Well folks, it’s the weekend and most of us survived the week and even some of us came out profitable… miracles still do happen.  The market volitility has been astounding to say the least, but it keeps it exciting.  This week is a lesson on how much everyone needs to keep up with the financial news, the economy is going thru craziness and we need to know about it.  Also, it’s a reinforcement on the importance of putting together a trade plan!

Remember, your trade plan should include a few key points;

1. Checklist of market conditions, indicators positions, trends, economic news, etc
2. Weekly goal of how many pips you want to achieve in the market
3. Maximum number of trades allowed to take during the week, (10 or less is good, 15 is a MAX)
4. Money Management!!!!!! This means using stop losses on EVERY TRADE, calculating how much of your account is at risk should you get stopped out (remember 2% is ideal).  Read more…

Read and enjoy… even more importantly, MAKE A TRADE PLAN! Enjoy the weekend, keep up with the news and be ready for another great/fun/exciting/crazy week of trading that is coming right on up.

PS, I’m glad I’m not the only one excited about the weekend!!

Here we are coming into the weekend right before the start of September, which has a reputation for being toughest month of the year on the financial markets. The markets usually lose a bit of ground during September however things can look slightly up on election year Septembers, however everyone is still nervous as to what could happen. There is a good amount of uncertainty as to where the Dollar will head now, most are split on their prediction as to the direction of things. The month of August has been the best month the Dollar has had since 1992, and it’s gained the most against the Euro in such a short period of time since the Euro began trading publicly in 1999.

What does this mean for the USD?

Well it means the Dollar has been gaining strength like no one anticipated, many industries in the sub sectors are up more than 10% in just the last 30 days. But Dollar strength is coming in as good news for some and bad news for others. A weak Dollar can make our goods and services more competitive abroad which is great for the bottom line for many large companies. Have a look at this article,

USD Strength article

What all this means for the Dollar is yet to be seen, we haven’t seen a movement like this is a long time and now no one knows what to do about it which is why we see the markets just settling into a range bound situation. So everyone be patient with the currencies and other financial markets, there’s a lot of factors at play and until the big money decides what it wants to do we’re at the mercy of the “range!” I strongly encourage everyone to start doing research and learn about the the correlations across the various markets, commodities, currencies, stock market, etc. There’s much to be taken from how each move in relation to the other. We must be highly educated in the ways of the markets if we are to be the best currency traders possible. READ, READ, READ!!

That’s all for now, everyone have a GREAT weekend and a happy Labor Day and don’t work too hard.

Jared J.

Ok everyone, we have seen some GNARLY choppy market movements in the market over the last 2 weeks and for some of us it’s been pretty profitable but for others of us it’s been a bit painful. Here’s what we need to remember, USE THE DARMA!!! If the market is choppy, use the Darma to take those 20 and 30 pips trades… the quick get in and get out trades. If the market is trending, USE THE DARMA!! As the market is trending in a direction (up or down) and we have confirmation of this on both 1 and 4 hour charts, then look for entries on the Darma (ie with alligator confirmation of direction, enter on candles that open in the direction of the trend as confirmed on the 1/4h charts).

Ok enough about that, what do you say we have a look at what i’m looking at as of right NOW? Good, lets talk about it.

The EUR/USD and USD/CHF have been catching my eye. I don’t like watching these two currencies together too much because we all know that they move exactly opposite of each other so it kind of goes without saying. But they both are catching my eye, here’s why,

The EUR/USD has been dropping for the last… I don’t know, EVER!! SO it’s been bottoming out for the last little while, with the new found uncertainty with the USD and the EUR. Thanks to the BIIGGGG problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Dollar has taken a break from it’s nice short lived strength. Here’s what i’m looking at on the charts, the EUR/USD looks like with a break of the weekly pivot and crossovers on the 1/4h charts, i think it has some good potential for upside movement. There’s completely split opinions on the direction of the EUR/USD across the boards with analysts.

The USD/CHF is doing about the same thing but in the opposite direction, it’s basically the same story but in the other direction. Have a look at this shot and notice the mirror image of this one. This USD/CHF is looking like a nice downside potential is in the works. That’s what i’m looking at for right now’ish.

Happy trading EVERYONE!! Lets make some money Ya’ll!!!

Jared J.

GOOOOD morning everyone and welcome to another amazing trading week in what I like to call the BEAST (aka Forex)! It’s Monday morning at about 7:30am PST so I’m just going to give a quick review on what I am seeing this early on in the trading game for the week.

First off we just (and i mean just, about 30 mins ago) had the US Existing Home Sales announcement come out for the USD, it came out a pretty good amount better than expected but as of the immediate is showing little signs of adding strength to the Dollar. Although Home Sales are UP in the US for the month, inventory is also rising thus extending our little “housing situation” that has become fairly common place for the last few years.

