Currency strength
Among the 8 major currencies, which are strong right now and which are weak?
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How IBFX calculates currency strength
The strength score says how many percent a currency rose or fell, averaged against the other 7 major currencies, over the period you chose. This is the IBFX method, set out in full below; other sites use their own methods, so their numbers may not match.
- The price of each pair: for the 1-hour and 4-hour periods it is the close of the MT5 candle on the CXMDirect-Live server, closed candles only; for the 1-day and 1-week periods it is the ECB reference rate published each business day, and a pair without EUR is crossed through EUR.
- % change of a pair = (price at the end of the period − price at the start) ÷ price at the start × 100. The 1-hour and 4-hour periods compare the candle that has just closed with the one before it, using the same candle for all 28 pairs. The 1-day period compares against 1 business day earlier, the 1-week period against 5 business days earlier.
- For each currency, take the 7 pairs that contain it. Where the currency comes first (EUR in EURUSD) the number stands as it is; where it comes second (USD in EURUSD) the sign is flipped, because EURUSD rising means the US dollar lost value against the euro.
- The score is the average of those 7 numbers. The table above walks through it for the currency you picked.
An example: if only the euro rose 1% against every other currency, the 7 pairs containing EUR all rose 1% while the other 21 pairs stood still. EUR scores +1.00%; each of the other currencies has one pair at −1% and six at 0%, so it scores −1 ÷ 7 ≈ −0.14%.
How to read it
- A positive score: the currency gained against most of the others over the period; a negative score means it lost. The 8 scores always add up to 0, because whatever a pair adds to one currency it takes off the other.
- This is what already happened: the ranking is not a forecast and not a buy or sell signal. The strongest currency this period can turn around in the next one.
- Short periods are noisy: the 1-hour period reflects a single candle and reshuffles the ranking constantly, which suits a look at what is moving right now; the 1-day and 1-week periods are calmer. Before you open several trades that all rest on one strong or weak currency, check whether those pairs are moving together with the currency correlation tool.
The two sources take their prices at different moments. The ECB takes its rates at one point each day, which is not a market close; MT5 candles are built from the CXM Bid price, and another broker may sit slightly off it. So the percentages here can differ a little from the ones you calculate on another platform.