EURUSD is the most traded forex pair in the world. XAUUSD is the most talked-about alternative. We ran an identical EMA crossover strategy on both pairs for 5 years on FXAbsolute. The results were not close.
| Metric | XAUUSD (Gold) | EURUSD |
|---|---|---|
| Trades | 203 | 206 |
| Win Rate | 44% | 30% |
| Profit Factor | 1.48 | 0.88 |
| Max Drawdown | -22% | -31% |
| Avg Winner (pips) | 82 | 52 |
| Avg Loser (pips) | 45 | 38 |
| Best Month | March (+18%) | January (+4%) |
| Worst Month | August (-14%) | June (-12%) |
XAUUSD won by every measure. 44% vs 30% win rate. 1.48 vs 0.88 profit factor. The average XAUUSD winner ran 82 pips — nearly 60% larger than EURUSD's 52 pips. Gold trends. EURUSD ranges. The same EMA crossover strategy that works on trending markets gets destroyed on ranging ones — and EURUSD ranges more than any major pair.
XAUUSD and EURUSD both available on FXAbsolute with 5 years of M1 data. Run the same rules. See which pair actually works for you.
▶ Backtest Gold + EURUSD FreeGold trends for weeks at a time. EURUSD oscillates in 150-pip ranges for months. A 50/200 EMA crossover on gold catches genuine multi-week directional moves. The same crossover on EURUSD catches fakeouts — price crosses the 50 EMA, reverses back through it 3 days later, crosses again, reverses again. The pair is range-bound so frequently that trend-following strategies cannot get traction.
This is not a judgment on EURUSD as a pair — it is a judgment on pairing the wrong strategy with the wrong instrument. EURUSD works brilliantly with mean-reversion strategies. Gold works brilliantly with trend-following. If you are trading a trend strategy on EURUSD and wondering why you keep losing, the data has your answer. Switch pairs or switch strategy types. Do not keep fighting the data.
15 pairs on FXAbsolute. One afternoon of backtesting per pair tells you which one actually works with your strategy. Free.
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