Most Liquid Currency Pair (futures & Spot)

[Hugh Morris 10]

Hi everyone,

 

I was hoping to get some input about which currency pair is the most liquid? Which is the most liquid spot pair and which is the most liquid futures contract? (could be the same)

 

I assume overall probably the EUR/USD for both, but I'd like to get some input.

 

Also, what about during the various times of day/sessions? When discussing currency futures, how about when the pit's open vs. when the pit's closed?

 

I just would like to get a conversation going about these and related issues.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Obsidian 10]

your assumption is correct; EUR/USD

[henryduncan12 10]

You are right Hugh. EUR/USD is the most liquid currency pair.

[zdo 20]

Hugh,

Generally speaking, in the FX pairs, the spread size is a very good correlate with liquidity… not perfect correlation though. For example right now EURUSD and USDJPY are printing the exact same spread – but if someone did a thousand quick trades, EURUSD would produce slightly more ‘liquidity’ than USDJPY...

 

In futures, volume would be the number to look at. In my experience though in curr futures, where fills are concerned, the top 5 – 6 contracts all get about the same slippage, etc.

...btw, at various times in the past one pit was just simply better than others for fills regardless of the relative daily volume. For a long time, best overall fills came out of the SF pit…even though it didn’t have nearly the highest volume…. but times have changed…

 

re various times of the day… in all markets, best numbers to watch regarding “time of day” liquidity is the size of the bid ask spread….

 

The 'data' in the following link is now dated, but still informative… kreslik.com - Traders Community :: View topic - Forex pairs spread & volume statistics

 

hth