Forex Majors

The majors are the currency pairs that put the US dollar on one side and another of the world's largest currencies on the other. At StoicMarkets that means EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF, USD/CAD, AUD/USD and NZD/USD. Together they account for most of the turnover in the global currency market. That volume is the reason the majors quote tighter than any other forex group. EUR/USD spreads start from 0.0 pips on a Pro account. The four busiest, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF, are sometimes called the big four and see the most consistent flow of any market.

Major pairs move on the gap between two central banks. When the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England or the Bank of Japan shifts its policy path, the pairs reprice fast. Interest rate decisions, inflation prints and jobs data are the events traders watch most. Broad risk sentiment matters too. The dollar tends to strengthen when markets turn defensive and to soften when appetite for risk returns. Traders often watch the US dollar index to read the currency's broad direction across all seven pairs at once.

The majors trade around the clock from Monday morning to Friday evening. Liquidity is deepest during the London and New York overlap, roughly the early afternoon in London, when spreads are usually at their narrowest. Majors carry no extra margin multiplier on our MT5 server, so they can be traded with leverage up to 1:500. Leverage increases the size of both gains and losses, so position sizing matters. These are leveraged forex CFDs, and a move against you can cost more than the margin you put up. Standard and Pro accounts see the same majors at different spread levels, with Pro accounts trading a rawer spread. Compare the live number on each pair before you trade.