Forex Trading Log

It’s been an interesting day - there has been a few announcements coming from government institutions that are influencing the forex markets. There were two notable announcements/news that was directly influencing the Australian dollar. The first was on Wednesday (21/2) night with Glen Stevens, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Governor said in a statement that interest rates were more likely to rise than fall. He also noted that inflation won’t stay above 3 percent or higher.

I haven’t been in Australia for the past month, and it’s time to review the forex charts to check out what’s been happening to my beloved AUD/USD currency pair over the past month. Yes, the holiday was GREAT. And Yes, I did keep up to speed of what the Australian dollar has been doing over the past month. How? By checking out local papers and Bloomberg!

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you have a successful year in your forex trading. It has only been 4 days into the new year and we have seen the Aussie dollar pass the resistance it was grappling with in the final days of 2006. The Aussie dollar has reached highs of up to US$0.7980 cents yesterday - even with no apparent economic data. Oh boy - but once some economic data came out of the US, reality came back to the trader’s heads and the dollar started falling… sharply.

The Australian dollar has finished the final trading day of 2006 on a high note. The Aussie held onto a the recently broken resistance level of 79 US cents today even with a thinly traded market which lacked momentum. “There is demand for the Aussie out there but it feels like month, quarter or year-end demand rather than genuine demand,” said Robert Rennie, currency strategist at Westpac Bank in Sydney. The Australian dollar hit a high of US$0.7915 in New York trade with the aussie maintaining its strength in the New York session.

The Australian dollar is the official currency of the Commonwealth of Australia since 1966. The currency is commonly abbreviated with the dollar sign “$”. Other notations used to distinguish the Australian dollar from other currencies are $A or A$, $AU or AU$ and its official ISO currency code is AUD. To locals and currency traders the currency is commonly referred to as simply “the Aussie” or “the Aussie Dollar“.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) hasn’t intervened in the forex market to influence the Australian dollar exchange rate since 2001. Although the Reserve Bank sold a net of A$246 million and bought a net of A$245 million from the government in the spot foreign exchange market in November in figures released today reveals. So in November, the Reserve Bank of Australia sold a net of A$1 million (In October, the RBA bout a net of A$8 million).

The Aussie dollar traded firmer today (Wednesday) after favourable crossrates against the Japanese yen. However, Aussie trade was stagnant with little stimulus from local or offshore data. The Aussie dollar has recovered from its recent lows of just below 78 cents and low it lies around 78.41 US cents. The Aussie was up to Y92.59 from 92.06 yesterday. US Treasurys initially fell in response to U.S. November producer price index (PPI) data and a report on housing starts but recovered in the afternoon, closing unchanged.

The Australian dollar recovered somewhat from a daily dip down to US$0.7775 in New York trade and the currency is now hovering above 78 cents. Local economic news is scarce around this time of the year – more major economic news are coming in the new year. Australian Government bonds ended slightly firmer, moving away from their year lows. A quiet U.S. Treasurys market yesterday meant few leads were on offer for local traders. Interest is focused on the release later today for the US November producer price index (PPI) data and a report on housing starts data.

The Aussie dollar drifted lower in trading today after the US dollar found some strength. Australian government bonds closed lower after a mixed session in the U.S. Treasury market on Friday after U.S. November inflation data surprised on the downside. At 0530 GMT, the Aussie dollar was at US$0.7812, down from last weeks close of US$0.7820 late last Friday. The Aussie dollar traded at Y92.25 against the Yen, up from Y92.17.