Ive been paper trading GBP/AUD and GBP/NZD for awhile now and seem to be making a go at it - what are your thought s on trading these? The spreads can be pretty pricey, have been trading on FXCM’s platform. What are they like to trade with live, have seen some pretty nasty comments coming there way? Herad EFX were good, but they dont do these pairs, and the live chat response was they didnt and to trade at my own risk…? Are these pairs notoriously bad?
So… there is a recommendation on the babypips welcome page to answer an unanswered question to get started. I’m not exactly a newb, so here you have it:
The fact that this post has gone 5 years unanswered just might be a testament to traders’ disdain for the pairs. GBPAUD and GBPNZD, although they are both crosses, differ in their respective movements. While GBPNZD may, at times, exhibit higher intraday volatility; GBPAUD seems to exhibit higher long term volatilty. If you find long term volatility beneficial and intraday volatility to be a hindrance, GBPAUD might be for you. Vise versa for intraday traders. Of course, both pairs are rather derivative–deriving their prices from other pairs’ prices. So, if you are more of a news trader than a technical trader, neither pair may be for you. Personally, I find long term GBPAUD trends and ranges to be identifiable on a 50 pip range bar chart:
For some reason, these pairs are often low on the list of currency symbols provided by a retail forex dealer. I can only suspect that this is due to low liquidity, which has a tendency to create problems for everyone. As far as spreads, swaps, and commissions; exorbitant rates simply mean it’s time to switch dealers.
One thing I can’t understand is all the hoopla over GBPJPY a.k.a. the Beast, the Dragon, or the Widowmaker; while the smoother rolling GBPAUD goes virtually unnoticed.
