Technical Analysis “MM” Updates JPCitiGS – “USDJPY Possibly Setting Up for a Sharp Decline” 14th April14

Here the latest GS price technical chart report across the major asset markets.

Note their highest conviction current trade sets up are the audusd for aud weakness and the next highest conviction is the usdjpy for more jpy weakness down to the 99 level and this goes down to the 94 level hence the call that the pair could be setting up for a big JPY strengthening move.

They are even weight eurusd and lack conviction on the pair. Top down until the ECB produce some policy action the bias is to a strengthening move though equity weakness should see some usd flows so an even weight looks correct to me on the near term.

gs-tech-12-4-14

And here the latest Fitzpatrick report from CitiB.

Citi-mmwkly-12-4-14

Now its worth noting here that both Fitzpatrick and the guys at UBS are both now bullish the Nikkie225 and the USD vs JPY. Both have been wrong the last few weeks however with the bounce in the Nikkie being shallower than the UBS team had hoped for and the sell off a little stronger than they had thought probable. Fitzpatrick put 40% of his fund on the trade allocation long the usd vs the jpy. Both are badly under water and both very close now to his stops. Lets see. It would be an expensive loss for him but as the stop at 99 and change, around GS’s target for their trade the battle lines on the pair are clearly drawn for us. Participants would take the Nikkei breakdown below 13900 or so and 99.5 or so USDJPY as a very bearish indicator for wider risk assets.

Both instruments are also exposures for my own book. I was short the usdjpy from 104 and short the Nikkie from 15000.  The entries were good but i usually like to take the trend forming trades. Ideally Id like these to run so the 99.5 sort of level is important for me also to watch here. It is possible i water down the trades to bank some of the profit. Ill be driven by US indexes in the main due to the high degree of correlation.

Fitzpatrick remains ultra bullish soft commodities.

Which brings us to the latest JP FX weekly report here on the major pairs.

JPM-fxwkly-11-4-14

They are targeting 106 usdjpy in the medium term but for the immediate 100. These are the levels across the major speculators at present. Eurusd they have increased their eurusd targets to 1.36 which is lagging the euros move. The inaction by the ecb and nothing on the horizon to suggest a move in spite of the latest 0.5% inflation reading is making the euro the Neo-Deutschmark mark, for now. A higher eurusd is likely to be used as a pressure lever by fx speculators to help produce action from the Ecb. I wouldn’t bet too hard against that move as generally its better to bet with the market on issues like that one. Its in everyone’s interest to see a strong euro at present, apart from Europe. But Europe is toothless to fight the appreciation for now. As soon as this correction subsides the euro should see more buyers, policy aside, but we could see some dollar flight in the near term due to equity weakness especially as the usd index is at her price support as this tech report from jp states. If the support goes, it will be golden, of course.

JP-FXtechstrat-11-4-14

Will this week provide a reversal in equity markets as supports come into line of sight. Lets see. UBS have the 1800 mark as a worse case so expect an intraday move to 1785 in that case to catch the stops.

Nasdaq looks more meaningful with a surge in volatility and nq option volumes. Anyway much more to come.

The problem I’m finding with spending the warmer months in Ibiza is that there are a considerable number of beautiful distractions here. There is a large well heeled expat community that are very active and enjoy life very much. Although i’m not complaining, its lead to a few time pressures today so my larger update has been delayed until tomorrow. Apologies but the wait will be worth it i hope.

All the best for now.

Rich

Technical Analysis Update – CapSyn,AG “Timber” 11th April14

I have a stack as high as me of reports I’d like to run through but I’m afraid the weekend will have to be the time to run through all the positional changes, top down perspectives as well as technical strategy and near term tactics. The markets are moving and price trends are finally providing clear confirmation on both near term and now medium term charts of the what the technical indicators have been suggesting for some time.

There was no excuse not to position for this move. How far she runs on I cannot say as yet. UBS cyclical models suggest a big bounce into the summer shortly, so long as their key levels hold. I have no such expectation. Its certainly possible of course and policy action by the ECB or BOC could well drive that move but its also very possible to me that we have already seen the year’s high in many indexes!

Seasonality wise we are getting close to the end of the tail winds and fast approaching the seasonal headwinds.

