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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Some strange movements in data release and EUR

The CPI for the Eurozone was released at 5:00 PM today in my time zone.

A highly volatile event, it was so curious that the data was released so
late and went from positive to negative and was interchanged between
core YOY and core.

Moreover, it seemed as though the EUR hung in midair and despite having
a double negative, it moved ever so slightly to INCREASE! Then gingerly
moved down and is parked now at its previous levels.

A highly volatile event in a hair trigger market and we get nary a
movement from the EUR/USD over negative EURO data?

If this is a precursor of events to come later, I will try and exit the
market before the fireworks.

Those who opt to stay in the market are well advised to ensure they have
wide margins and to not jump the gun after the first data release (GDP)
because the FOMC promises more volatility and possibility of reversal.

Pretty exciting series of events. I am very curious to see how it plays
out along with the other hidden market movers.

VERY VOLATILE DAY

Today July 31 is a day that will live on in infamy.... JOKE.

That is however not a really gross exaggeration. Because this day we
have so many high risk events and so many trigger happy traders.

First, in a few minutes we will have the Eurozone CPI. After this, we
have the US GDP. Then we have the FOMC rate decision and press
conference. All high risk events that has everyone on edge because this
is where the Feds will have to convey their sentiments about the start
of tapering IF it is to commence on September.

Moreover, the technical data all suggests to imminent breakouts in AUD,
USD, EUR and even JPY. The problem is no one can tell which way it will
go. It can go either way and this is what makes the next 12 hours pretty
tense.

So we have the EURO data coming up.

Good luck!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Thoughts while waiting on Euro data

Its just a few minutes to the release of Euro data and the more I observe events, the more I realize that there really is a hidden hand in all of these. Therefore the key to make money is to figure out how the hand will move.

Many forex experts are beginning to look pathetic. One day, they focus purely on fundamentals and next they focus purely on technical analysis in a bid to cover their erroneous projections the previous day.

If its enough to confuse a finance guy like me, then you can be sure the average Joe who just clicked the links that promised "to make lots of money through forex" has his head spinning.

Despite this scenario though, there is hope over the horizon. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has accused JP Morgan of manipulating power prices and if they can do this in the power market, then they can definitely do this in the Forex market. All that is left now is for the Feds to sit up and take notice before the hidden hand rips the market apart.

Here is a link to the JP Morgan rate manipulation story for those who are interested.

Its a heavy data week and its looking to be the wild wild west again with no sheriff in sight so good luck traders!

Friday, July 26, 2013

Useless fundamental analysis or what if the data is wrong?

The thought suddenly occurred to me that while I have been looking only
at the manipulation aspect, there is a possibility too that the data is
wrong and that the USD is in fact fundamentally weak.

I have been watching the USD/JPY go lower and lower all the while
reading about how the US economy is recovering and that the Japanese
want to weaken the Yen further. With all this rhetoric I am soooo amazed
at how this currency pair is sinking. All this strange movements are
making fundamental and technical analysis obsolete.

Bottom line is that there are other forces at work here. It certainly
makes no sense to speak of the USD being fundamentally strong and
technically weak so the only possibilities left are manipulation or
incorrect data. Go figure.

I hope that the growing number of traders questioning the market
movements will draw the attention of those agencies that can investigate
if any unscrupulous individuals are turning forex trading into their own
gambling nirvana.

Unbelievable in its arrogance

I am watching the USD/JPY AUD/USD and the EUR/USD now. Post University
of Michigan data which gave a glowing picture of consumer sentiment not
seen since 2007.

There was also several key US data released earlier this week that
likewise painted a rosy picture of the US economy.

Now unless the USD is no longer the currency of the USA, then common
sense and past experience dictates that the USD would be stronger after
such data.

But since this week, these have been sentiments raised using phrases
like anti-US moves against the USD/JPY in particular because the market
movement no longer reflected reality.

