Characteristics of USD / CHF Pairs in Forex

CHF stands for term that is not often used again, Confoederatio Helvetica Franc. Swiss traders and citizens more often use the term Swiss Franc in their daily lives. CHF was once the currency used by Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Pair USD / CHF is known as the "Safe-Haven" pair by traders; Pair is known to be stable, and reflects the same neutrality as Switzerland's political status in the world arena. The Swiss CHF currency reflects many things in the view of economic analysts; Strong economy, low inflation rate, very low unemployment, and so on; Far in contrast to the United States and Japan, which rely their economies on foreign debt.

For more than a millennium, the Swiss Franc has circulated in the monetary life of the Swiss confederation. Although the buying and selling rates of the franc only range in the range of 80-95 cents (per US dollar), but this rate has a limited number of purchases. The reason is that this currency is used as a "Safe-Haven" by the various economic forces in the world. When traders assume / berkesugasi that the forex market will be in an unfavorable condition due to massive events, their main choice is to move to CHF / Swiss Franc.

One of the unique features of CHF is the Swiss economic condition that is separated from the economies of other developing countries due to the confidentiality of information within a country protected by law. Bank institutions in Switzerland are not allowed to disseminate information about their clients' accounts or any other information related to the Swiss economy. The economy of the Swiss economy is different from other superpowers. The applied monetary policies are always conservative. Policies taken away from the essence of Quantitative easing (QE), asset purchases, etc.


Characteristics of USD / CHF pair

Spread from broker (average): 4-5 pips
Daily range (average): 120-135 pips
Best Trading Time: London Session (14.00 - 21.00 GMT). For more information on this subject please read the Optimum Forex Trading Time article;
USD / CHF tends to negatively correlate (move in the opposite direction) with EUR / USD pair. Which in the correlation, often pair EUR / USD move first before then followed by USD / CHF (with negative correlation of course).

Factors affecting the movement of USD / CHF pair


Although this pair is unlike Euro and Pound sterling traded, CHF remains a fairly easy currency to trade. Issues that are able to move these pairs beyond their daily range are the international political conditions and the instability of the international economy. When one of these issues arises, investors will turn to CHF to get a sense of security. But when the issue begins to subside, then CHF will lose its interest from traders and investors.

Although Francs often show an increase in value against other currencies when global economic conditions are unstable, forecasting the movement of CHF against the US dollar is not an easy matter for new traders, as the US Dollar is also seen as a safe haven when unstable conditions hit. Thus, it is necessary for the traders / investors to be able to analyze which currencies (between USD and CHF) are more stable under certain international crisis threat conditions.


In a fairly stable period, the franc has a very high positive correlation to the Euro. Where when the value of the Euro currency increases, then the Franc will follow suit. If there is an increase / decrease in the value of Euro without finding a similar movement in Franc, some traders will consider it as a signal and then open a position, in the hope that Franc will continue the tradition of positive correlation with Euro.

Factors that can influence the movement of USD / CHF pair:

The stability of the global economy;
The instability of the domestic geopolitical conditions of Switzerland;
At some point, the price of Gold, because both are seen as "Safe-Haven".

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