USD/CHF and the safe-haven franc

Shares are tumbling and the news says investors are piling into the Swiss franc. So USD/CHF must be falling. Often it is, but not always, and on this pair the reason for the fear matters as much as the fear itself.

Meet the swissie

EUR/USDUSD/CHF

USD/CHFSwissie

Base: US dollar (USD) · Quote: Swiss franc (CHF)

Federal Reserve (Fed) vs Swiss National Bank (SNB)

Usually calm and close to a mirror image of EUR/USD, but the franc is a safe haven and can lurch when markets panic.

LiquidityDeep

Smaller than EUR/USD by turnover, still deep

Typical volatilityModerate

Often 40–80 pips; sudden in a crisis

Typical spread (shorter bar = cheaper)Tight

Usually a little wider than EUR/USD

Sensitivity to risk moodModerate

Both sides are havens, so a panic can push it either way

Pip value per standard lot≈ $11.36At USD/CHF 0.8800; changes with the price

One pip is0.0001Fourth decimal

When it moves (UK time)

Most active in the European open through the London–New York overlap (about 07:00–17:00), busiest from 13:00. Illustrative UK times; Asian-session hours shift by about an hour with daylight saving.

Main drivers

• Fed vs SNB rate gap
• Safe-haven flows
• EUR/CHF
• SNB intervention risk

Read the USD/CHF trading guide →

USD/CHF next to EUR/USD. Tap the chips to compare the two cards. Typical behaviour, not a forecast; ranges and spreads are illustrative.

USD/CHF is the US dollar priced in Swiss francs. At 0.8800, one dollar buys 0.88 francs. When the price falls, the franc is strengthening. Traders call it the swissie, and it is one of the major pairs.

Look at the pip box. A pip is the fourth decimal, as on EUR/USD, but the franc is the quote currency, so a pip is worth CHF 10 per standard lot. In dollars that is 10 ÷ 0.88 = about $11.36, not $10. This pip value changes with the price.

Now tap EUR/USD. Both are busiest from the European open through the London–New York overlap, but USD/CHF is usually a little dearer to trade and lists two extra drivers: safe-haven flows and the Swiss National Bank.

A haven against a haven

Risk-on (confident)Risk-off (fearful)

AUDAustralian dollarNZDNew Zealand dollarCADCanadian dollarGBPBritish poundEUREuroUSDUS dollarJPYJapanese yenCHFSwiss franc

Tap a currency to see why it behaves this way.

Switch the mood and find USD and CHF. Both sit on the haven side, which is why USD/CHF is a tug of war in a panic. Tendencies, not rules.

The franc is a traditional safe haven: Switzerland has large foreign assets, low inflation, low debt and stable politics. When fear rises, Swiss money comes home and carry trades funded in cheap francs are closed. Both mean buying francs.

Switch the map to risk-off, though, and the dollar is a haven too. In a panic both sides are bought, and the kind of scare usually decides the winner:

• A scare centred on Europe: the franc tends to win, and USD/CHF often drifts lower. In the 2011 euro debt crisis it fell close to 0.71.
• A global dash for dollar cash: the dollar tends to win. In March 2020, USD/CHF rose while shares were still falling.
• A scare about the US itself: the franc tends to win.

The SNB pushes back

A strong franc hurts Swiss exporters and drags inflation towards zero. So the Swiss National Bank (SNB), Switzerland’s central bank, has long leaned against franc strength with low or negative interest rates and by selling francs.

From 2011 the SNB held a floor of 1.20 francs per euro. On 15 January 2015 it removed it without warning. Within minutes USD/CHF fell from about 1.02 to below 0.80. Many stop-loss orders filled hundreds of pips beyond their level, because there were no buyers on the way down.

Size franc trades so a gap well beyond your stop would hurt but not end your account.

The mirror: USD/CHF and EUR/USD

The euro and franc tend to move together against the dollar. But the dollar is the base currency in USD/CHF and the quote currency in EUR/USD, so a dollar rally pushes EUR/USD down and USD/CHF up: a strong negative correlation, roughly a mirror image.

• Long EUR/USD plus long USD/CHF: the dollar sides roughly cancel. What is left is long euros, short francs: a EUR/CHF bet in disguise.
• Short EUR/USD plus long USD/CHF: both are long the dollar. That is one bet, doubled.

The mirror breaks when EUR/CHF moves on its own, as in a European scare or after an SNB surprise.

Try it

Typical correlation between pairs

	EUR/USD	GBP/USD	AUD/USD	USD/JPY	USD/CHF	USD/CAD
EUR/USD		+0.85	+0.65	-0.30	-0.90	-0.70
GBP/USD	+0.85		+0.60	-0.25	-0.75	-0.60
AUD/USD	+0.65	+0.60		-0.20	-0.55	-0.65
USD/JPY	-0.30	-0.25	-0.20		+0.50	+0.35
USD/CHF	-0.90	-0.75	-0.55	+0.50		+0.60
USD/CAD	-0.70	-0.60	-0.65	+0.35	+0.60

Tap any cell to see what that correlation means for two open positions.

How many times are you really betting on the dollar?

Buy EUR/USDBuy GBP/USDBuy AUD/USDSell USD/JPYBuy USD/CHFSell USD/CAD

Illustrative long-run tendencies, not live data. Tap the EUR/USD and USD/CHF cell, then tick Buy EUR/USD and Buy USD/CHF in the counter.

Notice how the counter shows zero dollar exposure for those two buys, yet the leftover long-euro, short-franc position is still live: the counter only counts dollars.

Quick check

Quick check

1. Question 1 of 5

   USD/CHF is 0.8800. You trade 0.10 lots with a 40-pip stop. Roughly what do you risk in dollars?

   A$45.45B$40.00C$35.20

Go deeper: USD/CHF Trading Guide: The Franc as a Safe Haven · Safe-Haven Currencies: Why USD, JPY and CHF Rise in a Crisis · Currency Correlation: How to Avoid Doubling Your Risk