Following longest fall since 2008 no surprise to see British pound and the 6B move higher in this morning's trading, on the back of profit taking and closure of US and Canadian markets for the Labor Day holiday.
From a VPA (volume price analysis) perspective the recent move lower has also been associated with falling volume suggesting the downwards pressure is, for now, running out of steam, with the platform of support at 1.5160 providing the reason for the pullback. Longer term, however, the outlook remains bearish for Cable, and should the 1.5160 price point fall to hold we may see a move towards 1.50 and even a possible re-test of the 1.46 region in due course.
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As spot forex traders we sometimes forget the futures market can often help with market sentiment towards a currency and the daily chart for 6A, which is the contract for the Aussie dollar is particularly revealing.
For the 6A, it has been a return to business as usual over the last couple of weeks, since the breakaway from the VPOC at 0.7320 once again confirming the heavily bearish sentiment for the AUD.
The initial break was on the 24th August where the wide spread down candle also triggered the volatility indicator, and as expected the price action moved back within the spread of the candle; a cynical move designed to trigger stops.
Since then the candle has duly been confirmed with a rapid move through the low volume node on the VPOC indicator at 0.6980 with the pair now trading lower once again at 0.6934 in the London session.
With the weight of transacted volume now sitting overhead in the 0.7320 price area and...
The release of slightly better than expected preliminary GDP and unemployment claims for the US did manage to add some bearish momentum to the eurodollar before it found support at 1.2525 from where it has been attempting to rally higher. It goes without saying this level needs to be taken out for the pair to continue lower. However, what is also significant on the 30 min and hourly chart is that this price point marks the low of the volatility candles which were triggered at the time of the news releases.
A trigger of such a candle - in other words a candle which is outside the ATR for the instrument in question - often results in the price action simply retreating within the spread of the candle.
At time of writing the pair is once again approaching the 1.1225 price point and if taken out should see the pair move to test the next level of support at 1.1213.
The good...
During yesterday's overall market volatility the forex market posted some very interesting and intriguing price action and candle patterns, particularly with regard to the major pairs.
As a general rule of thumb whenever the market becomes agitated and adopts a 'risk off' mood traders and investors can expect a strong move into safe havens such as the US dollar and gold. However, as has been the case recently where we have seen a breakdown of correlations and traditional market relationships, the USD did not react as many would have expected.
A look across the daily charts of our 7 major pairs not only reveals this divergence, but also highlights the importance of understanding volatility, particularly with respect to its affect on the ATR of an instrument.
As we can see from the charts only three pairs escaped triggering a volatility candle, and these were the USD/CAD, the USD/CHF and Cable with the USD rising strongly in the first two pairs, but falling in...
Although the market is focused on tomorrow's release of the FOMC minutes, an event guaranteed to cause a degree of market volatility, it is the release of the CPI and Core CPI numbers earlier in the session which are probably even more important. Of the two releases it is the Core CPI the FED pays the most attention to, and a big influence on the likely timing of any rise in interest rates.
Meantime, the USD appears to have found its mojo once again following last week's dramatic fall, with the eurodollar bearing the brunt of this resurgence.
The daily chart for the eurodollar is particularly interesting where weakness for the pair started last week with the failure to break and hold above the VPOC (volume point of control) in the 1.1167 price region. Friday's close below the 100 ma appears to have been the catalyst for a pick up in bearish sentiment for eurodollar which saw the pair close yesterday's trading...
Have been reading that carnage is expected and word is EUR/USD has already dropped to 1.1029 - although my MT4 hasn't started as yet, so we will have to wait & see. Meantime here are some levels for some of the euro pairs :
EUR/USD - was already bearish & shorts at CFTC increased last week. Putting the 1.1029 aside for the time being - 1.1052 is the first level of support & if breached 1.0819 comes into play where a high volume node on the VPOC awaits.
EUR/JPY - Has been in congestion for a number of days having failed to breach the 140.78 price point & now looking to turn bearish. The immediate level below is at 137.57 with any move through here then likely to test the 136.69 region. The VPOC continues to remain in the 134.94 region for the time being and should this be taken out then a longer term bearish trend will ensue.
EUR/AUD - The interest rate...
In all the brouhaha about Greece and the euro it's easy to forget what else is going on in the forex market. Sometimes I feel Greece is taking up too much space in traders' heads at the expense of other markets and currencies. And for a perfect example of what I mean look no further than the continued strength in GBP which has seen some great trends in GBP/NZD & GBP/CAD & I'm still waiting for the GBP/JPY to turn lower, but only once we see a major reversal in risk sentiment.
On both charts the NinjaTrader trend monitor has remained firmly bullish with only a minor transition on the GBP/CAD reflecting the recent pause in the longer term trend. However, moving to the NinjaTrader currency strength indicator to the left of the chart, here we can see that the British Pound, the yellow line, is now moving ever deeper into the oversold region on the daily timeframe, so this trend...
The RBNZ certainly livened things up overnight - I don't remember seeing quite so many gaps or such strong moves delivered by one currency! NZD is pretty illiquid at the best of times, so any volatility will magnify any moves.
With the NZD it's a case of the central bank making it very clear further rate cuts are on their way & with the US finding some bullish sentiment this morning - NZD/USD looks set for a further fall. So far this morning the pair has managed to find some support at the 0.70 region, but a quick look at the weekly and monthly chart reveals the extent of this bearish sentiment. with the month chart in particular, where the price is now at the 200 ma.
The VPOC ( volume point of control) is now well above the current price action and adding further weight to the bearish sentiment. In addition, with several LVN (low volume nodes) we are likely to...
We have four central banks on today's trading horizon, BOJ, RBA, BOE & later this evening we have interest rate decision, policy statement and a press conference from the RBNZ. I really must come up with a collective noun for the CB's! In between we have the Manufacturing Number for the UK where forecast is for 0.1% against a previous of 0.4%. This release can be very difficult to judge as there has been no clear trend since 2009 when the number was consistently awful. On the GBP matrix we have seen some strong buying of GBP against USD, which is not surprising given the alleged Obama comments at the G7.
However, GBP buying actually started last week after NFP. It was the deep lower wick to Friday's candle which signaled a potential reversal for cable. This was given further impetus on Monday, & the buying was cemented as yesterday's candle ended the session with an even deeper lower wick. The current daily chart...
The overnight fall in the Nikkei 225 of 1.76% has resulted in an impressive two bar reversal (aka a shooting star) on the daily chart for the USD/JPY - so no surprise to see the pair move lower in this morning's trading session.
What is perhaps more significant is this move in the JPY is not consistent across the JPY pairs we follow on our matrix, and in particular the EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY. The latter is a pair I am looking to short on a longer term basis, but patience is required not least because I want to see the JPY begin to move away from the bottom (oversold) on the currency strength indicator. This also highlights a key aspect of forex trading, namely individual currencies can stay overbought or oversold for much longer than we expect. Much, of course, will depend on risk sentiment, and in particular whether the current downwards trend in equities continues, and if so then we...
