Friday, December 10, 2010

USDCHF—basing

After dipping to a low of .9799, the Swissy has regained its short-term uptrend line on the hourly chart (not shown) and, unless it drops quite a bit further today, is on track to have the same low as last week at .9726. This is more evidence that it's basing. Below .9726 , of course, would hint at further lows. Market action is a bit sluggish, in part due to the thinning holiday markets. As I pointed out the other day, the pair is holding the uptrend line from the hammer low of .9463 in October and RSI momentum looks good on the longer-term charts. Nonetheless, one must be careful to keep stops tight on any longs. There's a chance that pattern on the weekly chart could be a bear flag which, if it played out, would be heart-stopping. Unless you were short. Then it would be joyful.

Here's the weekly chart. My trades don't show on the monthly charts since I use a different charting package for weekly and monthly charts.











© Dianne Fecteau, 2010. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of the author.

My purpose in writing this blog is to show you how one trader, me, makes trading decisions and survives while trading Forex. One of the biggest problems I had when I first started trading was trying to apply the “rules” to actual trades. Another was the psychology—limiting losses and letting profits run. If you study my blog, you’ll see how I deal with both those issues. So my writings are not trade recommendations but rather educational in purpose. You have to decide on your own approach to trading. Remember that trading is risky.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

EURGBP—correcting

EURGBP looks corrective and I expect it may get up to .8552/95 before it heads down again. This would be near a fib confluence and would complete a corrective C wave. I've gone long at .8392. The low of .8361 should hold for there to be an expectation of further moves up within the channel on the 3-hour chart. Below that is support at .8204, .8068 and .7856.

If it does get to those highs then I plan to reverse.

Here's the three-hour chart:












© Dianne Fecteau, 2010. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of the author.

My purpose in writing this blog is to show you how one trader, me, makes trading decisions and survives while trading Forex. One of the biggest problems I had when I first started trading was trying to apply the “rules” to actual trades. Another was the psychology—limiting losses and letting profits run. If you study my blog, you’ll see how I deal with both those issues. So my writings are not trade recommendations but rather educational in purpose. You have to decide on your own approach to trading. Remember that trading is risky.

EURUSD—still choppy

Euro is still choppy but pushing downward with a low so far of 1.3168. I'm short from 1.3232 and don't expect the pair will be able to gain above 1.3323 (just a bit over the high I expected yesterday). There's a chance the chop could continue over the next day or so. We'll have to see. Thinning holiday markets are having an impact.

© Dianne Fecteau, 2010. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of the author.

My purpose in writing this blog is to show you how one trader, me, makes trading decisions and survives while trading Forex. One of the biggest problems I had when I first started trading was trying to apply the “rules” to actual trades. Another was the psychology—limiting losses and letting profits run. If you study my blog, you’ll see how I deal with both those issues. So my writings are not trade recommendations but rather educational in purpose. You have to decide on your own approach to trading. Remember that trading is risky.

AUDUSD—looks corrective

So far, the best that that AUDUSD has been able to do was a high of .9965 on Tuesday, only a few pips above the Nov. 22d high and failure point of .9954. The August, 1982 high was also .9965 (for what that's worth). The pair is hovering near the.618 retracement of the move from 1.0183 down to .9537. Price action since the beginning of the month looks corrective but as I've written in prior posts, the overall trend is still up. Last week's candle was very bullish which hints that the .9537 low may hold.

Immediate support is at .9747. If this breaks then it would show weakness. Next support is at .9537/07 (prior low and daily 100 SMA) and .9496 (where the C wave would equal the A wave). These would have to hold as it's likely sellers would pile in otherwise for potential lows down to .9125 (50% of the move from .8067 to 1.0183) and possibly .8770. On the upside, until it definitively closes over 1.0000, there's little to discuss.

Overall, I'm leaning bearish but of course price action will define whether I enter long or short. We're also getting into thinner holiday markets so moves might be more extreme. Caution is necessary.

Here's a daily chart:












© Dianne Fecteau, 2010. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of the author.

