FX Grail Trades

Looking at the forex charts tonight I see numerous opportunities setting up. There are a few nice Grail set-ups that we will be monitoring. We only trade forex when the charts tell us to. No need to force a currency trade as opportunity comes when it comes. The key to forex trading is patience and a plan. That is it.

We have issued this warning before and will do so again. *Please be careful forex trading during the holidays as there are some quick and violent swings due to lack of liquidity in the forex markets. At the very least make sure you have your stops set.

Dollar Strength

A little bit of greenback strength the last couple days. What do we make of it? Who cares. Trade it as you see it and make the pips. The carry trades have been very kind to The FXGrail as the holidays approach. Will be happy holidays for all Grail traders as the carry trades presented us with some beautiful trades. Like taking candy from a baby!

Very Interesting

As you know we at The FXGrail like to keep your brains thinking all the time. Here is an interesting take on the Bear Stearns free fall. Makes you think doesn't it?

From RollingStone
Oct.14, 2009

Wall Street's Naked Swindle

A scheme to flood the market with counterfeit stocks helped kill Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers — and the feds have yet to bust the culprits

MATT TAIBBI

On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who — made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would lose more than half their value in nine days or less. It was madness — "like buying 1.7 million lottery tickets," according to one financial analyst.

But what's even crazier is that the bet paid.

At the close of business that afternoon, Bear Stearns was trading at $62.97. At that point, whoever made the gamble owned the right to sell huge bundles of Bear stock, at $30 and $25, on or before March 20th. In order for the bet to pay, Bear would have to fall harder and faster than any Wall Street brokerage in history.

The very next day, March 12th, Bear went into free fall. By the end of the week, the firm had lost virtually all of its cash and was clinging to promises of state aid; by the weekend, it was being knocked to its knees by the Fed and the Treasury, and forced at the barrel of a shotgun to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase (which had been given $29 billion in public money to marry its hunchbacked new bride) at the humiliating price of … $2 a share. Whoever bought those options on March 11th woke up on the morning of March 17th having made 159 times his money, or roughly $270 million. This trader was either the luckiest guy in the world, the smartest son of a bitch ever or… Read the rest.........click here.......

A Weak Dollar

We are all aware of the weak dollar. Do we know the ramifications? It is good to know who wants a weak USD and why they want it. Great article in the USA Today. Read it!

http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2009-10-12-dollar-earnings-drop_N.htm


Dow closes above 10,000. This is big news as the bears were looking at the less than stellar numbers released in the last few days as a reason for a correction. Looks like the Bulls are going to run a bit longer!

Like What I See

Taking a quick look at the charts and their are a few pairs setting up nicely for Grail trades.  Particularly interested in GBP/USD and AUD/JPY.  Should be a very nice month for The FXGrail.

Forex And You

Why are we successful at forex trading when so many are not? It's easy, we stick with our system. We have a plan and we do not deviate. Sometimes we go days and days without a trade. We want to trade as much as the next guy but we learned our lesson. It was an expensive forex lesson. We have learned the art of trading. We trade when the trades present themselves. Simple.

Do you get a rush out of currency trading? Do you get excited when you "win" a trade? Are you depressed when you "lose" a trade? If so then this business is not for you. Emotion is the root of all forex evil. Every trade we place will either make pips or lose pips. We know that don't we. If the set up is strong as is all of our trades then in the end we will be profitable. No if, ands, or buts, we will be succesful. This is how to make a career in forex. It is not gambling therefore no wins or losses. Just solid Grail trades!

The Week Ahead

Here are some events to look for this week as you prepare your forex trades:

Monday: The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators is due in the morning. LEI is expected to have risen 0.7% in August after having risen 0.6% in July, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

Tuesday: The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) releases its July home price index after the start of trading. The index is expected to have risen 0.5% after rising 0.5% in June.

The Federal Reserve begins its two-day interest rate policy setting meeting with a decision expected Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is set to testify before the House Financial Services committee on regulatory reform, starting at around 9:30 a.m. ET.

The Fed is widely expected to hold the fed funds rate, a key short-tem interest rate, at historic lows near zero on Wednesday, with an announcement due at 2:15 p.m. ET. But investors will be more focused on what the bankers say about their "exit strategy" as they seek to wind down programs that pumped trillions into the economy to cushion the blow of the recession.

The weekly crude oil inventories report is also due in the morning.

Thursday: The existing home sales report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is due shortly after the start of trading. August sales are expected to have risen to a 5.33 million unit annual rate from a 5.24 million unit rate in July. July sales were up 7.2% from the previous month, the largest monthly gain on record, going back to 1999.

The weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department is due before the start of trading. 550,000 Americans are expected to have filed new claims for unemployment, versus 545,000 claims the week before. Continuing claims, a measure of people who have received benefits for a year or more, likely fell to 6.188 million from 6.230 million the week before.

Also Thursday, the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh gets underway. The Group of 20 leading developed and emerging countries will discuss the ongoing efforts to stabilize economies after the financial market meltdown.