So, here is what I’m seeing on the charts;

The USD is gaining LITTLE against many of the currencies, in fact there are quite a few signs of trend reversals on dollar pairs. We have seen the USD gain much strength over many currencies over the last 6 weeks bringing the EUR/USD, GBP/USD and many other USD pairs to levels not seen in months and even years. But as with every big movement there must be some reconciliation, so I am becoming aware and even sensitive to USD reversals beginning to happen this week in the market. Last week we saw a MAJOR consolidation in most of the USD pairs (aka the market went flat and didn’t break out of the small range it was in for most of 7 days). This week I expect to see some movement out of these pairs, the question is going to be which way they will move. So keep your eyes on the charts and watch for the signs of which way things are going, remember to keep an eye on the stock market and oil because these can be signs of how our Dollar is doing.

As for the other pairs, I see the JPY pairs doing very little at the opening of this week but keep your eyes on those too because the JPY can make big major moves when least expected. So watch and wait because we have an entire week or endless possibilities ahead of us with many currencies at decision points so we should see some good movement happening. Stay tuned and I will be back with an update later on tonight.

Adios,

JJ

For all of those that have been watching the charts this week- I’m sorry!! It’s been a slow week but this is VERY common after such a large movement like we’ve seen over the last 4 weeks across most of the currencies. So everyone be patient, we’ll make it through this week and back into some good moving market conditions.

There has been very little things to look at over the last few days but it looks like we might be seeing some movement starting to happen across the JPY pairs. There has been some movement over the last few hours (current time 10:30 pst) so keep an eye out. Also there is a major UK announcement coming out at 4:30am EST, Retail sales. This is a big econ indicator for any currency, it shows the amount of money people are spending on retails items, it’s a big deal. So expect some movement out of the GBP pairs in the next few hours.

Currencies I’m watching right now for some possible set ups;

EUR/AUD
This pair is showing some signs of upside movement, watch this one closely as it can be a MOVER!

ALL JPY pairs
All the Yen crosses are showing some very nice break out movements so watch the trend and enter from the darma, there should be plenty of opportunity in these pairs.

USD/CHF
This one is showing some signs of some downside movement, keep an eye on it as it should produce some nice price action over the next 12-24 hours.

REMEMBER;
Because of the super range bound sideways markets we have seen all week we have some very important things to watch,
1. range bound markets create major support and resistant levels that should be watched for break outs.

2. Healthy movements usually follow range bound market conditions (or at least they seem like nice ones after 3 or 4 boring days).

3. We have to stay on our toes, the market waits for NO ONE!!! If we’re not looking for trades and ready when they present themselves then that’s NO BUENO! So just be prepared for those set ups and don’t be surprised when they happen.

That’s all for now, i will post details about making the auto pilot work best for you… tomorrow. Until then, sweet dreams and happy trading!

Jared J.

Happy Monday everyone, welcome to the first trading day of the week… YIPPEEE!! In examining the charts and looking at key levels I have discovered that we have SEVERAL great trading possibilities setting up!! Lets get to it,

EUR/JPY
As of this writing the EUR/JPY is sitting at 161.48′ish with a nice downtrend supporting a continued downward movement. Now you have to be careful with any currencies that involve the JPY because they can be a little unpredictable. But this EUR/JPY is looking like a break of about 161.20 will allow for PLENTY of room for a movement down to about the 159.00 level give or take. So keep an eye on that one, it looks like a possible break could be in sight for the next few hours if its going to happen.

EUR/GBP
As of this writing the EUR/GBP is at approx 0.7875, this pair has two very possible options of where it could go- UP or DOWN!! OK but really, there is a major support level at about 0.7967 (just about 10 pips below its current position) and if broken it leaves a lot of room for a downside movement. However in looking at the day chart it looks like we might be starring at a inverted head and shoulders patters (basically a pattern that indicates a major change in trend). So the market is right at a decision point, a drop of 15 pips could signal another major downward movement. On the other hand that quasi inverted head and shoulders pattern could be telling us that the market is heading straight up. Thus the decision point, watch this one carefully because with a break of this lower lever we could see a great move down.

EUR/USD
By now you should notice that the Euro is involved in all the pairs mentioned, the Euro and Dollar are on top of most analysts list of currencies to watch although many are slip on what could be happening in the near future. So here’s what I’m looking at on the EUR/USD, I’m still short on the E/U but i’m watching price action closely and I’m ready for anything. The market is currently hovering around 1.4680 with a strong level of support just below it by about 20 pips, about 1.4660. As to what this pair might do, we must wait and see but with these levels to watch we should have a GOOD idea of what its going to do. Watch for the level to be broken on the downside, or for a crossover and darma support for the topside.

That’s all for now,
I’ll be back with more soon!