text: There are no 'losses' relative to the US dollar.  The exchange rate between two independent currencies is ultimately a function of purchasing power parity.  and moves very generally as a function of interest rate parity.   Further, the currency markets are subject to high volatility and speculators and rarely reflect the actual relationship in purchasing power parity; however, over longer term and particularly in the case of the USD/CAD where barriers are low and volume of trade high, on average the exchange rate is within a narrow range about the actual relative to other currency pairs.  Currencies are not commodities or financial investments, they are currencies; and as such the media's articulation of exchange rate in terms of daily gains or losses is amateur and unsophisticated.  The more accurate articulation is that a decrease in the value of CAD relative to USD reflects an excess supply of CAD in the open market, or less of a demand for CAD in exchange for USD.