ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Traders have thoroughly beaten up on the U.S. dollar (USD) for the last six weeks. In the past week, the selling accelerated again in the wake of commentary from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin that the U.S. welcomes a weak currency because of its positive impact on U.S. exports. The British pound (FXB) is one … Read more
Almost a month ago, I celebrated a major breakout for iPath Bloomberg Cocoa SubTR ETN (NIB) by declaring a confirmed bottom. That bottom still holds but unfortunately NIB has persistently declined since then. NIB is down 15.2% from the time of that post. Source: FreeStockCharts.com At the time of my last post, the International Cocoa … Read more
In recent days I wrote about the British pound (FXB) and the Mexican peso. In both posts, I pointed out to resistance levels versus the U.S. dollar: GBP/USD and USD/MXN. In both cases, those resistance levels held. In the case of the pound, the technicals held against major fundamental news: the Bank of England (BoE) … Read more
When speculators finally flipped bullish on the British pound (FXB), it looked like the action came right as the currency was making a peak against the U.S. dollar (DXY0). The timing of my observation happened to mark the bottom for GBP/USD, and now speculators have backed down from their nascent pound bullishness. They now hold … Read more
It looks like speculators flipped the script to go net long on the British pound (FXB) just in time to catch a peak. Source: FreeStockCharts.com As the chart above shows, GBP/USD just broke down below support at its 50-day moving average (DMA). The move looks like an exclamation point following the full reversal of the … Read more
Speculators are net bullish on the British pound (FXB) for the first time in almost two years. Source: Oanda’s CFTC’s Commitments of Traders While the net long position is barely above zero, the flip of the script is still significant given how little time speculators have spent bullish on the pound since at least 2008. … Read more
In one fell swoop, the Bank of England’s (BoE) hawkish posturing flushed shorts out of the British pound (FXB). The net short position of speculators has not been this low ever since the latest wave of currency bearishness began against the British pound. Source: Oanda’s CFTC’s Commitments of Traders This rapid closure of shorts helps … Read more
“There’s already great speculation about the exact timing of the first rate hike and this decision is becoming more balanced. It could happen sooner than markets currently expect… …The need for internal balance – to use up wasteful spare capacity while achieving the inflation target – will likely require gradual and limited interest rate increases … Read more
AT40 = 60.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 58.8% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 10.0 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish Commentary Just yesterday, (big cap) tech stocks looked like they were in trouble all over again. Just as suddenly as … Read more
AT40 = 52.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 55.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 10.2 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish Commentary One out of three. The last event of Thursday’s Trifecta had the only notable impact on financial markets. With … Read more