Minor Currency Pairs

What are minor currency pairs?

Minor currency pairs, often called cross-currency pairs or simply “crosses,” are pairs made up of two major world currencies that do not include the US dollar. Common examples include:

Pair	Currencies
EUR/GBP	Euro / British Pound
EUR/JPY	Euro / Japanese Yen
GBP/JPY	British Pound / Japanese Yen
AUD/JPY	Australian Dollar / Japanese Yen
EUR/AUD	Euro / Australian Dollar

Minors sit between the major pairs and exotic pairs in terms of how actively they’re traded and how tight their pricing tends to be.

How minor pairs are actually priced

A cross-rate like EUR/GBP isn’t quoted from a separate market — it’s effectively derived from each currency’s rate against the US dollar. For example, if EUR/USD is 1.0850 and GBP/USD is 1.2650, then EUR/GBP is roughly 1.0850 ÷ 1.2650 ≈ 0.8577. In practice, brokers and liquidity providers stream a direct EUR/GBP quote, but this dollar-based relationship is what underpins it.

Worked example

Minor pairs are generally still quite liquid, but usually less so than the dollar majors, so spreads tend to run somewhat wider. Where EUR/USD might trade with a 0.8-pip spread, EUR/GBP might trade closer to 1.5–2 pips with the same broker. On a standard lot, that’s the difference between an ~$8 and an ~$20 cost just to cross the spread — a detail worth checking before trading crosses frequently.

Why it matters to a trader

Minor pairs let traders express views on two non-dollar economies directly — for instance, taking a position on the eurozone versus the UK without any US-dollar exposure muddying the picture. They’re a natural next step after mastering the majors, since they behave similarly but usually carry slightly wider spreads and somewhat different liquidity and volatility patterns.

Quick recap

• Minor pairs (crosses) combine two major currencies without the US dollar.
• Their prices are effectively derived from each currency’s rate against the dollar.
• They’re generally liquid but usually carry wider spreads than the majors.