AUD/USD in one minute
AUD/USD quotes how many US Dollars one Australian Dollar buys, so a move from 0.6500 to 0.6550 is a 50-pip rise in the Aussie. The single largest external driver is Chinese steel demand, transmitted through iron-ore prices into Australian export earnings. The Reserve Bank of Australia announces rate decisions on the first Tuesday of most months and the Fed's FOMC sets the other half of the equation. Daily range usually sits between 50 and 80 pips, with RBA decisions, surprise China data, and risk-off shocks pushing past 100 pips. At LHFX you get raw spreads from 0.1 pip during Sydney and US overlap hours, commission of $3 per side, leverage up to 1:500, and STP/ECN execution on MT5.
A short history of the Aussie
The Australian Dollar floated freely in December 1983, the same week that Treasurer Paul Keating dismantled the crawling-peg system inherited from the 1930s. The float coincided with the long resource-export boom that has defined the currency ever since. Through the 1990s the pair traded in a wide range between roughly 0.50 and 0.80, anchored by Australia's terms-of-trade swings.
The Chinese commodity supercycle from 2003 to 2011 lifted AUD/USD to a record 1.1080 in July 2011, a price level no other G10 commodity currency reached against the dollar in the same window. The peak coincided with iron-ore spot prices above $180 per tonne and Australian terms-of-trade at multi-decade highs.
The pair has spent the years since grinding lower as Chinese growth normalised and US monetary policy tightened relative to Australia. By 2026 the pair trades in a 0.62 to 0.72 band that reflects a structurally narrower yield gap and a more measured Chinese steel cycle. Knowing this arc matters because mean-reversion strategies behave very differently in a structurally weakening pair than in a textbook ranging one.
Pip value, quote convention and contract size
AUD/USD is a quote-currency-equals-USD pair. The price tells you how many US Dollars one Australian Dollar buys, so a tick from 0.6500 to 0.6501 means the Aussie has appreciated by 1 pip against the greenback. Because the quote currency is the dollar, pip value is constant in USD across any AUD/USD position size: 1 standard lot (100,000 AUD) carries a pip value of $10, 1 mini lot (10,000 AUD) carries $1, and 1 micro lot (1,000 AUD) carries $0.10.
That constant pip value makes position sizing the simplest piece of arithmetic in forex. If you decide your maximum acceptable loss on a setup is $40 and your stop sits 50 pips from entry, your lot size lands at 0.08 standard lots without any further conversion. Compare that to a pair like USD/CAD, where the pip value swings with the spot rate because the quote currency is the foreign one.
Margin behaves slightly differently. A 1.0 lot AUD/USD position at 0.6700 represents 67,000 USD of notional exposure. At the 1:500 leverage cap that is 134 USD of initial margin, but LHFX surfaces the live figure inside the MT5 order ticket before you confirm the trade.
Quick maths. At 0.6500, opening 0.05 lots (5,000 AUD notional) ties up roughly $6.50 of margin at 1:500. A 60-pip adverse move costs $30.
What actually moves AUD/USD
Six inputs explain most of what AUD/USD does in any given week. Three are distinctively Australian (RBA policy, terms of trade, domestic wages and CPI); the other three are externalities the Aussie shares with the broader commodity-currency complex but reacts to with more amplitude.
Chinese steel mill demand
China consumes more than half of seaborne iron ore and Australia supplies roughly 60% of that flow. When Chinese steel margins compress or Beijing announces production caps, iron-ore futures on the Dalian exchange react first and AUD/USD follows inside the same session.
RBA cash rate trajectory
The Reserve Bank of Australia meets on the first Tuesday of most months. The accompanying Statement on Monetary Policy and the Governor's press conference reset two-year Australian Commonwealth Government Bond yields, which feeds the pair through the AU-US rate differential.
US dollar index moves
Half of every AUD/USD pip is a USD pip. FOMC dot plots, US CPI prints and Treasury yield swings push the pair via the dollar leg, often regardless of what is happening in Australia.
Global risk appetite
AUD is a high-beta, positive-carry currency. When the VIX spikes or US equities sell off hard, carry trades unwind and capital flows out of Aussie into the dollar. AUD/USD typically drops 1 to 2% in synchronised global risk-off sessions.
Terms-of-trade prints
Australia's quarterly terms-of-trade index, published by the ABS, captures the price ratio of exports to imports. Sustained positive surprises tend to feed a one-to-three-month uptrend in AUD/USD.
