FX.co ★ Analysis of the trading week of October 17-21 for the EUR/USD pair (COT report)

Long-term perspective.

The EUR/USD currency pair gained 140 points during the current week. We can say that this is one of the best weeks for the euro in recent times, although this growth is very difficult to consider on a 24-hour TF. But on this TF, a global downward trend immediately catches the eye, within which strong corrections are still rare. However, it would be correct to say there are none. As we have already said, over the past 1.5–2 years, the euro currency has shown corrections of a maximum of 400–450 points. And the whole downward trend already exceeds 2500 points. And, of course, it is worth noting that it has been three weeks since the price last updated its 20-year lows, and the pair is still close to these lows. The beginning of an upward trend does not even "smell." Thus, the technical picture does not change. Therefore, it can be assumed that the fundamental and geopolitical backgrounds do not change either. And this is not just an assumption. It is an objective reality since the "foundation" now remains the same as it was a month ago, two months ago, and three months ago. The Fed is also raising interest rates aggressively and is prepared to do so "to the bitter end." The ECB is also simply raising the rate and is already thinking about reducing it because many EU countries may be unable to cope with tight monetary policy. The Fed rate has long been higher than the ECB rate, and the gap between their values may only increase in the coming months. When the Fed ends the rate hike cycle, a "high rate period" will begin, during which monetary policy will not change. Thus, the Fed's monetary policy may remain much tougher than the ECB for another year or two or three. Naturally, this state of affairs will support the dollar. It may not grow all this time, but it will be extremely difficult for the European currency to show tangible growth.

COT analysis.

COT reports on the euro currency in 2022 can be entered into the textbook as a vivid example. For half the year, they showed a frank "bullish" mood of professional players, but at the same time, the European currency was steadily falling. Then they showed a "bearish" mood for several months, and the euro currency also steadily fell. The net position of non-profit traders is bullish again, and the euro continues to fall. This is happening, as we have already said, because the demand for the US dollar remains very high against the backdrop of a difficult geopolitical situation. Therefore, even if the demand for the euro currency is growing, the high demand for the dollar does not allow the euro currency itself to grow. During the reporting week, the number of buy-contracts from the non-commercial group increased by 6.5 thousand, and the number of shorts decreased by 4 thousand. Accordingly, the net position increased by about 10.5 thousand contracts. This fact does not matter much since the euro remains "at the bottom" anyway. Professional traders still prefer the dollar to the euro currency at this time. The number of buy contracts is higher than sell contracts for non-commercial traders by 48 thousand, but the European currency cannot extract any dividends from this. Thus, the net position of the "non-commercial" group can continue to grow, but it does not change anything. If we look at the general indicators of open longs and shorts for all categories of traders, then sales are 22 thousand more (586k vs. 564k). Thus, according to this indicator, everything is logical.

Analysis of fundamental events.

There is nothing to note in the European Union this week except for the banal inflation report, which was released in the second assessment for September. Traders expected an increase of 10.0%, but in reality, prices rose only by 9.9% y/y. However, the epithet "only" hardly applies to an ever-growing index. We cannot say that traders were upset about this or, on the contrary, happy. This indicator does not change anything because it cannot affect the ECB's plans in a cardinal way. The European regulator cannot look at the current inflation and decide to raise the rate at each next meeting by 1% to deal with high price growth and not just pretend. There was practically no geopolitical news this week either. Perhaps that is why the euro currency has avoided a new fall. But again, there is no difference since it continues to be near its 20-year lows.

Trading plan for the week of October 24–28:

1) In the 24-hour timeframe, the pair resumed their movement to the south. Almost all factors still support the long-term growth of the US dollar. The price is below the Ichimoku cloud and the critical line, so purchases are irrelevant now. It would be best if you waited at least for consolidation above the Senkou Span B line and only considered long positions.

2) The euro/dollar pair sales are still more relevant now. The price formally went above the critical line, but it did not go higher, but the line itself declined, so we expect the fall to continue with a target below the 0.9582 level (161.8% Fibonacci). In the future, if the fundamental background for the euro currency does not improve and geopolitics continues to deteriorate, the euro currency may fall even lower.

Explanations of the illustrations:

Price levels of support and resistance (resistance/support), Fibonacci levels – target levels when opening purchases or sales. Take Profit levels can be placed near them.

Ichimoku indicators (standard settings), Bollinger Bands (standard settings), MACD (5, 34, 5).

Indicator 1 on the COT charts is the net position size of each category of traders.

Indicator 2 on the COT charts is the net position size for the "Non-commercial" group.