I’ll save more comment for the weekend. The wild cards at present are 1) the US$ index which is at or close to key supports (I’m long US$ here) and alongside this 2) the bond markets &  3) the commodity asset markets ( I remain long oil (not a high conviction yet), with good profit and long the bullion, expecting the commodity index 200dma to soon give way to the upside. Gold and silver are lagging the cci but this is a mis price opportunity in my view. The 200 dma on gold, around the $1500 mark, is likely to be revisited soon which would be a decent trading move.

These three are the wild card major asset markets in my mind which i don’t have as higher conviction level as on the equity weakness moves.

Nikkie and JPY wise my positions have played out to the letter from the end of last week. Short the Nikkie from 15000 and short the JPY from the 1.04 level. Both levels held and the move has been hard and fast since. The Nikkei stands at the key support here and so some chop to catch those late to the trade could well occur but the level looks in great danger to me, to the downside.

Trading practice comment.

Option puts were indeed the low stress way to play this from a hedge or out right short perspective. They allow you the trader to stand back and play technical weakness issues and indicators with a limited downside without the margin implications of using futures contracts. They are the perfect hedging vehicle for large books of assets. Occasionally they provide asymmetric returns but that is very much a professional strategy and very easy for non professionals to lose capital on. Given the contango in US index futures short selling index etfs have also been a reasonable way to play for weakness. The dividend yield on US index etfs like the nq is nearly zero and much less than the contango in futures lots. Your account is also cash credited if you sell short these instruments. As a general comment private investors dwell on entry techniques. They forget to invest some time to instruments and this is a great error. Different market tools exist for a reason. The reason is that each tool has a purpose and special function. Matching the correct tool to the correct moment in the market is a part of the discipline of investing and trading. I’d suggest devoting some time to this instrument issue if you lack knowledge currently.

I wonder if our Italian reader’s took some profit on the ftse mib index? In hindsight, it was timely call to take profit on that index.

To the latest AG report with the title line “timber” which, for equities, at least, is a good line to steal.

AG-mmwkly-11-4-14

More over the weekend.

All the best

Rich

 

Cross Asset Weekly Technical Analysis – “Target April Low 1800” 8th April14

The Swiss team provide their regular insightful comments here below.

They are looking for an end of April, worst case move for the S&P500 to the 1800 area of the chart. They reiterate that, so long as the 1737 area holds, they remain bullish into summer for a 1920 to 1970 target.

They remain bullish the Nikkei, post the end of April low and also EM indexes and also Gold and the Euro.

Lets pick up the various technical issues inc sectoral issues on the forum.

Without any more delay here their report

wklytech-8-4-14

All the best

Rich

 

 

Cross Asset Technical Strategy & Tactics – JP,AG,Citi,CS – 6th April14

Its Sunday so time for another update from the usual professional market commentators.

Friday saw some fast price action and mirrors what we have seen consecutively for the last 4 or so Friday’s.  Market participants continue to appear very reluctant to hold positions over the weekend and this is usually a sign of a very shaky bull market. It was a week however which saw new all time highs for the Sp500 and new cyclical trend highs for the IBEX35 and the FTSE MIB. It remains a market high on leverage and low on hedges. We have, in summary, a nervous yet un- hedged set of market participants with correlations between instruments, sectors and indexes starting to break down. There is much to say here but Id like to not rush this and come back to this tomorrow with a more detailed CapSyn run through.

First up, from the market gurus, lets see Fitzpatrick’s latest report here:

citi-mmwkly-5-4-14

To be fair to Fitzpatrick this report was written on Thursday last week. Thursday saw the sp500 achieve new record highs putting gold and oil under pressure and rates higher. I think Fitzpatrick is in danger of being whip sawed by the market’s moves which is common to many participants actively engaged.  I see 40% of his fund is allocated to short the jpy. Its possible of course he is correct but for my own practice, as i commented at the time, that the 104 level usdjpy and the nikkei224 15000 level was a twin of challenges that tactically could be traded for a reversal rather than a continuation. Whether this short term tactical trade can run and become something more will be down to all the cross correlated instruments. I look forward to hearing from Fitzpatrick next Thursday for a more insightful update on asset markets as I expect some medium term clarity to emerge now across asset markets.

