Which Forex Currency Pairs Are the Best For Range Trading?

Have you ever noticed that one trading strategy may work absolutely beautifully with one currency pair, but it may fail miserably with another? That is because each currency pair has its own personality, special behaviors, and idiosyncrasies. And if you don't understand and pay attention to these differences, you will be leaving money on the table. So let's look at which currency pairs are the absolute best for range trading.

Every currency will range at one time or another. Especially after large moves, traders need to take a break and step away, and so the currency tends to range back and forth. But some currency pairs are absolute goldmines for trading ranges.

Let's start here - you know that interest rates are a huge factor (in fact, maybe the single most important factor) when it comes to the foreign exchange. You will get the best range trading opportunities on currency pairs where each country's interest rate is similar.

So that means that currency pairs like the EUR/CHF and the CHF/JPY are going to be good excellent range trading pairs. That is because their interest rates are very similar, so money is not flowing strongly into either currency in comparison to another. Bring up a chart of the either of these currencies and you will see that they do not move around that much.

On the other hand, currency pairs whose countries have large interest rate differentials between each other (i.e. AUD/JPY and AUD/CHF) will tend to range much less.

Some quick basics on range trading:

1) You don't have to wait for the price to actually hit the top and bottom of the range to enter a trade. Divide the range into 4 even sections, wait for the price to reach the upper or lower quartile, and then look for indications the market is turning.

2) Use Bollinger bands, the ADX indicator, or the Average True Range indicator to tell you then the market may turn.

3) Always put your stop loss outside of the range - never inside.