27 května 2010

Ken Veksler - How to catch a falling knife

Catchy title isn’t it?

But truthfully that’s what this market has been like for the last 3 weeks or so.
Everyone has been trying to get in on these moves and been chopped up severely, either because they’re in at bad levels with too tighter stops or are looking to play rebounds and retracements without any success. The main problem is that the move and overall trend is obvious to most out there but getting in and making the most of what seems like a move that has already run its course is the hard part.

The first key is to have the correct fundamental view, and even more importantly look to express that view using a currency pair that has implicitly less volatility. In the attached example I draw reference to the CHFJPY, which I prefer to use as a proxy for the far more volatile EURJPY. Those that have been reading my morning updates know how I feel about the JPY and given the risk averse nature of the market at the moment, you can’t argue with the fact that the JPY will continue to strengthen. While conversely for the very same obvious reasons the EUR (or in this case as a proxy the CHF) will comparatively weaken. As I’ve always said it’s about relative value at the end of the day and those that can wait for their moment to express it will always be smiling.

In the attached chart the trend is obvious, but because of its severity, it’s hard to determine where to enter after the initial breakout of what looks like the main trend. The top 2 diagonal lines show what was the original trend and everything was fine until we rather dramatically broke lower. In fact if you cast your mind back I was selling on those spikes above 88.00. All good and well and the world’s best trader is Harry Hindsight after all but going forward the question becomes what do I do now? Do I just sit there and regret having missed the move or do I chop myself up trying to catch a falling knife?

The simple answer is neither… If you do it properly. There is no reason not be involved in this trade but only if you do it correctly. If we agree that the Pink zone was where the initial main move was then we can equally argue that the other 3 areas circled are opportunities to get involved once again. The zone circled in Red presents us with the next opportunity to get short once again, given that the fundamental picture hasn’t changed and everything else remains constant. This now becomes a secondary trend and the second from top diagonal line begins to act as resistance. If you started selling into that resistance zone then stops need to be placed above that sloping line. If stopped out (and the stop needed to be tight), this isn’t because you were wrong (the trend on a broader basis is still in play) but simply because we had a slightly more violent retracement and you can start scaling into fresh shorts in the next zone above with the trend being now clearly defined. With these extra lines in play it also becomes easier to identify profit taking levels.

The Green zone is slightly misleading and difficult to trade (becoming only evident after the fact) but it does serve to prove and reinforce the point at hand. While the Purple zone is the same as the Red zone in that you put in a tight stop just above the second horizontal line and sell once more. If wrong on the trade or stopped out then it becomes a case of waiting for reversion into the Green zone to once again reload and sell again.

The Cable chart attached presents a similar picture to the one described above.

The point to garner from all of this is that yes it is difficult to trade these markets and more often than not it’s better to sit it out on the sidelines rather than getting chopped up on violent and erratic moves. But, it is also not impossible to be involved if you look at the market objectively and remain focused on the bigger picture. The key is stick to your levels and make sure that you’ve chosen them for the right reasons.

Good luck out there and best regards,

Ken Veksler.

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