Which pairs to trade?

Beginner Questions
#1

I’m not really new to forex, but still on my journey to profitability.

I’ve been doing some research and noticed that there’s many people out there who only trade certain currency pairs. For example, an ex-colleague of mine only trades EURUSD… and there was another guy online who only trades AUDJPY AUDUSD GBPUSD and USDJPY…

I want to focus on swing trading as I struggle with day trading so want to hold positions anywhere from 1 day to multiple weeks.

Are there particular currency pairs that are better suited for this style of trading?

#2

I like trading JPY as it’s high volatility, lots of pips.

At the moment I am short on

GBP/USD
USD/JPY
EUR/JPY

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#3

Stick to the majors in my opinion.

Most important thing for you is to learn each currency pairs personality. They all move slightly different and the only way you can get a feel for this personality is time in front of your screen. Get a feel and then you’ll know how to trade each pair.

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#4

Personally I like best EUR/GBP and USD/CAD, because there aren’t much random spikes there. They are quite plentiful in EUR/USD so I avoid trading that pair.

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#5

EUR/USD, USD/CAD, and AUD/USD are good for what you’re looking for. I’d avoid GBP/USD as it’s pretty much unpredictable.

#6

I avoid any CHF pairs. All pairs depend on fundamentals, more or less, but CHF ones do more than anything else.

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#7

All the answers you will get on this question are going to be different because different people trade different pairs. So, it is on you to try as much as you can and find out which one do you like the best.

#8

Does that mean you believe that there is benefit to do using on specific pairs, rather than just looking for a good setup on any pair? Surely PA and TA should not be influenced by the pairs being traded?

#9

I am open multiple pair in my chart like as eurusd, eurjpy, gbpjpy, usdjpy, xaudusd, and some another pair, but not all pair I wil traded and only choose one pair that miht giving best opportunity to making profit, xaudusd has large average movement but also risky ad I like with this challenge

#10

And CHF is prone to central bank manipulation.

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#11

Each asset/currency pair has different behavior. Study each asset’s daily chart, and choose which one fits your needs.

#12

Don’t stick only to 1 or 2 pairs. You need to always have opportunities on different currencies around the world. I prefer to focus on about 5-6 pairs, but no more than that. In my opinion must included currencies are: EUR,USD,GBP,CAD,JPY,AUD

#13

Thanks for all your answers so far… very interesting insights.

I did always wonder about CHF pairs - I’ve never been on the right side of a trade involving this currency. I’m also ruling out EURUSD as it seems far too volatile. AUDUSD, NZDUSD and USDCAD are definitely on my list and I’m also looking at commodities for longer-term trades. How many of you trade commodities also? Can your FX strategy be crossed over onto commodities or do you have a completely different strategy?

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#14

That is a good point. One should take the time to study them, though. First study one or two currency pairs, then slowly start adding more one by one, don’t try to watch them all at once, one will only end up confused.

#16

Forex will take your money. Look into small future such as treasury notes and such. forex will kill a newbie

#17

I think you can not get same answer of your question from every one because no one can trade in same pair . As i prefer to trade with EUR/USD pair of currencies.

#18

So will hitting baseballs for the first time you will get hurt. But do you quit?

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#19

That’s why it’s a bad idea for newbies to trade on live account. Open a demo one and practise until you’ve learned how to avoid at least most risks.

#20

That’s right. Each pair has its own characteristic and it takes time to get a real sense of its behavior. However at some point adding more pairs carries some other advantages. In addition to more trading opportunities, you’ll be able the use the correlations between different crosses as an indication

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#21

I guess newbies should pick majors at the beginning then gradually move to cross and exotic pairs, maybe stocks (if they find majors too unpredictable, volatile or hard to trade). EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY should be Ok for a start. But what’s more important we have to understand best times for trades (yes your trading may yield different results in different trading session) To understand the difference between trading session lurk investopedia or his the article from brokerarena Trading Session? What Exactly Is It? - Broker Arena
Good luck