Here the CS wealth weekly strategy and allocations:

cs-mmwkly-4-4-14

And below here is the AG report. I greatly appreciate the AG team’s views and comments.

They nicely supplement the UBS work, albeit without the cyclical models. As I’m a little skeptical on adding much weight to cyclical models other than seasonal bias and election cycles this isn’t much of handicap, in my mind.

Here the latest AG report which is pure technical analysis chart and price composition of the major asset markets. This week the technology sector “blew a fuzz” so AG take a number of the leaders and show us their charts. Whatever occurs from here (and there is plenty of technical evidence of long term weakness) volatility has greatly increased. Increased volatility means more hedging. So whatever happens in the near term, unless we get a very fast reversal of Friday’s action we should see more weakness if only its participant re-balancing of leverage and hedges.

AG-mmwkly-4-4-14

FX wise, the euro appears to be in the process of ending her low momentum bull run vs the US$. If correct, this event would also support a step up in volatility as the US$ is still the world’s main funding currency.

Here MS with their latest weekly:

ms-fxwkly-4-4-14

And here the daily technical strategy doc from JP on Friday:

jp-fxtechstrat-4-4-14

And here CS with their FX daily:

cs-fxdaily-4-4-14

All the best

Rich

FX Strat & Technical Analysis + Italy, MIB Update – HSBC,CS,SC,CB,Nomura, BNP,Yardeni, Scotia, 4th April14

For the first time in quite some time we got yet more dovish words from the ECB and hawkish, no action again. Yet, this time, rather than the euro rallying the lack of action did not price support the euro. This is interesting and possibly meaningful price action.

“QE was discussed” was about as dovish as the language got as inflation sunk to 0.5% for the euro zone on the latest reading. Several countries including Spain have deflation at present in absolute nominal yearly terms. No longer month to month. Clearly deflation is worsening not improving. From a top down macro approach can anyone be surprised. The European banks are contracting credit to the private sector. Public deficits continue but are contracting in relative terms and in many cases nominal terms. Whats more the ECB is contracting her balance sheet whilst all other “DM” central banks either expand or hold, at elevated levels, their balance sheets. The ECB is the odd one out against a back drop of the weakest growth. Neo Keynesians would expect to see the reverse.

Technically speaking we have fading momentum in the euro vs the usd. Professional participants are positioned even on the pair which is bearish, from a contrarian perspective, given the technical weakness. Ie she has room to run here. Overall positions from large and small speculators were long euro so this again, from a contrarian perspective is bearish euro. Macro top down its easy to see why participants are overall long the euro given the tight monetary stance of the ECB but given the momentum divergence and failure to breakout she is short term susceptible and targeting the 1.36 level in the short term. Any news flow bearish the euro will create a large move. The Citi, Fitzpatrick comments re the narrowing of the spread in the 10yr bond curve between member states is also very critical. It has no room to run anymore and historically this normally leads to euro weakness as the spread between the real economy is significant and not narrow at all!

For my own book I have been positioning for euro weakness and hold short euro positions and no euro denominated long equity positions at present. (Euro gold looks a good buy to me).

Anyway i’ll cut to the reports:

Here by way of useful macro back ground a report issued just now from Yardeni on the latest central bank balance sheets:

Yardeni-centralbanks-4-4-14

We can clearly see the tight monetary stance of the ECB vs her peers. It is a tight stance in a tight banking regulatory framework within a banking system with low reserves and toxic paper still on balance sheets. No wonder that euro private credit is the loser in this environment. All banking capital is employed lending to the public sector which continues to expand as a % to GDP. The French public sector is now 57% of GDP. I wonder at what point we call a country a centrally planned democratic economy? France must be there or very close now. The trend across Europe, Germany aside, is not positive. Germany is the pillar of strength. Her share of Euro GDP expands relatively year on year as it has done for the last 5 years.

Here CS on the overnight macro strat report :

CS-MMDailystrat-4-4-14

Here the CS team’s daily FX strat from today:

cs-fxdaily-4-4-14

Here Scotia overnight on the fx related news flow:

scotia-fx-4-414

Here HSBC with their regular weekly take on the FX pairs and markets:

HSBC-fxwkly-2-4-14

And here SC with their weekly take on the fx pairs from last week:

SC-fxstrat-25-3-14

And here CommerzB with their macro fx strat views released today:

commerz-fx-4-4-14

And more tactically now..

