The EUR/USD pair tracks the exchange rate of the Euro against the US Dollar. Since this pair represents a combination of the two stronger economies in the world, it is the most traded asset in Forex, and, therefore, the one with higher liquidity and less spread and slippage.
The value assigned represents how many US dollars are needed to buy a single EUR. That is, the quote is presented as 1 euro per x US dollars. For example, the current value is 1.1079, which means a trader needs to use 1.1079 dollars for every Euro he is willing to buy.
EUR/USD SPECIFICATIONS
| LOT SIZE | 100,000 | EUR |
| MAGIN CURR. | EUR | |
| DIGITS | 5 | |
| PIP VALUE | $10 | |
| MIN TRADE SIZE | 0.01 | LOTS |
| MAX TRADE SIZE | 1000 | LOTS |
| AVERAGE 24H VOLUME | $575 BILLION |
Spread
Spread is the difference between the bid and the ask prices. The EUR/USD spread varies depending on the account type.
ECN: 0.3 pip
STP: 1 pip
Fees
The broker charges a fee per lot on ECN accounts, and usually, no fee on STP accounts The usual fee on an STP broker is from 6 to 10 pips per round trip and lot. Other
Slippage: Slippage is the difference between the trader’s intended price and the real price he received from the broker. It depends on the current volatility at the moment of the order. Slippage can be in favor of or against the trader.
Depending on the broker’s execution speed, slippage can be as low as 0.5pip or as high as 3 pips.
Note: Slippage happens twice: At the open and the close of a position.
Trading Ranges:
The following trading range tables measure the min, average, and max volatility of the asset at different timeframes. Range figures usually multiply by the square root of two for every doubling of the timframe. That is, if the hourly timeframe volatility is 1, its 2h timeframe will show 1.41 on the same date. Trading ranges are useful tools to assess the risk. If the hourly volatility of the EURUSD is 20 pips, it means a potential $200 gain or loss in an hourly time span ( 20 pips + $10 value per pip).
The values shown depict ranges occurring at the moment of the creation of this document. The trader should assess the actual values at the moment of his trading activity.
EUR/USD PIP RANGES
| MIN | AVERAGE | MAX | |
| 1H | 5.9 | 10.4 | 26 |
| 2H | 8.5 | 14.5 | 37 |
| 4H | 13 | 22.1 | 49 |
| D | 45 | 64 | 114 |
| W | 119 | 160 | 210 |
| M | 290 | 537 | 918 |
Procedure to assess Pip Ranges
- Add the ATR indicator to your chart
- Set the period to 1
- Add a 200-period SMA to this indicator
- Shrink the chart so you can assess a large time period
- Select your desired timeframe
- Measure the floor level and set this value as the min
- Measure the level of the 200-period SMA and set this as the average
- Measure the peak levels and set this as Max.
EURUSD Cost as a percent of the Trading Range
To compute the costs, we add the trading fee, an average slippage value x 2 converted to pips, and we calculate what percent represents the min, average, and max of the ranges, assuming a range represents the amount of potential profit for one unit of time.
ECN MODEL ACCOUNT
| ECN | MIN | AVERAGE | MAX | ||
| Total | 3.3 | 1H | 55.93% | 31.73% | 12.69% |
| Slippage | 2 | 2H | 38.82% | 22.76% | 8.92% |
| Spread | 0.3 | 4H | 25.38% | 14.93% | 6.73% |
| Trading_Fee | 1 | D | 7.33% | 5.16% | 2.89% |
| W | 2.77% | 2.06% | 1.57% | ||
| M | 1.14% | 0.61% | 0.36% |
STP MODEL ACCOUNT
| STP | MIN | AVERAGE | MAX | ||
| Total | 3.5 | 1H | 59.32% | 33.65% | 13.46% |
| Slippage | 2 | 2H | 41.18% | 24.14% | 9.46% |
| Spread | 1.5 | 4H | 26.92% | 15.84% | 7.14% |
| Trading_Fee | 0 | D | 7.78% | 5.47% | 3.07% |
| W | 2.94% | 2.19% | 1.67% | ||
| M | 1.21% | 0.65% | 0.38% |
Best EUR/USD timeframe for trading
From the above charts, we see that hourly charts show a very high cost on entries with low volatility ( the Min column) therefore to trade these timeframes, traders need to spot the surges in volatility and be right most of the time to compensate for the 50%+ costs.
Intraday traders’ best timeframe is, definitively 4H, although the should optimize the costs using proper assessment of the volatility.
In both cases, strategies that take away slippage using limit orders would dramatically reduce costs and improve the results.
As an example, these are the results if we take away slippage using limit orders in entries and exits on an ECN account.
| ECN | MIN | AVERAGE | MAX | ||
| Total | 1.3 | 1H | 22.03% | 12.50% | 5.00% |
| Slippage | 0 | 2H | 15.29% | 8.97% | 3.51% |
| Spread | 0.3 | 4H | 10.00% | 5.88% | 2.65% |
| Trading_Fee | 1 | D | 2.89% | 2.03% | 1.14% |
| W | 1.09% | 0.81% | 0.62% | ||
| M | 0.45% | 0.24% | 0.14% |
We can see a percentual reduction of over 50% in costs, compared to market orders with slippage.