In fact, given the volatility post Draghi and Bernanke speeches, it is
extremely unbelievable that the market moves in the manner it is doing
now. I mean the volatile reactions to simple words which were hints or
even vague references were in such magnitude that you get over 100 pips
movement in a few minutes.

Yet this "in your face" data merited a 50 pip or so drop in the OPPOSITE
DIRECTION!

Its extremely disconcerting and I really hope there is a forex
equivalent for insider trading. The Feds and the NFA should already look
into this because this kind of market manipulation has some extremely
sinister implications not only for forex but for the economy at large as
well.

Solid proof of manipulation

Finally, the past few days have shown that manipulation exists.

We get really good data for the USD and what happens?

The USD/JPY drops!

NFA ET TU?

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Post US CPI

In a manner consistent with my previous post, a few minutes ago we got
really good US numbers for CPI etc. So how did the market react?

Well there was the initial drop for the AUD/USD and EUR/USD pairs post
event though not as much as previous good numbers. But 15 minutes later,
lo and behold. They are back at their previous levels with change to spare.

And what of the USD/JPY pair? Quite pathetic. A small increase post data
followed by a decrease to previous levels. Again with change to spare.

Seriously. This is one confused market.

Or it is one where neither bull nor bears are in control.

Only the manipulators are in the drivers seat

Puzzling market behavior

A few minutes ago, the EUR CPI and other EUR related data was released.
All are in the green, meaning the data was better than expected.

So how did the EUR pairs react? Nada, zilch. If at all, both the EUR/USD
and the EUR/JPY DROPPED prior to data release and has yet to regain even
half of what it dropped.

It's really quite puzzling to me because these are the fundamentals that
matter, yet the movement is pathetic particularly in the light of the
volatility when Mario Draghi spoke.

Strange times indeed.

Friday, July 12, 2013

FOREX TRADING - THE HIDDEN HAND THAT MANIPULATES THE MARKET?

For several months now, I have been observing how the forex market has
been behaving. This was because I was seeing some unconventional
movements that ran contrary to what happened in reality.

What made it even stranger was despite the blatant departure from what
was normal, there were some analysts that appeared to have a ready
explanation which would later on be contradicted by others. In other
words, it was a scenario that smacked of manipulation.

And why not indeed?

After all, with a 4 trillion market daily, the temptation to sway
markets with a little push now and then is just too much to resist I
suppose. All it takes is a group of writers / analysts and some seed
money grown with the help of leverage and you're all set.

Here is a possible scenario with a sequence of events:

- Take some high volatility events occurring a few weeks or months down
the road.

- Hold a meeting with your analysts and draw a plan

- For example, you want to short the EUR/USD big time after a speech by
Draghi. So you proceed to have your analysts project a picture of a
strong Euro while the others can write about a dollar weakening. Keep
the noise levels about this scenario high about 1 week before data
release. Observe how the long positions are building up. Now wait for
the speech and ask your analysts writers to begin writing their analysis
about one of several things: why the euro suddenly weakened, why the
dollar found new born strength or why the speech of Draghi doomed the
Euro. Start shorting the market a bit and have these reports trickle out
a little at a time, slowly increasing the level of immediacy thus sowing
seeds of insecurity and doubt in the market. Now suddenly unleash a
deluge of shorts and the EUR crashes big time when others notice the
price dropping. Panic selling ensues and you suddenly have a nice little
profit for you to share with your cohorts.

Is this a plausible scenario?

Before the rapid increase in interest in Forex by ordinary people, no.
Because banks have very strict rules about trading. But open the market
to traders with money, leverage and a crooked sense of trading, and add
millions worth of new money from ordinary people hoping to make money
from forex, then the scenario becomes quite plausible.

This is why the market has been dispensing with the usual correlations
and is behaving so erratically. It has become in effect, the wild wild
west of finance.