Here Citi today:

citi-fx-4-4-14

And here is Nomura with some charts and levels on two key pairs:

Eurusd

Nom-eurusd-4-4-14

And here the USDJPY (key level of 104 combining nicely with possible equity weakness around the 15000 level nikkei225).

nom-usdjpy-4-4-14

Equity market wise although the sp500 has achieved a margin higher higher again, market breadth has not confirmed, great divergence to momentum and the russel and the nasdaq non confirm and show weakness. Euro Autos aside the euro sectors don’t confirm either. Its a tricky trading environment this here post the mid feb levels.

The Italian equity index has been on fire recently to the upside with a+15% move in the last 3 months.

In the last year from mid April 2013 she is up +42%.

From mid April 2012 to mid April 2013 she was up +22%

If you have been long Italian stocks in the last 2 years or so congratulations as you have out performed most world equity markets.

Here BNP Focus Italy with their latest report:

BNP-italy-02-4-14

If you are still long its worth noting that the spread to 200 dma is the largest its been in a bull trend since 2006 and in addition the historic correlation to the ibex 35 is very constant over long periods of time.

The spread has decompressed at present. Will the ibex play catch up to the upside and out perform the MIB or will the Mib now move to the mean again in the coming months and possibly decline in nominal terms? I suspect the later, unless the ECB acts meaningfully, which i now doubt!  Overall, for holders of Italian equities, top down and bottom up id be very cautious looking for an extension to the upside here. Part of the recent moves have been abouit short covering more than active long investment into the Italian market. Here Markit on the subject:

Markit-italy-12-13

And here the spread of Italian to German 10 yr bonds.

Very limited upside and plenty of downside risk here. As Citi Bank’s Chief Analyst, Fitzpatrick commented a week ago in his report released here, we have seen this before!

Anyway I leave it there. Have a great weekend team. Many reports over the weekend as usual.

All the best

Rich

 

 

 

 

 

Commodities Update – CS,DB,BC – 02nd April14

Commodities remain the best performing asset class for 2014.

Its noteworthy that hedge funds have recorded a poor quarter’s performance but especially in the last month.

To the long side, stocks tracked by Deutsche Bank AG with the highest concentration of hedge fund ownership were down 4.5 percent from March 7 through last week.

To the short side, Goldman Sachs Group Inc measure of hedge funds’ favorite stocks to bet against has risen almost 3 percent this year.

On both sides of the bargain the hedge funds have struggled ‘chart chaos’ as AG called it last week sets in to confuse the market’s pro participants.

In the mean time, the CRB Index from the 10th of January 2014 to the 31st of March is up 11% as the market’s 2013 worse performer becomes her top performer in the quarter.

Cycle wise commodities are usually late cycle performers and so five years into this bull market we should not be surprised to see commodities perform here.

The detail within the commodity recent run up is more complex however as its appears a monetary asset class demand rather than economic demand that is driving prices to move again, unlike the economic metals demand we saw in 2004 to 2007.

Monetary demand for commodities can be much more powerful a bull trend creator than economic demand. Let me please take you back to 2007 and compare the Dow Jones index to the oil prices, as an example.

Never forget what occurred here top down as it was top down that drive prices in either direction not and issue of bottom up supply and demand.

The Dow Jones Index topped out as earnings began to drift and the economic data struggled. The Fed responded by slashing interest rates. They sought to arrest the economic malaise by encouraging even more liquidity into the system. They succeeded as interest rates went to zero but far from the additional liquidity reaching the man in the street and transmission into lower rates the hot money went into speculation and commodities as the ultimate end cycle monetary safe heaven. Oil surged by approximately 50% over the period whereas the Dow index collapsed by around 50%.

The two asset markets were almost perfectly inversely correlated! Participants algo hedging  systems went haywire for a time creating further stress on capital within the financial system.

This is all history but its worth brushing up on this recent price history as the mantra of easy monetary conditions lulls us into believing more is always better. History is littered with the evidence that ‘more’ eventually leads to unintended consequences. And these unintended consequences step outside of historic correlations. In a system of limitless leverage, a breakdown in correlations leads to systemic crisis.

