Friday, March 4, 2011

Currency market today

In a recap of the week so far as of 10:15AM EST:

AUDUSD reached 1.0202 Monday but has had rough going since then, reaching a low of 1.0075 this morning, lower than the 3/2 low at 1.0086. However, this could be the beginning of a downward slanting rectangle where price will consolidate. The upper boundary of this (drawn on the four-hour chart) is 1.0185. The 50 daily moving average is at 1.0041 and the 100 is at .9958. Aussie hasn't had a weekly close below parity since the end of January and no daily close below parity since February 15. Let's see how it closes today.

EURGBP has had a good week, climbing from its weekly close last Friday of .8533 to a high of .8600 this morning. This is resistance so what it does here is going to set the tone for future price action. There's a potential inverted head and shoulders pattern that requires a break.8672 for confirmation. A close greater than .8600 this week would be bullish.

EURJPY finally climbed above 115.69 today, touching 116.01! That's been a long time coming. Ideally, the pair will close above 115.69 this week. If it does so, that's very bullish. Price is above the 200 daily moving average and the pair is above a resistance line on longer-term charts. However, 116.14 is the upper boundary of the bear flag on the monthly chart I posted the other day so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some consolidation take place. Definitely a pair to buy on a retracement, perhaps to 114.50.

EURUSD pushed on up this morning, touching 1.4007, a big psychological barrier. Price targets are present on up to 1.4060 where there's some good resistance. A weekly close greater than 1.3862 is all it's going to take to maintain bullish momentum for now. There's good support around 1.3880/50 so anyone not already long might find an entry at that level.

GBPJPY spiked to 135.24 this morning. February's high was 135.54 so that's the price to exceed. However, there's formidable resistance here, both on short- and long-term charts. It could push somewhat higher to 136.53 (the point where wave C would equal A on an ABC structure off the low of 125.51). At that point, though, I'd expect to see a nice retracement, possibly to 129.50/25. This is .618 of the move up from 125.51and the prior swing low at 129.52. Obviously, a close above 135.54 would be strongly bullish. Coupled with the break recently over a long-term trend line, one would want to be long. There's potential for price to move up to 141.19 (confluence) and 145.98, last April's high.

GBPUSD had done a nice job this week, taking over its 1.63 resistance with a spike to 1.6344 yesterday. 1.6465 is possible in the near term. While a weekly close above 1.6300 would be nicely bullish, it might be a lot to expect at this point. The pair dropped to a low of 1.6236 today. The daily 10-SMA is at 1.6225; the 20 at 1.6168. Price needs to stay above those at least.

USDCAD continues to sink. Gee, that's what I wrote that last Friday. Well it's true again this week with a new low of .9684. This is below the 2008 low of .9711 so the bears are fierce. I also wrote last week that below .9711 there's not a lot stopping it until it reaches .9417. The triangle price target was .9549. A break in oil prices downward would relieve some pressure on this pair. How likely is that?

USDCHF managed a low of .9202 this week, a real bummer for those expecting the USD to rally anytime soon. As I wrote last week, I prepared charts earlier this year that show it could get to 90 and it seems to be on its way. The high this week was .9331, quite a bit lower than last week's high of .9506. This was just above a prior support level so it's strong resistance. I will note that the sentiment seems extreme. When everyone's bearish or bullish, there aren't many people left to continue to drive price in the direction everyone expects it to go. I wrote the other day that 75.62 is do or die support for the USD index. It hasn't gotten there yet.

USDJPY is caught in a narrow range from 80.94 to 83.97. A close outside those boundaries would be significant. Until then, trade the range.

EURUSD—3-hour

Euro looks very bullish and, in the prevailing sentiment, "unstoppable" as to 1.40. There are several price targets in the low 1.40 zone as I've previously blogged about. I'm long from 1.3866.

However, don't just jump on this train, long. First, the pair is at resistance with the high this morning of 1.3976. Second, NFP is coming out at 8:30AM EST. Price swings around this can take out otherwise good trades. Third, the pair could begin a corrective swing down.

Much safer for longs is to wait for a retracement around the 1.388/50. Below this be bearish with possible lows of 1.3713, 1.3650 and 1.3526.

© Dianne Fecteau, 2011. 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.

EURGBP—Daily

There's much of interest on the daily chart.

First, a long-term consolidation period within a symmetrical triangle began late last summer. There are various ways to define the touching points but one way is with A ending at .8335 (606 pips), B ending at .8649 (314 pips) and C ending at .8356. This is somewhat speculative but because there's a nice 1,2,3 off of B, I like it.

Another feature of interest is the potential inverted head and shoulders pattern. This won't be confirmed until a break above .8672. If it is confirmed, the price target is .9059. This is in line with a target I have on my daily point and figure chart of .9100. The high this past October was .8941. Just beneath here is a confluence zone.