Think about it. How can you analyze and trade a market that will move
seemingly in a random manner? It has deteriorated into nothing more than
a high stakes gambling arena where some greedy bastards take advantage
of clueless people holding money, following rules while they operate
outside the rules because they control a large amount of money which can
literally move markets the way they want to.

Am I disillusioned? Yes I am. Because I have a strong background in
finance and economics and I can tell when people are selling lies.

Will I abandon ship? Nope. I'm fighting it out here because I want the
real legitimate market forces to reclaim the forex market before
governments clamp down and fix exchange rates which is not that far off.
Central bank intervention is becoming a very expensive proposition and a
one currency proposal as well as fixed exchanges have been on the radar
for quite some time now. This is why I hope the market will be able to
reform before this happens.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

ON CORRELATIONS AND DIVERGENCE

Not too long ago, there were correlations that you could count on in
Forex. Some of them, like the EUR/USD vs USD/CHF were almost mirror
images due to almost perfect negative correlation. That way, you could
use the pairs to hedge against one another.

Today, however one can no longer rely on perfect correlation because it
does not happen anymore. In fact, one of the more important
correlations, the AUD/USD vis s vis SP500 is not that reliable either.
In fact, just last month, there was an unusual divergence between the
two which many analysts thought to be indicative of dire events brewing
in the market.

Thankfully, those dire events have not come to pass (yet?) but the point
I am making is that trading has taken on a different tone today where
one can really be caught off guard by a sudden move that can lead to
closeouts for positions that had no stops or sufficient margin.

I have been reading several articles that are quite informative about
the new market trends and as soon as I figure out how to best format
them on the blog, I will post them here.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Something strange is going on...

The FOMC minutes this morning set off a lukewarm reaction from the
market with the end result being almost back where it started.

However, after Bernanke finished with his Q and A portion, the USD, to
quote some traders, collapsed!

The market moved with such ferocity and speed that a lot of stops were
taken out and both the EUR and the AUD went beyond their channels and
appreciated strongly against the USD.

For one thing, while the answers of Bernanke shed some doubt on the
prospect of commencing tapering this September, the bottom line was that
the US economy was still on track for tapering because it appeared to be
on the road to recovery. Then there was the general agreement among
traders prior to the move, that the USD was on an uptrend.

So the sudden move took most people by surprise and really shook up the
market around 530 am Manila time.

Anyway, there wasn't any damage on my part except that I had just closed
some AUD/USD long position prior to the move! I missed the chance to
make decent profits and I almost got my shorts squeezed.

Just to be safe, I am in consolidation mode and will just wait for the
AUD data for release this morning before stepping back to reassess my
next moves.

Like I said, there is something strange going on and it appears to be
some form of manipulation by maybe a large group which controls a
substantial part of the funds in the forex market. Its good to see that
some other renowned traders have taken notice of the situation and
hopefully, someone will look into where this move (and other curious,
previous moves) came from.

As always, be careful. It's becoming more of a mind game nowadays rather
than a trade based on sound economic and business principles.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

A couple of very important tools in my forex toolkit

These are two tools that are extremely essential to my forex trading day
and are mainstays in my browser.

1. http://www.fxstreet.com/fundamental/economic-calendar/

2. http://mc24.ch/24inch.html

Right now I only have 3 monitors so I need to keep them as one of my
browser windows only. Once I have my 6 monitor setup in place, I will
keep them exclusively in a separate window.

Check them out and see if you find them useful.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Relative calm

After a dizzying couple of weeks worth of data and speeches, the market
has entered a time of relative calm. However, whether this is truly calm
waters, or the calm before the storm remains to be found out.

Of course for my part, I will continue trading and devote a bit more
time to this site. I have decided to make this blog a kind of resource
for those who wish to learn as much about the forex market in a thorough
manner, while making maximum use of the time available for studying.

So over the next few weeks I intend to post learning resources, reviews
and some links to useful reading materials.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Post NFP Assessment

Now that the dreaded data has been released, what happened?