My purpose in writing this blog is to show you how one trader, me, makes trading decisions and survives while trading Forex. One of the biggest problems I had when I first started trading was trying to apply the “rules” to actual trades. Another was the psychology—limiting losses and letting profits run. If you study my blog, you’ll see how I deal with both those issues. So my writings are not trade recommendations but rather educational in purpose. You have to decide on your own approach to trading. Remember that trading is risky.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

USDCHF—monthly

The Swissy is holding the uptrend line from the hammer low of .9463 in October. Support is at .9741 (12/5 low) and .9631 (the uptrend line from the hammer low). A close below .9463 would be devastating to the bulls but one could make a case for far lower than that if you use an Elliott Wave argument on the long-term monthly chart. You'd have to go back to before 1980 to start the count but what is most relevant is the triangle formation price recently dipped below. EW theory hypothesizes that prices thrust out of triangles and in this case that price would be significantly lower than what we've seen. Notice though that I use the word "hypothesize." EW has no proven studies and in fact there haven't been any so hypothesis is really putting too nice a spin on things. Regardless, that's the theory. If one accepts that we're in wave (C) then a projected price for (C) would be .7445 if it is .618 of (A). Gulp. Do you think that would satisfy the baboons practicing the banana republic economics of our administration? Probably not, but I'd certainly try a long at that price. 

That's one way of looking at things. However, in addition to it being only one piece of evidence, one can make an opposing argument rather easily. For example, look at RSI. It's a nice uptrend line. Even better, since the 2008 low, RSI hasn't gone into oversold (below 30). It hasn't dropped below 37 on the price dips. That's important. One would expect the much despised currency to have significant downward momentum. It isn't doing that. It also means there is positive divergence. There has also been positive divergence on the daily chart. RSI levels and divergence is only one piece of evidence as well. So is there anything else? One could argue that the pair is basing although the pullback from 1.0066 was a bit steep. On the USD Index chart, one can use an EW count on the monthly chart to show that the pair is beginning a third wave up. This would result in USDCHF going up as well.

All this is to say, that one has to examine several pieces of evidence to determine a trade direction. Most readers of this blog probably don't trade off monthly or even weekly charts because the stops have to be wider in most cases. But one should be aware of the overall picture even if trading is carried out on a daily (or shorter) chart.

Here's a monthly chart. My trades don't show on the monthly charts since I use a different charting package for weekly and monthly charts.











© Dianne Fecteau, 2010. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of the author.

My purpose in writing this blog is to show you how one trader, me, makes trading decisions and survives while trading Forex. One of the biggest problems I had when I first started trading was trying to apply the “rules” to actual trades. Another was the psychology—limiting losses and letting profits run. If you study my blog, you’ll see how I deal with both those issues. So my writings are not trade recommendations but rather educational in purpose. You have to decide on your own approach to trading. Remember that trading is risky.

EURUSD—chop

Euro is chopping around this morning. It may be in the final leg of an ABC correction on the hourly chart which could take it to 1.3318 or so. I was profit stopped out of the remainder of my long at +100 pips. There are some mixed signals so I'm staying out for now. I'll see what it does if it approaches 1.3318. Any gains above that will most likely be capped by 1.3450.

© Dianne Fecteau, 2010. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of the author.

My purpose in writing this blog is to show you how one trader, me, makes trading decisions and survives while trading Forex. One of the biggest problems I had when I first started trading was trying to apply the “rules” to actual trades. Another was the psychology—limiting losses and letting profits run. If you study my blog, you’ll see how I deal with both those issues. So my writings are not trade recommendations but rather educational in purpose. You have to decide on your own approach to trading. Remember that trading is risky.

EURUSD—chop

Euro is chopping around this morning. It may be in the final leg of an ABC correction on the hourly chart which could take it to 1.3318 or so. I was profit stopped out of the remainder of my long at +100 pips. There are some mixed signals so I'm staying out for now. I'll see what it does if it approaches 1.3318. Any gains above that will most likely be capped by 1.3450.

© Dianne Fecteau, 2010. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of the author.

My purpose in writing this blog is to show you how one trader, me, makes trading decisions and survives while trading Forex. One of the biggest problems I had when I first started trading was trying to apply the “rules” to actual trades. Another was the psychology—limiting losses and letting profits run. If you study my blog, you’ll see how I deal with both those issues. So my writings are not trade recommendations but rather educational in purpose. You have to decide on your own approach to trading. Remember that trading is risky.