Last Updated on Thursday, 16 February 2012 01:56
Written by Barry Battista
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
4:30 AM EST
UK Retail Sales – Change in the total value of sales at the retail level.
GBP/USD
In November, while I was on the way to the airport, this came out at .8 and 1.0 with what appears to be about a 30 pip spike. It retraced fully in 4 minutes. In December it came out at -.3 and .2 with a 7 pip spike. Row 2 and both revisions came out against row 1. Lots of thrashing. In January the data feed was down, but it came out at 0 and 0 and didn’t move a pip.
So the big question here is ….. is it worth getting up at 4 in the morning for this? Uh … no. But if it were say 9:30 and I was already up, I’d give it a shot. Here is what I would do:
ORACLE TRADER – Go with .6 medium and .8 safe. Try 1/3 your normal lots on a medium and 3/4 on a safe. I’d bail fast.
STRADDLE V1.3 – try maxSpread of only 5 or 6. Also get out right after the spike, if there is one.
STRADDLE PRO – try Buy/Sell Trigger of .5 and check the row 1 box. Use trade management and be gone pronto.
7:00 AM EST
CAD Core CPI – Change in the price of goods and services purchased by consumers, excluding the 8 most volatile items.
USD/CAD
While the CAD Employment trade seems to be showing a little life, the CPI is not. This is because the govt has made clear that they have no intention of raising rates any time soon. But that said, it appears the January release of this came out at -.3 and -.5 with a 20 pip spike, which was OK. Back in the day, oh .. 8 months ago, had this release come out at -.3, your monitor would have crashed through your desk splintering it to toothpicks. Now we get 20 pips and are pleasantly surprised.
ORACLE TRADER – I’d go with .3 and .5, trading 1/3 on a medium and 1/2 on a safe.
STRADDLE V1.3 – your odds are much higher of loosing than winning. Try maxSpread of 6.
STRADDLE PRO – see v1.3 for odds. Try Buy/Sell Triggers of .3 and check the box. If you get out at breakeven or better, you have witnessed a miracle.
8:30 AM EST
US Core CPI – Change in the price of goods and services purchased by consumers, excluding food and energy.
EUR/JPY
Looks like I listed this on my weekly post on Sunday, clearly indicating what a great weekend it must have been prior to doing the post. If you add up the total spike pips for the last 3 occurrences, you get 14. That’s total pips moved in 3 trades. Unless you are experimenting with stuff on a demo account, pass.
