The GBP has been on a long term bearish trend, which picked up pace at the end of last week and the beginning of this one. The big support level at 1.20 was finally broken on Tuesday, but the price didn’t stay down for too long and a swift reversal followed through.

The political scene in the UK has moved somewhat in these last few days. The British Parliament voted to take matters on their own hands yesterday and they might get another extension of the Brexit deadline until the end of January next year. That wouldn’t change anything since no solution for the Irish backstop is anywhere in sight.

The EU is skeptical as well. Reuters reported a while ago, citing EU officials on the matter and their comments don’t seem optimistic, quite the contrary.

• Negotiations with David Frost are a waste of time
• Barnier told EU 27 that Johnson is undermining Ireland’s position on backstop
• Barnier told EU 27 that UK risks crashing out without a deal by accident or by default
• UK idea for a Brexit deal is a “heroic” assumption
• Hard to see any Brexit deal passing in UK parliament currently
• UK idea that EU 27 will eventually cave in is wrong
• Ireland has maintained stance that cannot replace backstop with vague, non-binding and unclear commitments from the UK

As you can see, there’s no room for optimism in these comments, so whatever happens in the UK might not be of any importance for Brexit. Nonetheless, GBP/USD has climbed nearly 150 pips this morning and continues to edge higher as I write and the climb doesn’t seem to stop. When markets make their mind about something it’s hard to change them.