According to the figures released today, US economy grew faster than expected at the end of last year. Gross Domestic Product grew in the fourth quarter of 2009 by annualized 5.7%, more than the 4.7% estimate. This marks the largest GDP increase in 6 years. Numbers are not final and subject to revision. Initial reports for the preceding quarter had also been very upbeat only to be rivised down later. The real test will come next Friday when January NFP is published. With high levels of unemployment, job creation is the key to any successful recovery.

Similar report was also released in Canada today. It covered the month of November. During this period Canada’s GDP grew by 0.4%, beating the 0.3% expectation. Unlike USA, where economic expansion is projected to slow down from the levels reported today, to about 2.5% on annul bases, expectations remain high that current rate will be maintained. In this case we can be sure that Canadian central bank will keep complaining about the strength of its currency, just like they have been doing for months on end now.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I cancelled my plans to buy EUR-CAD at 1.4800, using 4H chart. Price didn’t unfold in the way that would support this trade so I passed on it. I wrote more about in comments to last post. Focuse went to hourly chart for a while, looking for reversals after the run up from 1.48 yesterday, but even there nothing convincing was found. Right now price remains within this wide, 400 or so pips, range. Plenty of room to trade short time frames, but I’m leaving it alone for now. It will be revisited in near future.

I have few other orders featured in this blog which haven’t been filled yet. Two of them were covered FOMC announcement  post. NZD-CAD buy order is still valid and I leave it open, for now at least. The other one, a sell in CAD-CHF, had additional activity. Price rebounded from the 0.9800, something I wanted to see, and moved to 100 SMA. I sold it there, at 0.9905.

After a move against me, price fell and reached 0.9840. This was very early in trading day today, move appeared to be stalling so I decided to get out at 0.9851, for a small gain of 54 pips.

As of right now, sell order at 0.9767 is valid, but it could take few days before price reaches this level, especially since it is heading north right now. Similar sell set up in AUD-CHF is also live and I’m taking it into next week. I didn’t risk any additional trades in this pair. Eventually I expect the support to be broken, just don’t know when. Maybe Monday, maybe in 2 weeks. Another exercise in patience. Have a great weekend!

Mike K.