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...
In this video we take a closer look at the VPOC indicator for Ninjatrader, and see it in action across a variety of markets and timeframes. We start by looking at the ES mini on some fast timeframe charts of 3 minutes and upwards as the physical market opens to join Globex. Next we look at the VPOC on a GBP/USD chart on seconds, and to complete the trio of faster time frame charts, we look at the NQ emini on a tick chart. The VPOC indicator for Ninjatrader works in exactly the same way, whether on a minute chart, a seconds chart or a tick chart.
Finally to round off this video we take a look at some daily charts for gold, the CAD/USD futures contract and oil....
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...
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...
In many ways an extraordinary day - particularly for the AUD/USD which has posted a huge candle on the daily chart. In fact the three main USD pairs David & I follow, namely the EUR/USD/ GBP/USD & AUD/USD have all ended in positive territory - with the Aussie the clear leader!!
All three have, of course, benefited from relentless USD selling, and for a view of whether this is set to continue we will have to wait for tomorrow's advance GDP release and also the FOMC. The USD is certainly over extended on the medium term time frames (30 and 60 min) as can be seen on the currency strength indicator alongside the chart above. However, as we've seen with the Aussie today, a currency can stay over extended for very long periods of time. In the higher time frames there is still some room for the USD to fall even further. Indeed the monthly chart for the USD index is...
For forex traders in London yesterday morning, eurozone PMI and UK retail sales were the main items of fundamental news. And it was Cable again which provided us with some important trading lessons.
The first was how we need to be aware of positioning ahead of any major news release. In the run up to the retail sales number, Cable had been basing around the 1.4920 support platform, having come off the 1.4975 high of the previous evening, thereby creating the start of what looked to be a down candle.
However, as always is it the daily chart which is so important, providing us with a more macro view of any currency pair, and here Cable has been very bullish since bouncing off major support in the 1.4898 region.
Just ahead of the news Cable started to move up, and with the release the usual volatility occurred, which triggered a candle with a 56 pip spread - taking out both longs and shorts!...
In the run up to any UK news the British pound is often one of the best currencies to consider early in the London trading session, either to position ahead of the news, or to wait until the data has been released. However, this morning the most compelling currency has been the Japanese Yen which is very over stretched across a number of time frames on our currency strength indicator. The result has been a number of potential trades to sell the YEN.
This is the principle way we approach the forex market - focus on a single currency & consider its price behaviour against its counter parties to see which is offering the best opportunity to trade safely and profitably. A sell on the YEN usually denotes positive market sentiment and this morning we have seen some mildly bullish moves in Globex on the NQ & ES indices, confirming this risk on sentiment. The USD/JPY is also ticking higher, giving us additional confidence.
Of...
Ahead of the manufacturing production number the British pound has been particularly lively in the past couple of hours with 6 volatility candles alone being triggered on Cable on the 3 min chart.
For Cable, yesterday's rally which saw the pair bounce off support in the 1.4760 region was a move more akin to a 'dead cat bounce' as once the pair hit the major resistance at 1.4840 at the start of the US session opened the floodgates for some heavy duty selling. This took cable down 1.4684 before it finally managed to find some support as the market moved into Asia.
A number of reasons have been suggested for this move, including the tensions and uncertainty surrounding the upcoming UK election, and as highlighted yesterday, we are seeing a major sell off in UK gilts. In the face of such uncertainty It appears foreign investors would much rather move their money into US Treasuries and Asia, and Japanese investors in particular...
It's been another great day's trading on the EUR/AUD, which has continued the bearish tone from yesterday, following the RBA statement and a decision to keep interest rates on hold for the time being. The 60 minute chart has delivered a consistent trend today with the pair moving through the platform of support in the 1.4125 region and as defined with the accumulation and distribution indicator. The trend monitor at the bottom of the chart continues to confirm the bearish tone, supported by the trend dots indicator. Early this afternoon the wide spread down candle saw the pair close at 1.4016 on very high volume, and confirming the current bearish tone for the pair.
To the left of the chart, the Quantum currency strength indicator confirms the technical picture, with the euro (the orange line) now deep in oversold territory, and with the Aussie dollar (the blue line) continuing to rise deep into the overbought region. A great trade on this...
The main focus overnight was in Australia with the RBA deciding to hold the current cash rate at 2.25%, with no cut. This decision was against the backdrop of declining commodity prices and a slowdown in China with many expecting the rate to be cut to 2.00%. As a result the Aussie dollar strengthened on the news against many of the major currencies, with another nice move on the EUR/AUD on the 15 minute chart.
The Quantum accumulation and distribution indicator initially defined the support and resistance region with the 1.4360 being the key level of support and a region that had been tested on several occasions prior to the news. The bearish sentiment was confirmed with the trend monitor to the bottom of the chart which continues to remain bearish in this timeframe with the move lower accompanied by high volume and confirming the short term bearish trend. To the left of the chart and the Ninjatrader currency strength indicator,...
