A single forward transaction quoted as one all-in rate for a future date, as opposed to the two-legged structure of an FX swap.
Outright means there is only one exchange of principal, on the forward value-date. The dealer quotes spot plus or minus forward-points and gives you the finished number, which is all most corporate users want to see.
Banks think of an outright as a spot trade plus an fx-swap, because that is how they hedge it internally. That is why an outright's spread is typically the spot spread plus the swap spread.
Example: spot GBP/USD 1.2700 with a spread of 1 pip; 12-month points minus 60 with a spread of 4 points. The outright quotes roughly 1.2637 / 1.2642, a 5-pip spread on a GBP 1,000,000 deal, or about $500.
Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.
The bid-ask spread. Buy orders sit below, sell orders above, and the gap between the best bid (50.01) and best ask (50.04) is the spread you pay to cross. Bar length shows the size resting at each price.
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