With year end on the horizon, now perhaps is a good time to see what the Swiss franc has been up in an effort to determine what the currency is likely to be doing in the run up to the 15th January 2015 anniversary when the SNB (Swiss National Bank) removed the floor of support for the currency, unleashing a wave of volatility on the markets not seen since the dark days of the financial crisis back in 2008.
From a technical standpoint the Swiss Franc is now heavily oversold on the hourly and daily currency strength indicator, against most of its counterparts, with the exception of the where the picture is very different, with the pair firmly range bound albeit well below the 1.20 price point, which triggered the January volatility.
With regard to the other CHF pairs, and in particular the USD/CHF the current move higher that started in mid October is now reaching an exhaustion point, as the pair...
Despite finding support at 1.0996 following last week's mauling eurodollar is struggling to hold onto the weak overnight gains. 15 min chart for the pair is particuarly revealing with a series of volatility candles triggered as the combination of the resistance at 1.1056 and the 100ma have been taken by traders as an excuse to sell.
Other euro pairs also taking a tumble include the EUR/GBP and EUR/CAD, the former sitting neatly on the VPOC on the 15 min timeframe which sits at the 0.7180 region, and any move through here could see the pair test support at 0.7168. Any move lower for the EUR/GBP cross is also benefiting from a move higher in cable.
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A currency often overlooked by forex traders is the New Zealand dollar, which is a great shame because this commodity dollar can often deliver some impressive and consistent trades, particularly on the slower time frames. And for a reason we only need to glance at the daily chart of the currency strength indicator.
Following a sharp move lower in August towards the oversold region of the CSI, the New Zealand dollar then spent the next four weeks trying to move away from this region, before finally finding some traction towards the end of September. Since then the NZD has moved sharply higher against most of its counterparts, with a number of pairs lifting off simultaneously.
Of the pairs which make up our NZD matrix, it has been the NZD/USD and NZD/JPY which have delivered some of the best trades, followed by the GBP/NZD and EUR/NZD.
The move higher in the NZD/USD followed a period of consolidation for the pair as it bumped along...
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...
Today's reversal in cable has once again taken the pair back to the VPOC (volume point of control) support which sits in the 1.5573 price region. This price area is where cable has been rotating since early July, and despite what appeared to be a decisive break away on Monday when cable touched a high of 1.5803, yesterday's down candle has had the effect of creating a classic two bar reversal. Therefore, no surprise to see the resulting fall in today's trading session where cable has fallen over 200 pips.
Today's price action has not only taken cable below the VPOC for the first time since early August but also seen a break through the 100 ma, and with today's move supported with good volume the next stop for cable would appear to be 1.5424 on the daily chart.
Moving to the hourly chart cable has found some good support at 1.5466, a price point first hit by a volatility candle earlier...
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...
In a relatively quiet day of trading in the forex markets with both the UK and Japan closed for public holidays, it's been the Canadian dollar which has moved significantly during the session, and picking up the longer term bearish tone once again. In early trading, the pair moved in a tight range, before finally breaking through the platform of support in the 1.2145 area and continuing lower to currently trade at 1.2095 at the time of writing. The price action has now continued lower with the volume point of control indicator (VPOC indicator MT4) remaining firmly in place above in the 1.2110 area on the 30 minute chart, and signalling further downside momentum in due course.
The trend monitor has remained firmly red throughout the trading session, and with the currency strength indicator to the left confirming further strength for the CAD and weakness for the USD, the volume point of control (VPOC) is likely to move to the next...
It was an interesting week for the British pound and in particular against the US dollar, with the pair selling off sharply on Friday and closing with a wide spread down candle on the daily chart. The move lower was in stark contrast to the recent trend for Cable which had been firmly bullish rising in tandem with the EUR/USD as US dollar weakness prevailed on the dollar index. The move on Friday came as no surprise to those traders using a currency strength indicator, with the British pound moving to a deeply overbought region on the indicator, and counterbalanced with the US dollar being equally oversold in the slower timeframes. With Thursday's election now on the horizon, and with a slew of opinion polls due for release in the next few days, these are continually signalling a close result with no party likely to have an overall majority in Parliament. As a result we can expect to see further...
