currency without any currency symbol, or number delimiter, such as comas for thousands. E.g. in the case of this example it is better to simply enter 5000 than to enter 5,000. We recognise both as the same number but computer programs can be pedantic about such things.
The next selection to make is the actual base currency itself. This should be done using the drop-down box labelled “From”. There is a list of 19 to choose from. USD and Euro Appear first, but then after that the currencies follow a vaguely alphabetical procession based on the country name (not the currency).
No currency comes with its 3 letter ISO code.
For this example, the “From” box is where you would select Singapore Dollars.
Directly underneath the from box is the “To” box. This is where you select the destination currency. As before there are the same 19 currencies listed in the same format and order.
In our example this is where you would select Hungarian Forint.
Directly below this again is the Convert button. Click this to execute the conversion.
The page reloads and in the white space to the right of the converter is the answer written out in full. In our case it would look something like this:
5,000.00 Singapore Dollar = 600,000.00 Hungarian Forint
Although obviously with real numbers.
You have to wonder why a company as big as CNN did not include many more than just 19 potential source and destination currencies, but the conversion tool is very easy to use.
Rating (out of 5 stars):
- 3 Stars
Link: http://money.cnn.com/data/currencies