Selling of stocks and buying of dollars had been the prevalent theme during the first three trading days of the week. After a one-day hiatus fueled by a better than expected headline figure from yesterday’s U.S. GDP report, risk aversion returned on Friday. Short trade setups on the EUR/USD currency pair produced profits between 80 to 120 pips [depending on entry and exit strategies].
The U.S. dollar extended yesterday’s gains against the euro during today’s London and New York sessions. One opportunity to short the EUR/USD at a convergence of multiple levels of likely resistance, came together during the 30 minutes leading up to the U.S. equity market open. The dollar’s momentum increased following the release of a worse than expected October consumer confidence index from the Conference Board. The short trade delivered a profit of up to 80 pips [depending on exit strategy].
The U.S. dollar rebounded during today’s New York session after hitting a 14-month low earlier in the day. A short trade from the top of an intra-day channel on the EUR/USD currency pair produced between 85 to 130 pips [depending on exit strategy].
A summary of today’s New York session? Let’s put it this way: The EUR/USD currency pair rose a net 15 pips over the course of four hours. Although profitable trades were attainable, they were also short-lived.
The U.S. dollar had been mostly range-bound through today’s Asian and London sessions. At the U.S. equity market open, the major stock indexes showed red, and with it came USD strength. The EUR/USD currency pair offered a classic second chance entry after a range breakout move. A 60-pip profit was the reward for traders who let that trade run to the London close, while the cable produced a move roughly double that size.
After a brief recovery during the early portion of today’s Asian session, the U.S. dollar was subject to selling pressure from London open to London close. A long trade on the EUR/USD currency pair yielded between 40 to 60 pips [depending on exit strategy] during the New York session.
The headline figure from the October Empire State Manufacturing Survey destroyed the consensus forecast, adding to the Japanese yen’s downward momentum. Following the news release, a scalp trade on the EUR/JPY currency pair yielded at least 55 pips [depending on exit strategy]. An hour after the New York open, the U.S. dollar resumed its recent soft tone, lifting the EUR/USD pair by some 90 pips.
The U.S. dollar and British pound, two currencies which have been rather sickly of late, showed a somewhat healthier glow during today’s New York session.
Banks closed in the U.S. for the Columbus Day holiday, plus the prospect of traders sidelined before a heavy mid-week dose of monthly economic and quarterly corporate earnings reports, made for thin trading conditions during today’s New York session. For the most part, it was a good day for currency traders to keep their powder dry.
The EUR/USD had been showing Lower High’s for quite a while now on the 4 hour charts, forming a very distinct falling trend line. Just before London got started today we break this trend line. Typically, once something like this occurs, it’s very commonplace that a retest of this area is a high probability entry point back in the direction of the break, even if just for the short term. So let’s see, here we are at London market opening, after breaking this trend line and now sitting on the retested zone. Long off of this zone was certainly the plan, it was just a matter of the actual trigger and stop placement after that. In this video I show you how we built this trade plan to begin with, waited for our setup to be met, and took action. This trade ended up extending well for roughly a 1-3 risk vs. reward ratio for about a 70 pip winning trade. Nice way to end the month/quarter!
FXBootcamp London Currency Coach-
Christian Stephens