Well for starters, the darn positioning took out EUR/USD long resulting
in a ()_*((&#(Q&!#$$ closeout.

To get back to where I was a few hours back, I need to make 4X what I
have now.

That's the bad news.

The good news is:

- it freed up a chunk of funds that I can freely trade without worrying
about margin. A new beginning, so to speak. A 4X return, or 400% is not
unheard of in Forex. I mean it stands to reason that if you can lose
400%, then you can make 400% too. It will probably take a but longer
than before though (yes I did 500% before) but hopefully these losses
have turned me into a more prudent trader.

- the numbers were mixed. We got a really good NFP number of 195K BUT we
also got a bad unemployment rate of 7.6. It's not exactly a stalemate
but it makes the QE taper outlook just as confusing as before.

- as I had mentioned before the NFP, it appeared as though the EUR might
reverse taking out those who shorted it. Well lo and behold it didn't drop as anticipated given the pre NFP movement. Because of the data above it dropped, but not that much, in fact I am sort of cheering it on to take out 1.28. So far we just hit 1.2805 and we are at 1.2840 as I write.

Of course its just one hour post NFP so it would be interesting
to see just what will happen before closing. Would still hope to see a drop through 1.28 so I can feel better about going long. But the market is so tame compared to this afternoon. Seems that many traders still have that 4th of July buzz but action may pickup again in a couple
of hours.

Thats about it for now. I need to go back and continue monitoring and
scalping when I can.

Pre NFP thoughts and apprehensions

The EUR/USD has been flirting with the downside since this morning.
Despite falling over 100 pips yesterday post Draghi, there has been very
little attempt to stage a rebound.

There are two ways to interpret this. One is to conclude that the EUR
will break 1.28 tonight post NFP and drop like a rock, or it can be a
way to make traders think it will do so, get them to short the Euro
before promptly reversing and making a break to the upside.

From what I have seen in these past few months of very curious trading
behavior, I have a feeling that it might be the latter.

Ideally though I would opt to sit this one out due to the critical
nature of this particular release (more on this at a later post) but I
have an open long position in EUR so I have to buckle down and weather
the storm tonight. I am seriously considering hedging with a small short
as well so that in case my long is taken out, it won't be a total loss.

At this point its close to T minus 240 minutes.

Scary.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

More than 100 PIPS!

The Euro dropped more than 100 pips on Draghi's press conference. Seems
like some people made a lot of money at other peoples expense again.

The movement seemed to be a bit out of sync with reality. Many analysts
even stated that a dovish ECB is bearish for the Euro.

Reminds me of that scene in "A Good Year" where Russell Crowe
manipulated the market to make a quick profit.

Post ECB Rate Decision Carnage

Wow. The ECB decided to keep rates unchanged so there wasn't much
movement. Then Mario Draghi opens his mouth and the Euro drops 90 pips!

I was almost taken out by this carnage. Terrible volatility that can
really wipe you out. Be careful out there.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Wednesday market assessment

So far its been a relatively well behaved market but as many analysts
are now pointing out, today and the day after the 4th of July will bring
their own fireworks into the market.

We have some data for release before the holidays which will have a big
impact on the USD. This is considered a precursor to the NFP coming up
on Friday. For novice traders like myself, the NFP or New Farm Payrolls
is a big event that brings major volatility to the market. It can bring
substantial profits but by the same token, it can also bring massive
losses.

So beginners and those who have little experience in trading highly
volatile markets are advised to trade this using demo accounts first.
That ensures that you have the experience (and stomach) to tackle wild
market movements. Demo accounts are key to the proper preparation of a
budding forex trader. They are free and you can use them as well as a
way to select your broker since brokers have different trading
platforms. It is important to pick one that will enable you to trade
effectively because some systems might end up slowing you down which can
affect your trading adversely. Remember, demo accounts are a VERY
IMPORTANT tool for the new forex broker. Use them.