Many forex traders depend on either fundamental analysis or technical analysis in their trading. The savvier among them try to combine both in making predictions about the direction a particular currency is going to follow in the future.
Fundamental analysis studies the long term effect of economic forces on currency markets whether financial or socio political using various economic indicators. Technical analysis is based on the premise that all available information is already compounded into the prices and the future prices can be predicted based on past prices.
Most of you who have been trading stocks must be familiar with the term: The January Effect. The January Effect is based on an observation that during the last few days of December and the fifth trading day in January stocks tend to perform very well.
There is nothing extraordinary about the January Effect. The effect takes place due to the fact that many investors try to recognize capital gains or losses at the end of the year due to tax reasons. Many corporations also try to window dress their balance sheets at the end of the year.
The interesting fact is that seasonality is not peculiar to the stock markets. Forex markets also tend to show seasonal effects. Seasonality is defined as a pattern that occurs at a particular time of the year.
The January Effect also takes place in forex markets due to the same reasons. Many investors who are adjusting their stock positions try to convert their local currencies into dollars at that time.
However, dollar shows stronger January Effect in some currency pairs as compared to others. There is a summer effect also. It has also been observed that dollar shows a summer seasonality when it tends to rise in USD/JPY pair and USD/CAD pair in the month of July and give back its gains by August.
There are other seasonal patterns that have been studied in other parts of the year. Now, it does not mean that these seasonal effects take place exactly the same way every year.
Seasonality only shows that there are strong chances that during a particular time of the year, the chances of a particular currency pair going up or down are more.
In certain years, the effect may be pronounced. Just remember that many economic forces play a role in effecting the currencies so in other years, the seasonal effects may not be so pronounced. As a forex trader, you only need to understand these seasonal effects while trading during that time of the year.
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