Hello 
I want to check if mastering currency pairs one by one is the way to go? Originally I opened the 4 major pairs and checked every hour on each of them if there was a trading opportunity according to the system I follow. However after just focusing on one currency (EUR/USD) I managed to learn some characteristics (e.g. mostly trending, makes big moves), and I was thinking shouldn’t I learn the currencies one by one this way?
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated
one by one is the easiest way to go. I would say though it is all up to what you are confertable with.
Yes, I trade EURUSD exclusively, when one pair moves, then generally they all do, there are exceptions and of course there are some that trade numerous pairs, but the consensus is between 1 and 3 generally.
My opinion is you better learn to know one pair until you move to another. Eurusd is the best for my strats, because it has most liquidity, moves in trends, has lowest spread and I know and analyze this pair since 20+ years and there is still every day something to learn.
I trade a number of pairs. Being a largely technical trader I tend to look for a trending or ranging pair and apply my analysis to that. I have around ten pairs in my active watchlist at any one time, and trade 15-20 pairs pretty frequently. I started out trading that number of pairs and have stuck with it - train hard, fight easy, perhaps, lol!
I realize that this flies in the face of (oft) accepted wisdom, and it was a steep learning curve, but it can be done and I find that it enables me now to be very selective, I wait on the very high probability setups before placing a trade. I have always felt that were I to focus on only one or two pairs, I might be tempted to take less than perfect setups. Not to say that everyone who specializes does that, but I think that I would. I have very specific criteria and don’t overly mind which pair suits them at any given time. Anyway, this works for me, I think that the majority of new traders probably start with one or two pairs, but I just wanted to say that starting out looking at a number of pairs can work if you don’t mind a bit of juggling.
I have a few currencies that I won’t trade, but not that many lol!
As with so many aspects of trading, there is no definitive correct answer. There might be a majority view, but even that is no reliable indication of the correct path. If we are to believe the statistics, after all, the majority lose money at trading, and the majority of the population at large probably thinks that we’re all crazy for trying to trade as an alternative to a conventional career. So I don’t worry about not agreeing with the majority.
So I tend to think, find what works for you and go with that - there is no definitive answer, it is all wrapped up in your personal style, in my opinion. It all works if you get it right, it doesn’t if you don’t.
ST
If you ask me on hindsight, sticking with one or two pairs when we first start out to learn about technical trading allows us to learn faster.
That is because we will be paying attention to what the charts are telling us rather then just conveniently pick pairs that are showing what we want to see and ignoring the others.
Trading wise I think its much more profitable and strategic to have multiple pairs as we have more options to choose from. Not every pair would show us an ideal set up even though they are correlated.
Finally, as far as currencies behaving in a certain way, if we are micro trading, that is not holding for weeks or months, then I guess all currencies have one thing in common. Their behaviour changes on atleast a week to week basis.
Either we can trade off a technical chart or we cant. If we can, then which pair should not pose much of an issue because they fundamentally move in the same repeated patterns of greed and fear.
I think trading one or two pairs at a time until you learn how to analyze a chart at different time frames is the fastest way to get proficient enough to increase your earnings by trading multiple pairs.