Regardless of whether you are trading equities, cryptos, currencies or futures, there are some analytic criteria which are very objective and others that are more subjective. Length of track record, police and reference checks, or strategy description are criteria which are black and white; you are either in a position to provide them or you

I know we all claim that the very nature of the FX market has been changed radically by the dominance of the Algos but in truth, there have been multiple periods over the last 3 decades when we have ‘enjoyed’ similar market conditions. The market has tended to move reasonable swiftly between levels and then

We have been analysing traders and allocating to them since 2004 and here are some of the conclusions that we have reached: Around 1:880 retail traders is worth considering. Not an overly impressive number but really not surprising when you think that the vast majority of retail traders have had no formal training in the

The great thing about being a sterling trader is that there is never any shortage of volatility. This week is going to be no exception with Friday’s meeting of the Tory party looming as the next big Brexit-based risk event. The party will be voting on the latest plan (if there is one that is!)

The short-term trend remains bearish but I feel that momentum is starting to wane and some short-sterling positioning may have gotten ahead of itself. There are a lot of trading sessions between now and October and many of the shorts will not have the patience to hang on. EUR/GBP is stuck in a broad .86/.89

Our proprietary analysis of online and social media sentiment in the major FX pairs shows a disparity between professional and non-professional traders. USD sentiment remains 50:50 with professional traders whilst the bears are clearly in charge at 32:68 amongst the retail trading community. Positioning data does not yet support the sentiment measure in either the

We shall have to wait until later today or early tomorrow to get more accurate information on how the EUR/USD positioning situation has changed over the last week but overall sentiment and ‘noise’ remains relatively muted. After a significant technical break I would expect to be reading much more bullish commentary but the market does

The Clinton email saga continues to impact on the FX market and USD/JPY is the proxy trade for betting on the election result. News that the FBI won’t be pursuing any further action against Hillary Clinton has caused USD/JPY to gap higher on the open, up to highs near 104.30 from a NY close on

I’m expecting a volatile day in USD/JPY ahead of the final weekend polls for the US election. From what I can gather, hedge funds are generally speaking still long of USD/JPY, especially the shorter-term players, and I suspect that they will start bailing out if we get below 102.50. There is still plenty of dip-buying

I’m quite comfortably short USD/JPY with a 100 pip stop above 106.00; if prices get there then I’m wrong. I’ve cut all of my long AUD positions against the USD and the crosses; I remain bullish but I’m not sure on the timing. Gold still looks bullish and EUR/AUD is surely a sell-on-rallies proposition but

I’m still long AUD/USD after buying the ‘dip’ at .7670 yesterday. I’m still comfortable with the position but will try and improve my average by hopefully picking the intraday ranges correctly. Interestingly Morgan Stanley have put out a very bearish strategy on the AUD/USD (“MS looking at short AUD/USD at .7670 on PULSE, sl .7750…target

There has been a lot of AUD and NZD bought in the last week and this mainly real-money demand is starting to have an impact. After last week’s moves in the GBP, we cannot rule out any sort of silly market gaps and I believe that the structural speculative shorts in AUD, NZD and CAD

From a technical perspective, I expect some 600-pip range trading on a medium-term basis roughly between 76.00 and 81.50; Flow wise, there has been a lot of noticeable buying from Japanese real money accounts of both the AUD and NZD in recent weeks; This pair is traditionally one of the favourite ‘risk-off’ plays but with

I know all of us old interbank market dinosaurs will be driving you crazy with our “I told you so’s”, but we did! Whether for regulatory, commercial or technical reasons, the very core of the FX market no longer exists; namely the hundreds of interbank traders who sat at their desks and provided pricing no

The precious metals, the JPY and the GBP have been the main sufferers at the hands of a bouncing USD with the CAD and NZD not far behind.  The EUR and AUD remain strong on the crosses but are also losing a bit of ground against the greenback. The prospect of a Trump presidency is looking

As you all well know, I’m an inveterate contrarian and this trait is currently on show through my short EUR/GBP play from Friday. Unfortunately I do not think that this is a good position and I’m exiting with a slightly bloody nose before I do any more damage. It seems to me that most traders

Analysts, economists and commentators have been having their say for weeks but what are professional traders thinking? BOJ: Short-term risk is still to the downside according to most surveyed, with an almost unanimous expectation that the BOJ will introduce its adjusted policy framework but will be light on policy changes. Perhaps a token 10bps cut,

There has been a perception in the Asian market for decades that the big Japanese corporates somehow had the inside rub on major policy shifts by the BoJ. The idea being that hedging amounts tended to increase or decrease significantly in the lead up to major meetings. Next week’s meeting is looming as a major