GBP/USD and USD/CHF Trades

Took two trade signals last night/this morning. One was on the GBP/USD which I hesitated to take because of the interest statement due out tomorrow, but the pair has moved so little in the past week I didn't want to miss a breakout on the 1 Hour chart. The first signal was a long which was quickly exited for a 47 pip loss. Then a short signal was taken... I decided to close out the trade at the end of the NY session today for a 72 pip profit instead of waiting for an exit signal as I don't want to get stuck in a "short squeeze" if the break of the 1 Hour support line was caused by traders exiting their positions before the Pound interest rate announcement and is not a real move to the downside by the Pound. In my opinion the price of the Pound is undervalued right now against most of the other currencies and if there's no rate cut tomorrow it will probably cause a big spike to the long side. I don't want to get stuck holding a short position if that happens.

The USD/CHF also generated a short signal that I took for a 10 pip loss, then a few hours later generated a long signal which I took. I'm currently in that trade with a 20 pip profit. The target for this trade is 1.1185 which is the next major resistance level on the 1 Hour chart.

So, even with the two losing trades to start the day, I'm currently in profit for the day by 15 pips, maybe more depending on how the USD/CHF trade turns out. I'll post the results of the trade here on the Forex Profit Monster blog once it runs its course.

Tomorrow is a big news day with interest rate announcements and Trichet and Bernanke scheduled to speak, so I don't expect to take any trades tomorrow, but will be monitoring the trade that I have open.

Current "realized profits" for the month of January... +500 pips.

For more information about the Forex Profit Monster System, visit the website at http://www.forexprofitmonster.com/.

Jim

http://www.forexprofitmonster.com/

Big News Day Means Day Off For Me

I don't trade daily news being a technical analysis trader and trend follower, so I usually avoid trading around Non-Farm Payroll and other big news. I keep up with fundamentals, but only as to how they may affect the overall picture. That means today was a "day off" for me... translate "day off" to mean I actually got more than a few hours of sleep :-)

No trades currently open after closing out the EUR/JPY short, but it looks like plenty of opportunity on the horizon. Because of a combination of trading volume being down as people return from the holidays this week and the Unemployment and Non-Farm Payroll news being released today, many of the currency pairs have been trading in a range over the past couple of days. This is excellent news if you are a short term trend follower on the 1 Hour chart like I am... it means we should see some nice breakouts early next week on Monday or Tuesday.

With the employment news on the USD coming out weak today and the unemployment rate trending higher, it looks like the small amount of strength we've seen from the U.S. Dollar recently will be fading in the near term. The Great Britian Pound got some good news today on the Services PMI and mortgage news (!). I'll probably be watching for a breakout signal back to the upside on the GBP/USD after today's news... but with the interest rate decision due out on the Pound next Thursday any moves during the early part of the week will probably be quickly muted. Of course any of this is just speculation and as always I will let the market (and Forex Profit Monster) tell me what price is doing.

That's it for today... have a great weekend and as always, good trading!

Jim
http://www.forexprofitmonster.com/