The memories of Thursday, January 15th 2015 are still rather fresh and many may have not yet recovered from the day the Swiss National Bank decided to shock financial markets which wreaked havoc on the forex market. The Swiss Franc rallied over 40% in less than 60 minutes against the Euro which did not only render stop loss levels invalid, but also caused total losses in the account of forex traders. The market was essentially 100% long the EURCHF.
A lot of forex traders saw their account balance turn negative. This is an event which is essentially impossible to unfold as forex brokers have margin closeout level which means that once a forex account drops to a certain margin percentage, for example 50%, the forex broker will automatically close out all positions in order to prevent the account from becoming negative.
Due to the sharp rally in the Swiss Franc banks essentially turned off their computers and pricing was unavailable for any currency pair which dealt with the Swiss Franc. Once trading became available again orders were triggered at the best possible price, but at this time accounts were already plunged deep into the red for most. Some of the biggest names in forex were forced to file for bankruptcy as a direct result of what the Swiss National Bank decided to do.
Dozens of the biggest players in the retail space folded and distrust surged especially when it came to Switzerland and the Swiss Franc. The Swiss economy is very likely to face a deep recession, Switzerland will have to deal with plenty of job losses and exports are set to suffer. The Swiss National Bank reassured forex traders that they would not remove the currency peg which kept the EURCHF at bay with a floor of 1.2000 only days before the surprise move just before lunch.
The strong rally has made a technical analysis on time frames above M30 virtually impossible, but enough time has passed now that forex traders should start to look at the Swiss currency again for shorter-term trades. The Swiss Franc remains a major currency pair and should not be ignored. The events caused by the SNB are unlikely to be repeated in this capacity which was previously unprecedented. The turmoil caused attractive trading opportunities.
