On a candlestick chart, Doji form when the opening and closing prices are virtually equal. They may be open or filled, ie slightly up or down, but the body of the candlestick will be very small to non-existent.
Their upper and/or lower shadows may be pronounced – that is, there may have been significant movement during the session, but the important factor is that when the dealing’s done everything has gone back to where it started.
Doji indicate indecision in the market. Prices move above and below the opening level during the session, but close at or very near this level. So there’s an equilibrium in the final result, neither bulls nor bears could take over the market and create a trend.
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South Africa’s 12% main rate has made the rand a favorite of the carry trade – where investors take advantage of a disparity in the interest rates associated with a pair of currencies – for some time now. But a successful carry trade can be wiped out by a simple fall in the pair.
The Rand
ZAR has not been what you might call strong in a long time – but in the last few months, it has plummeted, shedding almost 20% against
USD to reach a five-year low.
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… Everybody is just standing there, blinking furiously – waiting for someone not to blink …
With the panic on, they’re all getting liquidity back and any movements are largely a function of who’s got more to clear out and how fast they can do it.
There’s no bank around at the moment who wants to be seen as lacking capital reserves, the spotlight falls on them and that can be self-fulfilling…
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For today:
4:30 am (EST) UK Industrial Production figures m/m.
Well, it’s been fairly grim for the last couple of months, so no change there then, and hard to see anything unusual coming about.
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A dodgy alliteration, but now the heat has turned on Hypo – so what does the German government do, rushes to the rescue, guaranteeing savings everywhere. Other countries in the Euroland won’t be too unhappy about this, but the UK definitely will be.
This is now socio-political concerns completely overriding the economic forces – ie. very definitely not a free market and not capitalism.
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Well, we live in interesting times – and pleasant for once to glance over at the falling stocks, options markets and realise with forex it’s always possible to be on either side of the market.
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In retail forex, there’s no such thing as a forex broker, although often referred to as such. The sites we drop in on to get rid of our hard-earned cash are run by dealers, not brokers.
So what’s the difference?
In other markets, stocks, precious metals, futures etc., an investor uses the services of an agent acting on their behalf – a broker – who goes off to an exchange with their customers’ instructions and executes the trade. When the tradable instrument, to use a very posh term, is bought and/or sold, they take a commission, flat or percentage.
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How many times have we heard this one? A forex trade is not just a position.
It’s also:
- The reason(s) for taking that position
- A stop loss level.
- Profit taking levels.
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