Walkthrough: The Pairs

Ok, so you know what you need to do to get started in forex. You know the risk and the benefits. You know how leverage can be a double-edged sword for forex traders. Now let’s take a look at the currencies that forex traders use to make their profits.

There are many official currencies that are used all over the world, but there only a handful of currencies that are actively traded in the forex market. In currency trading, only the most economically and politically stable and liquid currencies are traded in large quantities. For example, due to the size and strength of the U.S. economy, the U.S. dollar is the most actively traded currency in the world.

In general, the eight most traded currencies (in no specific order) are the U.S. dollar (USD), the Canadian dollar (CAD), the euro (EUR), the British pound (GBP), the Swiss franc (CHF), the New Zealand dollar (NZD), the Australian dollar (AUD) and the Japanese yen (JPY).

As you already have learned, currencies must be traded in pairs. Mathematically, there are 27 different currency pairs that can be traded from those eight currencies alone. However, there are about 18 currency pairs that are most often quoted by forex market makers because of their overall liquidity. These pairs are: