Top trade of the week

The US Central Bank confirmed last week that they will hike interest rates in December and 3 more hikes in 2019 on the basis that the US economy stays on track.

Crude Oil plunged by over 6% last week making it the fourth consecutive weekly loss.

The US stock markets continued its downward descent last week as the S&P 500 in the US fell to 2626 from a high of 2945 in September 2018.

The GBP is being driven by POLITICAL NEWS only at the moment.

The S&P500 fell by over 6% last week with many traders taking a big chunk of profit from the markets.

Last week the sterling hit a 3 month high against the US dollar on the back of comments from the European Union that a divorce deal is close.

With new sanctions on Iran coming into effect in November, concerns are growing that there will have a major supply issue by the end of the year.

The EURUSD pair is stuck in a BIG range between 1.13 and 1.1850 (BLUE Lines).
Within this range we have a smaller one between 1.1525 and 1.1735 (RED Lines).

Stock markets continue to hit new highs regardless of ongoing bad news.
The S&P as moved above 2900 giving it a return of over 12% since February this year. Can it keep going?

Donald Trump wants a weak US dollar. The FED is strengthening the dollar through increasing interest rates in the USA. Two opposing views and objectives.

Gold dropped to its lowest level since December 2016 to $1,160.16 on the back of a surging US Dollar. The correlation between gold and the US Dollar is in full play here.

The Euro crashed to one a year low on Monday driven by a collapse in the Turkish Lira.

GBPUSD has broken the 1.30 level hitting a low of 1.2952 in early morning trading.

Facebook shares dropped by over 20% last Wednesday due to a revenue miss and a future outlook of higher costs and a further slowdown in profits.

The EURUSD pair has been stuck in a 100 pip range for about 3 weeks now and it is only a matter of time before it breaks out one way or the other.

Two high profile resignations, an 82 page “white paper” and a blessing from Angela Merkel makes a Brexit agreement more likely to happen soon.

The British pound continues to rise even though Theresa May’s chief Brexit negotiator David Davis has resigned. The euro sceptics in her cabinet are not happy with what they see as a “weak” Brexit plan that she is pushing.

The price of oil surged from $65.64 to $69.07 on Friday after OPEC members agreed to supply the markets an additional 700k barrels of oil a day.

Mario Draghi, the head of the ECB, killed the euro last week.
He has been responsible for pumping trillions into the Eurozone over the last 10 years in an attempt to stimulate growth and what has he got for his efforts? Very little!

The rand continues to weaken against the US dollar touching $13.28 on Friday, its lowest level since December 18.

The EURUSD pair was just a few pips short of 1.150, last week. All the signs point to the pair heading much lower over the next few months, with a few unknowns along the way.

Oil plunged last week after both Saudi Arabia and Russia indicated that they will increase the supply of oil to the market in the second half of 2018.

The EURUSD fell further last week as the downward trend looks to push the price closer to the 1.1550 level. The temporary pullback the previous week did not last long as traders stick with the bearish view resulting in a 5-month price low for the pair.

The US stock market (the S&P) rose by 2.4% last week to 2728 offering a decent buy trade for those tuned in to what moves the markets.

The EURUSD has dropped by approximately 400 pips over the last two weeks (1.23 to 1.19). After a decade of zero interest rates, money printing and corporate bond purchases, the most recent inflation rate in the Eurozone is still only paltry a 1.2%.

Economic data from the UK continues to deteriorate with a weak preliminary GDP number last Thursday of 0.1% (expected 0.3%).

The GBPUSD pair fell by over 350 pips last week due to weak UK economic data which reduced the likelihood of a rate rise next month.

Crude Oil hit its highest level since December 2014 last week to $67.62 a barrel on the back of the USA threatening to bomb Syria and the actual follow through on this threat happening on Friday night (13th April) with the participation of the UK and France.

GBPUSD buyers profited from a weak US employment number on Friday. New jobs created for the month of March were expected to come in at 188,000 but instead came in at a paltry 103,000.

We had the long awaited FOMC meeting in the USA last Wednesday. The FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meets eight times a year and they decide on what action they will take to maintain a strong economy.

From a technical perspective, there is nothing more gratifying then watching the market play out repetitive technical analysis formations. To many people who are first exposed to traditional technical analysis many questions arise to its validity.

All of the major crypto currencies crashed last week offering sellers some of the best trading opportunities available the markets.

The most important ingredients to a great trading opportunity is VOLATILITY & LIQUIDITY. Volatility is defined as the increase or decrease of a symbol over a specific time-period and liquidity is defined as the degree of availability to which a symbol can be bought or sold.

Reading the tape (THE PRICE ACTION) is one of the most important tools in anticipating future movement in the markets. The concepts behind setting up Support & Resistance lines is for the purpose of giving a trader the potential pivot points to where a symbol can either bounce off or break through.

The Dollar rose boosted by a fall in the Euro. Month, quarter and year-end (Japan) factors forced traders to buy back their short Dollar positions. 

Last week we had a bloodbath on the stock markets and I could have picked any of the major stock indices (DOW, FTSE, DAX. S&P, Nikkei) as the trade of the week.

Last week we experienced a historical moment when the Dow Jones Industrial plummeted over 750 points!!!! This great trading opportunity was in the making for a few days prior to the major event of last Friday.

Our clients know that our mantra is “A prepared trader is a profitable trader”, that said our clients witnessed firsthand after joining our “Make Me a Trader Course” how to take advantage of news events to their favor and profit from it.

Friday the 12th of January saw a surge in the GBPUSD forex pair with a 200+ pip move, reaching its highest level since June 2016.

Markets were closed across the board on New Year’s day. When they re-opened on Tuesday we saw a big move to the upside in gold from about $1,306 to $1,318. Gold continued its fine form and had been pushing upwards for over 2 weeks up to this point.