Wages and CPI surprises
The Wage Price Index and quarterly Trimmed Mean CPI are the two data prints the RBA cares about most. Surprises in either direction can move the pair 40 to 70 pips in the first ten minutes after release.
How AUD/USD reacts when the RBA and the Fed disagree
AUD/USD is a two-sided rate trade more than almost any other major. Because the pair's medium-term direction tracks the spread between two-year Australian and two-year US Treasury yields, you can read most multi-week trends by watching which central bank is moving faster.
Three common configurations show up. RBA hawkish with Fed dovish is the classic Aussie tailwind: the yield spread widens in AUD's favour, carry traders pile in, and the pair tends to grind higher in 30 to 50 pip daily steps. RBA dovish with Fed hawkish is the mirror image and the longest-lived configuration since 2013: the spread compresses or inverts, capital chases the dollar, and AUD/USD spends quarters drifting lower with sharp risk-off accelerations. With both central banks pausing, the pair becomes a pure China and commodities trade: iron-ore swings, copper prices, and Chinese credit-impulse data become the dominant signals, range-trading strategies tend to work, and trend-following tends to chop.
A practical heuristic: open the AU 2Y and US 2Y yields on a single chart, plot the spread, and overlay it on AUD/USD. The correlation is rarely below 0.6 on a three-month rolling basis. When the spread moves and the pair does not, one of them is usually about to catch up.
When AUD/USD is liquid
AUD/USD opens in Sydney at 22:00 GMT on Sunday and runs continuously until Friday 22:00 GMT. Three windows matter for execution quality.
Sydney open (22:00 to 00:00 GMT)
Local Australian flow plus carry-over from Friday's New York close. Liquidity is thinner than London but the spread is normally still under half a pip. This is where most RBA reactions print.
Tokyo overlap (00:00 to 08:00 GMT)
Chinese data drops in this window: PMIs at 01:00 GMT, trade data, industrial production. AUD/USD often sees its sharpest single-print moves here even though average volume is moderate.
London-New York overlap (12:00 to 16:00 GMT)
Highest absolute volume of the day. Dollar-side data (NFP, US CPI, FOMC) lands in this window. Spreads compress to their tightest, although volatility around scheduled releases can briefly widen them to 1 to 2 pips.
If you trade the Sydney-Asia window, watch the China data calendar more than the US one. If you trade the London-NY overlap, watch the FOMC calendar more than the RBA.
AUD/USD versus the other commodity dollars
The Aussie is one of three dollar-block pairs that respond to commodities and risk appetite, but each has a different commodity tilt and a different central-bank cadence. Here is how the three compare on the dimensions that matter for sizing and timing.
| Attribute | AUD/USD | NZD/USD | USD/CAD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Aussie | Kiwi | Loonie |
| Typical daily range | 50 to 80 pips | 40 to 70 pips | 60 to 90 pips |
| Primary commodity link | Iron ore, coal, LNG | Dairy, lamb | WTI crude oil |
| Dominant export buyer | China (about one-third of exports) | China (about a quarter) | United States (about three-quarters) |
| Central bank cadence | RBA, first Tuesday monthly | RBNZ, roughly every six weeks | BoC, roughly every six weeks |
| Risk-on correlation | Strongly positive | Strongly positive | Mildly positive |
| LHFX raw spread (typical) | 0.1 to 0.4 pip | 0.2 to 0.6 pip | 0.2 to 0.5 pip |
| LHFX commission per side | $3 | $3 | $3 |
| LHFX leverage cap | 1:500 | 1:500 | 1:500 |
AUD/USD is the deepest and tightest of the three. Liquidity sits between EUR/USD and the more niche commodity dollars, daily ranges are predictable enough to plan around, and the China data calendar gives the pair a second catalyst layer that NZD/USD shares but USD/CAD does not.
Use NZD/USD when you want the same broad thesis with more amplitude per move, and USD/CAD when you want to express a US-Canada rate or oil view rather than a China view. The pip mechanics differ on USD/CAD (quote currency is CAD, not USD), so position sizing requires an extra conversion step the Aussie does not need.
Why traders pick AUD/USD specifically
There are cleaner ways to express a bullish-China view (Chinese A-shares, iron-ore futures, copper) and cleaner ways to express a bearish-dollar view (the dollar index, gold). AUD/USD's appeal is that it bundles both into a single 24-hour, deeply liquid forex instrument with predictable pip mechanics and no contract roll.
