Trade Major Forex Pairs, or Minors

Major currency pairs in the Forex market

Trading instruments: Forex major currency pairs

The best Major currency pairs to trade on the Forex market

• Unlimited liquidity of world currencies;
• Trading is avalible 24 hours 5 days a week;
• All popular currency pairs;
• Opportunity of hedging and diversifying risks;
• Instant execution of orders.

The modern Forex market was created as a result of exchange of one currency to another, which is made every day worldwide. One of the factors which determined this process was the so called “floating rates” politics which was accepted in the late 1960s. Before that, national currency rates were fixed, and the market law of supply and demand did not affect the price change.

The participants in currency exchange are national banks, pension and investment funds, commercial and production companies, as well as private persons. The extend of daily operations amounts to trillions of dollars. Currency rates fluctuate every second, but, as a rule, they are not big enough to make significant profits from. However, this is not true of the cases when a person has big money to invest. Leverage provided by a broker allows us to make the most of profits even from small currency fluctuations.

No doubt, currency pairs are the most popular and called-for trading tool in financial markets. Forex currency pairs are traditionally subdivided into three groups: Major, minor, and exotic. The major group embraces just 7 currency pairs, each of them including the US dollar as an integral part. It’s worth mentioning that these pairs account for 70% of the global trading turnover in the Forex market.

• ECN
• CLASSIC

Major currency pairs

Major cross rates

Minor currency cross pairs

Major currency pairs

Major cross rates

Minor currency cross pairs

Major currency pairs

Major cross rates

Minor currency cross pairs

• 1. One standard (full) lot size in the quoted currency is indicated. For example, for the EURUSD currency pair, 1 lot size is equal to 100.000 Euros for CLASSIC accounts, and to 100,000 eurocents for CENT accounts.
• 2. Spreads and swaps are indicated according to the current market conditions (data is recorded in the table, straight from the trading server, and is updated in real time). The LiteForex has the right to change spreads and swaps according to current market conditions, depending on the volatility of one or another financial instrument and/or interest rate size, when such changes are required.
• 3. Swaps are calculated at 00:00 terminal time of each working day: triple swaps are calculated on the night from Wednesday to Thursday.
• 4. Margin requirements for USDTRY, EURTRY, USDZAR, USDMXN, USDDKK, USDNOK, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDCZK, USDHKD, USDHUF, EURPLN, USDPLN are 5 times higher.
• 5. Trading schedule for USDRUB, EURRUB instruments: 09:00 – 17:45 GMT+3.

Risk Warning: Trading on financial markets carries risks. Contracts for Difference (‘CFDs’) are complex financial products that are traded on margin. Trading CFDs carries a high level of risk since leverage can work both to your advantage and disadvantage. As a result, CFDs may not be suitable for all investors because you may lose all your invested capital. You should not risk more than you are prepared to lose. Before deciding to trade, you need to ensure that you understand the risks involved and taking into account your investment objectives and level of experience. Click here for our full Risk Disclosure.

The website is owned by Liteforex group of companies.

LiteForex Investments Limited registered in the Marshall Islands (registration number 63888) and regulated in accordance with Marshall Islands Business Corporation Act. The Company’s address: Ajeltake Road, Ajeltake Island, Majuro, Marshall Islands MH96960. Email: [email protected]

Liteforex Investments Limited does not provide service to residents of the EEA countries, USA, Israel, and Japan.

What Are the Major Forex Currency Pairs

At this point, you might already have the idea that foreign exchange rates are being cited in pairs. In addition, the currencies that are being referenced by these pairs are one of the important things you should comprehend as a Forex trader. Whether you are planning to take your first step on your first trade or being an experienced trader understand these major Forex currency pairs will serve you well in your journey as a trader.

Let’s dive deeper to understand the major Forex currency pairs…

Key Concept: The Major Forex Currency Pairs

If you are trading Forex, even as a beginner, you will, sooner or later, come across this term called “The Majors.” Basically, the Majors are the World’s most heavily traded currencies and they are EUR (Euro), USD (US Dollar), JPY (Japanese Yen), GBP (Great British Pound), AUD (Australian Dollar), and lastly CHF (Swiss Franc).

What Are the Major Forex Currency Pairs

Each of these Major Currency has a symbol which is very much alike to stocks except that these are Forex currencies. At the same time, just like some stocks (IBM for Big Blue as an example), these heavily traded currencies have nicknames as well. While it is really not quite important that you know the nicknames, it come in good reference because experience traders often use these nicknames when talking about these major currencies.

