Pick your pairs before you start

With a plan in place, a style in mind and some practice under your belt, you can begin thinking about placing your first live trades. With dozens of FX pairs to choose from, though, deciding where to start can be tricky.

Often, it’s a good idea to choose one or two pairs to begin with, so you can maintain focus. When choosing your pairs, here are a few points to consider:

  • Liquidity. Highly liquid pairs are usually better to trade, as they’ll have lower costs and smoother price moves. The major pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY tend to be the most liquid
  • Timings. Forex is a 24-hour market, but liquidity for individual currencies will rise and fall throughout the day as different sessions open and close. So, choose a market that fits your FX trading hours
  • Familiarity. Try to choose currency pairs that you already know and understand, as there are lots of factors that will move each market

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