Cross / Minor pair

A cross is two major currencies with no US dollar in the pair. EURJPY, GBPAUD, AUDCAD. They exist because most currency flow is still routed through the dollar, and a cross is what you get when you cut the dollar out of the middle. They make a good second pair once you have genuinely mastered a major, and not before. ### Where the price actually comes from That routing is not just history. A EURJPY quote is effectively built from EURUSD and USDJPY, so the desk pricing you has to cover two legs, not one. Two legs of risk means two spreads to pay for, which is precisely why a cross costs you more per click than a major does. The wider spread is not a broker being greedy. It is the plumbing showing through. ### The depth is genuinely thinner From the BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey (Table 5, daily averages, April 2025), the three largest crosses on earth are: - EUR/GBP: $169 billion a day, 1.8% of global FX turnover - EUR/JPY: $99 billion, 1.0% - EUR/CHF: $97 billion, 1.0% The crosses retail traders actually reach for are thinner still. AUD/JPY turns over $35 billion a day (0.4%) and GBP/JPY $24 billion (0.3%). GBPAUD does not even earn its own line in the BIS table; it disappears into the "other currency pairs" bucket. Now compare any of that with EUR/USD at 21.2%. Even the largest cross on the planet is a fraction of the biggest major. That is the honest picture of what you are stepping into. ### Why the trends can look cleaner A move in EURUSD can be a euro story or a dollar story, and you often cannot tell which until it is too late. Take the dollar out and you isolate one question. EURGBP is Europe versus the UK. That removal of DXY noise is the real reason professionals reach for crosses on purpose. ### Timing is not optional here Liquidity in a currency lives where its people are awake. BIS found that in April 2025 the United Kingdom intermediated roughly 38% of all global FX trading and the United States about 19%. BabyPips places the London session at 8am to 5pm London time and New York at 8am to 5pm New York time, which makes the London and New York overlap the deepest window of the day. So a European cross during the Asian session means the desks that actually make that price are asleep. The chart still prints, the spread quietly widens, and a clean-looking setup becomes a liquidity trap. Trade a cross when its home session is open, and stay away from the Asian session on anything that is not a JPY or AUD cross.