ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Currencies swung wildly and dramatically yesterday. Lost in the breathless descriptions of the continued surge in the US dollar and the sudden strength in the Japanese yen is that the drama really began with renewed strength in the Swiss franc. At around 5am Eastern, the franc suddenly surged against all currencies. In particular, it traded … Read more
A catalyst for working off the market’s over-extended and over-bought conditions remains elusive. The Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy statement essentially blessed the market’s stubborn “melt-up.” The statement did not provide the incremental “hawkishness” as I was expecting given last month’s surprise discount rate hike. In fact, this statement’s reference to low rates for an … Read more
INTRODUCTION When I first picked up “Making Sense of the Dollar: Exposing Dangerous Myths about Trade and Foreign Exchange” by Marc Chandler, I thought it would unlock dark secrets explaining how and why the dollar has generally declined for the past ten years. I was disappointed to discover that Chandler is actually extremely bullish on … Read more
The inverse correlation between the U.S. dollar and the stock market has snapped back into play with a vengeance since the 15-month closing highs for the S&P 500 set on January 19th. On that day, the dollar index rose for a second day, forming what was to become the bottom of a small pullback in … Read more
The Royal Bank of Australia (RBA) surprised markets by leaving rates unchanged at 3.75%. Forecasts pegged the RBA for another 25 basis point increase. The markets reacted with an instant and steep drop in the Australian dollar against all major currencies. For example, the Australian dollar dropped over 1% against the U.S. dollar. (See chart … Read more