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Why is the same foreign cash worth less?

You still hold the same dollars. What changed is how many units of the other currency those dollars buy. A lower rate means the pile is worth less when you add it up. The calculator loads the European Central Bank reference rate for the two dates you pick. The worked numbers below are hypothetical, so they stay put while the live rate moves.

Beginner guide · 8-minute read · Updated 2026-11-09

The short answer

Count the same cash twice. Once at the rate on the first date. Once at the rate on the second date. The gap is the currency move. Nothing was bought or sold. The pile did not shrink. The unit you are adding it up in got more expensive, or cheaper, against the cash you hold.

One thousand dollars, and a rate that fell

Here is one pile (hypothetical). You hold 1,000 US dollars. You add the pile up in Canadian dollars. On the first morning the reference rate is 1.40 Canadian dollars per US dollar. The pile is 1,400 Canadian dollars. On a later morning the rate is 1.35. The same 1,000 US dollars are 1,350 Canadian dollars.

The bottom row is this account. The −$50 is the currency, in Canadian dollars. You still have every US dollar. Selling them on the second morning raises about 1,350 Canadian dollars, not 1,400. Holding them does not put the first rate back. The rate fell. The cash did not.

These two rates are made-up, so this page can keep the same story after the market moves. They are not today's print and they are not a forecast. The currency move calculator throws them out. It asks for the European Central Bank reference rate on the dates you type, and it does that again the next time you open it.

The reference print for one US dollar in Canadian dollars on 2026-11-10 is 1.4071. Source: api.frankfurter.dev. That line uses the date on the Canadian print, which can be a day behind other currencies. It updates when the rate file is refreshed and the site is built. It is a reference print. It is not the 1.40 and 1.35 in the table, and it is not the rate a broker will fill.

How to read a brokerage statement shows the cash line in the account currency as of the statement date. It does not replay last month's exchange rate. If the statement is in Canadian dollars and the cash is US dollars, the statement has already picked a rate. That rate can be the broker's, not the reference print.

The feed skips weekends

The European Central Bank publishes a reference rate on business days. Frankfurter republishes that series, and the calculator reads it in the browser from api.frankfurter.dev. A Saturday and a Sunday are not in the list. If you pick a Monday and the next Monday, the page uses the first business day it actually received and the last one. A day in the middle does not decide the change. A holiday with no print is skipped the same way.

Say the dates you care about are a Friday and the following Monday, and the rate only exists for those two days. The change is Friday's value minus Monday's value, or the other way around. There is no Saturday number to average in. If the service returns one day, or none, the calculator stops and says so. It does not invent the missing print.

The series is a daily reference. It is not a bid and it is not an ask. Two people who both use the reference rate will get the same arithmetic. Two people who both convert at a broker will not, because the broker's spread sits on top.

A broker's conversion is a worse number

Take the same hypothetical pile. One thousand US dollars, reference rate 1.35, is 1,350 Canadian dollars on paper. A broker that converts at 1.33 hands you 1,330. The extra $20 is the spread, and it is not inside the reference rate. The calculator will not show it. Add it yourself from the broker's quote, or you will think the reference move was the whole story.

The other direction bites too. You hold Canadian dollars and you need US dollars. A reference rate of 1.35 Canadian per US dollar means one US dollar costs 1.35 Canadian. If the broker's rate is 1.37, the same US dollar costs more. The pile of Canadian cash buys fewer US dollars than the reference rate suggested. The statement will show the fill, not the reference.

Norbert's gambit is one way people try to shrink that spread, by buying and selling a security that trades in both currencies. The Norbert's gambit calculator prices that path. It is a different job from this page. This page only values cash you already hold, at the reference rate, on two dates.

The account type does not freeze the rate

A TFSA or an RRSP changes the tax treatment of what is inside. It does not pin the exchange rate. One thousand US dollars inside a TFSA are still one thousand US dollars. If you measure them in Canadian dollars, and the rate fell from 1.40 to 1.35, the Canadian total fell by the same $50 as in a taxable account. The shelter did not pay that gap back. A loss in the rate also does not hand contribution room back. Room follows the contribution rules, not the currency chart.

The same is true of a regular taxable account, an IRA, and a cash balance at a forex dealer. The wrapper decides tax and what you are allowed to hold. The rate decides the second total. Read the custodian's list before you park a currency there. Some wrappers do not allow a foreign-currency balance at all, and the custodian's list wins over a general description.

If you are spending the money in Canada, the Canadian total is the one that matters. If you are spending it in the United States, the US dollar pile never moved, and the Canadian line on the statement is only a translation. People get those two questions mixed up and go looking for a missing dollar that was never spent.

A pip is a different question

A pip is the size of one step in a quoted pair, usually for a trade that is still open. The pip value calculator answers how much one step is worth on a given size. It does not look up last month's reference rate. Use it when the question is "what is one step on this position." Use the currency move calculator when the question is "what happened to this cash between these two dates."

The two numbers can be told apart with the same hypothetical pile. One thousand US dollars is not a standard forex lot. A one-pip move on a standard lot is a fixed convention for that pair. The $50 in the table is fifty Canadian dollars on a thousand US dollars, which is a five-cent move in the rate (1.40 down to 1.35), not one pip. Mixing the two makes a small quote change look like a huge cash change, or the reverse.

What to write down

Write four things before you decide the cash "lost money."

1. How many units you still hold, and of which currency.
2. The currency you are adding them up in.
3. The rate on the first date, and the date the feed actually returned.
4. The rate on the last date, and that date too.

Multiply. Subtract. The gap is the move. If you need the broker's number instead of the reference rate, replace the rate in step 3 and step 4 with the broker's quote and do the same multiplication. Do not mix a reference rate on the first date with a broker fill on the second. That gap is two different prices, not a market move.

Then check the cash line on the statement. If it is already in the spending currency, someone already applied a rate. Find that rate in the confirmation. If it is still in the foreign currency, the statement has not taken the move yet. The move shows up when you convert, or when a report translates the balance.

Questions

Did I lose the US dollars? No. You hold the same US dollars. The Canadian total is smaller because the rate fell. Spending the money in the United States does not use the Canadian line at all.

Why doesn't the calculator match my broker? It uses the European Central Bank reference rate. Your broker adds a spread, and it may use a rate from a different minute. The reference rate is the common starting point. The fill is the number that hits the account.

What if I pick a weekend? The feed has no weekend print. The calculator uses the first business day and the last business day inside the range. If that is only one day, it says so instead of guessing.

Does a TFSA protect me from this? No. The shelter does not freeze the exchange rate. The Canadian value of US dollars inside a TFSA moves with the rate. Contribution room does not come back because the rate fell.

Is 1.40 the real rate? No. 1.40 and 1.35 are hypothetical, so the −$50 stays checkable. The dated reference print higher up is the series the file holds. The calculator loads a fresh series when you open it.