[landerwust]

Successful forex folk seem more inclined towards having a strong understanding of economic balance than trading price action directly, but there are those folk too, with the latter being far more common in the casino end of the market.

As for 'up and to the right', nobody trades forex with cash. Separately from a purely structural perspective, many kinds of spread trades are possible just like in equities, where either leg may not be another currency pair but some other related instrument (energy, bonds, ..).