One of the key skills you need to acquire as a trader is the ability to identify good trading opportunities.
Now this is not simply being able to draw trendlines and understand technical analysis. That is a key component for sure but what I’m talking about is the step before, identifying currency direction and potential trading opportunities.
To get an understanding of what I mean I need to explain how the ‘Fundamental’ market works.
Long term currency direction (trends) come from the Central banks. They manage their respective economies by micro-managing the monthly economic data releases. Their overall plan has always been to keep inflation between a band of 2-3% per year. They know if they do that the economy will tinker away without any major issues. If inflation starts to get above 3% then they’ll look to take the steam out of the market by raising interest rates. People are encouraged to save and the higher cost of housing etc slows consumers spending. Likewise if it falls below 2% they’ll cut rates to try and pick up demand. People are encouraged to spend their money as they are now getting bugger all for it sitting in the bank.
Now each month the same economic data is released (except in Australia where the CPI & GDP are released Quarterly). Each economic data release (top tier mainly) is a ‘piece of the pie’ that makes up the central banks decision on monetary policy.They don’t just look at the CPI (Consumer Price Index) although it is of major significance. The Top Tier data is extremely important and make up a bigger component of their decisions. This is where ‘Currencies: The Inside Story’ comes into play as you’ll soon learn that Top Tier data is not the same in every country.
General Top Tier Data releases:
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Unemployment Rate & Change
Retail Sales
Manufacturing
Housing
Trade Balance
Average Hourly Earnings
Consumer/Business Confidence
At the next central bank meeting the ‘Board of Governors’ (to use the Federal Reserve as an example) discusses the results of the previous months data and makes decisions on interest rates based on their monetary policy.
Simple huh!
Bear in mind there is generally a 6 month time lag from the time a rate change is made to the time it impacts the economy. So the central banks have their work cut out predicting economic conditions 6 months down the track. That’s why they generally wait until there’s absolutely overwhelming evidence before they change interest rates. This is a cyclical process that continues every day, week, month, year….and it’s the heart beat of the financial markets. Because traders know this ‘central bank process’ it enables them to actively trade the economic releases. I’ll explain this more in detail below.
OK that’s your ‘Central bank – Interest rate’ lesson for those without an Economics background.
Every 4-6 weeks most central banks hold a meeting to discuss and potentially adjust monetary policy. In the past these meetings used to be sporadic but over time they realised by micro-managing their economies they could subtly adjust policy and avoid the rude shocks in the financial markets of changing rates by 2-5% at a time.
At the end of these meetings there are generally 3 releases:
Interest Rate Decision (change or no change)
Statement (An overview of the meeting: Discuss economic conditions, provide the reasoning behind their decision & ‘usually’ give their forecast for future monetary policy) &/OR Conference (They get to add some personal spin to their announcement)
Meeting Minutes – finer details about the discussion by the Central Bank Board.
Each of these releases is a potentially huge trading opportunity.
Don’t forget on average the major currency pairs move 150 points from high to low over a 24 hour period. If the central bank makes the slightest change in policy we will see 250-300 point moves easily. I’ll break down each release so you have a thorough understanding of the impact and potential trading opportunity.
The interest rate decision is usually factored in before the meeting. So it’s often a non-event. The market does this by accessing the monthly economic data releases. If all the economic data has been particularly strong or weak (above or below forecasts respectively), then there’s a good chance we may see a change in rates. In this situation the market doesn’t wait for the meeting to ‘see if they change rates’, they actively predict (trade) the move by buying or selling the currency ahead of the meeting. This is called ‘factoring in’ the change in rates. So by the time the meeting comes around the interest rate decision, even if they change rates, may not be a big deal especially if it’s 95% factored into the market. That means traders have already bought ahead of the release maybe a week or two before the central bank meeting. In fact what usually happens in this situation is the currency actually moves the opposite direction to what you would normally think because everyone already has the same position. For example if they raise rates and everyone is already long then it can only go one way, and that’s down!
If the economic data over the previous month has been mixed. Say 70 – 30 in favour of stronger data results then the interest rate decision will be a line call and potentially a 50 -50 scenario. Don’t forget the central banks like to be certain that policy needs to change as they can’t exactly raise rates one month and cut them the next….well they could but they would lose respect in the market. If they lose respect, they lose control…and that’s what they don’t want. So they make sure they do it right!
