CurrenlyzerMost Volatile Forex Pairs This Month
The ranking below lists the forex pairs with the biggest usual daily range, as a percentage of price, over the last 30 finished days. Pairs with the Turkish lira, Mexican peso or South African rand are often near the top because their currencies move more than the majors.
The most volatile pair is not the same as the best pair to trade. Volatility is the size of the movement; it brings opportunity and risk in equal amounts, and wide spreads in the exotic pairs can use up much of it. This ranking only tells you how far a pair moves on a usual day.
We rank by percentage of price because pips cannot be compared between pairs: a pip is a different fraction of the price on every pair.
The most volatile forex pairs
| # | Symbol | Usual day | % of price | Right now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USDILS | 45.4 pips | 1.42% | Busy |
| 2 | EURMXN | 2,715 pips | 1.31% | Normal |
| 3 | USDMXN | 2,417 pips | 1.30% | Normal |
| 4 | NOKSEK | 129 pips | 1.24% | Normal |
| 5 | GBPNOK | 1,440 pips | 1.14% | Normal |
See all 72 forex symbols in the scanner (67 more) →
USDILS leads this list with a usual daily range of 1.42% of its price. The column "Right now" is the scanner's own reading of the current hour against its usual range: Busy, Normal or Quiet. The ranking is recalculated from the database every hour.
What the ranking tells you and what it does not
The ranking says how far each symbol usually moves in a day, as a percentage of its price. A symbol near the top has bigger swings in both directions. It does not say that it is better, only that it is bigger. Wide spreads and swap costs in some of these symbols can use up much of the range, which is a reason to check your own broker’s costs.
How often the order changes
The top of the list is stable for weeks, because volatility tends to persist, but it changes when a currency has a shock (a central bank move, a political event). That is why the ranking is calculated again every hour from the last 30 finished days, and why the scanner shows the same ranking live.
How to check this in Currenlyzer
- Open the scanner. It lists every symbol with its reading for the current hour: Busy, Normal or Quiet.
- Sort by the busiest now or by the usual range, and filter by currency.
- Click a symbol to open its analyzer, where the hours of every weekday and the number of days counted are shown.
How we count
The numbers come from the live price feed of Currenlyzer: one-minute prices are built into hourly and daily candles, all in UTC. The range of a candle is its high minus its low. We use finished candles only, and we leave out hours when the market is closed and days that are too thin to count (the first hours of the Sunday open, short holiday days), so a closed hour is never averaged in as zero. Averages cover the last 30 days for the daily range and the last 60 days for hours, unless the text says otherwise. Pips follow the dashboard: one pip is 0.0001 on most pairs, 0.01 on yen pairs and 0.10 on gold. The same method is used in the dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most volatile forex pair?
See the first row of the table, which is recalculated every hour.
Are the majors volatile?
Less than the crosses and the exotic pairs. EUR/USD is among the calmest pairs because it is the most traded.
How is volatility measured here?
As the average of the daily range (high minus low) over the last 30 finished days, as a percentage of price.
Related articles
Historical statistics for information only. This is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell. Past patterns do not predict future moves. Trading leveraged products carries a high risk of loss. Read the full disclaimer.