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Sunday 26 July 2009

There was nice piece in "Rminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edvin LeFevre. About breaking out of range:

"I recall how I missed a big play just by trying to anticipate the starting
signal. I felt so sure of conditions that I thought it was not necessary to wait for the line
of least resistance to define itself. I even thought I might help it arrive, because it looked
as if it merely needed a little assistance.
I was very bullish on cotton. It was hanging around twelve cents, running up and down
within a moderate range. It was in one of those in-between places and I could see it. I
knew I really ought to wait. But I got to thinking that if I gave it a little push it would go
beyond the upper resistance point.
I bought fifty thousand bales. Sure enough, it moved up. And sure enough, as soon as I
stopped buying it stopped going up. Then it began to settle back to where it was when I
began buying it. I got out and it stopped going down. I thought I was now much nearer
the starting signal, and presently I thought I'd start it myself again. I did. The same thing
happened. I bid it up, only to see it go down when I stopped. I did this four or five times
until I finally quit in disgust."


So here's my GU story :)
In addition to no one want to break up 1.67, i suppose that in spite of rising risk appetite there is still no enough volatility in emerging market, therefore even if investors wish to go back there, they have no one to buy from, so they still have to keep their USD, and that's why it doesn't fall yet.

Thursday 23 July 2009

At the time of yesterdays UK MPC Meeting Minutes GU was below mentioned by me level, what prevent me from any trade. From that news however price started climbing, and today skyrocketing Dow Jones may trigger weakening of USD. Therefore I wouldn't be suprised if GU will head to new high on 1,80. I wouldn't bet on that now, however I will follow closely price action near 1.6660 and 1.6743. Especially if the second one will be breaken firmly on tommorow news, I would see new high around 1,80 within one or two months. In other hand tommorow news may return price to 1,60 if it will struggle with mentioned levels.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

The point is that under current market circumstances thtere is possible strong breakout either up or down, and it's most likely to happen during news release. However in other hand there is much more likely that neither approaching UK MPC Meeting Minutes nor any other tommorow or day after tommorow data will trigger such break out. Personally I do expect breakout to occure and I do expect not to get into bigest move of all. However awarnes of inevitability of such move I am alredy prepared to know what will happen just after. And that's the point of trading.

So nearest data releases should rather bring another bounc trade oportunities and eventually one that establish new direction for USD pairs. It's important to keep significant levels in mind to not get sweaped by such move.

MPC Meeting Minutes for the first time from two months will be published with no any other significant data released at the same time. There should be no big surprise on it. That is possible that black swan hunters will buy some pounds before the news, what may cause spike just after release [no matter what exact data will be]. My idea is to trade highly doyable trendline based on lower lows on recent 30M chart. It would be the best to keep some tiny Take Profit @ 1.6385 to cover possible losses. If price will manage to break lower, there is nice another 100 pips to cash in. However if suprise have happen, bounce down is still highly probable, but it's hard to say how high.

If price will break 1.6380 before the news and won't bounce back, I would stay away of the market during release.

On Bernake Testimony I will comment later today.

Saturday 18 July 2009

Friday news was not much better than expected, so I decided to trade my 94.0 idea and have lost around 20 pips.

My general thought on that is all in all it's better to get lost with a map in your hand. My map says there is stagnation time for USD and it won't break 1.67 level on GU until DOW will advance 1500 more, what should not happen soon. In other hand there is some room for USD to gain a bit, however now the best idea is to trade bounces. Even on this trade here I done pretty well as I have saved about 20 pips by not entering on a market level just when Building Permits was released. [I must confess here that I have opened half position just before news to not miss a spike down if one happen, but I managed to close it soon after release to with about 0.1 pip loss].

So the map is the very first thing you need. Even if your map mislead you, you can still use it to get out of trouble by following way back.

Friday 17 July 2009

UJ @ 94.0 looks nice to sell on spike up if US Building permits will be worse or as expected

Friday 10 July 2009

I have just published chart for last comment.
Click here
Just after I wrote about one green day before end of a week, Thursday showed nearly 300 pips gains on GU. To be honest I didn't expect that much but in other hand I did not expect this pair to rise higher than 1.64, therefore I see depreciation for the pair for today.

Both UK PPI and US Trade Balance might be good triggers for shorting GU, especially if pair will be at the top of channel at the news time. My trading direction however will be short only if pair won't start to penetrate 1.64 area again, or break it. If that will happen, both direction are possible.

Additionally I would not expect GU to unfold another 300 pips jump, therefore if pair will run that far I will suspend all my predictions till sunday.

Wednesday 8 July 2009

As there was no big surprise on Halifax HPI I did not trade it. GU as expected didn't even touched 1.6160, what fits my bearish sentiment on this pair. However this week I expect at least one green day on this pair, it's hard to say would that be tommorow or Friday.

To make thing easier to follow I decided to revitalise fx-tool concept, where you can see charts for different news releases. I will upload more charts soon, however you can now see one for Halifax here
Halifax HPI is about to be released.
As GBPUSD shows not much power of going too far either up or down I would be interested in long position on good UK news, however I would not expect much more than 1.6160.
In case of bad news I would trade short only when price would go below today low, however it would have to be clear that it's not just a stop loss hunting. To be safe I would wait price to bounce back to 1min bollinger band and then entry short.

Wednesday 1 July 2009

In terms of "predicting the past" I'd like to post a bit of comment on what did I predicted in relation with what happened exactly.
As UK Manufacturing PMI did not surprise me [merely higher than expected] I did not open the trade. Additionally as you can see on chart [firs yellow vertical line] price at the time of news was somewhere in a middle of mentioned in previous post channel what additionally discouraged me from any action.

What is definitely worth of attention is that my trading plan worked perfectly on US Pending Home sale [second line]. Of course now it's just looking back with no trading value, however I'm quite proud of it as this made me a bit more concerned that GBP is simply not worth anything more than 1.66. So just to feed my ego. There was GU over 1.6460 [1.6530], news was quite bad for investors, what drove GU down 50 pips within an hour.
As I'm writing it it's already Thursday after non-farm payroll, and I can see that GU plunged even further, but it would be far too much to point any relation between that and my predictions.

And here's the chart for you:

Today UK Manufacturing PMI would be perfect for short trade in case of worst than expected data. However asian session created quite plain decreasing channel [30min chart]. If at the moment of release price was at the bottom of it I would stay away.
Best scenario would be if before the news price will rise above 1.6460 there would be over 70 pips room for short move on bad news.

If data released was positivly suprising, I would trade long only if price was low enough [1.64 or lower].

Neutral data or some unusual price action before the news will definetly keep me off trading.

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