UK Jobs Data Trashes Sterling

Massive job losses in the UK, and another downbeat forecast from the IMF sent Sterling reeling. Higher than expected inflation in the US didn’t impress gold traders, who sent bling below $900.

Wahey! That’s more like it. After a few pretty ordinary days enough pieces fell into place to allow me to wear a Tony Blair grin for a few hours. All the right things happened; I was making money whilst I slept, both trades were in the money when I left for the gym, and I returned to find my profits had multiplied. Oh, and I didn’t get drawn into a long gold position too early.

Yesterday I dabbled in EUR/GBP, scalping a few quid here and there. But last evening I grasped the bull by his proverbial horns and bought a fiver at £0.9264 with the commitment to run the bet overnight. In an earlier trade I’d nicked a few pips, closing out at £0.9270, but a bullish triangle gave me the confidence to run this one.

This morning the price was moderately higher at £0.9284, boosted by an IMF projection that the UK’s recession would last into next year. Sterling wasn’t looking too happy so I sold a fiver of GBP/USD at $1.4009, triggered by a moving average crossover on my 5-minute chart.

Today was one of those perfect days when a trade quickly moved into profit, allowing me to take the top off at $1.3997 and start trailing my stop loss down. By the time I’d left for the gym I’d made £135 and brought stop losses on both trades down to guarantee further gains.

I misjudged my lack of fitness and arrived back at my desk for the tail-end of the 9.30 data (shameful incompetence). By the time I sat down my bets were swirling in profits as traders trashed the Pound following some horrible unemployment numbers. Though it was tempting to stay in for the ride, the RSI readings on my 30-minute charts were almost off the scale. I opted to close my bets at $1.3875 on GBP/USD and £0.9380 on EUR/GBP. Total profit on the two trades was a worthwhile £555.

This afternoon I made my offering to the trading gods by re-opening a short bet in GBP/USD, just in £1, at $1.3965. This followed all my trading rules, but with the Fed statement this evening I decided on a token £1 bet. Just as well as it’s currently £25 in the red.

I’m still patiently watching the gold price; I decided against jumping in at $900. To me, it just feels like traders want to test the lower end of support, around the $880 area. The 30-minute chart shows a marked downtrend, which certainly prevented me from getting in too early. I’m out this evening so I might just leave a cheeky limit order to buy low, just in case things go a bit haywire.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by Email