Archives for March 2013

There were several nice trade setups during the UK session and the GBP caught our eye for a refreshingly quick trade.  After failing to stay above the Asian session high, the pair quickly dropped allowing us a better than 3:1 Reward to Risk ratio trade setup to our Target 2.  Price dropped quickly through the Asian session low to our Target 1 and began to reverse.  We are in and out within an hour and done for the week.

The US traders began their day by immediately reversing the downside momentum. A nice long set up presented itself but we don’t generally like stop losses of greater than 25 pips in the current market range, so we pass on the trade.

The UK and Europe move their clocks forward this weekend.  Next week the trading times will be back to normal.

Enjoy the holiday weekend and good luck with your trading!

Tomorrow is a holiday for us. so we will return on Tuesday.

The EUR was fairly active in Asian session.  The European traders pushed the EUR down hard as they began, and the UK traders brought it right back up, to set up their move to the downside.  We always look at a Daily chart first for perspective in advance of trading on a 15 minute chart.  There were 2 very clear signals for us that the EUR would most likely move down… and it did!

I tend not to trade in front of major economic news releases, but the Italian 10 year bond auction is not one that I am particularly concerned about these days when trading the EUR…nor the Spanish 10 year bond auction.

This trade moved very nicely down and took us to our Target 2 just as the US traders were beginning their day.

We could not find any trades yesterday, so it was nice to find one that met our 3:1 Reward to Risk ratio to our Target 2 today – on what will be a short trading week with Friday being a holiday for us.

Back tomorrow.

Good luck with your trading!

The majors have been moving well once US markets open. The CHF offered a better setup than the EUR during the session.  As the UK session got underway, price gyrated up and down testing breakout shorts, before it finally broke to the downside convincingly – setting up a 3:1 Reward to Risk ratio trade for us.  Price came back one more time to almost test the Asian session low before moving lower.

As the US session approached, we removed the risk from the trade by placing our stop loss to +3 in the event of a reversal.  Price retraced briefly, but did not stop us out.  As the US stock markets began to move up, the US dollar began to weaken, and the pair dropped to our Target 2 and beyond.  We closed the trade as price moved back up off the low-of-the-day toward our Target 2.

It is a little unsettling to see Germany miss some economic forecasts this past week.  We are intraday traders not position traders, but if Germany’s economy shows some cracks, this will not bode well for the EUR.  It has been very encouraging to see the US economy show some signs of strength this year, and we hope Germany will show strength going forward.

It’s been another good week to trade and we look forward to next week.

Good luck with your trading!

Back Tuesday.

It’s nice to see some positive economic news come out of Britain.  Lots of news throughout the session creating some big moves.  After the GBP ran up without us being able to find an acceptable entry, we chose to short it when it showed signs of rolling over near our upside targets.

The setup met our Reward to Risk minimum nicely with a 4:1 ratio.  In general we don’t like to place stops  over 25 pips and this setup fit with a stop (forgot to show it on the chart) at 1.5211 – just above the session high.  The GBP moved down and having been up 50 pips at one point, we closed the trade for 40 pips as it began to retrace.

I don’t usually show upside and downside targets, but I did today – so there you have it.

So far the week has been good to us.  Let’s hope for a profitable setup tomorrow to end the week.

Good luck with your trades!

Back tomorrow.

CHF produces a tiny risk setup in advance of the ZEW release.  With an 9 pip stop loss, what’s the worst that will happen?  The Asian session with very moderate with Japan on holiday.

The UK traders began their session  first testing the Asian session low to lure in breakout sellers then reversed upward.  The CHF found sellers just below the top of the Asian range and we entered short.  The stop was so small that I didn’t mind taking this in front of the news.  The CHF tends not to be a particularly volatile pair.  The pair moved down and we moved our stop loss down to plus one just before the news.  We manage to gain a few more pips before closing for 20.

We will see what tomorrow brings.

Good luck with your trading!

There is lots of talk about the EUR, but we found a GBP trade just after the US economic releases.  It seemed like last week, the US traders were the dominant movers of the majors and today was no different.  The GBP formed a very wicky candle in advance of the US news, then began to decline right after it.  It almost reached its session low, but reversed and began a run toward its session high.  We closed the trade to protect our 40 pips.

If you are familiar with the game baseball, this analogy may make sense to you.  If not, my apologies.  I consider 10 pips getting to first base, 20 pips second base, 30 pips third base and 40 pips, a home run.  I further consider 50 pips as hitting a home run bringing in one base runner, 60 pips a home run bringing in 2 base runners, 70 pips as a grand slam – which is hitting a home run with the bases loaded.  Anything above 70 is just fantastic, but not common per trade, in intraday trading.  In baseball when you make it to base, the fans cheer, if you hit a home run, the fans rise to their feet cheering and your team mates will high five you.

When I get 20 or more pips, I tend to protect them in increments of 10 pips, but sometimes the midpoint, 5 comes in handy too.  There is no substitute for being able to reading price action, but protecting profits at acceptable levels or hiding stop losses above/below structure is very important in trading.  Never get greedy, get the risk out of your trade as soon as is prudent to do so, and protect your profits, until the market takes you out or your targets have been hit.

Good luck with your trading!

Back tomorrow.