The line call decisions are massive whichever way they go. The market reacts aggressively as ‘half’ of it has not factored in the result so they need to adjust their positions accordingly and this causes the big moves. Don’t forget those that got it right are adding to their positions at the same time. And that’s why the moves are huge.
We don’t see many of these any more because they created too much chaos for the financial markets in the past. But it occurs when the central bank changes rates completely unexpected. There may have been modest economic data in line with forecasts so basically no change in economic conditions. Yet the central bank for some unknown reason thought it was time to change rates. When this occurs because it’s completely unexpected by everyone may lead to at least a 300+ point move.
If the potential for an interest rate hike is around 70% then you still have 30% of the market that didn’t think there was going to be a change in rates and that leads to a modest move in the direction of the rate change. If they cut rates it goes down and if they raise rates it goes up. It can be a good cash earner but the market will quickly turn their attention to the Statement for forward guidance on interest rates. Once the interest rate decision is out and has been traded the market quickly refers to the Statement for the next leg of direction.
The statement explains the reasons behind the interest rate decision (change of no change), discusses current economic conditions and ‘usually’ provides forward guidance on what the central bank expects to do from here. No one really cares too much about ‘why’ as they already know its because the economic data was strong. The economic conditions they’ll come back to especially if they ‘focused’ on potential sensitive parts of the economy. That will provide separate individual trading opportunities when that economic data that they mentioned is released during the next month.
What traders really want to know is:
Are they expecting to change rates again (raise rates – Hawkish or cut rates -Dovish)
Are they finished raising rates (neutral)
Or are they sitting on the fence with potential to go again (slightly hawkish or dovish)
If the central bank is Hawkish or Dovish in their statement it means they are thinking they may have to change rates again in the not too distant future. This is like getting another change in rates immediately and usually occurs when the interest rate decision has been 95% factored in.
The announcement usually sees the currency take off again like an unexpected change in rates. That’s why you may have seen the currencies ‘explode’ in the past even though they didn’t change interest rates. The Statement is often the most important component of the central bank release. It builds anticipation and provides forecasts for the market. Traders use it to place trades immediately as it’s released even though the next meeting may be 6 weeks away. A change from Hawkish or Dovish back to Neutral in their Statement will have the same impact as a rate chnage in the opposite direction. The move will be aggressive and big. A change from Neutral to Hawkish or Dovish will have the same impact as a change in rates to the bias they mentioned. Basically the slightest change in text in the Statement will cause a major move and that’s why the central banks are extremely precise with their wording so as to not ‘confuse’ or give the ‘wrong impression’ to the market.
The forecasts in the Statement provide ammunition for traders with reference to the upcoming monthly economic data releases. If they have referenced specific data like Unemployment, then that data release will become the ‘key epicentre’ for the next central bank decision. We’ve seen the Federal Reserve for example on many occasions refer to the Employment data as the key to their future rate hikes. The Non-farm payrolls is already a major high impacting event. But when the FED singles it out as particularly important the release takes on a new life. The Non-Farm payrolls data basically becomes the ‘interest rate decision’. Any major variance and it has a huge impact either way and that’s why you see so much volatility around these releases.
If the statement is hawkish – and the next months economic data is strong, then we’ll get a nice upward trend and this is great for trading. We should have longer term trading opportunities that are easy to identify, have clear entry zones and are generally lower risk trades. On the other hand if the Statement is hawkish – and we get mixed or weak economic data then trading will be extremely disjointed and unpredictable. No trends at all. This kind of sucks as we may have to revert to short term trading opportunities and they usually come with greater risk. That second type is what we’ve been experiencing for the last few years and that’s why trading has been a battle and you’ve really got to be on your game.
The minutes are usually released a week after the rate decision and statement. It’s a thorough record of their entire meeting just like a companies minutes from a board meeting. It is very rare these days to find anything unusual in the minutes so it’s 9.5 times out of 10 a non event. But you never know you luck so it’s still worth a look and is always recognised by most economic calendar providers as a ‘high impacting’ event even though nothing ever happens, because it has ‘potential’.
About the Author: Brad Gilbert
Brad has over 25 years of FX trading experience. Prior to setting up T4T in 2009, Brad worked for Citibank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Toronto Dominion Bank. He was Chief FX Dealer of some of the biggest FX teams in Sydney, London & New York. He has also worked extensively through Asia in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam
The bottom line: Trading involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future performance — nothing here is financial advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Written by Brad Gilbert, Founder & Head Trader at Traders4Traders — 36 years of institutional FX experience, mentoring 1,000+ traders since 2009.
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