The euro-dollar trade has been on a steady decline since the high of 2008, when $1 would get you 1.60 euros. Today, a dollar would get you 1.10 euros, a drop of 32%, and this looks set to weaken further, with parity being a genuine possibility this year.
What has caused this decline? You could argue:
- Quantitive easing
- Inflation
- Brexit
- COVID-19 and its impact on the global economy
- The Ukraine invasion
- The rise in oil
- Political stability (or instability), depending on how you look at it
The list is endless, and pinpointing the exact cause from long-term to short-term is impossible.
Analysts are paid to look at global events and work out a theory.
You can also have a theory as an investor, but this has to translate into profit. I like to leave my ideas for the dinner table and instead focus on the technicals to guide my investment decisions.
I find this far more straightforward as I can quickly identify if the long-term trend is bullish, bearish or neutral.
I last shorted the EURUSD from 2014 to 2015 when the price fell from 1.40 to 1.05 over 12 months. I have highlighted this in the monthly timeframe below.
Since then, the price has been trading inside a wide area on consolidation, which I have also highlighted below. The recent euro decline against the dollar has taken place inside this consolidation zone, an environment I prefer to stand aside from as the price tends to whipsaw up and down, making it notoriously difficult to profit.
Day traders are drawn to these zones but for less than satisfactory results. The EURUSD is the most heavily traded currency pair globally.
Still, if most day traders lose money, as broker stats have confirmed in recent years, the smarter choice would be to move to better high-probability assets.
To consider opening positions, I would need to see the price break out from this consolidation area.
I will take long positions if the price moves above the high of February 2018.
I will take short positions if the price moves below the low of January 2017.
Until then, there are a plethora of other assets, particularly in the stock market, that have set up or are setting up, offering far better opportunities to profit.
As the saying goes, if you cannot define your edge, you do not have one. And if you do not have an edge, you will get eaten by someone who does.
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