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    Picture of Pierre Charlebois
    FXStreet.com blogger

    Pierre Charlebois is one of Trading Post's Senior Trading Coaches and also serves as an Advisor with the GTC Group.

    He has a no-nonsense technical approach and uses several disciplines including Elliott Wave Theory, Candlestick Formation and Pattern Recognition in his teaching and swing trading.

    Picture of Marius Alexe

    Marius Alexe is president and CEO of Phincorp Capital Markets and has accumulated 14 years experience as a Forex analyst and trader.

    He utilizes the Elliott Wave Principle and Dow Theory to formulate his analysis. Marius is also a Derivatives Market Specialist with the Canadian Securities Institute and a Chartered Market Technician with the Markets Technicians Association.

May 2008

How trader emotion moves the EUR/USD & How to read it

Friday, May 9, 2008

Logic moves the markets, right? Supply and demand, economics and market forces are  at the cause of market movement; right? That is certainly one school of thought, however most technical annalist would tell you (myself included) that it is emotion that moves the market. The combined emotional state of the group of traders buying and selling. And that this very emotion is often very identifiable by the patterns that develop on the charts of all traded securities. Trader's emotions reveal themselves in patterns and if we study hard enough, we can learn to recognize the patterns unfolding and therefore what patterns are to follow.

Case in point this week is on the EUR/USD. I was explaining to a group of traders that I mentor that the ending diagonal that formed last week was in itself an identifiable frame where traders where in a particular state of emotion. And that the reversal signalled a change in emotion. Recognizing this helps us a great deal in speculating on where we can target a move to stall or retrace. If we look at the EUR/USD on the daily chart we can speculate that the ending diagonal is a state of emotion that is being countered by the correction that followed. So based on this, it is reasonable to anticipate a stall or re-tracement at or near the point where the previous pattern started to develop.

There are many indicators pointing right at that place now; the barrier where the diagonal began, a doji with a long tail and several standard oscillators signalling an oversold condition. In other-words we are hitting a balance now between the two opposing emotional forces.

EURJPY May 9, 08 (2)

How far the re-tracement goes or whether it fully reverses the downward move now requires good technical annalisys. What could be the emotional state of the traders next week? Here are the points we need to ponder that caused the initial reversal.

1. The EUR/USD was highly overbought for an extended period prior to the reversal.

2. Ending Diagonals typically form at the 'END' of moves that are extended.

3. The trader sentiment has turned strongly in favour of the USD.

4. There is still a large technical void down to any meaningful diagonal trend-lines.

Based on the the above, my bias is for the the EUR/USD to see lower numbers in the medium term. So I expect any move up to be corrective and that after a brief period of EURO strength the downward move will likely resume targeting the lower trend-lines. In Elliott Wave terms this move would be labelled as 'A' or as '1' for the first leg down which now appears complete. What is to follow will help determine where the trader's emotions are headed and will reveal more about how we should be counting this going forward. The next move should help reveal what patterns are likely to follow. As always, I remain open to being wrong as the most important thing all technical traders must learn is where they shouldn't be in a trade rather than where they should.

EURJPY May 9, 08

In summary, look for a re-tracement next week to be followed with renewed downward pressure.

Good trading;

Pierre Charlebois

USD Index - Forex Technical Analysis Video - May 8, 2008

Thursday, May 8, 2008

In this week's forex training video for May 8, Marius from Phincorp Capital Markets reflects on his thoughts from last week's US Dollar Index analysis.

If you liked this analysis, check out Phincorp's Trading Signals, which was made to assist traders in their day-to-day trading.

Is the JPY due to strengthen?

Friday, May 2, 2008

I was studying the EUR/JPY this week and I drew a trend-line across the tops. At that moment it struck me that a trend-line across the bottom presented the possibility that a large triangle has been forming since August of last year.  The wave structure through the triangle is not ideal (and we know this is usually the case), however the patterns do represent a reasonable possibility. (Remember a proper triangle should have 5 moves of three and then continue in the previous trend direction). And even if the triangle scenario is incorrect the trend-lines are still valid and provide reasonable boundaries and  expectations. So I am trading this pattern expecting downward action over the next couple of weeks.

EURJPY May 2, 08

What the problem is now of course is weather the top boundary is within a reasonable risk tolerance for your trading. Having a stop loss of several hundred pips is truly not recommended, so what do we do now.

I believe there are two options. Simply let this move go by and keep this pair on your watch list for a buy when it appears we have bottomed near the lower  trend line. Or watch the one hour chart for a retracement upward and a candlestick pattern that represents a reversal back down.

EURJPY May 2, 08 (2)

Good trading all and for my European readers, I trust you enjoyed a nice long weekend.

Pierre

pcharlebois@tradingpostfinancial.com

Currency Rollcall - Forex Technical Analysis Video - May 1, 2008

Thursday, May 1, 2008

In this week's forex training video, Marius Alexe from Phincorp Capital Markets looks at US Dollar Index for May 1, 2008.

Check out Phincorp's Trading Signals, which was made to assist traders in their day-to-day trading.