For a swing trader who reads the China data calendar, the Aussie offers a cheap, leveraged way to take that view without touching Chinese onshore markets or rolling commodity futures every month. For a position trader, the AU-US two-year spread gives a structural compass that is easier to interpret than the equivalent indicator on EUR/USD, where political fragmentation can break the signal.
The pair also pairs well with NZD/USD as a relative-value trade. When you want to express a China view that strips out the dollar component, AUD/NZD becomes the cleaner expression. Knowing when to use the cross versus the dollar pair is one of the small edges experienced AUD traders develop over time.
Trading AUD/USD at LHFX
AUD/USD sits in the major-pairs tier on every LHFX account. That means raw spreads from 0.1 pip during the deepest liquidity windows, a flat commission of $3 per side, leverage up to 1:500, and STP/ECN execution on MT5. No requotes, no last-look rejections on standard order sizes, no hidden mark-up on the spread.
AUDUSD on MT5 Market Watch. Five-decimal pricing (pipettes) is on by default.
MetaTrader 5 desktop, mobile, and web. Full tick history populates on chart add.
STP/ECN. Orders route to the order book at market without dealing-desk intervention. Stop and limit orders fill at the best available price subject to gaps around RBA decisions and major US data.
0.1 to 0.4 pip during Sydney-NY overlap and London-NY overlap. Slightly wider during the Sydney roll and the first minute after major releases.
$3 per side, $6 round-trip on a 1.0 lot ticket. Flat across all forex majors and minors, no volume tiers.
Up to 1:500. Most experienced Aussie traders run effective leverage between 1:20 and 1:50 to leave room for RBA-day and China-data-day amplitude.
0.01 lot (1,000 AUD notional). Pip value $0.10 per pip at micro size.
100,000 AUD per 1.0 lot. Pip value $10 per pip at standard size.
Sunday 22:00 GMT through Friday 22:00 GMT. Daily Sydney roll briefly thins the book.
Worked example with realistic risk
Assume a $2,500 account, a 1% per-trade risk budget ($25), and a setup that requires a 40-pip stop sitting just outside the previous session low at 0.6675 with entry at 0.6715. To risk $25 over 40 pips you size to 0.06 lots (6,000 AUD notional). At 1:500 leverage the initial margin is roughly $8. Round-trip commission on 0.06 lots is $0.36. If price runs 100 pips in your favour to a take-profit at 0.6815 the position returns $60, a reward-to-risk ratio of 2.4 to 1. The takeaway: at retail account sizes the constraint is almost never margin, it is the dollar value of a wrong-way move, which is why pip-based sizing is the only sensible default.
See the full AUD/USD instrument page for live spreads, or read more on spreads and fees and leverage policy before sizing your first ticket.
Risk factors worth respecting
AUD/USD looks tame compared with crosses like GBP/JPY, but its risks cluster in three specific places that catch newer traders off guard, plus the broad-market correlation risk that hits every high-beta currency.
Weekend China headlines
Beijing often releases policy decisions over the weekend, especially around property-sector relief, steel-production curbs, and Politburo statements. Sunday opens after a heavy policy weekend can gap 40 to 80 pips before any retail stop has a chance to fill. Holding through the weekend is a deliberate decision, not a default.
RBA off-cycle communication
The Reserve Bank occasionally issues guidance outside the scheduled meeting calendar through speeches and parliamentary appearances. These are not pre-priced into the option market and can move the pair 30 to 60 pips in the minutes after the headline crosses the wire.
Correlated unwinds
Aussie longs are a popular carry trade across the global asset-manager universe. When the trade unwinds it tends to unwind quickly, simultaneously, and across multiple legs (long AUD, short JPY, long emerging markets). AUD/USD can move 150 to 200 pips in a single session during these episodes even with no Australia-specific catalyst.
Leverage discipline
Never run effective leverage above 1:30 on the pair, set hard stops on every position, scale down ahead of RBA meetings and major Chinese data days, and avoid carrying full size through the Friday close on a weekend with a known Chinese policy event in the calendar.
Risk warning. CFDs are leveraged products and carry significant risk to your capital. You can lose more than your initial deposit. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Trading is not suitable for all investors. Read the full Risk Disclosure before opening a position.