Forex Currency Strength
In this article
- What forex currency strength means
- Why eight currencies make 28 pairs
- How a pair becomes a score
- Bar chart, table and line chart: what each shows
- The strongest and the weakest currency
- Meter, indicator or index: what the names mean
- Common mistakes when reading forex currency strength
- What the meter does not tell you
- Questions people ask
- Further reading
Forex currency strength is a score that shows how much each major currency has gained or lost against the other currencies in a chosen time period, so you can compare the strongest currency with the weakest one. When this page was loaded, CAD was the strongest of the eight major currencies on the 1 hour timeframe and CHF the weakest, 126.0 points apart (numbers as of 13:18 UTC). The US dollar scored +10.4 on the same timeframe.
The reading comes from a forex currency strength meter, a display that turns many currency pairs into one score per currency. It reports what the latest candles did and does not forecast. This page explains what forex currency strength is, how the score is built from pairs, how to read the bar chart, the table and the line chart, and what a score cannot tell you.
What forex currency strength means
A currency is always priced against another currency, as in EUR/USD, so one pair cannot tell you whether the euro rose or the US dollar fell. Forex currency strength solves this by combining every pair that contains a currency into one number for that currency. That number is the strength of the currency: a score above zero means it gained against the other currencies in the newest candle, and a score below zero means it lost.
The bar chart below is drawn from the live numbers of the forex strength meter. The strongest currency is at the top with the longest bar to the right, and the weakest currency is at the bottom with the longest bar to the left. The meter reloads the numbers every minute while the page is open, so it is a live currency strength reading. Searches such as forex live currency strength or strength meter forex ask for the same thing: a ranking of the major currencies that refreshes while you watch. The USD currency strength on 1 hour is one of the eight rows in that ranking.
Numbers as of 13:18 UTC (2026-11-11). They update when the page is loaded again. Statistics for information only, not advice.
A candle is one period of price movement, for example one hour. The meter compares the newest candle with the average candle of the last 20 candles of the same pair, so a long bar means the move was big compared with what is usual for that currency, not only big in absolute terms.
Why eight currencies make 28 pairs
The classic forex strength meter uses the eight major currencies: EUR, USD, GBP, JPY, CHF, AUD, NZD and CAD. Every currency can be paired with each of the other seven, and a pair counts once whichever currency is written first. The calculation below counts them.
Eight currencies, each paired with seven others, count every pair twice, so the total is divided by two:
The table below lists all 28 pairs. Each currency appears in seven of them, and the strength of that currency is built from those seven pair readings.
| Pairs with | Pairs | Count |
|---|---|---|
| USD (as the second or first currency) | EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF, AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD | 7 |
| EUR (not yet counted) | EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, EUR/CHF, EUR/AUD, EUR/NZD, EUR/CAD | 6 |
| GBP (not yet counted) | GBP/JPY, GBP/CHF, GBP/AUD, GBP/NZD, GBP/CAD | 5 |
| JPY (not yet counted) | AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY, CAD/JPY, CHF/JPY | 4 |
| CHF (not yet counted) | AUD/CHF, NZD/CHF, CAD/CHF | 3 |
| AUD and NZD (not yet counted) | AUD/NZD, AUD/CAD, NZD/CAD | 3 |
| Total | 28 |
This meter goes one step further than the classic 28 pairs. It also uses pairs with other currencies from its price feeds, so the strength of CHF is built from 8 pairs at the moment, not only from seven. More pairs make one odd quote less important.
How a pair becomes a score
Each pair reading starts from one candle, and the currency pair strength is the size of the move compared with that pair’s usual candle. The change of the candle is the close minus the open, divided by the open. That change is divided by the average candle of the same pair and timeframe and multiplied by 100, and the sign is turned around when the currency is the second one in the pair name. The currency’s score is the average of its pair readings. The full walk-through, with the picture of a candle, is in the guide on how to use the currency strength meter.
The example below takes the euro on the 1 hour timeframe and uses the live numbers. Every number in it comes from the table inside the example, so you can check the arithmetic with a calculator.
