Categories
Forex Market

What Should You Know About Trading Metals?

Introduction

We have discussed metal commodities briefly in the previous article. In this article, let’s understand trading metals in detail. Trading precious metals were only possible by wealthy investors in earlier days. But now, every retail forex trader gets to trade these metals with the advent of CFD trading. Hence, a lot of investors hold metals in their portfolios by investing a significant chunk of their money in metals. Metals create a balanced portfolio as they are considered a hedge against inflation. Metals such as gold and silver can be treated as safe-haven bets since their scarcity provides support to their value.

Gold – The highly traded metal

Among all the metals, Gold is the most actively traded metal. This metal possesses intrinsic properties such as durability, malleability, and conductivity. These properties offered by gold account for its superiority. They also find their primary use in jewelry making. As with other commodities, forces of demand and supply determine prices of gold. The gold market is also influenced by risk parameters, market sentiment, and inflation trends. Investors turn to gold and invest heavily when there are signs of a global economic slowdown. The slowdown could be due to reasons like recession, political crisis, or government debt.

Because of these reasons, Gold is mostly traded by long term investors. They only look for signs of gold entering a bull or bear market. The trend can be determined with the help of equity indices. A strengthening economy means weaker demand for gold.

Silver

Silver is seen as the best metal trading option right after gold. It has its own merits. This metal is used in various industries, making it more sensitive to business conditions and trading activities. Hence, the prices of silver are more volatile than that of gold. So we can say that silver is ideal for short term traders.

Platinum

Platinum is also seen to gain value during times of economic and financial crisis. However, because of scarcity in the availability of platinum, the price is much higher compared to gold. Therefore it is less frequently traded. It still is a robust and safe-haven alternative, especially when the Gold is overbought in the market. The industrial use of Platinum is kind of similar to that of silver, making it price-sensitive to business conditions. In recent times, the demand for platinum in industrial usage is reduced by the increased use of catalytic converters.

You can trade metals with Forex brokers too

One of the important advantages of trading metals is that they give protection against inflation, which is not offered by any other financial instrument. Taking this into consideration, a lot of Forex brokers offer above mentioned precious metal trading against major currencies such as the US dollar, Japanese yen, Euro, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, and British pound. You will also find metals such as Copper and Palladium on their platform. Some of the metal currency pairs include XAU/USD (Gold), XAG/USD (Silver) and XPT/USD (Platinum).

Conclusion

Even if it obvious, we must tell you that buying and selling precious metals do not mean the actual delivery of these commodities. We trade these metals over the counter (OTC). In this type of trading, there is high risk involved. So make sure you have a risk management plan in place, else there is a possibility of you losing all the money you have in your trading account. Some vital risk management tools include stop-loss and order cancellation. They will always protect the balance of your account.

Categories
Forex Market Analysis

Dollar Index Drops, Sterling jump to its max, Wall Street is moved up by Earnings

Hot Topics.

  • Dollar Index drops despite the increase in Retail Sales (MoM) in March.
  • Sterling strikes the highest level of the year for a second time.
  • Japanese Cabinet says the economy is “recovering moderately.”
  • Watching the Copper bullish cycle.
  • US Indexes climbs are boosted, aided by the companies earnings reports.

Dollar Index drops despite the increase in Retail Sales (MoM) in March.

The US economy continues showing strength signals about its economic growth. This time it was the retail sales report shift that advanced up 0.6% from February 2018 and 4.5% (YoY). Sales from the vehicle and parts dealers boosted 2% in March. Despite this good news, the US Dollar Index fell 0.40% touching its PRZ. While the price continues above the 88.52 level, we will consider the chance of a new bullish cycle.

The Euro, which represented more than 50% of the Dollar Index, closed the session with 0.41% gain. The pair still has almost 40 pips of space to reach its PRZ, previous to the ZEW economic sentiment data release. Meanwhile, the Index still could maintain its trading range. The invalidation level of the reversal scenario is above 1.2476.

 

Sterling strikes the highest level of the year for a second time.

The Pound is the best performing currency of the year with an advance of 6.24% (YTD). Not even the uncertainty driven by the Brexit negotiations or the negatives consequences of the severe weather conditions that have impacted some sectorial economic indicators have been enough to slow the Pound rally. In our last Daily Update, we saw a potential top and reversal pattern; our vision is that we could witness a 2B Pattern. In this case, we will be attentive to a breakout candle before to pulling the trigger.

 

Japanese Cabinet says the economy is “recovering moderately”.

The Cabinet Office of Japan described Japan’s economic growth as a “recovery at a moderate pace”. The private consumption and business investment in exports are “picking up”. Concerning the tariffs tensions between the US and China, the Cabinet economists see it as a risk factor they will observe closely. The USDJPY pair fell 0.31% to our PCS (Potential Continuation Section) as a bearish wedge pattern. If the price remains above 106.61, our vision continues to be bullish.The Pound/Yen cross is testing the second monthly resistance pivot level; however, it still could make new highs before a deeper correction. Our vision is that the cross could climb to the area between 155.8 – 157. Selling positions are considered only if the price breaks below the 152.95 level.

Watching the Copper bullish cycle.

Copper is developing a bullish cycle since January 2016. It is currently in an ascending expansive triangle pattern. In the long term, the red metal has “market debt” in the 3.44 level. In the short-term, as long as the price keeps above 2.98, the trend is bullish. If the price moves down to 3.01 – 3.03, copper could find new buyers at those levels, with their targets at around 3.20 – 3.21 and its extension in the 3.25 – 3.28 area.

US Indexes climbs are boosted, aided by the companies earnings reports.

This week,  the big companies started their quarterly earnings release. The optimistic analysts’ expectations came under the assumption that results are coming mainly from activities made before the tariffs conflict between the US and China. Dow Jones 30 closed the first trading session of the week with an advance of 0.44%. The Dow is testing the key level 24,620 and we are watching from our short-term picks. The invalidation level is below 24,090.

In the same way, Nasdaq 100 closed the session advancing 0.43%. The Technological Index is moving in an ascending triangle pattern. Mid-term, we expect that the price will hit the 7,090 level. The invalidation level for the bull market scenario is below 6,398 pts.

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