Author: FX_Trdr

Former Lebanese finance minister Mohammad Shatah was killed along with four others when a booby trapped car exploded in Beirut on Friday. Around 15 people were injured in the blast. He was on his way to former prime minister Saad Hariri’s residence to attend a meeting for an opposition conclave early next year. Shatah had also served as adviser to former prime minister Fouad Saniora

Zillow Inc. chief Spencer Rascoff on lessons learned at Goldman Sachs and why he passed on an M.B.A.

Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell for a second week and hit a 13-year low as mortgage rates rose due to a bond market sell-off following the Federal Reserve’s decision to pare its bond purchase stimulus in January. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, fell 6.3 percent to the lowest level since December 2000.

The judge overseeing Detroit’s historic bankruptcy case on Monday named a committee to represent interests of the unsecured creditors as the city prepares to submit a plan to the court to readjust its debt. “Its primary power… is to have a stronger voice than an individual creditor, while actively participating in the negotiation of a plan for the adjustment of the debtor’s financial obligations,” said a December 6 letter sent to all prospective committee members by the U.S.

2013.12.23 13:30 6:30AM ET | EURUSD Currency Pair

Here are the Pivot Points Levels with Support (S) and Resistance (R) for the EURUSD currency pair today. Price action is currently trading over the daily pivot point at the 1.36819 price level, according to data at 6:30 AM ET. The EURUSD high for the day has been 1.36944 while the low of day reached to 1.36665. The pair earlier today opened the Asian trading session slightly above the daily pivot and has trended modestly higher over the course of the day.

Daily Pivot Point: 1.36675
— S1 – 1.36266
— S2 – 1.35838
— S3 – 1.35429
— R1 – 1.37103
— R2 – 1.37512
— R3 – 1.37940

Weekly Pivot Points: EURUSD

Prices are currently trading under the weekly pivot point (1.3701) at time of writing after opening this week below the weekly pivot.

Weekly Pivot Point: 1.37016
— S1 – 1.35925
— S2 – 1.35154
— S3 – 1.34063
— R1 – 1.37787
— R2 – 1.38878
— R3 – 1.39649

By CountingPips.com – Forex Trading Apps & Currency Trade Tools

Disclaimer: Foreign Currency trading and trading on margin carries a high level of risk and volatility and can result in loss of part or all of your investment. All information and opinions contained do not constitute investment advice and accuracy of prices, charts, calculations cannot be guaranteed.

2013.12.23 13:30 6:30AM ET | USDJPY Currency Pair

Here are the Pivot Points Levels with Support (S) and Resistance (R) for the USDJPY currency pair today. Price action is currently trading under the daily pivot point at the 103.855 price level, according to data at 6:30 AM ET. The USDJPY high for the day has been 104.068 while the low of day reached to 103.844. The pair earlier today opened the Asian trading session below the daily pivot and has trended lower over the course of the day and dropping below the 104.00 exchange rate.

Daily Pivot Point: 104.179
— S1 – 103.733
— S2 – 103.402
— S3 – 102.956
— R1 – 104.510
— R2 – 104.956
— R3 – 105.287

Weekly Pivot Points: USDJPY

Prices are currently trading over the weekly pivot point at time of writing after opening the trading week above the pivot at 103.72.

Weekly Pivot Point: 103.727
— S1 – 102.830
— S2 – 101.595
— S3 – 100.698
— R1 – 104.962
— R2 – 105.859
— R3 – 107.094

By CountingPips.com – Forex Trading Apps & Currency Trade Tools

Disclaimer: Foreign Currency trading and trading on margin carries a high level of risk and volatility and can result in loss of part or all of your investment. All information and opinions contained do not constitute investment advice and accuracy of prices, charts, calculations cannot be guaranteed.

2013.12.23 13:30 6:30AM ET | USDCHF Currency Pair

Here are the Pivot Points Levels with Support (S) and Resistance (R) for the USDCHF currency pair today. Price action is currently trading under the daily pivot point at the 0.89579 price level, according to data at 6:30 AM ET. The USDCHF high for the day has been 0.89663 while the low of day reached to 0.89471. The pair earlier today opened the Asian trading session below the daily pivot and has trended mostly sideways as the day has progressed.

Daily Pivot Point: 0.89625
— S1 – 0.89248
— S2 – 0.88932
— S3 – 0.88555
— R1 – 0.89941
— R2 – 0.90318
— R3 – 0.90634

Weekly Pivot Points: USDCHF

Prices are currently trading over the weekly pivot point today after opening the trading week above the weekly pivot line.

