Without a doubt, one of the most important tools a Forex trader, or any other trader for that matter, has at their disposal is an economic calendar. This gives us the “heads up” as to what announcements are coming. Not only do they tell us what happens today, but they can tell us what is happening in the next few trading sessions, something that can tell you when you want to, or perhaps don’t want to, be involved in the financial markets.
In this trade, we have the GBP/CAD pair gapping lower at the open during the Asian Monday morning, and the traders in New Zealand and Australia have managed to push this pair below the 1.8750 level, and possibly even more importantly, the uptrend line. We are well below the 200 day exponential moving average, and therefore this goes with the longer-term trend. When I look at the one-hour chart, I can see that the gap has been tested a couple of times at the 1.8750 level, but I recognize that the gap extends a little bit above there. For the stop loss, I’m going to put it at the 1.88 handle. (Full disclosure: one of the drivers of the British pound lower is the fact that the polls over the weekend suggested that the “leave the European Union” sentiment is now the majority in the United Kingdom.” Because of this, I am selling with a stop loss at the 1.8810 level, just to put it slightly above the big figure. I do not set to take profit yet, simply because it’s hard to tell how this is going to play out but it looks as if we are going to continue the downward motion and pattern that we’ve seen for some time on the daily and for our charts. At this point in time, I suspect that the 1.85 level will be the first serious target.
Most traders don’t learn to trade before putting money at risk, which is truly unfortunate. This is because there are so many things to learn before becoming profitable that mitigating risk will be crucial. I know it sounds a bit cliché, but how can you expect to be profitable with real money, if you can’t be with fake money? The demo account, or simulated account, is one of the best ways to learn about the mechanics of the Forex markets, and to test out new systems. Unfortunately, most traders feel that demo trading is essentially a waste of time. I could not agree less, as demo trading gives you the opportunity to make mistakes without risking your money. Trading is hard enough as it is but trying to learn while throwing in extra emotions to the mix certainly isn’t going to help. The great thing about demo accounts is that most brokers will offer them, and you can keep them congruent to your live trading account.
Administrative, you can see that we clearly have a significant support level at the 78 handle in the AUD/JPY pair. Because of this, it appears that we have had several bounces from this level, and that’s what I’m basing this trade upon. With Nonfarm Payroll coming out in a little over 24 hours, I’m basically assuming that the market will be fairly straightforward. As a switch down to the one-hour chart, you can see that we formed a hammer 2 hours ago, and have broken cleanly above it. I’ve entered the market at 78.594, and I’m aiming for the 78.99, with the stop loss being a fresh new low in the form of the 78.15 level. Also, looking at the 4 hour chart it appears that we are trying to form a hammer which of course is a bullish sign. If we were able to break down below the 78 handle, that would actually have me reentering the market to the downside as it would be a significant breakdown. A couple hours into the trade we have formed a hammer on the 4-hour chart from the candle that we traded off of, and were forming something akin to a hammer on the next 4-hour candle. Because of this, things look good and therefore I’m willing to drag my stop loss to higher levels, just below the hammer that got me interested in the market in the first place. While this doesn’t guarantee a profitable trade, it takes off some of the risk. With fact, I moved my stop loss to the 78.25 level. Keep in mind that I may have to close out this trade before the Nonfarm Payroll number as there’s no need to have the volatility take you out of the market when you were initially making money.
