This is a question you have probably asked yourself once or twice before. The truth is that it all depends on how you view the currency markets. Some people only ever have an interest in other currencies when they come to book their holiday each year. In this case they’ll never want to know where the pound stands the rest of the time. But if you happen to be one of those people who love looking at whether they can make a fortune from buying and selling different currencies, you’re going to need to take a regular interest in them.
To be truthful the ebb and flow of the exchange rates on the currency converter is only really interesting on a daily basis if you’re trying to make money from them. It might also be worth watching when it comes down to the wire and you want to make sure you get the best rate for your holiday. But in most cases people won’t bother doing this; they’ll just make the exchange on whatever date suits them best for other reasons. They’ll look round for the best rate they can get, to be sure, but this is only comparing what different companies will give them. They want the best deal, but not if it involves searching and keeping an eye on the rates for days at a time.
For most of us, the bigger picture is what might interest us more. The ability to stand back and see how the pound is performing over, say, a period of a month or more – this is what we enjoy doing. Overnight gains can certainly be something to celebrate. But they can be easily wiped out within minutes of the markets opening back up again.
So you have to think about where we stand overall rather than zooming in too far. Some people remember when the pound was worth an impressive two US dollars a throw, making American holidays very nice indeed when it came to the spending money. But now it is worth a lot less it gives us a more accurate picture of the period between two points in time. This is what is interesting to look at above all else.