Currency Personalities Revisited
February 21, 2006
There is yet another good article in Stock, Futures, and Options Magazine that identifies personality traits of the major currency pairs. The author feels that there should not be a one-size-fits-all technical approach to all currency pairs but instead different technical strategies for each.
EUR/USD
1. Depth of liquidity means that this pair experiences prolonged, inconclusive tests of technical levels
2. Breakout traders need to allow for a great margin of error: 20-30 pips
3. If USD/CHF and GBP/USD have broken equivalent technical levels, EUR/USD is likely to do the same after a lag
4. Momentum indicators are well-suited
5. Reliance of short-term indicators (30-minute) exposes traders to an increased likelihood of whipsaw movement
6. MACD is well-suited because it utilizes EMA resulting in fewer false crossovers
7. When large movements under way, DMI is useful for confirming whether a trend is in place. If so, momentum indicators should be discounted and reliance might be placed on DI+/DI- crossovers
USD/JPY
1. Most politically sensitive pair
2. Heavy influence exerted by Japanese institutional investors and asset managers
3. Cluster of orders at similar price or technical levels
4. Similar clusters of stop loss orders
5. Frequent encounter with support or resistance at numerically round levels
6. Trendline analysis most fitting
7. Ideal for breakout traders who employ stop-loss entry orders on breaks of trendline support or resistance
8. Short-term trendlines can be effective
9. Heavy reliance on candlestick charts
10. Daily close candlesticks are highly reliable leading indicators
11. Trend over the medium-term
12. Look to trend following tools such as MA(21, 55 are heavily used), DMI, Parabolic SAR
13. Momentum indicators such as RSI, MACD, or stochastics should generally be avoided, especially intraday due to trending and institutional nature driving this pair (INTERESTING??)
14. Ichimoku analysis
Click Read More to see Pound and Swissy Characteristics
Popularity: 2%