Finally, of course, there is this morning's push over the recent .8593 high. So far, the price high has only been at the round number of .8600 so this is resistance. It's also just above the daily downtrend line.

The monthly chart (not shown) shows the pair in a triangle with the C leg potentially in progress and a possible target of .8271. The upside of the monthly triangle is .8723. The pair went into this consolidation triangle during an uptrend so, from an Elliott Wave perspective, ultimately one would expect it to break upward.

Bottom line is that there is bullishness in this pair, especially longer term. However, there is short-term pressure. If the pair can cleanly close above the daily triangle today, above .8600, then the short-term bias changes to bullish as well. So how would I trade it? I'd wait for a retracement, possibly back to retest the triangle around .8560. However, because this .8600 is resistance, a stop and reverse would be appropriate if the pair closes below the triangle and better, below .8462.

Support is at .8462, .8356, .8265 and .8068. Resistance is at .8672 for now. I'll update it for next week if the weekly close is above .8600.

Since each pip of this pair is worth 1.63 USD, one might want to establish a smaller position than normal.

Here's the daily chart:












© Dianne Fecteau, 2011. 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, March 3, 2011

No posts today

I have some personal business to attend to. Be careful prior to ADP and then tomorrow's NFP. See you Friday.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

USD Index—Monthly

Clearly, the index is at the bottom of a triangle. Although the situation looks dire, the next move should be up.

If I interpret the triangle as an Elliott Wave triangle, it hasn't completed. The next move should be leg E up. However, using the same Elliott lens for interpretation, then one should expect the price action to be down after that point. E should end around 87.73 but the last waves of EW triangles often fall short. If this happens, I'd look for it to be about 83.65 or 85.00. The latter is about the point the long-term downtrend line enters the picture. This assumes you buy into EW theory. While I do find it sometimes useful, it's not a guaranty of anything and it can be useless.

One can look at this price behavior as basing behavior. Long downtrends don't turn around on a dime as it were. Notice that it is an upward trend line from the lows.

What about the lackluster performance of RSI? Given the overwhelming sentiment against the USD, this isn't surprising. However, from a technical point of view it's negative. Offsetting that, though, is the fact that RSI is also not plunging to oversold levels below 30 on each dip.

Until the index drops below 75.62, I believe there's going to be upwards movement in price. If it does begin to slide, watch if it moves below 74.16 because that would be the confirmation point for a double top and the hint that there will be new, heart stopping lows.

Here's the monthly chart:










© Dianne Fecteau, 2011. 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.

GBPUSD—Monthly

Cable is nudging up against a long-term downtrend line from the end of 2007. It also appears to have broken above a triangle but this looks premature to me—it may be a fake-out.

I'm leaning towards regarding the monthly price action as an ABC correction. The C wave would be .618 of the A wave at 1.6324. The pair achieved 1.6330 yesterday so we'll see. The C wave would equal A at 1.7619 so there's plenty of time to get in on that train if indeed it looks as though it's going to happen.

Monthly support is at 1.6142, 1.5963, 1.5898, 1.5764, 1.5527, 1.5405, and 1.5345. Monthly resistance is at 1.6386, 1.6496, 1.6879, and 1.7045.

Here's the monthly chart:










© Dianne Fecteau, 2011. 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—Monthly

Looking at the monthly chart, obviously the uptrend is intact. As long as this is true, there are potential price targets up to the 1.03 zone as well as beyond. For example, the double bottom on the daily chart (.9804 and .9833 from January) had a target of 1.0350. A bull flag on a daily chart had a target of 1.0378. There were other daily patterns with additional price targets above 1.03.

Just as obviously, the rate of ascent since June of last year is very steep. It's unlikely the pair can maintain this angle. If you look back on the chart, I've drawn lines where ascents were sharp and one can see the resulting correction. The pair has been stalling since the December high of 1.0257. A .382 retracement from the rise from .8065 to 1.0257 would be .9420; a 50% retracement would be .9162. Those numbers seem rather far away right now but are certainly within the realm of possibility. It was only in December that there was a low of .9537. It's notable that all through the rise from .6007, momentum as represented by RSI has never risen above 70, which would be overbought. In fact, RSI has not been above 70 since October 2007 when the high was .9347.

One could look at this as an expanded flat with the A to B leg ending at 1.0257. That would certainly make for a jolly set of bears as C began but there needs to be more evidence for this. Frankly, at this point, I don't see Elliott Wave Theory as being particularly useful on this chart.

Monthly support is at 1.0095, .9916 (Feb. low), .9804, .9710 (monthly 10 EMA), .9537, .9420 and .9162. Monthly resistance is, yes, you guessed it, 1.0257. After that is 1.0300, 1.0350, 1.0435/79, and 1.0500.

Here’s the monthly chart:










© Dianne Fecteau, 2011. 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.