Has anyone traded USD\ZAR?? if so what have they experienced? wat STOPS would you recommend, best way to predict it’s movements.
I have noticed that it tends to go opposite direction of AUD/USD, EUR/USD etc after having back tested 3months. But on the flipside the days the signal doesn;t you in for a hefty loss lol! as it seems this pair swings\changes like crazy and moves of 200-500 pips per day is common! :eek:
I played around with it. it was fun, kind of like the way a roller coaster is fun. 
decided to quit while I was ahead.
Hello, I am interested in sharing your experience about USD/ZAR trading. What do you think about its daily movements. How do you usually settle your stops.
I am personnally trying to settle an entry point above which I’ll be long and below which I am short. I need to constantly look after my position but I noticed that unlike the EURUSD which can stop at your point and go in the other direction (letting you whith the probability to be in the wrong position), the USD/ZAR tends just to sweep your point thanks to its large moves. I have been analysing it only for the past 3 weeks and I don’t know if it holds on a bigger duration. What do you think?
Because USD/ZAR has such big swings and a higher daily range than in comparison to the major currency pairs it does seem that at face value a 50pip profit target is much easier on USD/ZAR. Looking at say EUR/USD and GBP/USD a 50 pip profit target can seem more challenging.
But the key word here is Daily Range or ATR (Average True Range)
USD/ZAR is about 4 or more times the greater ATR than say Cable or Fiber, which in essence means you ‘should be using’ a stop loss that is equally 4 times that of what you would use in cable or fiber.
It’s all about the percentage daily movement.
A daily typical change in USD/ZAR could be say (for ease of example as i have not looked) 800 pips?
A daily typical change in EUR/USD could be say 200 pips?
So a trading start has to take these into effect. using a stop loss and a take profit from EUR/USD and throwing it into USD/ZAR pip for pip is going to look very nice, but in reality, it wont always hold in your favor.
Hello thanks for your answer.
I was trading USDZAR on a demo because I noticed the huge pip movements.
But I can’t figure out how MT4 calculates the pips for that currency pair using the + pip measuring tool on MT4.
For example, using that tool, if it measures a 800 pip move (showing up as 8000 when used on a 5 digit broker) on USDZAR, it seems to only count as about 100 pips. But on major currency pairs 8000 would mean 800 pips.
I placed a buy order using 1 standard lot, and was thinking if it could reach 1000 pips I would be up about $10,000 ($10 X 1000).
But after it reached 800 pips I was up only about $1000, not $10,000.
And the spread, before you place the order, is also tricky to calculate.
Anyone know why the zar currency is like this - if MT4 shows a 800 pip move it is more like a 100 pip move when trading USDZAR?
Or is 1 standard lot on the zar pair more like 10 cents a pip instead of $10 a pip, meaning do you have to use 10 lots on USDZAR if you want to trade $10 a pip?
On that same account when trading the majors like EURUSD, 1 lot is $10 a pip.
This is confusing.
Hi.
Not sure if THIS is your problem but here’s a pretty simple rule to remember:
Anything ???/USD equates to $10 per 100 000 units (a standard lot).
USD/??? anything needs to be converted to get the $ value per pip movement based on lot size.
As examples:
EUR/USD, 100 000 units, gives you $10 per pip movement.
GBP/USD, 100 000 units, gives you $10 per pip movement.
USD/ZAR, 100 000 units, at the MOMENT, dependant on the current USD/ZAR exchange rate at my time of replying to you, gives you $1.3197 per pip movement.
USD/BGN, 100 000 units, at the MOMENT, dependant on the current USD/BGN exchange rate at my time of replying to you, gives you $6.7067 per pip movement.
This assumes of course that your account base currency is USD.
Also (and just to make life a bit more difficult):
Some brokers, depending on your account type, vary what ‘VOLUME’ means. In other words: in MetaTrader at ONE broker a VOLUME of 1.00 may represent 100 000 units while a VOLUME of 1.0 may represent 10 000 units at ANOTHER broker.
And as if THAT is not enough: at some brokers the leverage on pairs known as ‘exotics’ (as is USD/ZAR) is LOWER than the leverage offered on the major pairs so more capital is required to open the equivalent size position (or to open a position that will give you the same $ value per pip movement).
That’s why you’ll find noted on these forums: it’s not the number of pips made that counts. It’s the $$$ made and the percentage gain on your capital that counts. Somebody could trade GBP/ZAR or USD/RUB and say that they’ve made 1 000 pips in a day. But that 1 000 pips in $ value may be nowhere NEAR what somebody else has made in $ value by making only 250 pips GBP/JPY (not mathematically correct or calculated amounts here i.e. just an example of how easy it is to get ‘sucked in’ to some of these threads that ‘promise’ HUGE numbers of pips. It’s not the number of pips that count but the $ value of those pips that count).
Regards,
Dale.
Thank you Dale. You explained everything clearly for me.
Hello.
Always a pleasure.
Anytime.
Regards,
Dale.