Electronic Currency Trading

Regular currency trading: you're on your way to Canada. You stop at a place along the border, give the attendant a physical $100 bill, and in return they give you bunch of brightly color plastic rectangles and handful of coins with images of birds engraved on them. They say that stuff is worth $133 in Canada.

Electronic currency exchange involves the same concept, except you don't trade physical currency. Instead, it happens electronically.

In place of the kiosk just over a national border, you use an online brokerage account. Typically, electronic currency exchange takes place as part of currency trading (attempting to make money by speculating in foreign currencies) or when exchanging large amounts (like banks or major corporations making exchanges).