This week was all about jobs, jobs and jobs. On Wednesday we received ADP data which pointed to a slowdown in private sector hiring (Protection against Friday’s Employment Disappointment). Economic data out of the U.S. from GDP figures to manufacturing data point to a much weaker economy. The Eurozone is expected to contract further and economic data out of China as well as Australia point to sluggish growth.

The ECB has cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 0.5% in response to a deeper economic contraction primarily due to weaker performance out of North Europe. The Euro has started to sell-off against other major currency pairs, but remained more resilient than many have anticipated.

On Friday the financial markets have received a much better than expected employment report out of the U.S. which took markets by surprise and pushed U.S. benchmarks to all-time highs (U.S. Jobs Report Pushes Dow Jones to Record). The biggest surprises in the report were upward revisions to February as well as March which added an additional 114,000 jobs which pushed the unemployment rate to 7.5%.

Overview of profits for the week which ended May 3rd

• USDCHF: 197 pips
• EURCHF: 71 pips
• AUDUSD: 81 pips
• EURUSD: 150 pips

Total: 499 pips

Monday, April 29th

USDCAD Long Recommendation

We recommended a long position at 1.0110 with a take profit level of 1.0200 (USDCAD Final Bounce). This is in addition to a short position we have taken on April 11th. This trade currently carries a floating trading loss of 21 pips. This represents a decrease of 53 pips compared to last week. We will seek to break the hedge this coming week.

Tuesday, April 30th

USDCHF Long Recommendation

We recommended a long position at 0.9285 with a take profit level of 0.9375 (USDCHF Bullish Price Channel). We closed this this trade on May 3rd for a profit of 100 pips as our take profit target of 0.9385 was triggered.

Wednesday, May 1st

EURUSD Short Recommendation

We recommended a short position at 1.3200 with a take profit level of 1.3000 (EURUSD Double Top). We closed this pair on May 3rd for a profit of 150 pips.

Exit from previous trades

USDCHF Short Position

We closed our open USDCHF short position on April 30th for a profit of 97 pips as we exited the trade at 0.9318.

EURCHF Short Position

We closed our open EURCHF short position on April 30th for a profit of 71 pips as we exited the trade at 1.2244.

AUSUSD Long Position

We closed our open AUDUSD long position on April 30th for a profit of 81 pips as we exited the trade at 1.0330.

We had a total of three trading recommendations this week, two were closed for a profit of 250 pips and one was an addition to a previously opened trade and currently carries a floating trading loss of 21 pips which is down 53 pips compared to last week. We also closed three older positions for 249 pips in profits which brought our total profits for the week to 499 pips.

In addition to our one add-on trade we also carry four positions from previous weeks. We have three GBPUSD positions, two long positions and one short hedge, which currently carry a floating trading loss of 1,513 pips. This represents a decrease of 194 pips compared to last week. We will maintain our take profit target of 1.6000.

We also have two open GBPCHF short positions which currently carry a floating trading loss of 860 pips. This represents a decrease of 70 pips compared to last week. We will maintain our take profit level of 1.4250.

We also have four EURGBP positions, three short positions and one long hedge, which currently carry a floating trading loss of 1,034 pips. This represents an increase of 7 pips compared to last week. We will maintain our take profit target of 0.8275.

We also have one open AUDNZD long position which currently carries a floating trading loss of 109 pips. This represents an increase of 21 pips compared to last week.

Our total floating trading loss for the week stood at 3,537 pips. This represents a decrease of 266 pips or 7.00% compared to last week. GBP related trading losses accounted for 3,407 pips or 96.32% of all floating trading losses and are down 275 pips or 7.47% compared to last week.

We hope that you will enjoy your weekend and that we will see you back on Monday.