My preferred choice is liquid pairs such as EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY because I use HF EA to make trades so tight spreads and fast execution are essential bricks of my trading foundation. Some people hate volatility but I consider it friend, though very risky, so treat it carefully and it rewards me well.
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I found this interesting article on volatility of currency pairs in 2019. Obviously liquidity comes up. Check it out. Check out where EURUSD ended up on the list.
What are currency pairs in the forex and when the time is right for trading?
Volatility is a temporary factor, it spikes and then reverts back. Usually I stay away from times with high volatility to keep trading risks low.
I would recommend you to trade the currencies which have good strength and which have international recognition. Euro, US dollar, Japanese Yen, Canadian Dollar, and all other big currencies paired with other currencies are good to trade on forex market. Thanks
I am also comfortable with volatile trading pair’ although I trade manually; no use trading EA.
This maybe against common advice but I have had the most success staying away from the USD.
Pairs like NZD/CAD, AUD/CHF or CAD/JPY are great. Crosses of the majors. Still want a good low spread.
I trade support and resistance and have found it to be equally as effective on any major pairs or major cross pairs. Price is either going to respect the level or break through it. I just don’t really see the point in trying to learn and become familiar with the way a particular pair “moves.” Not saying there isn’t one but for my strategy it hasn’t been a factor.
You can check here what is trading sessoin pip range on major pairs.
For starters, major currencies are most recommended since they are more stable and its easy to understand their movements. However, with the current issues of Brexit, I’d advise someone to stay away from GBP for now. Avoid it like plague unless you are tired of keeping your money
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There should be different answers to this question depending on whether you are an intra-day trader who always ends the day flat, or a long-term trader who rides trending winners.
For long-term trades, pure volatility alone doesn’t really answer the question and its hard to compare the volatilities of two different currency pairs, as each has a different total of “points” or “pips”. So a highly volatile figure of 100 points per day for AAA/BBB might be dull and boring activity for CCC/DDD.
When I’m getting into a long-term trend, I’m looking for consistency of the trend, not highest or lowest volatility day to day. I also need to be able to quickly compare the 28 pairs with each other in a meaningful way to find the best opportunities and eliminate the most risky. For this I look at weekly bars and the 50EMA: to today, count how many consecutive bars in the last 3 months were unbroken by the 50, how many consecutive bars closed above the 50, and how many in total were unbreached by the 50. A high total in each box is good for a buy. Right now only AUD/NZD scores really well.
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Manual trading is good but you lose in reaction, sometimes volatility beats you because you can’t respond fast, that’s why I advice you to code everything which can be substituted with automated action.
A perfect list; but new traders need to go with one by one! They shouldn’t start with all of three pairs initially.
Maybe; it’s your opinion! I respect! But I have no objection on manual trading. Thanks.
What’s your reasoning here for staying away from USD? Just preference?
Nice lesson here for us noobs.
I will try incorporating some of this in my trade research at the start of the week.
Where can the uninformed learn this? Any good resources other than “Google it”? Thanks!
I look at 27 pairs daily for an entry. When my entry presents itself I take the trade. After having journaled all my trades I have had a higher success rate with non USD pairs. If I see a strong set up on a USD pair I often will take it if it feels right but I have had more failed trades with USD pairs.
Also, if you believe in institutions manipulating currencies the USD would be much more likely to have institutional involvement as that is where the majority of Spot forex money lies. (Stop loss hunting as an example.) That type of thinking may seem too conspiracy theory like and very well maybe.
Ultimately I have just seen more success with non USD pairs. 
Well, if your data and trade performance backs it up, to each their own. The gains is what we’re all lookin for, right?
Do you record only the trades you take, or also the ones you don’t?
Absolutely! All about getting and maintaining a positive P/L long term!
So far just from back testing and journaling. That is a good idea though to track potential trades even if I don’t take them. Thanks for that idea!
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What’s your journal look like, if you don’t mind me asking? Just the raw trade details/numbers, or do you record though process and how you were feeling, what you were anticipating, where things could go right/wrong?
Seeking the best pairs to trade suggests readers of the his thread are intra-day traders or maybe even call themselves scalpers.
Stop doing this. Intra-day trading attracts the majority of new traders as it appears easy and low risk, and these guys often are time-rich and capital-poor. It is maybe the single most important reason for the very poor success rate amongst traders. Don’t go intra-day until you are profitable longer-term.