The big currencies in most people’s estimation are the US dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), yen (JPY), pound (GBP), Swiss frank (CHF), and the Canadian and Australian dollars (CAD and AUD). Therefore, there are six major pairs where USD is combined with any other of the majors. Cross pairs are those excluding USD, for example CBP/CHF.

These are the best forex pairs for a retail trader to focus on. Sometimes, if a broker offers any minor currencies for trading, the spread will be high. The exception might be a broker will offer the currency of their own country at competitive rates regardless of whether that currency is not a major. This is especially true for secondary currencies like the New Zealand and Singapore dollars that are close to making it into the majors vis daily trading volume. This is the highest traded pair thereby giving it a bunch of advantages . First, there is a lot of competition between brokers so the spread is generally lowest for this pair. Second, the high liquidity implies that there will most likely be less slippage, and you are likely to get the price that you see on screen. 3rd, forex reports alerts have plenty of stories about these currencies so you aren’t so likely to get caught out by astonishing press releases. Bots often use systems that are pair categorical, i.e.