Hi everyone,
I’m fairly new to trading and struggle to decide which currencies to trade.
I usually select my currencies based on the economic calendar and the currency strength graphs that are available.
But I feel like I am dissipating myself and missing the best entry points.
What is the best way to approach this?
Should I select a small number of currencies and concentrate on them or is there another way to effectively research and find which currencies I should focus on?
Cheers,
Blue
Just select one, say EUR/USD as it is largest by volume. This means it has low costs to trade and slippage if applicable to your trading will be minimal. The time through the 24hrs is also convenient for most people and news flow is detailed and regular.
This is exactly what I chose, and for those reasons.
I then chose Cable (GBP/USD) as my second one because it was the “next best” on those criteria.
(This did mean that my two main trading instruments were closely correlated, which not everyone would recommend, admittedly, but I got round that by almost never trading them both at exactly the same times, and by being very aware of - and duly adjusting - my position size, when I very occasionally did).
Liquidity, dealing costs and peak market hours were all important to me.
I started on EUR/USD because it’s the most popular. Tunnel visioned there for ages and ignored the rest.
Tried branching out onto other markets but I was effectively doing short term trading on 3 markets at once, bad idea and obviously ended terribly as I couldn’t focus on so much info with such short timeframes.
The answer is likely to be that wherever you spot a good opportunity is where you should be trading.
The other way to view it is with regards to differentials to find the market which is likely to move the most, eg Strong Euro, Medium Dollar but weak Yen. Going long on EUR/JPY makes more sense than going long on USD/JPY or EUR/USD.
Currently I’m trading more Yen pairs as I find the movements tend to be less choppy within the movement itself and they tend to have larger pip movements. EUR/USD is very jittery on the shorter timeframes.
This is how I see it at the moment, it can change. Perhaps there is another currency pair that fits what I’m looking for more, gotta keep looking.
I still trade EUR/USD when I see a good setup.
Long and Short of it is that the only market worth trading is the one you’ve done research on.
I’l throw my 2 pence in…
I’ve focused on GBP/USD for 8 years now, never moved away and have no reason to as of yet. I thoroughly enjoy trading it with TA.
I’m surprised by your answers.
Focusing on one or two currency pairs means missing out on great trade opportunities elsewhere. Such as the latest craze TRY.
But then I guess you get to focus on one currency pair and know those currencies inside out.
Would you then recommend on focusing on a few pairs such as EUR/USD GBP/USD and USD/JPY or this already too many?
Three pairs is too many for someone who’s basically on the first square in the game. They can develop their techniques but more importantly their mental approach better on one pair they come to know absolutely inside out. The starter trader doesn’t need more opportunities to make profit.
After becoming consistently profitable, yes, expand to another then another and so on. But this brings complexity. Its easy in the heat of the moment to go long EUR on one pair and short EUR on another, while still forgetting that the Fed is about to make an announcement that makes both irrelevant. Plus, trading the minors like TRY, RUB, MXN, SEK etc. is likely to be expensive and not worthwhile until you’ve become expert.
Have a read of this thread bro,
http://forums.babypips.com/forextown/84241-usd-try-incredible-pair.html
gives you a good blend of arguments for trading/ not trading the TRY.
Personally (like mainy) I trade just the one pair (EURUSD). I have tried to branch out but have found I become unfocused. My personal belief is that if we wish to succeed then one must specialize.
I have always stuck to a small number of currencies at any given time - GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CAD and the like. As a newbie I was trading EUR/USD but eventually I realized it was too range-bound for my taste and moved away from it.
To be honest, and contrary to me only trading a single currency pair, each pair does have it’s own characteristics (just like stocks do too depending on the company). So in some instances it’s not at all a bad decision to get to know a single currency pair in great detail.
For example, because of my years spent focusing on GBP/USD, I know that when certain parameters are identified within price I have a higher probability of being on the right side of the trade (of course I can also be wrong, the key word being probability). Some traders may call this standard TA which works on all currency pairs, however it’s knowing the key price levels which are respected time and time again which is the unique factor to knowing a currency pair really well. To me, it’s this detail that can provide an edge when you need it most.
Sometime I am choose pair ;ike as gbpusd that included as major pair, but sometime also trade on eurusd as major pair, and usually I am opened multiple instrument trading like as gold and silver and some pair, but in trading will choose one instument only to traded because more easy to manage the risk
Lexy, would you like to take the p|i|s|s or shall I???
Another pointless contribution from the good people at Bearish, Son and CO!
I know I said I had no words for you, But, THAT WAS FREAKIN HALLLLLLLLLLARIOUS!!
Dude, he talks like confucius,
He probably has 5 ways to add 2 + 2,
Haha, every time I have no idea what he/she/it is talking about.
Nobody does. 
Usually I also prefer majors like EUR/USD and GBP/USD (indeed so far they are the best) but lately I have been experimenting with USD/MXN just out of curiosity and so far it’s quite interesting but I feel that I need more time to explore this pair. I support the theory that it’s not quite good to operate with too many pairs as we can easily lose our focus and a disaster can happen haha. But if I see a potential in some pair I can’t help myself but initiate the experiments 
I usually concentrate on one currency for a while, until the most of my orders are profitable. When I was new trader I used to watch much more currencies but then I realized that I am profitable just on some of them because I learn how they react under specific circumstances. Of course, you will never know how they will act when a significant event will come out. So, now I prefer to focus on just one or two instruments at a time.
If you are confused on which currency to trade in when entering the market, follow the steps that you can take to choose the best currency pairs to trade in Forex.
That is easy to trade in major pairs as starter. newbies can try gold or silver on demo ,not do directly on live account because they involve high risk. EUR/USD is basic pair most of the traders like to trade in it.
Well, my personal trading strategy provides only good accuracy on EUR/USD and Gold! As a result, right now I have only these two trading pairs in my live trading chart! In addition, I also select my entry and exit points in order to this technical tool based trading strategy! Yes, I am not making such a huge money, but I am happy on my low consistent outcome!