Step 1. The numbers used. EUR (Euro) is part of 21 pairs on this timeframe. For each pair the meter takes the newest candle of the 1 hour timeframe and the average size of the last 20 candles. A change is counted from the side of EUR: when EUR is the second currency of the pair, the sign is turned around.
| Pair | Change of the newest candle (%) | Average move (%) | Pair score |
|---|---|---|---|
| EURAUD | −0.0314 | 0.0409 | −76.88 |
| EURCAD | −0.0423 | 0.0265 | −159.33 |
| EURCHF | 0.0087 | 0.0328 | 26.41 |
| EURCNH | −0.0835 | 0.0363 | −230.25 |
| EURCZK | 0.0489 | 0.0211 | 231.86 |
| EURDKK | −0.0009 | 0.0010 | −95.24 |
| EURGBP | −0.0012 | 0.0236 | −5.07 |
| EURHKD | −0.0782 | 0.0375 | −208.56 |
| EURHUF | −0.0115 | 0.0462 | −24.90 |
| EURJPY | 0.0011 | 0.0296 | 3.81 |
| EURMXN | −0.0678 | 0.0599 | −113.27 |
| EURNOK | 0.0773 | 0.0563 | 137.35 |
| EURNZD | −0.0401 | 0.0417 | −96.27 |
| EURPLN | 0.0487 | 0.0365 | 133.69 |
| EURSEK | −0.0143 | 0.0432 | −33.13 |
| EURSGD | −0.0644 | 0.0331 | −194.59 |
| EURTRY | −0.0873 | 0.0423 | −206.36 |
| EURUSD | −0.0826 | 0.0357 | −231.61 |
| EURZAR | −0.1002 | 0.0412 | −243.02 |
| XAGEUR | −0.0211 | 0.2493 | −8.45 |
| XAUEUR | −0.1258 | 0.0961 | −130.85 |
Step 2. One pair becomes a score. Divide the change by the average move and multiply by 100. Take EURZAR, the pair with the biggest score in the table:
The table shows −243.02 because the meter keeps more decimals than the table prints; the last digits can differ when you check it with a calculator.
A score of 100 means the newest candle moved as far as a typical candle does, in the direction of EUR. A score of 200 means twice as far; a negative score means the move went against EUR.
Step 3. The pair scores become the EUR score. Add the scores of all 21 pairs and divide by 21.
The meter shows −72.6 for EUR on 1 hour in the live table above. The two agree.
Step 4. One headline number. The same is done for each of the five timeframes, and the five scores are averaged into the single headline score of EUR:
The meter prints the headline score as −62.6.
Numbers as of 13:18 UTC (2026-11-11). They update when the page is loaded again. Statistics for information only, not advice.
Bar chart, table and line chart: what each shows
The same strength numbers can be drawn in three ways, and each way answers a different question. These currency strength charts draw the same numbers in different ways. The bar chart shows who leads right now, the table shows all five timeframes side by side, and the line chart shows how a currency’s strength changed over time. The 4 hour bar chart below shows a longer view than the 1 hour chart above.
Numbers as of 13:18 UTC (2026-11-11). They update when the page is loaded again. Statistics for information only, not advice.
| View | Question it answers | Where on the meter |
|---|---|---|
| Bar chart | Which currency is strongest and which is weakest on this timeframe right now? | Main meter, “Bars” |
| Table | Do the five timeframes agree, from 5 minutes to 1 day? | Main meter, “Table” |
| Line chart | How did the strength of each currency change over the last 48 candles? | “Strength over time” under the forex meter (free account) |
A currency strength line chart is useful when the bars alone leave you asking how long a move has lasted. A currency that is strong now but was weak a few candles ago has a different story from one that has led for the whole period.
The strongest and the weakest currency
The two ends of the ranking are the first thing to read. On 1 hour, CAD is at the top and CHF at the bottom. On 1 day, USD is at the top and CHF at the bottom. When the same currencies sit at the ends on both timeframes, the move has lasted across the day. When they differ, the latest hour looks different from the day as a whole. Both facts are statistics about what has already happened.
| Currency | 5 min | 15 min | 1 hour | 4 hours | 1 day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAD Canadian dollar | +80.3 | +47.0 | +48.5 | +18.4 | −32.3 |
| NZD New Zealand dollar | −3.6 | −4.5 | +21.2 | −0.7 | −49.8 |
| USD US dollar | +16.1 | +9.7 | +10.4 | +1.1 | +14.8 |
| AUD Australian dollar | −58.8 | −45.8 | −14.8 | +2.0 | −5.6 |
| GBP British pound | −70.3 | −37.9 | −69.0 | +21.2 | −15.7 |
| JPY Japanese yen | −209.6 | −80.1 | −72.2 | −65.4 | −56.7 |
| EUR Euro | −100.0 | −36.7 | −72.6 | −64.5 | −39.0 |
| CHF Swiss franc | −189.1 | −102.6 | −77.5 | −30.9 | −121.9 |
Numbers as of 13:18 UTC (2026-11-11). They update when the page is loaded again. Statistics for information only, not advice.
