1. The U.S. dollar may be the world’s reserve currency, but that also means that countless tiny factors play into the buck’s value. Interest rates, major political moves, not to mention global events in all corners of the world can send money rushing for (or away from) the buck. For that reason, many traders have a hard time getting a “feel” for where the U.S. dollar is heading. So rather than playing a guessing game, they simply avoid the buck altogether. Instead, they trade crosses, like the EUR/JPY or GBP/CHF, etc.

2. Some crosses can be more volatile. That means they have the potential to jump higher or fall farther faster. Some traders like these types of quick movement because it gives you more opportunities for larger gains. This is why they have a love for pairs like GBP/JPY, which trade about 100 pips more a day than a “major” pair like EUR/USD.

3. Others like to technically trade crosses because they don’t have as much impact as dollar pairs often do. You see, U.S. news is the biggest mover of currency pairs. So if you want to trade off of technical signals from the charts and not get as many surprises from news announcements, then you can trade the crosses.

4. Spreads are narrowing for cross rates more and more all of the time. (This is important because remember forex dealers charge you the spread between each trade as their fee.) There was a day when the only reasonable spreads out there were in the majors. However, many cross rates have spreads between their buy/sell quotes that are half of what they were just a couple of years ago. As volumes increase in these crosses, the spreads narrow and draw even more traders into the pairs. So what once was a roadblock to some traders is no longer a problem.

5. Trading crosses offers more of a diverse trading portfolio than just trading EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, etc. If the dollar moves in a huge way, it’s going to affect all of those pairs even though they have other foreign currencies involved. However, if you have EUR/USD and GBP/JPY and you get a “dollar event” that moves EUR/USD, it doesn’t necessarily directly affect GBP/JPY. Therefore, you’ve diversified your risks.