Fast news & Slow news?

I'll be the first to admit I'm not a huge fundamentalist. That having been said, there doesn't seem to be immediate "knee-jerk" reactions to headlines like these.

Foreigners dumping U.S. dollars; buying gold like there’s no tomorrow …

Demand for U.S. Bonds Is Down a Staggering 80% in One Month:
The U.S. Treasury just reported that purchases of U.S. bonds collapsed from $97 billion to just $19 billion in July alone.
Overall, more U.S. Treasuries were sold by global investors than Washington could sell in July.
Result: The price of long-term Treasury bonds has plunged 2 24/32, with a recent one-day rout alone the worst since September, 2003.

The Dollar Is Flirting with All-Time Lows and Falling Fast: The U.S. Dollar Index has fallen well below critical support levels to within a fraction of a point of its lowest level in history and signaling even more dramatic declines ahead.

Not anything like the "fundamental / news" announcements that cause short-lived spikes like NFP or ISM...[fast news]

Is it just because traders are not all sitting "poised", waiting for anouncements like these? They just read them "after hours" like I do? [slow news]

Are they pretty much a "given", taking the current situation[s] into consideration?

I'm obviously missing or not understanding something.
Being a pretty strict rule based, technician [my own rules that is ], I'm not saying I ignore fundamentals/news, but I'm usually positioned so that NFP's etc. don't "mess up" my trades...

Can some of the pro's help out a more or less pure "technical" trader with some insight?

Sorry... replying to my own post [sad :], but there was supposed to be a more structured question in there somewhere, I'm almost sure of it.

Should we as traders, pay as much / more / less attention to news like this?
That seems to have a more "lasting" effect on the market's sentiment than an NFP announcement that to me, seems to spike, cause ripples, and then [depending on how "way out" the numbers are of course], sometimes just dissipate?



Cheers for any input!
[just trying to get more of a handle on the "newsy" side of things, and hopefully use it to sharpen the old edge ]

I am the same kind of trader, (Techie) but I think that it is important to keep these things in mind.

As far as NFP, or other announcements like these, I don't necessarily trade them. Unless, of course, there is an obvious point to get in.

Today, I bought the EUR/USD at 1.4060 after whatever announcements came out at 8:30 EST. (The fact I can't even remember what it was tells you how much I pay attention.)

But, the reason I took this trade is because of support just below it on a 4 hour chart. I watched it fiddle around that level for a few minutes, and just got stuck. I bought, because a lot of the big money is stacked in a place like that. Once I saw it couldn't get through, I had no doubts about going long. I took the 30 pip bounce and called it a day.

I only got in this one because it was so clear.

As far as most trades, I keep in mind that everyone hates the dollar right now, and that's all I really need to know. (I used to try to put more thought into it, but there are people with Economic degrees from places like Columbia that write articles I can read.) Do I read something like you quoted and decide to buy the Euro right then? No. But what it does is make me think of going long, when I see support.

To be honest, that's about as hard as fundamental analysis needs to be.

So if I was writing an article on it, you would get something brilliant like, "Buy anything but the damn Dollar. Buy other currencies against it on pullbacks to support. Unless you are thinking about the Yen. Avoid the Yen at the moment because it's too wishy-washy."

I actually have found that ignoring most of the fundamentals helps my trading.

Yesterday, some Chinese search engine stock was going to post lower gains than expected....so there was a knee-jerk reaction in USD/JPY, and GBP/JPY. I ignored it, it didn't follow one of my setups. Besides, it's hard to gauge how "Panic Trading" like that turns out. It's not worth the heartburn!

Hope I didn't babble too much.

Clockwork71

No worries!
Appreciate the babble

I think we're on similar standpoint regarding news. I read it, but it doesn't affect my over all technical point of view or setups.

I think news like that probably has more effect on the equities/bond markets anyway.
And yes, as you said, some of it is obvious, such as the crappy dollar.

As I said though, personally, I prefer "slow news" the mania and depression it creates just helps us profit.


After all, as techies, we're not supposed to have opinions... and just trade what we see
[...is it really that easy...:]

I just enjoy hearing/reading peoples point of view on things like this.
Kind of gives you insight into the minds of folk out there...

Cheers for that!