Weekly Pivot Point: 0.89293
— S1 – 0.88584
— S2 – 0.87604
— S3 – 0.86895
— R1 – 0.90273
— R2 – 0.90982
— R3 – 0.91962

By CountingPips.com – Forex Trading Apps & Currency Trade Tools

Disclaimer: Foreign Currency trading and trading on margin carries a high level of risk and volatility and can result in loss of part or all of your investment. All information and opinions contained do not constitute investment advice and accuracy of prices, charts, calculations cannot be guaranteed.

2013.12.23 13:30 6:30AM ET | GBPUSD Currency Pair

Here are the Pivot Points Levels with Support (S) and Resistance (R) for the GBPUSD currency pair today. Price action is currently trading over the daily pivot point at the 1.63561 price level, according to data at 6:30 AM ET. The GBPUSD high for the day has been 1.63741 while the low of day reached to 1.63230. The pair earlier today opened the Asian trading session below the daily pivot and has trended higher over the course of the day with resistance being found at the R1 level.

Daily Pivot Point: 1.63444
— S1 – 1.62953
— S2 – 1.62655
— S3 – 1.62164
— R1 – 1.63742
— R2 – 1.64233
— R3 – 1.64531

Weekly Pivot Points: GBPUSD

Prices are currently trading slightly over the weekly pivot point after opening the trading week slightly below the weekly pivot.

Weekly Pivot Point: 1.63413
— S1 – 1.61992
— S2 – 1.60732
— S3 – 1.59311
— R1 – 1.64673
— R2 – 1.66094
— R3 – 1.67354

By CountingPips.com – Forex Trading Apps & Currency Trade Tools

Disclaimer: Foreign Currency trading and trading on margin carries a high level of risk and volatility and can result in loss of part or all of your investment. All information and opinions contained do not constitute investment advice and accuracy of prices, charts, calculations cannot be guaranteed.

By CountingPips.com

Large Specs bullish bets stood at $18.32 billion before last week’s Fed meeting

The latest data for the weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday, showed that large futures traders and speculators slightly trimmed their bullish bets of the US dollar last week for a third straight week.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, had an overall US dollar long position totaling $18.32 billion as of Tuesday December 17th, according to data calculations from Reuters. This was a weekly change of -$0.78 billion from the total $19.10 billion bullish position that was recorded on December 10th, according to the data from Reuters which is calculated by the total of US dollar contracts against the combined contracts of the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

The December 17th data is reported for the day before the US Federal Reserve meeting that saw the Fed reduce their bond-buying stimulus program. The “tapering” of the program provided a boost to the US dollar in forex market trading and will likely make next few COT reports interesting to see where large speculators are positioning post-Fed tapering.

Individual Currencies – Large Speculators Positions in Futures:

The non-commercial net positions for each of the individual currencies directly against the US dollar saw a weekly increase for just the euro while there were weekly declines for the British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Mexican peso and the Australian dollar. See charts & data below.

Individual Currency Charts:

EuroFX:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: EuroFX

British Pound Sterling:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Pound Sterling

Japanese Yen:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Yen

Swiss Franc:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Franc

Canadian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: CAD

Australian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: AUD

New Zealand Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: NZD

Mexican Peso:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: MXN

*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).

The Commitment of Traders report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions data that was reported as of the previous Tuesday (3 days behind).

Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar.

(The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.)

See more information and explanation on the weekly COT report from the CFTC website.

Article by CountingPips.com – Forex News & Analysis

By CountingPips.com

Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Report

10 Year Treasuries: Large trader and futures market speculators added to their overall bearish positions in the 10-year treasury note futures after decreasing bearish bets the previous week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.

The non-commercial futures contracts of the 10-year treasury notes, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -155,209 contracts in the data reported for December 17th. This was a change of -5,180 contracts from the previous week’s total of -150,029 net contracts that was registered on December 10th. The December 10th level had marked the lowest bearish position since October 29th when bearish contracts were at a total of -125,670.

Over the same seven-day time-frame, from Tuesday December 10th to Tuesday December 17th, the yield on the 10-Year treasury note increased from 2.81 to a yield of 2.85, according to data from the United States Treasury Department.

Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions

*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).

Article by CountingPips.com – Forex Trading News & Analysis