US Session Forex Brief, Dec 28 – Thin Liquidity Continues to Drive Markets Crazy

Posted on December 28, 2018December 28, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

As we mentioned yesterday, many forex traders are on Christmas holidays and the liquidity is pretty thin at this time of the year. This leads to some large moves sometimes and even if the volatility is not that elevated, the moves in most financial assets are pretty strange. Although, we cannot complain about the lack of volatility this year because we have seen some huge moves in particular sections of the financial markets.

USD/JPY jumped more than 100 pips higher on Monday before markets closed for Christmas but it has reversed down and given back all the gains in the last two days. EUR/USD lost around 70 pips on Monday, but it has climbed around 130 pips yesterday and today. There is no clear driver behind these moves apart from thin liquidity, which makes them harder to read.

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US Session Forex Brief, Dec 27 – Sentiment Turns Negative Again Today After a Quick Surge in Risk Assets Yesterday

Posted on December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

The sentiment has been increasingly negative in financial markets and, on the last day before the Christmas, we saw a quick selloff in risk assets. Crude Oil lost nearly $5, while stock markets tumbled lower. Safe havens such as [[Gold]] and the JPY surged, as they usually do when the sentiment is negative. Gold broke above the $1,270 level on the 24th which was my birthday by the way.

That surge was a last minute dump of trades in the risk assets as the US Government shut down partially. But yesterday, we saw a sudden reversal in the market sentiment and everything was surging higher. [[USD/JPY]] climbed more than 100 pips higher, Oil surged for more than $5 and stock markets made a massive bullish turnaround with Nikkei climbing about 1,000 pips. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 27 – Sentiment Turns Negative Again Today After a Quick Surge in Risk Assets Yesterday” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 21 – Wrapping Up 2018 With A Bang

Posted on December 21, 2018December 21, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Today is the last day of the year as far as trading is concerned. Yes, there is still Monday next week and Thursday and Friday, but the economic calendar is pretty empty until after New Year’s day and most of the major players will start their winter holidays won’t be back until January.

So, today is the day that trading is still normal. After today, the liquidity will decrease dramatically for about two weeks which makes trading pretty difficult. The volatility will be pretty low and if there are any moves, they’re likely to be in the form of a spike, a quick jump or decline and then nothing. So, take care if you’ll be trading during this period.

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US Session Forex Brief, Dec 18 – The Buck Gets Smashed Ahead of the Last Rate Hike for the Year

Posted on December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

There have been three major issues that the global economies have been facing this year: the trade war between US and China, the Italian budget for next year and Brexit. All of them are coming to an end as we head towards the end of the year. Brexit will go one way or another in January although it looks increasingly likely that Britain might crash out of the EU with no deal. The war between China and the US is cooling off as well after the meeting between Donald Trump and China’s President Xi in the G20 summit, although the clashes between the two titans continue at the World trade Organization. Now, we see that the issue with the Italian budget deficit has been resolved as well.

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US Session Forex Brief, Dec 18 – The Buck Gets Smashed Ahead of the Last Rate Hike for the Year

Posted on December 18, 2018December 18, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Last week, the US Dollar resumed the bullish trend, pushing higher against all major currencies as well as against Gold. That was the situation right until the last hours of Friday when the Buck retreated before the weekend, losing around 50 pips across the board. That was a sign that something was not right. The USD usually gets some strong bids towards the end of the year, so it didn’t make much sense, especially when fundamentals for all other currencies are dovish. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 18 – The Buck Gets Smashed Ahead of the Last Rate Hike for the Year” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 17 – The Euro Remains Bid Despite Weak Eurozone Inflation Figures

Posted on December 17, 2018December 17, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

This week we have plenty of economic events scheduled for release in the economic calendar due to Christmas, but not today though. The main economic calendar today was the consumer price index (CPI) from the Eurozone. I was expecting some increased activity in the Euro pairs during the release of the inflation report but nothing extraordinary happened. In fact, EUR/USD only jumped around 20 pips after the inflation report came out. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 17 – The Euro Remains Bid Despite Weak Eurozone Inflation Figures” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 14 – USD the Only Game in Town After Very Disappointing Eurozone Figures

Posted on December 14, 2018December 14, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

The US Dollar has been on a bit of a retreat this week as it retraced lower. But the reasons to buy the other instruments have fallen one by one like dominoes. [[GBP/USD]] surged earlier this week as Theresa May survived the first attempt to overthrow her as the leader of the Conservative Party and the UK altogether. But, moving averages provided solid resistance yesterday and Brexit has just been getting worse as the UK officials try to find a solution at the EU again. So, GBP/USD has lost around 140 pips in the last few sessions.

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US Session Forex Brief, Dec 13 – The ECB Finally Turns Dovish, but Tries to Sound Confident

Posted on December 13, 2018December 13, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Today, we are trading normal fundamentals in forex as opposed to just trading politics and political rhetoric in the past few months such as the Brexit saga, the Italian budget rhetoric and the tariff tweets from Donald Trump. Today, we have been concentrating more on central banks for a change. First, it was the Swiss National Bank SNB that held their meeting early in the European session. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 13 – The ECB Finally Turns Dovish, but Tries to Sound Confident” →

US Session Forex Brief, Dec 12 – GBP the Only Game in Town Today as May Goes Through the Roller-Coaster of UK Politics

Posted on December 12, 2018December 13, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

Theresa May has had a pretty difficult time as Prime Minister of the UK, but no one said that job was going to be easy. She applied for it herself at the most difficult time when the British public voted to leave the European Union and Theresa May was a remainer, not a leaver, which made the job of Prime Minister even more difficult.

In recent months we have heard many rumours surrounding a vote of no confidence in the British Parliament for her, but that vote never came from the opposition Labour Party or the governing partner, the DUP party. Although, now we get a leadership call from her own Party. Conservative MPs rounded up all the votes to ask for such a vote in the the Tory Party which will take place this afternoon.

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US Session Forex Brief, Dec 11 – Brexit and Italian Budget Go to Brussels

Posted on December 11, 2018December 11, 2018 by Skerdian Meta

As we now know, the Brexit vote in the British Parliament was called off by Theresa May yesterday. She was set for a big defeat yesterday so this was the right decision from her. We have heard may British politicians oppose the deal from the opposition Labour Party obviously, from the Government coalition DUP Party of Northern Ireland, as well as from her own Conservative Party. Today she has flown over the Channel to Brussels. Her goal is to convince the EU to give her some legal assurance on the Irish border backstop. This would convince some British MPs that the backstop will end at some point in time and will probably change their mind and vote on Brexit. Continue reading “US Session Forex Brief, Dec 11 – Brexit and Italian Budget Go to Brussels” →