Every currency pair on a trading platform belongs to one of three families. The family tells you, before you look at a single chart, how much it costs to trade, how violently it can move and how much of a master's return may be coming from the pair rather than from skill.
The majors
A major is any pair that includes the US dollar on one side and one of the other large, freely traded currencies on the other: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF, AUD/USD, USD/CAD and NZD/USD. Between them they account for the large majority of the six trillion dollars that change hands in the currency market each day.
Because so much volume goes through them, the gap between the buy and sell price — the spread — is tiny. On EUR/USD it is often a fraction of a pip during the London session. Prices are continuous, gaps are rare outside the weekend, and a large order barely moves the market. Majors are where most professional traders spend most of their time.
The minors, or crosses
A cross is a pair of two major currencies that does not include the dollar: EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/NZD, EUR/CHF and so on. Historically these were priced through the dollar (buy euros with dollars, then buy yen with the euros), and even today their liquidity is a step below the majors.
Two things follow. Spreads are wider — one to three pips is common. And some crosses are notably more volatile: GBP/JPY has a reputation for hundred-pip hours because it combines two currencies that both react sharply to risk appetite, in opposite directions. A master who trades GBP/JPY is not necessarily reckless, but a 5% weekly return on that pair says less about skill than a 5% return on EUR/USD.
The exotics
An exotic pairs a major currency with the currency of a smaller or less open economy: USD/TRY, USD/ZAR, USD/MXN, EUR/PLN, USD/THB. Volume is thin, the local central bank may intervene, capital controls may exist, and the interest rate on the exotic side is often very high.
Spreads reflect that. Where EUR/USD might cost 0.2 pips to trade, USD/TRY can cost 50 or more, and the spread widens further overnight and around local news. Overnight financing, where it applies, can be large because of the rate difference. And exotics gap: a surprise policy announcement can move the pair 5% between one tick and the next, straight through any stop-loss.
IDTraders does not charge overnight swaps on any instrument, which removes one of the classic exotic costs. The spread and the gap risk remain.
How the spread eats a return
Suppose a master makes fifty trades a month, each targeting 30 pips. On EUR/USD at a 0.3-pip spread the cost of getting in and out is about 1% of the target — negligible. On a cross at 2 pips it is nearly 7%. On an exotic at 40 pips the spread alone is bigger than the target; the strategy cannot work at all, however good the entries are.
| Pair family | Typical spread | Cost as share of a 30-pip target |
|---|---|---|
| Major (EUR/USD) | 0.2–0.6 pips | about 1–2% |
| Cross (EUR/JPY) | 1–3 pips | about 3–10% |
| Exotic (USD/TRY) | 30–80 pips | more than 100% |
This is the reason scalpers — traders who take many small profits — live on the majors, and why a high-frequency strategy on exotics is a warning sign on a profile.
What to look for on a master's profile
The Instruments line on a master's page tells you the family. A few practical readings:
- Majors only. Returns are comparable across masters; volatility is moderate; the drawdown number means what it says.
- Crosses in the mix. Expect a lumpier equity curve. Check whether the win rate holds up in the months where GBP/JPY moved a lot.
- Exotics. Ask where the return is coming from. If the master is long a high-yield currency and the platform pays no swap, the return is pure price movement — which is exactly the part that can reverse in a day.
Why liquidity is the real dividing line
The three names are convenient labels for one underlying variable: how much of the pair changes hands each day. Liquidity decides the spread, decides how far a big order pushes the price, and decides whether a stop-loss fills where it was placed or somewhere much worse. That last point deserves emphasis. On a major, a stop at 1.0800 fills at 1.0800 or a pip beyond, almost always. On an exotic during a surprise, the next available price after 1.0800 might be 1.0650, and that is where the stop fills. The loss is not what was planned.
Liquidity also varies with the hour, which is why the same pair can behave like a major at 14:00 GMT and like an exotic at 22:00. A cross traded in the London–New York overlap has a spread of a pip; the same cross at the New York close may cost four. Masters who trade crosses and exotics only in busy hours are managing this; masters who trade them overnight are, knowingly or not, paying for it.
The short version
Majors are cheap, deep and boring — which is a compliment. Crosses are a little more expensive and a little wilder. Exotics are expensive, thin and capable of gapping through a stop. None of this makes a family off-limits; it sets the standard by which a return on that family should be judged.
This article is education, not investment advice. Trading and copy trading in leveraged instruments carry a high risk of losing the funds you allocate. Read the Risk Disclosure.