Cross Pairs

Cross pairs, also called crosses, are currency pairs that do not involve the US dollar on either side. Common examples include EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/NZD, and CHF/JPY. Cross pairs developed as direct trading between two non-USD currencies became standard, removing the need to route trades through a USD intermediate step that would otherwise require two separate transactions.

Cross pairs generally have wider spreads and lower liquidity than major pairs but still offer enough depth for most retail strategies. They are useful for trading specific economic relationships that do not directly involve the US economy. For example, EUR/GBP reflects the relative strength of the Eurozone against the UK, which is driven by ECB versus Bank of England policy divergence rather than the Fed. This isolation of specific macro themes makes crosses valuable for traders who want pure exposure to a particular economic story.

For example, if you trade 1 standard lot of EUR/JPY at 163.50 with a 2 pip spread, your entry cost is roughly 2000 yen, or about $13. A 50 pip move in your favor to 164.00 would produce about 50,000 yen in profit, or around $333 depending on the USD/JPY conversion. The wider spread compared to majors is offset by the pair's tendency to produce larger ranges, which suits breakout and trend-following strategies.

In copy trading, crosses add diversification to the pair mix. SteadyFlowFX trades 8 currency pairs across its 9 algorithms, including selected crosses that behave independently from USD-driven flows. That diversification helps the verified Myfxbook 1.73 profit factor and 71.3 percent win rate hold up through different macro regimes. When the US dollar is range-bound, crosses often provide the cleaner technical setups. Understanding crosses helps subscribers see why the strategy takes trades on pairs beyond the familiar majors.