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January USDCHF is not December USDCHF. That is the whole update.

Into year-end I had it on a reduced roster: London open only, no NY chase, size half of EURUSD. Spreads were honest enough in the first hour, but the book felt thin after 10:00 and I was inventing mean reversion that did not pay after costs.

For January I put USDCHF back on the primary London list with three rules:

- Allowed 07:00-10:30 London only.
- No ticket inside fifteen minutes of a Tier-1 USD or CHF-relevant print.
- If Asia range is already wider than my 20-day median by 07:00, I skip the pair for the morning - that condition fired too many fake breaks in early January last year.

I am not calling a theme for the franc. I am updating the roster so the pair has a job: London continuation or fade of a clear open drive, nothing else. If it sits still until 09:00 I leave it alone rather than promote it to "something must happen".

One thing to watch with the Asia range filter in January: if the 20-day median is calculated straight through the holidays, it's full of thin, compressed late December sessions. That drags the median down, so a perfectly normal January Asia range looks "wider than usual" and the filter fires more than it should.

I exclude roughly 20 December to 3 January from that calculation. In my notes that alone explained a good part of the fake break signals I saw in early January.

Also worth flagging that Swiss CPI comes out at 07:30 London in winter, right inside your 07:00 to 10:30 window. With the fifteen minute rule that blocks 07:15 to 07:45 on those days, which is a big slice of the best hour.

I'd also cap combined size if EURUSD is on the same list. USDCHF and EURUSD often move as one dollar trade in the London morning, and a long dollar on one plus a short euro on the other is really one position at double risk.

Agree completely on leaving it alone if it sits still until 09:00. Does the pair come off the roster again if it fails the cost check, or only on behaviour?

LondonNewsTrader, one small thing on sizing as the pair goes back on the main list. With USDCHF near 0.80, a pip on a standard lot is worth about $12.50 against $10 on EURUSD, so equal lots carry roughly 25% more risk per pip. I size it from the stop in dollars rather than as a fraction of my EURUSD lots.

January is also quiet on the Swiss side of the calendar. The first scheduled SNB policy assessment of the year comes in March, so the CHF list for your fifteen minute rule is mostly CPI and the occasional speech.

For the London continuation job I use EURCHF as a check. If EURCHF is falling hard alongside USDCHF, the move is broad franc demand rather than a dollar story, and those mornings have reversed on me more often than they continued.

When both pairs drop together that way, I stand aside until 08:30 and let the haven flow show whether it has legs. It costs a few setups a month and removes most of the fake breaks I used to blame on the Asia range.

Do you keep EURCHF on a screen for this, or judge the franc from USDCHF alone? I find the cross answers the question faster than the dollar index does.