Below are the nicknames for each currencies…

Australian Dollar (AUD) = Aussie (what’s up mate!)
Canadian Dollar (CAD) = Loonie (Not the same a Lonnie Tunes)
Swiss Franc (CHF) = Swissy (Certainly not sissy at all)
Euro (EUR) = Euro (that’s not really a nickname lol)
Great Britain Pounds (GBP) = Cable (has an interesting history why it’s called Cable)
Japanese Yen (JPY) = Yen (no nickname here too)
New Zealand Dollar (NZD) = Kiwi (like the fruit)
American Dollar (USD) = Buck (we all know it’s green in color)

So what are the Major Forex Currency Pairs?

You get a Major Forex Currency Pair when you pair any of these majors against the USD (yep, that’s the big brother…you probably know anyways). So when you pair a major currency, for example GBP, against USD, you get a major Forex currency pair in GBPUSD. Since there are 8 major currencies, when you pair all of them up against the USD, you naturally get 7 Major Forex Currency Pairs and each of them has their own combo nicknames now.

AUDUSD = Aussie Dollar
USDCAD = Dollar Lonnie
USDCHF = Dollar Swissy
EURUSD = Euro Dollar
GBPUSD = Pound Dollar
USDJPY = Dollar Yen
NZDUSD = Kiwi Dollar

Major Forex Currency Pairs Make Up 72% of Forex Trading Volume
Courtesy: dailypriceaction.com

These are the most traded and most liquid pairs available. For us, we trade only these Major Forex pairs because the liquidity of these pairs created very tight spread which is good for us as traders. Our recommendation if you want to be in the trading business in the long haul is to trade only these 7 Forex pairs. In fact, we usually trade only EURUSD and GBPUSD. We might dabble with the other but our focus is EURUSD and GBPUSD. We just love the tight spreads as it allows just to get in and out fast without losing out to wide market bid/ask. We suggest you do the same…

Trade Major Forex Pairs, or Minors?

With over 180 instruments such as FX pairs, Indices, Commodities and Share CFDs, trade your way with Vantage FX.

Platforms

Access the industry leading MT4 and MT5 platforms on your PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices.

Clients

Vantage FX offers clients award-winning customer service, a range of promotions, educational resources and trading tools.

About Us

Vantage FX is a leading regulated Forex broker offering traders around the world access to global markets.

Partnerships

Partner with Vantage FX, the industry’s leading Forex broker for IBs and CPA Affiliates and start earning more today.

TRADE FOREX

Learn to Trade Forex

Types of Forex Currency Pairs: Majors v Minors v Exotic v Currency Crosses

You may have heard traders discussing the ‘majors’ or maybe even saw someone talk about shorting an ‘exotic’ forex currency pair. No they weren’t talking about a soldier trading from an exotic beach while sunbathing naked (zing!) on the sand, they were actually talking about the different types of forex currency pairs that are available!

The Majors are typically the most traded currencies, paired with the USD, although some traders may refer to any forex currency pair featuring the USD as one of the majors. The majors are the most actively traded forex pairs which means they most liquid. This increased liquidity means that forex brokers such as Vantage FX can offer tighter spreads between the bid and ask price on the majors. Here are the average RAW ECN spreads to look out for:

EUR/USD – 0.1 pips.
USD/JPY – 0.5 pips.
GBP/USD – 0.6 pips.
AUD/USD – 0.4 pips.

The Minors are normally referring to any of the remaining, non USD forex currency pairs. These slightly less popular pairs often experience more wild swings in both directions due to less liquidity in the market. This also means that their spreads are often wider than those of the majors. Here are the average RAW ECN spreads to look out for:

EUR/JPY – 2.1 pips.
EUR/GBP – 3.5 pips.
GBP/CHF – 3.3 pips.
AUD/NZD – 1.4 pips.

What about The Currency Crosses? Once again, the forex currency crosses are just another example of the minors where USD is no longer required to complete the trade. Historically you see, anyone who needed to trade one currency for another would first have to convert their original sum into USD. The currency crosses were first developed to bypass the step of first having to go to USD. While that sounds normal today, at the time this was ground breaking in its business functionality. Examples of a currency cross with RAW ECN spreads would be:

GBP/JPY – 3.1 pips.
EUR/AUD – 2.7 pips.

And finally, sometimes you may also see some of the minors referred to as The Exotics. This just simply means that the currency pair is something that is rarely traded or spoken about in mainstream financial circles. An example of some of the forex currency pairs that could be considered as exotics with RAW ECN spreads are here:

The characteristics of both majors and minors are different and the personalities of the currency pairs that you are trading have to be taken into account when you are determining the pairs on which to employ your trading strategy on.

Maybe the wider spreads on GBP/CHF might prohibit you from effectively scalping the pair? But at the same time, maybe the big moves might be much more effective for you as a swing trader? These are all things to consider when building your trading plan and deciding on which forex currency pairs to trade.

Test the 45 forex currency pairs that Vantage FX offers on a free MT4 demo account and test your trading strategy on different pairs.