trucomallica » Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:21 pm wrote:Bold, what is your interpretation when price breaks out and then goes back into the range and ends up breaking out through the other side of the range?
What happens when, after the breakout, price just keeps going and doesn't return to the break level? the MMs just take losses?
Reversals occur very frequently. I remember the desk would have multiple runs working at the same time and would be based on different time periods. They would have a monthly / weekly run working, while trading a 10 min and 1 hour. MM's have deep pockets and can withstand long periods, which most traders can not do. The markets are fractalized and as such, eventually all break levels are retested. Some take longer than others, but they eventually get retested. As I have commented in previous posts, I have seen 5 year levels get hit, to the pip, and then reverse. The extreme price action occurred based on the BOJ making comments regarding intervention.
A typical practice of the desk would be to carry multiple deals simultaneously. If the desk was nearing its credit limits, a practice was to contact a NDF (Non Deliverable Forward) voice broker at one of the larger banks who the desk had a credit relationship with to mediate the purchase of offsetting transactions with either that bank or other major banks. The Voice brokers were used to help the dealer's ability to offset the risk associated with the transaction(s). There was a different broker for each currency, ie: EURO, CAD, YEN, GBP, AUD/NZD. With the aid of these brokers and business-line managers, the NDF markets generally would have sufficient liquidity to enable fast offsetting of positions. Very often, the desk would warehouse NDF's while managing a large book allowing for a larger risk tolerance while being able to offset their positions at a later time of their choosing.
Here's how it works: An NDF is similar to a regular FX Contract, except that when it matures, is does not require physical deliver just like an FX Contract. A forward FX Contract is an obligation to purchase or sell a specific currency on a future date for a fixed price set on the trade date. The contract is net-settled in US Dollars based on the needed notional amount. Example, if the desk need to bundle a traunch of 50Mio, the deal would be negotiated for that notional amount at a settlement exchange rate that was based on the daily "Fix Rate". The desk/dealer activities created compensation based on the bid/ask spread of the NDF. The desk was exposed to basis risk, ie.. the potential that the offsetting contracts may settle at different rates.
In regards to the breakpoints, the market is fractalized and gives the ability to trade based on various time periods and the breakpoints of those multiple periods. In the charts of the attached pdf, the example of GBPJPY is showing Monthly, Weekly, Daily, H4 and then Edsel overlayed on H4 breakpoints.
The charts in the attached pdf are self explanatory with regards to the price action. The price action clearly shows how the various levels are hit over time and also shows levels which remain open for future price level action which I refer to as MST targets. Notice that there are two essential levels created based on Trade Lines drawn from short term and long term trending price action. An open MST is not considered an active target until price crosses the respective TL of the near term period. By monitoring the breakpoint levels (MST's) of the various periods, the dealer could maintain various deals with the expectation of accumulating positions based on the prevailing trend of the periods of interest. As long as the offsets did not approach the credit limits, the non-leveraged positions could be accumulated with the expectation of price moving back to the breakpoints and effectively taking out the stops of the aggregated book. If the accumulation did approach the credit limits, the desk simply bundled the positions effectively transferring the risk to a credit partner and generated income based on the spreads of the NDF or similar instruments.
In the last chart, the Edsel system is overlayed onto the breakpoints to show how trading either in a range or with the prevailing H4 trend, the breakpoints can be used as a targeting system for range trading and trend trading.
I hope this gives a better understanding of how MM's can and do look at the market.
Cheers.
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