This is a guest post by FAM Drone
The important currencies in most peoples 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 mixed with any other of the majors. These are the best currency exchange pairs for a retail trader to concentrate on. Sometimes, if a broker offers any minor currencies for trading, the spread will be high. The exception might be that a broker will be offering the currency of their own country at competitive rates even if that currency isn’t a major. This is very true for secondary currencies like the New Zealand and Singapore dollars that are close to making it into the majors in terms of daily trading volume.
So you can trade any major pair or cross of the majors but unless you have reasons for doing otherwise, most noobs are counseled to start with EUR/USD for many trading. This is the highest traded pair which gives it a bunch of advantages . First, there’s a lot of competition between brokers so that the spread is usually lowest for this pair. Second, the high liquidity implies there will often be less slippage, and you are more likely to get the price that you see on screen. Third, forex news alerts have plenty of news about these currencies so you are not so certain to get caught out by astonishing press releases. If you’re using an expert counsel or FOREX trading robot, on the other hand, it may be set up for other pairs. In that case it is best to use it according to its settings.