Use Yahoo Finance and Oanda.com currency converter to examine the exchange rates and quotations of the major currencies that are frequently traded in the world. The major currencies include the Euro (EUR), US Dollar (USD), Japanese Yen (JPY), Great British Pound (GBP), Australian Dollar (AUD), and Swiss Franc (CHF), Canadian Dollar (CAD), and New Zealand Dollar (NZD).

The data sources are as follows:

http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter/

https://finance.yahoo.com/currencies

Task 1: Collect the exchange rates data between the aforementioned major currency, what are the prevailing exchange rates of the major currencies relative to the U.S. dollar? What are the prevailing cross rates between the major currencies? Please indicate the currency rates are quoted as direct quote or indirect quote from the U.S. perspective.

Task 2: Select one of the major currencies and use Yahoo! Finance to observe the historical trend of the exchange rate of this major currency relative to the U.S. dollar. Click on 5d, 1m, 3m, 6m, 1y, 2y, 5y,10y, max to review the currency rate changes over the past years. Briefly explain this trend (whether it is mostly upward or downward), and whether there is a point at which an abrupt shift occurs in the opposite direction. Is the currency appreciating or depreciating compare to the US dollar?

Task 3: Based on the historical value of the exchange rate of the selected major currencies relative to the US dollar, use Excel to calculate the approximate percentage change for the major currencies relative to US dollar over the last past five years? Which currency appreciate most, and which currency depreciate most relative to the US dollar? What are the possible causes for the changes?

Task 4: Find the currency converter at Oanda.com. Notice that it provides both the bid and ask prices for selected exchange rate pairs. What are the bid and ask prices for the following selected pairs?

Task 5: Use the currency converter at Oanda.com. Convert euros into Canadian dollars and calculate the cross exchange rate between the Japanese yen and the Australian dollar. Also, use yahoo Finance or other sources to provide a historical trend of the EUR/CAD and JPY/AUD. Explain whether the Euro generally appreciated or depreciated against the Canadian dollar over the selected period, whether the Japanese yuan generally appreciated or depreciated against the Australian dollar over the selected period.