As well as the major currency pairs such as the GBP/USD, EUR/USD and the USD/JPY, there are also a lot of minor currency pairs as well, but are any of them actually worth trading?

Well the first thing to point out is that these minor pairs have larger spreads than the major pairs, so this immediately makes them harder to profit them, particularly if you are a short-term trader.

Just looking at my trading platform, I can see that the minor forex currency pairs generally have spreads between 8 and 20 points, with some of the more exotic ones having a fixed spread of 600 points! How anyone can make consistent profits from these spreads I don't know.

Secondly, the very fact that less people trade these pairs means that traditional technical analysis, although still very useful, may not be quite as effective, particularly for the more exotic currency pairs.

I personally only trade three currency pairs, the three mentioned earlier – the GBP/USD, EUR/USD and the USD/JPY. I don't believe you need to trade any other pairs as these three will give you all the action you could ever need, plus they all have very tight spreads which is always a bonus.

Many traders all over the world trade these pairs so they also conform extremely well to technical analysis.

They also cater to everyone's needs because the GBP/USD and EUR/USD pairs are most volatile during one 12 hour period, ie 8.00-20.00 UK time, and the USD/JPY offers plenty of volatility during the following 12 hour period, ie 20.00-8.00, so wherever you are based in the world you should always find some action in at least one of these three pairs at any given time.

So in conclusion my own view is that it's not worth trading the smaller currencies simply because there's not really any point. The major currencies have the tightest spreads, are most actively traded and follow technical analysis patterns extremely well, so why trade the tiddlers?

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