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Now that the Swissie — the Swiss 
franc — has been capped, and with the US dollar (the Buck) and the euro (the Fiber) showing volatility, the Norwegian currency has become increasingly appealing to traders in the Forex market. It's at times like these that insider jargon reaches a wider public and crosses over into the journalistic lexicon.

Some currency nicknames are straightforward, at least for English speakers — the Aussie and the Kiwi, 
for example — while others are more obscure. The euro gets its odd moniker from the undersea fibre-optic cable that connects its continent to North America; similarly the UK pound sterling is known as the Cable from the older telegraphic link.

The Canadian dollar is either the Little Dollar or the Loonie, from the native bird that features on the country's coinage. Currency pairings have their own designations, so the euro/pound is 
the Chunnel, the pound/yen is the Gopher, while the US dollar/yen is 
the Ninja.

Send buzzwords, jargon and new and exotic usages to tony.thorne@kcl.ac.uk

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