The best forex pairs to trade, and when
There is no pair that is best every day. There are pairs that cost less to trade, pairs that come alive in a particular session, and on any given morning one pair where the macro is pulling harder than anywhere else. This page covers all three, in that order.
All 28 pairs between the eight majors, scored every morning.
Start with the majors
The seven pairs that have the dollar on one side carry the most volume in the market: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF and NZD/USD. More volume means a tighter spread, and a tighter spread means the cost of being wrong is smaller. For a trader who is learning, that matters more than which pair moves furthest.
The crosses, the pairs without the dollar such as EUR/JPY or GBP/AUD, move more because two stories are working at once. That is an advantage when you know both stories and a trap when you do not. They also cost more to hold.
Two or three pairs, watched for months, will teach you more than eight watched for a week. Every pair has its own rhythm around its own releases, and you only learn that by seeing it happen more than once.
What makes a pair worth trading today
- One side has a reason to be bought and the other a reason to be sold, rather than one strong leg and one neutral one.
- The rate gap points the same way as the story, because being paid to wait changes how long you can wait.
- Its session is open, so the move has the volume behind it to go somewhere.
- There is no central bank decision from either side in the next day, unless that is exactly what you are trading.
The pair follows the session
A currency is most active when the people who use it are awake, and its news comes out in their morning. That is the whole logic of session trading, and it is why the same pair can be worth trading at nine and dead at four.
| Session | Hours | Pairs that come alive | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 00:00 to 09:00 London time | AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/JPY and the yen crosses | Australian and Japanese data land here and the yen is traded by the people who own it. Ranges are narrower, which suits a trader who wants a level to hold. |
| London | 08:00 to 16:30 London time | EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/GBP and the euro and sterling crosses | The deepest session of the day and where European news lands. It is also where our own measurement starts, because that is when the money that sets these prices arrives. |
| New York | 13:00 to 22:00 London time | Everything with the dollar, and USD/CAD in particular | American data comes out at the start of it, so this is where the dollar gets repriced. Canadian releases often land in the same minute. |
| The overlap | 13:00 to 16:00 London time | EUR/USD and GBP/USD above all | London and New York are open at once, so this window carries the most volume and the tightest spreads of the day, and the sharpest reactions. |
Times are London time and they shift by an hour twice a year, because the clocks in Europe and the United States do not change on the same weekend. The calendar shows every release in your own time zone, so you do not have to do that arithmetic.
And then there is today
Liquidity and sessions tell you which pairs are worth having on the screen. They do not tell you which one to take this morning. For that you need to know which currency the macro is behind and which one it is against, and that changes with every meeting and every release.
We score the eight majors every morning and all 28 pairs between them, and the three widest gaps that pass our rules become the setups of the day. The score is the strong currency minus the weak one, so a wide gap means both legs are pulling the same way rather than one leg doing all the work.
What it never says is when. No entry, no stop, no target. Most members use the pair to decide which side they are allowed to take, and their own chart to decide the moment.
Questions about choosing pairs
Which forex pairs are best to trade?
For most traders the majors, because they have the tightest spreads and the deepest liquidity: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF and NZD/USD. The crosses between them move more but cost more to hold, so they suit a trader who already knows why they want that particular pair. All 28 pairs scored
What are the best pairs for the London session?
The pairs with a European leg, because that is when their own news lands and their own banks trade: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/GBP and the euro and sterling crosses. London opens at 08:00 London time and it is the deepest session of the day for those pairs.
What are the best pairs for the New York session?
Anything with the dollar, and especially in the overlap with London between 13:00 and 16:00 London time. That window has both books open at once, so it carries the most volume of the day and most of the reaction to American data.
How many pairs should a beginner trade?
Two or three, and the same two or three for months. Every pair has its own rhythm around its own news, and you only learn that by watching one thing repeatedly. Adding pairs adds decisions, not edge.
Which pair has the widest macro gap today?
That changes daily, which is the point. We score all eight currencies every morning and all 28 pairs between them, and the three widest gaps that pass our rules become the setups of that day. How the setups are picked