#TradingPairs101

When I first entered the world of trading, I thought that all currencies could only be bought with dollars. I didn't know there was something called trading pairs, nor did I understand the difference between BTC/USDT and ETH/BTC, for example. After a period of learning and experimenting, I began to understand that choosing the right trading pair has a significant impact on the trade. Sometimes the currency itself is good, but the pair you are trading may not have enough liquidity or may move strangely.

One of the things I learned is that some pairs are more stable and easier to predict their movements, like pairs against USDT, because they are tied to the dollar and their price is clear. On the other hand, pairs against currencies like BTC or ETH tend to have more complicated movements, as you are tracking two currencies at the same time, not just one.

I always ask myself before any trade: What pair will give me the best price and execution? Do I need to convert my profits back to dollars or invest them in another asset? Many times I use pairs against BNB or BTC because I don’t want to go back to cash, but I want to swap between projects. I have come to understand that choosing the pair depends on my goal for the trade and the overall market condition.

Choosing the pair has become part of my decision; I no longer trade just because I see a currency rising. I need to see which currency I am going to trade against and how that pair has moved over the past few days. I learned to monitor the volume, liquidity, and spread before I open the trade. And this is a big difference from the old days when I would just hit buy and that was it.