SGM-FX insights

How to trade a problem like Soleimani?   Since the drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani last week, markets have reacted with a flight towards defensive assets and classic hedging trades against middle eastern tensions. The winning candidate at yesterday morning’s open was oil, with Brent Crude up as much […]

Welcome back to those of you starting 2020 today   You haven’t missed a great deal in the past 8 trading sessions starting 23-12-19. Markets have been thin and most movement was around the US military action in the Gulf early on Friday. Generally the USD is net net weaker since 23-12-19 having been weaker […]

Currency Feature this morning   USD stronger across the board.     Eastern Mediterranean   With full scale gas production due to come on stream in Q1 in the Eastern Mediterranean, it was not surprising that Greece, Cyprus and Israel broke cover yesterday with the announcement of the construction of a new Eastern Mediterranean pipeline […]

All or Nothing:   Today we embark upon the first trading day of 2020 following a busy but ultimately unremarkable year for foreign exchange markets. Despite general elections, impeachment and monetary chaos clocks haven’t stopped ticking and markets have continued to function. One of the best performing currencies this year has been the newly crowned […]

10, 9, 8…   11 hours ahead of the London time zone is that of Sydney’s. That means that shortly after we conclude our shortened trading day this New Years Eve, the impressive fireworks display on the other side of the world will be underway. 16 hours (presumably less 10 seconds) from the start of […]

Currency Markets   Euro on the rise sending the USD lower and GBP higher as short positions were unwound ahead of year end which together with thin liquidity has exacerbated what would normally have been a smaller set of moves.     China Demographics   Ages: 0-14 yrs 17%; 15-24 yrs 12%; 25-54 yrs 48% […]

  Last Christmas Cracker Joke for 2019 (honest) : Why didn’t the lobster share his Christmas treats? Because he was shellfish!   Markets   The main feature in the past few days has been the firm oil price of $61.31 for WTI as a result of firstly reduced inventories(that old adage of more demand than […]

One step forward..   Two steps back. The Pound at least is on track to follow this frustrating course. Having rallied after the general election result became clear, a combination of profit taking and renewed exit uncertainty has caused the Pound to have lost a lot of value. Despite the election result and immediate reaction, […]

Management Guru: Andy Grove-the”guru’s guru” and his book, High Output Management   Andy Grove who departed this world in 2016 had many choice quotes, but those who knew him as CEO of Intel would not be surprised to learn that Dominic Cummings, the UK Prime Minister’s Chief Adviser has embraced his book and set it […]

Yesterday in World Currency markets   The Swedish Central Bank, the Rijsbank became the first Central Bank to raise rates…… to zero %.. after 5 years at minus. The Swedish Crown (SKR) dutifully rose marginally versus the USD. Norges Bank the Norwegian Central Bank kept its powder dry and kept rates on hold-so no change […]

Fake News – Old News?   In the early hours of this morning it became clear that Donald Trump, serving US President since 2017, had been impeached. From this side of the Atlantic the term “impeachment” seems daunting and we might assume that those who fall victim to it must surely be condemned to an […]

UK Markets and the practice of Setting Price Objectives   Concern that a hard exit from Europe might be worse than a soft exit hit GBP despite the release that the number in employment rose by 24,000 in the quarter to 31/10 taking the employed to 32.8 million and a rate of 76.2% which is […]