Currency Exchange (Forex)

1. How Forex Works

Every active country in A House Divided has its own floating currency. Exchange rates move each turn based on real economic conditions inside the simulation — interest rates, inflation, GDP growth, and trade — plus the buying and selling pressure of players themselves. You can trade currencies directly for profit, and every cross-border investment you make (foreign stocks, bonds, corporations) settles in the currency of the asset's country, so exchange rates flow through your whole portfolio whether you trade forex deliberately or not.

Rates are measured against an internal “anchor” unit rather than directly against each other. Cross-rates are derived from the anchors: USD/JPY is simply the JPY anchor rate divided by the USD anchor rate. In practice you only ever see the pair rates on the exchange screen.

2. Active Currencies

All six currencies are tradeable. Additional currencies (like the Canadian dollar and Nigerian naira) have monetary baselines defined in the simulation but are not yet part of the trading system.

3. How Exchange Rates Move

Each turn, every rate updates through three components: macro fundamental drift (about 80% of direction), player volume pressure (about 20%), and a little random noise.

Macro fundamental drift

Each country's rate drifts toward a target implied by its economy relative to its neutral baseline:

macroTarget = baseRate × max(0.01, 1
  − (primeRate − baselinePrime)         × 0.02   // higher rates → stronger currency
  + (inflationRate − baselineInflation) × 0.015  // higher inflation → weaker currency
  − (gdpGrowth − baselineGDP)           × 0.01   // higher growth → stronger currency
  − (tradeGrowth − baselineTrade)       × 0.005  // trade surplus → stronger currency
)

The rate closes 5% of the gap to its target every turn, so a significant shock takes roughly a full game year (~48 turns) to converge 90% of the way. That is deliberate: currency moves are multi-month trends you have time to spot, position for, and exit — not one-turn lottery tickets.

Player volume pressure

Net buy/sell volume over the past 24 turns creates a short-term offset, capped at ±5%, which feeds in at 20% weight. Heavy buying strengthens a currency a little and temporarily; it cannot overpower fundamentals, and whales cannot force extreme swings.

Noise and guardrails

A ±0.3% per-turn jitter keeps movements from being perfectly predictable, and every rate is hard-capped at ±50% from its base rate — a currency cannot hyperinflate to zero or moon without limit.

4. The Three Trading Tiers

Tier 1 (market maker) fills instantly at the current rate plus a 0.275% spread — it is also what auto-convert uses when you buy a foreign asset without holding that currency. Tier 2 (limit orders) post publicly at your target rate and auto-fill when the market crosses it, for a cheaper 0.175% spread; you can set an expiry in turns, and other players can fill your order early as a direct trade. Tier 3 (direct trades) send a specific offer to a named character at the lowest fee — they accept or decline, no counter-offers, and offers expire after 24 turns by default.

5. The Multi-Currency Wallet

Your character holds two money pools. Campaign funds are always in your home currency — they pay for campaign spending, ads, and party actions and are never converted or held abroad. Personal wealth is multi-currency: each currency is a separate balance, and foreign income lands directly in the matching slot.

When you make a personal purchase denominated in a foreign currency, the game spends your existing balance in that currency first (free, no spread), auto-converts any shortfall from your home currency at the market-maker rate (0.275% spread), and rejects the transaction if both together still fall short.

6. Foreign Income

• Dividends from foreign stocks are auto-converted to your home currency at the market-maker rate. There is no per-holding preference — the conversion is automatic.
• Bond couponspay in the bond's denomination currency, deposited straight into that personal balance with no conversion.
• CEO salarypays in the corporation's home currency, also unconverted.

7. Reading the Macro Board

Because 80% of rate direction comes from fundamentals, forex trading here is mostly macro analysis. The questions that matter each game week:

• Which central banks are moving? Rate hikes strengthen a currency over the following weeks; cuts weaken it. Central bank pages show the prime rate and recent decisions.
• Where is inflation running hot? Inflation above a country's baseline drags its currency down at 1.5× the weight per point.
• Who is growing? GDP growth above baseline is a steady tailwind; recessions are a steady drag.
• What did politicians just do? Budgets, tariffs, and legislation move the fundamentals that move the currencies — a big spending bill can be a forex signal before it is a bond-market signal.

Cross-country investors should also remember the second-order effect: if you buy Japanese stock and the yen strengthens, your holding gains in home-currency terms even if the share price never moves. Currency appreciation and asset appreciation stack.

8. Quick Tips

• Trends take ~48 turns to fully play out — you don't need to catch the exact turn a central bank moves, just the month it moves in.
• Use limit orders for planned entries and exits; the 0.1 point of spread you save versus the market maker compounds if you trade often.
• The ±5% volume-pressure cap means crowd surges fade. If a currency spikes on player volume with no fundamental change behind it, that spike tends to mean-revert.
• Keep campaign money out of your forex thinking entirely — it never leaves your home currency, so only personal wealth is at risk (or in play).
• For the full mechanics reference, see the Currency Exchange wiki page and the Central Banks wiki page, or start broader with the Investing guide.