From a distance it’s all very straight forward this and entirely brought about but political and central bank interventions. Will we ever learn? I doubt it, unfortunately, due entirely to vested interests.

As always the current situation across asset markets is ever so slightly different to the 2007 set up.

In 2007 economic indicators were starting to turn down as inflation turned up, globally. At present, deflation appears more the threat rather inflation as yields compress across the yield curve and asset world. The lack of supply of hedges for monetary debasement is clear but the inflationary ‘teeth’ to create the fever for needing this hedge is currently lacking. Technically price has moved but is it a corrective bounce or something more meaningful?

For my own book i lack conviction on the issue so its an allocation increase and a move to cover for a surprise by allocating to out of money options. But no more than this at present. The soft commodity price need to be watched and the contango, backwardation curves.

To the reports:

CS-Commodities-20-3-14

And here DB:

db-commod-1-4-14

And here BarCap

BC-commod-1-4-14

If we are on the verge of a commodity renaissance it seems more likely to be a monetary renaissance than a consequence of economic demand at present.

It is finally worth also recalling that historically geopolitical tensions leads to increased monetary demand. Historically if geo-poltical tensions then erupt in armed conflict this usually creates a super bull secular trend as you usually see the triple event of monetary debasement alongside war time commodity demand and supply interruption.

Wars are always create the very best price scenario for the commodities.

All the best

Rich

 

Cross Asset Weekly Technical Analysis – “Minor Top Later This Week” 1st April14

Its time again for the Swiss team’s regular weekly cross asset report.

We have continued price strength in the SP500 index and today’s price action has produced a close above the 1883 level producing a new all time record high for the index.

The team cover the eventuality by sighting the following:

“A break of 1883 would pave the way for an overshoot towards 1900”. But nonetheless they forecast no continuation of the new higher high price  momentum.

US Sector wise I’ll leave it to the team but they pick up the energy breakout that we have commented on in the forum. The technical breadth issues remain as does divergence on momentum and other price indicators.

I would add here that whilst sp500 new 52 week highs remains very weak, even on today’s close the sp500 stocks above their 200 dma is better and shows confirmation of the higher high! But I also want to add here that the sp500 is alone in this shred of technical confirmation. If I look at the DOW, Nasdaq, Nas100, Russell2000 and NYSE Composite I see also non confirmation across the board from 52 week highs as well as stocks above 200 dma within these indexes. The NYSE composite achieved a higher high today but the divergence was immense again and at a lower level than the prior high achieved. Ie weakness upon weakness as price breaks out.

The Japan sector comments are well placed and their is  bullish divergence  on various sectors which is constructive for the sectors concerned and the index. The usdjpy is key. If the 104 level can breached the Nikkie will see buyers.The issue re Japan is whether the entry long is now or post a near term dip.

The rest of the detail I’ll leave to the report here:

wklytech-1-4-14

All the best

Rich

 

 

 

Weekly Technical Analysis – AG,GS,CS,DB,Citi,BarCap,Yardeni – 1st April14

Of all the weekly reports that come through its the trio of the Citi, UBS and AG reports that I am drawn to.

I like the CS macro pulse and the GS weekly tech also the Barcap tech. There are many runners up in terms of analysis but top trio are standouts in my view.

Later today the Swiss team’s regular but here first a few reports inc AG’s and GS’s.

“Chart Madness”, yes. Note the AG chart of GS stock price, alongside the word’s “Keep trimming those winners, stay defensive, and “don’t get caught watching the paint dry.”

I agree with this theme. Recall that this group have only recently shifted toward a more bearish stance as of 3 weeks ago.Note also the energy sector’s breakout alongside the price support in oil and the relative recent strength in the commodities and theoretical price breakout of their charts alongside the euro weakness and deflation. In spite of the usual Monday surge in price (alongside the usual Friday weakness, as no participants wants to hold over the weekend nowadays) price is struggling to get over prior levels. The equity markets continue to display weakness though they have one great seasonal month ahead ie April.

