Forex Critical: Key Currency Charts for February 11, 2016

Currencies are a transmission mechanism. Since the financial crisis, central banks have become increasingly adept at manipulating them as agents of monetary policy. Traders who ignore currencies may have critical blindspots as stock markets twist and turn through currency transmissions. From time-to-time, I will post “Forex Critical” to highlight currency charts that I believe are … Read more

The Japanese Yen Vies For Center Stage

To start the new year, I wrote a piece titled “The Japanese Yen Flashes Red for 2016.” At the time, I used charts of the Japanese yen (FXY) trading against various currencies to demonstrate how the yen was asserting itself in currency markets. Two weeks later, speculators have provided confirmation of the increasing interest in … Read more

The Japanese Yen Flashes Red for 2016

Trading is off to a rough start in the new year. China kicked off the fireworks for 2016 with a trading halt. From Bloomberg: “The worst-ever start to a year for Chinese shares triggered a trading halt in more than $7 trillion of equities, futures and options, putting the nation’s new market circuit breakers to … Read more

A Policy Island for the Fed: The Bank of England and U.S. Economic Data Isolate the Fed

This past week was an important one for monetary policy. The Bank of England (BoE) made clear it is willing to put off rate hikes as long as necessary. Despite its words that suggest otherwise, the Bank is NOT biased for action. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made it clear that, all else being … Read more

The British Pound Suddenly Reverses Course

Perhaps as a great irony, the British pound (FXB) is suddenly losing favor even as the euro appears to stabilize in the wake of the latest drama in Greece. Since touching the 0.70 level last week, the euro has made steady gains against the British pound as seen here in EUR/GBP. Now, the British pound … Read more