Monday, February 28, 2011

The Dollar Lost Its Safe Haven Status A Long Time Ago

While the talking heads and various experts are busy talking up the dollar, they ignore the message coming from the market. Contrary to consensus interpretation, it’s a message of weakness.

International and domestic political upheaval should be creating undeniable safe haven flows into the dollar. The dollar’s action since 2008 can only be characterized as consolidation within the context of a downtrend despite the growing political risks. The display of weakness when strength is expected implies that a continuation of the downtrend is only a matter of time. A drop below the lower trading channel (magenta) will signal another round of aggressive devaluation.

U.S. Dollar Major Currencies Index


Leverage money flows reflect an understanding of this weakness.

U.S. Dollar Index and the Commercial Traders COT Futures and Options Stochastic Weighted Average of Net Long As A % of Open Interest


Has the dollar lost its safe haven status? Yes, but this fact is not been a recent development. This designation was lost a long time ago. How do I know that? The once stable (flat) trend in the dollar has turned into a ski slope. Safe haven status trends are not characterized by parabolic ski slopes! Unfortunately, most investors and Americans will have to learn this lesson the hard way.

Purchasing Power of the USD


Headline: The Dollar: Safe Haven No More?

Has the dollar lost its safe-haven status? Not exactly, but the state of the U.S. economy is keeping traders wary. With economic indicators like new home sales, jobless claims and durable goods orders, all released today, pointing to a slow, uneven recovery with little job growth, traders don’t expect the Fed to raise interest rates any time soon. Since interest rates tend to propel currencies higher, investors are focusing on countries with stable outlooks and tighter-money policies, or at least some indication that they might raise rates.

Source: cnbc.com

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