Shares Fall On GM Bankruptcy Fears

In the event, both interest rate decisions were as exciting as watching Scotland play rugby. Currencies wobbled and gold rallied as equities headed lower on fears that GM (GM) would go bust.

Another strange day with more quantity than quality on the trading front. It’s always harder on days where views ahead of lunchtime are limited (the interest rate decisions today; US payrolls tomorrow). A lot of traders flatly refuse to trade major news days as chart trends are often bullied by random panicky reactions.

This morning saw a half-decent move in Sterling, but I’d decided not to get involved ahead of lunchtime’s announcements. I traded this afternoon but it was hard work and I make no apologies for the short-termism of my trades.

Was it just my dodgy system or did Bloomberg UK ignore Trichet’s press conference? I had to rely on edited highlights to get by, but picked up enough to short EURGBP in a fiver. I opened my bet at £0.8898, but didn’t overstay my welcome and took profits at £0.8887 and £0.8875. I missed out on a further 10-15 pips, but equally, the price is now back at £0.8895 so ‘take the money and run’ wasn’t a bad option.

A moving average crossover prompted a long bet on GBPUSD, but it wasn’t a perfect set-up as it meant buying before the pivot line had been broken. This showed in the slow, frustrating price action as the currency reflected the ups and downs of the equity market. I paid $1.4109 and took part profits at $1.4126 in case the pivot point repelled the move. I brought my stop loss up to break-even but missed out on the higher prices and was stopped out for a small overall gain.

I bagged a few quid shorting FTSE (^FTSE), but didn’t go the distance. I’ll see how the market pans out before deciding on leaving a cheeky limit order to buy in the evening session.

Here’s one I was glad to miss.

The Yen had continued to weaken overnight and was in the mid-Y141s in early trade. Although I’ve been backing the weaker Yen trade I was put off on two counts. Firstly, the price was close to previous resistance. I said before that I want to see clear water between the price and the Y141.70 (ish) level it stopped at last time. Secondly, the RSI was showing an overbought position. If I’d been really smart I’d have sold it there, but I wasn’t and I didn’t!

Here’s something you can pencil in for tomorrow morning, if not sooner. Zebu’s put out a well-written piece on Understanding Financial Reports Part I. The article gives a great guide on what numbers come out where and what to look out for.

And finally, here’s an updated safety card for all of you who travel by Ryanair:

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