Here AG

AG-28-3-14

And here GS

GS-Wklytech-28-3-14

And here Yardeni with a broader look at the CFTC positions:

Yardeni-mmcftc-28-3-14

And here DB with their CTFC comments and charts:

DB-CFTC-28-3-14

And here on the macro news flow over night from CS:

cs-gmpd-31-3-14

And here a useful report from Barcap on the seasonality issues:

Barcap-seasonaltech-28-3-14

and here Citi wealth with their mm weekly.

Citi-wealthmm-31-3-14

Note the perpetual optimism that European growth will finally deliver and save the day, much like the US corporate capex boom that has been forecast for the last 5 yrs but never comes.

Yes, I feel the optimism. I would like to position for this optimistic scenario but look at the macro micro data please Citi.

European PMIs are declining from Germany to Spain. European credit declines. European inflation is declining. Unemployment has not changed. If European growth is about to deliver consider from where it is to come. Given manufacturing is contracting from prior levels, credit is tightening and inflation is falling? The trio is not a trio for growth. Em issues continue. US domestic is weakening if the Russel and broader NYSE are any indicator. US housing remains very muted and consumer confidence is falling even as consumption has increased due to savings falling again.

America is often termed the land where “more” is always better. As a European i say “more” can be less and sometimes more can lead to complete self destruction. Learning that more can be less is one of life’s great lessons but it goes against the cultural history of America.

In terms of asset markets and liquidity, top down, there will inevitably come a day when ‘more’ will not lead to higher equity prices and house prices. Janet Yellen at the Fed according to her actions and statements disagrees.  I believe we are approaching this defining moment quickly now as yields compress to zero across the curve. More will be eventually result in less and eventually self destruction. And when this occurs the fallout from asset prices will be immense and likely be uncontrollable, for a while.

The following is too long for a bumper sticker but more relevant to society today than any bumper sticker I’ve seen:

“There is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. ( Ludwig von Mises)

The Swiss team later.

All the best

Rich

P.S. One other issue. In this world of 24/7 connection to the information highway we all have to find ways to switch off or else we will burn out and not perform. This is especially the case for finance professionals.

I recently found some time to read a book by:Chade-Meng Tan, Google employee #107. No irony intended but its a quick and easy read which you can squeeze in to your busy schedule. There is even an app on the subject though i do not recommend the app for obvious reasons. Take care out there guys.

Read more: Can meditation impact entrepreneurship and the world? Google’s happiness guru thinks so http://www.techinasia.com/can-meditation-impact-entrepreneurship-and-the-world-googles-happiness-guru-thinks-so/
Chade-Meng Tan, Google employee #107Read more: Can meditation impact entrepreneurship and the world? Google’s happiness guru thinks so http://www.techinasia.com/can-meditation-impact-entrepreneurship-and-the-world-googles-happiness-guru-thinks-so/
Chade-Meng Tan, Google employee #107Read more: Can meditation impact entrepreneurship and the world? Google’s happiness guru thinks so http://www.techinasia.com/can-meditation-impact-entrepreneurship-and-the-world-googles-happiness-gChade Meng Tan, Google Employee 107. No irony intended but its a quick and useful real. I see there is a app on the subject as well but i don’t recommend trying to use the app to relax for obvious reasons!

http://www.techinasia.com/can-meditation-impact-entrepreneurship-and-the-world-googles-happiness-guru-thinks-so/

Macro Econ, Trade & Equity Updates – CS,JP, 31st March14

Many reports here, playing catchup:

CS-USmacro-22-3-14

And here CS with their European views:

CS-euromacro-22-3-14

And here CS on the UK macro backdrop:

CS-UK-20-3-14

And here Cs on the EM macro issues:

Cs-EM-qtly-Q2

And here CS with their macro views..

CS-macro-29-3-14

And here CS macro quarterly update:

CS-Macro-qtly2

And here CS with their macro equity and macro trade views:

CS-macroequity-04-3-14

CS-Macrotrades-20-3-14

And here CS Wealth MM weekly:

CS-MMwkly-29-3-14

And hereon the credit markets:

CS-credit-20-3-14

And here belatedly (though many of the charts as they are there a week later, note):

cs-wklychart-20-3-14

And here JP Asia on equity themes:

JP-asia-23-3-14

And here again

jp-asia-27-3-14

And here again

jp-asia-28-3-14

And here specifically on the Asian banks. (Better nos from Chinese banks over night though it didn’t help the Shanghai Index, Nikkei bouncing but a long way from her highs).

