Stop Fishing with False Breakouts

False Breakouts to catch Stops

Stop Fishing in Forex

1 hour Stop Fishing | False Breakouts 

The Euro

 penetrated the monthly pivot (second test) but closed above it on the hourly chart (rejection). From there the Euro tried to break to the upside but market could not break the orange line (January low). The penetration of the recent pivots (low, high - red circle on hourly chart) and thus the stop fishing on both sides very often precedes larger moves in the market as most of the traders are already stopped out or trapped in the wrong position.

The failed break to the upside (orange line) with the clearing of the stops above the recent high (1.2614) of the short positions led to a third test of the monthly pivot today, which got already penetrated at the second test (weaker now). Some indication for a break of the monthly pivot were the facts that it was already the third test, the hourly close of the 11 a.m. candle below the monthly pivot and the confirmation of the break at 12 a.m. on the 5 min chart and at the 3 p.m. hourly candle close (lower close than the range of the breakout candle-blue circle on hourly).

 The blue circle on the 5 min chart at 1 p.m. shows how the monthly pivot started to act as resistance now and the green circle shows a typical 3-wave consolidation pattern before market impulsively moved down. The Euro found some support at  61.80 % fib retracement of the recent swing up at 1.2517 (brown line) and from there the Euro retraced up to the 61.80 % fib retracement of the recent impulsive wave down at 1.2543.

The consolidations below the weekly and monthly pivot on the hourly chart can be seen as bear flags.

Prior to the impulsive wave down market penetrated the recent lows (blue and red line), which often gives some short term support (see the candles with the long wick which penetrated these levels (12, 12:15, 14;20 p.m.-stop fishing accomplished).

Weekly and Monthly Pivot Point

On the 5 min chart (below) we also see the changing role from support to resistance of the weekly pivot and the August 2010 low (purple line). This price zone provided support in the Asian session (ellipse) before market breached this level (9 a.m.) and retested it at around 10 p.m. (now resistance).

5 min  EUR/ USD Chart analysis

Stop Clearing and Price Rejection

Price Rejection at Support/ Resistance

Stop Clearing at Key S/R levels

Pivot Points in the Euro

Daily Double Top

EUR/ USD had a relatively quite session. On the daily chart we see that the support level around the monthly pivot at 1.2568, the low of August 2010 at 1.2588 (purple line) and the 20 SMA (purple) held the market so far.

1 hour Pivot Points

The circled areas on the hourly chart (left) show how price bounced from support/ resistance.

On the hourly chart we see that the Euro moved up to the daily pivot at 1.2611 at 7 a.m. GMT but market could not breach the resistance and moved lower from there. The Euro penetrated the monthly pivot and cleared some stops below it and yesterday's low but the Euro closed above this key resistance level on the hourly chart (green circle).

After the clearing of the stops and the rejection of  prices (close above the monthly pivot on the hourly and higher low on the 5 min chart) market moved to the other side of the consolidation (1.2568 - 1.2614) to test it.

The EUR/ USD breached the pivot point and the recent high at 1.2614 (stop clearing) but the key level at 1.2624 (orange line- January low) provided strong resistance and the Euro bounced back.

The false breakouts (stop clearing) seem to be typical in a quite session when everyone is waiting for major news and thus traders are lacking commitment/ low participation.

5 min Forex Chart Education

On the 5 min chart (above) we see how price bounced from support/ resistance (blue circles) and the formation of consolidations/ bull/ bear flags (red circles) as well as some Fibonacci extensions (100 % and 161 %).

The price zones of the consolidations (red circle) provided some temporary support/ resistance as the market moved back into these zones.

At 9 a.m. market formed an inverted Head & Shoulder at the purple line (August low 2010). During the pattern market did not confirm the break of the purple line (no close of the succeeding candles below the range of the 9:30 a.m. breakout candle on the 5 min chart). Market breached the brown neckline and moved up to the H&S price target (100 % of the larger swing in the H&S-(left shoulder to head)-moved to the break of the neckline).

Between 1 and 3 p.m. the Euro breached the monthly pivot but the Euro formed a higher low and closed above the monthly pivot on the hourly chart (rejection of the breakout). From there, the Euro moved up to test the other side of the consolidation range and market found temporary resistance at the weekly pivot/ 161 % fib extension at 3 p.m. and the daily pivot at about 4 p.m.. The chance of a breach of the daily pivot increased due to the bull flag, the rising 10 SMA, the prior test at 7 a.m. (second test now) and particularly the fact that the prior 4-hour candle closing at 4 p.m. already touched (respected) the daily pivot so that this resistance level got weaker with the beginning of the new 4-hour candle (Breakout Timing setup).