The main high impact news events of this morning and overnight concerns Markit Economics’ PMIs. The UK’s services PMI fell unexpectedly in December, the reading fell from 60 to 58.8, a six month low. Now whilst the accompanying narrative from Markit continued to bolster and cheer-lead the UK’s performance, the fact is that the data […]
German preliminary CPI, month on month, begins the news likely to impact on the markets on Monday, the last increase was by 0.2%, with the expectation that the December print will come in at a similar value. Thereafter, a raft of European services PMIs, courtesy of Markit Economics, dominates the morning session in terms of
Swing/trend analysis for week beginning Sunday January 5th 2014 Read More »
There were several data prints published on Friday morning concerning the UK economy that were extremely bullish. UK house prices have increased by circa 8.3% year on year according to one of the UK’s major lenders the Nationwide. Similarly mortgage lending came in just above the 70K for the month of December, a level not
You’re not alone if you’ve experienced real ‘down on yourself’ moments in trading. Thoughts of giving up, smashing up your monitors, dropping your laptop from the upstairs windows and watching it crash onto the concrete below, are all thoughts we’ve had from time to time and what’s worse, some of us have turned those thoughts
Thursday saw the main indices and the FX market spark into life after the holiday break. Many European markets sold off considerably in the USA afternoon session, despite the promising PMIs published by Markit Economics in the morning session, then followed by a promising USA manufacturing PMI. Similarly the selloff continued in the USA session
WTI oil crashes by 3% as USA and European markets sold off on Thursday Read More »
Markit Economics have published a raft of manufacturing PMIs overnight and early morning. China’s print indicated a stall, whilst Europe’s indicated a gain and therefore a recovery in the overall manufacturing sector. The UK’s PMI fell by close on a point, suggesting that the UK’s recent advance may have reached a high water mark. France’s
Markit Economics PMIs indicate positive manufacturing growth for the European region Read More »
There are several ‘walking on hot coals’ rituals that many novice traders appear determined to experiment with early on in their fledgling careers in order to prove (to themselves) their trading credentials. Attempting to pick the ‘tops and bottoms’ of swing trade price action appears to be one of the most prevalent trials we put
What is a trend in trading and why we make it hard to identify Read More »
As global markets closed for the year the DJIA finally broke through the critical psyche level of 16,500 to close at 16576. For ‘indices traders’ 2013 has provided spectacular results and very smooth swing-trends throughout the year, due in no small part to the continued QE programme that the Fed only began to taper from
As with many global indices the UK FTSE has benefitted from the loose monetary policies of countries such as the USA and Japan in 2013. The trillions of yen and dollars, pumped into the higher levels of finance at the very top of the food chain by way of monetary easing/asset purchase schemes, caused many
Many trend/swing traders will have been ‘caught short’ during the exponential rise of EUR/USD last Friday December 27th. With hindsight it’s quite straightforward to analyse and pinpoint the reasons for the move which saw the major currency pair gain up to circa 200 pips in a two hour window. Firstly, the Bundesbank head and member