JP-Asiabanks-26-3-14

Many many technical analysis reports to come later today.

Cheers Rich

FX Weekly Marco & Technical Analysis – 29th March14

The FX markets have been choppy and directionless in recent months and volumes (and profits) have been falling. Like equities we need some clear trends to emerge between the major fx pairs.

With great divergence between the dm nation’s economic progress (and inflation) it seems we are getting close to some new trends and it seems a reasonable probability that this is likely to include US$ strength.

The detail ill leave to the various teams. The recent strength of the euro move up caught many by surprise  but few of the major have adjusted their position aside from short term tactical changes.

Here the detail:

MS-fxwkly-20-3-14

And here JP with their most recent technical updates and trade alert rec.

jp-techstrat-28-3-14

jp-techtact-28-3-14

jp-techtrade-27-3-14

And here CS with their FX weekly:

CS-FXwkly-27-3-14

And here SC with their FX weekly from last week:

SC-FXstrat-18-3-14

And here CB with their FX weekly technical analysis perspectives

CB-FXwkly-27-3-14

And here a quick trade update from the Nomura tech team on the usdjpy:

NB-usdjpy-28-3-14

And here the usdcad trade idea from the NB team

NB-usdcad-28-3-14

And here is Scotia on the latest CFTC report technical weekly report:

SCotia-fxcftc-28-3-14

And here their friday tech wrap:

SCotia-fxcftc-28-3-14

And finally here citi again with their daily from Friday:

Citi-fx-28-3-14

If you are trading in the FX markets its near term trading whilst we sit within ranges for the moment. Until we get a clear macro move we have to be modest with targets. Its tempting to up deal size to maintain nominal margins but its a law of diminishing circles to do this and it also heaps more risk within this close quarter trading range. US$ strength looks the medium term conviction trade to me. JPY near term looking for strength to me given the 3 month distribution. Euro looking weak again due to the deflation/policy action move though whether this is still jaw boning is another matter. Eurusd has become a very tricky trade due to the dominant policy themes around the pair. (The Fitzpatrick analysis noted!). (April Seasonals positive Euro).

I still have a stack of macro and mm macro and technical trade reports to come towards the end of today.

All the best for now.

Rich

 

 

 

 

Weekly MM Update – Citi Fitzpatrick – 28th March14

I have a heap of 25 reports to load up this weekend so i will be posting those with some capsyn comments. Briefly though this just hit my electronic desk so i wanted to bring you the latest Fitzpatrick comments here below.

The comments are quite technical in nature but extremely insightful. Happy to pick up any technical matters on the forum as usual. The issue is the spread compression across the yield curve between euro sovereign debt. I would also add euro high yield spread to sovereign yields.  They are all uniformly flashing red not amber team. Ill leave the detail to Fitzpatrick below.

Markets send us constant feedback as to where they have a probability to move next. In the last 3 weeks price has added to weight of technical evidence that this bull market is in severe struggle mode.

I’m not a great advocate of chaos theory but i would just comment here that chaos can easily occur quickly here. Several issues are potentially combining here including historically high leverage levels combined with thin market volumes spread across a small number of concentrated market players. Once a turn in the markets creeps in to participant psychology the rush for the tiny exit could have severe knock on implications that no technical perspectives can predict with a high probability. I want to make very clear this is a warning folks not a prediction as yet but some key ingredients are in place.

Many reports to come in next 24hrs.

Here Citi:

citi-wklytech-28-3-14

All the best

Rich

 

 

Weekly Multi Market Technical Analysis – Citi Fitzpatrick 24th March14

Here below are the two latest reports from Fitzpatrick and his team at Citi.

He argues the strong dollar case along FI and divergent interest rate lines. Its a strong case and one which, interestingly, he doesn’t see negatively impacting gold.

Here is his latest weekly report:

citi-tech-20-3-14

And here Citi’s latest interim update with a buy recommendation on the US$ alongside Oil and Gold.

citi-bulletin-24-3-14

All the best

Rich