The gap is the strongest score minus the weakest score. On the live meter it is 126.0 points on 1 hour and 136.7 points on 1 day. The example below shows how a gap is worked out.
Suppose currency A scores +80 and currency B scores −60 on the same timeframe. The gap is the first score minus the second:
The two currencies moved in opposite directions, and the gap of 140 describes the distance between their recent moves. It does not say what the next candle will do.
Meter, indicator or index: what the names mean
A forex trading currency strength meter is usually just called a currency strength meter (spelled currency strength metre in British English), and it goes by several other names: forex meter strength, forex currency meter, forex currency strength indicator, currency strength index, currency power meter or currency strength chart. The names are used loosely, and two displays with the same name can be built differently. Relative currency strength means each currency compared with the others, which is what this score does. What matters is how the number is built, which pairs it uses, which timeframes it shows, and how often it updates.
| Question | On this meter |
|---|---|
| Which pairs are used? | All pairs of the currency in the price feeds, so more than the classic 28. |
| Which timeframes are shown? | 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours and 1 day. |
| What is compared? | The newest candle against the average of the last 20 candles. |
| How often is it updated? | Every minute, with the update time shown in UTC. |
| Is the method explained? | Yes, on this page and in the guide on how to use the meter. |
Other sites, such as the Finviz forex pages that people search for, show their own numbers from their own method, and the same currency can show a different score there. Compare how a number is built before you compare two numbers. The crypto meter on this site is a separate display and its scores are on a different scale, so a crypto score and a forex score should not be compared.
Common mistakes when reading forex currency strength
Most mistakes come from reading too much into one number. The list below also appears, in more detail, in the guide on mistakes with a currency strength indicator.
- Using one timeframe only. A single timeframe can show a move that has already faded. Look at a second one.
- Reading the rank as the size. First place can be only slightly ahead of second. Read the score and the gap.
- Reading a score as a forecast. A score describes the latest candles and says nothing about the next ones.
- Leaving out everything the meter cannot see. It does not know about news releases, central bank decisions, costs or your own situation, so a strength reading on its own is incomplete. Analysis of the currency itself is a separate job from reading the meter.
- Treating a weak currency as broken. A currency that lost in the latest candles is a weak currency for that period only, and the label changes when the candles change.
What the meter does not tell you
A strength meter is a statistics display and not a signal. It reports what the latest candles did, built from public price feeds and shown as indicative statistics, so the numbers can differ from other providers by small amounts. It does not give advice, and what anyone does with a reading is their own decision.
Questions people ask
What is forex currency strength?
Forex currency strength is a score for each currency that shows how much it gained or lost against the other currencies in a chosen period, compared with a typical move. A positive score means it gained and a negative score means it lost.
How do I see the strongest and the weakest forex currency?
Open the forex strength meter and choose a timeframe. The currency at the top with the longest bar to the right is the strongest, and the currency at the bottom with the longest bar to the left is the weakest. The strongest and weakest cards under the title show the same two currencies and the gap between them.
How many pairs make up the currency strength of the 8 majors?
Eight currencies make 28 pairs, because 8 × 7 ÷ 2 = 28, and each currency is part of seven of them. This meter also uses pairs with other currencies from its feeds, so each score is built from more than seven pairs.
Is this the same as the Finviz currency strength meter or the Finviz currency meter?
No. This is a separate forex strength meter with its own price feeds and the method described on this site. Other sites use their own methods, so the same currency can show a different score on each of them.
Is there a live currency strength meter for forex?
Yes. The forex meter on the home page reloads its numbers every minute and shows the update time in UTC. There is also a separate crypto meter.
Is there a currency strength meter app to install?
There is nothing to install. The meter runs in the browser on a phone or a computer, and it shows the same numbers on both.
Which is the best currency strength meter?
It depends on what you need. Compare which pairs are used, which timeframes are shown, how often the numbers update and whether the method is explained. This meter shows five timeframes, updates every minute and explains its method.
Can I use currency strength as a trading strategy?
The meter is a statistics display and not a strategy or advice. A strategy is a set of rules that a person writes down and tests, and the meter only shows recent movement that such rules could look at.
Further reading
- European Central Bank: euro foreign exchange reference rates, official daily reference rates of the euro against other currencies (opened and checked 2026-11-11).
- Federal Reserve Board: Foreign Exchange Rates, H.10, the Federal Reserve’s release of exchange rates of the US dollar against other currencies (opened and checked 2026-11-11).
- Bank for International Settlements: OTC foreign exchange turnover in April 2022, results of the Triennial Survey of the foreign exchange market (opened and checked 2026-11-11).
Report a mistake