Hi guys! I’m just curious, what currency paid do you recommend for beginners? and why?
What time frame are you going to trade? EUR USD is a good pair to start with, low spread, lots of people analyzing it, news are easy to get.
Personally, although I know that lot of people recommend to start with only one pair, If you are anything like me, having just one pair to watch and being eager to trade, can make you take trades that you shouldn’t. I started with three pairs EUR USD, GBD USD and USD JPY. But I had quite a much time to read news and watch the charts, so might not suite for everyone.
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I suggest EUR/USD because of its high volume, multiple-hours activity and lowest spreads.
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In the beginning try with some of the major pairs like EURUSD, GBPUSD or USDCAD as usually they have the tightest spreads but you should be careful when there are economical news which might affect them. You should focus on no more than two pairs at first until you have enough experience to easily detect the patterns. In this thread a similar question is asked, you might find it helpful: What Pairs did you start with and why?
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@Tracer88, it could depend on the time of day you trade and the particular strategy you employ.
For example, there have been studies that suggest trading European currency pairs (particularly GBP/USD) during the “off hours” of 2 PM to 6 AM Eastern Time. However, those studies were pre-Brexit, so the volatility could be much greater now even in off hours. That means, whatever pair(s) you choose, try not to risk more than 2% of your equity per trade.
@sebastiano, you make a great point about having at least a few major pairs to follow, so you’re not bored into placing a trade with a bad risk/reward due to following only one pair. However, one thing to keep in mind with the three pairs you mentioned is the US dollar is on one side of all them, so the trading opportunities in them could be highly correlated.
One alternative might be to consider EUR/USD, GBP/USD and EUR/GBP (instead of USD/CAD). Then one only has to follow three currencies instead of four. These three currencies (the Euro, the British pound and the US dollar) have also been in the news even more post-Brexit, so there is no shortage of technical and fundamental analysis available.
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I agree with the advice from the members above.
I think the EUR/USD would be a good pair to start with.
Best of luck to you.
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I like the concept behind the commodity pairs because the price action of the commodity in question almost serves as another indicator of the direction of the price. For example, if oil is trending down, USDCAD will most likely be going up. Although the correlation is not always 100%, it’s definitely something.
In my personal experience, I’ve been most profitable paying USDCAD using the price of oil as a sort of “indicator” or additional confirmation for a trend.
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EUR/JPY, it is where the Pros hang out. The moves are very understandable, and usually not a lot of hysterics, second would be eur/usd.
The Ever Hanging Out VIPER
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EUR/GBP is a cross of GBP/USD and EUR/USD. do you think this is risk adverse?
Short it right now hehehehe
The Ever Shorting VIPER
Well right now every thing is pretty choppy, and all the pairs have long wicks and tails, but comparing the risk between eur/gbp, and the swissie our opinion would be that there is possibly less risk in the eur/gbp pair than the swissie, but remember that this is summertime and those tails and wicks can stop you out when you least expect it. Anyway I think that’s what you are asking.
The Ever Misunderstanding VIPER
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Hi James,
We mentioned EUR/GBP as an alternative to trading only USD pairs, not as an alternative to taking risk. Forex trading involves significant risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. As @TradeViper mentioned, EUR/JPY is another non-USD pair to consider.
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Thank you for the link - although I’ve been at this game for approaching 10 years 
kinda know what the risks are, by now, I’d hope!
As I’m sure you know, all pairs are correlated to USD to some degree.
USDX is a great example to show as an indicative idea of the direct pairs.
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Your experience is not in question, James
As a regulated broker, we provide the disclosure above when someone asks about trading risks.
Great point. In fact, here’s an interesting stat from the 2016 Triennial Survey by the Bank of International Settlements:
The US dollar remained the dominant vehicle currency, being on one side of 88% of all trades in April 2016. The euro, yen and Australian dollar all lost market share.
Hi FOREX.com and thank you for the comments. Of course that one can choose from other majors as well like EURGBP which you mentioned. I was just suggesting the pairs which are the more liquid, with low trading costs and could be useful for beginners. No doubt that they could be correlated which could help even more with the analysis and learning how to make it 
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Yes I also prefer to use low spread currency pairs for trading.They involve less risk use less money from your capital. One big benefit is you can gain early profit as market is up or to your side. Major currency pairs are good for trading as EUR/USd , GBP/USD .
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Thank you for all the response!
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HHey everyone I was just struggling a little with using currency crosses to determine if to sell or buy a currency, for instance I’m currently looking at the GPB/USD. So what currency Pair would i compare this pair with?
Thanks everyone.
Are you looking for correlations?
If so, the EUR/USD is probably the most correlated to the GPB/USD.
There are some correlation charts available, I tried posting one but im having technical issues at the moment.
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Newbies should definately start trading with majors, the movement is active there and the spread is low. And when there’s gonna be more experience, then you can try something exotic.