In this video, I’m looking at the British pound on the 4-hour chart against the US dollar. You can see that we ended up forming a shooting star right at the gap from the beginning of the week, and that of course shows a significant amount of resistance. I’m going to go ahead and short this market, and put a stop loss just above the top of the shooting star on the 4-hour chart and the 1.3550 level. I’m going to aim for the 1.3150 level for the target. The 1.36 level is where the gap started, so instead of putting a stop loss there, I am being a little bit more aggressive. The trade actually went quite a bit in my favor for some time, but on the 30-minute chart you can see we have bounced drastically. Because of this, I feel that it’s probably time to place a stop loss with a little bit of profit lock then, as it seems like the volatility is going to continue to be very strong. I’m putting my stop loss at the 1.3355 level, as it is above the recent high formed on the short-term charts and of course the 61.8 Fibonacci retracement level. At this point in time, I feel it’s better to take a small profit than let this market turn back around on me. Typically, I have found that the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level been broken to the upside this shows that we’re going to do a complete retracement. Because of this, I allow that area to act as a last barrier and go to bed
In this trade, I’m looking at the CAD/JPY pair. We ended up forming a shooting star right at the 82 level on the hourly chart, and that of course is a fairly negative sign. We did perhaps overextend a little bit and as a result it looks like the 82 level is offering quite a bit of resistance as it had been so supportive in the past, a phenomenon known as “market memory.” Looking at this chart, I think we could get a little bit of a drop, as the oil charts don’t seem to be influencing the Canadian dollar moment. I put my stop loss at the 82.15 level to take advantage of the round figure, as it should offer quite a bit of resistance. I set might take profit level at the 81 handle, which would essentially fill the gap again from several sessions ago. I believe at the very least we should head to the 81.40 level.
In this particular trade, I’m looking at the natural gas markets as we have formed a hammer on the daily chart near the $2.75 level. This of course is a very bullish sign, and I also have a yellow area marked on the chart where I believe that there would be enough support and buyers could very well return. I entered the market based upon the top of the hammer being broken, and put a stop loss at $2.68, which is below the bottom of the hammer itself. At the entry, I put a take profit order at the $2.92 level. It’s late in the day, and that’s why I put the take profit order into the market, but I will more than likely try to go higher. You can see that the 50, the 100, and the 200 exponential moving averages are all moving in a nice uptrend and in the right direction. I do think that we make another attempt at $3 given enough time.
USD to CAD Trading Technical Analysis. The USD/CAD pair has been following a significant uptrend line for some time, and is sitting at the 1.30 level, an area that has been important on the longer-term charts. Because of this, I’m going to go ahead and enter the market, with a relatively tight stop. I am playing on a bit of a momentum bounce, but I recognize that tomorrow is Nonfarm Payroll Friday. On top of everything else, we also get Canadian employment numbers coming out during the day on Friday. So with this, I’m going to go ahead and start to trade, buying at 1.3016, with a stop loss at the 1.2913 level. I’m going to go ahead and aim for roughly 1.33. I recognize that the jobs number coming out of both countries will make this very volatile, but I am willing to make this trade, with a small stop loss due to the fact that this level has been so important over the longer term.
In this trade, I’m looking at the GBP/JPY pair. With the UK voting on whether or not to stay in the EU coming up shortly, there is a lot of volatility in the British pound overall. There’s a bit of negativity due to the fact that a lot of the exit polls are starting to show that the British may actually leave, and of course the Japanese yen represents one of the safest currencies in the Forex markets. At this point in time, I can’t think of a better divergence of attitude. Because of this, I believe that the longer-term trend should continue to go lower and when I look at the 4 hour chart I can see that we formed a shooting star at roughly 151.20, and as a result I will use 151.30 as a stop loss. After all, we have broken down below the bottom the shooting star which is a very negative sign, and with that I believe that the longer-term downtrend will continue. 150 could cause a little bit of noise, but we have run below there before so I feel that the market should break down below there. At the beginning, I had no take profit, simply because it’s with the longer-term trend and I think we could really start to move. When I woke up the next day, you can see that we fell apart quite drastically, and we’ve made a massive move lower. We are getting ready to make a fresh, new low on the charts, and looking at the weekly chart I think that we will probably try to target the 145 handle although there is a bit of noise just below here. Because of this, I then drag the stop loss down to the 148.15 level, as it is protected by a large round number, and of course lots in some profit behind the previous noise.
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