NZDUSD: TECHNICAL ANALYSIS - TARGET 0.701 BUT USD WEAKNESS?NZD$ Technical Analysis:
Moving Average/ fair price gauge:
1. Kiwi looks rich here at the lower 0.72 level which, significantly above the 3m and 12m which sit at 0.703 and 0.690 respestively, whilst the 1 trades at 0.711.
- However, going into RBNZ where they are expected to be dovish (discussed in detail in attached post), these MA levels fall nicely in line with areas of price action suppport and thus will be used as profit targets - thus 0.711, 0.701 and 0.691 are my TP1 TP2 and TP3 levels however, given the bearish bias >50% of my lots will be squared at between the 0.701 and the 0.61 level. The 0.711 level is an intermediate TP, which is better suited for 0.718 shorts vs the 0.722 shorts that i currently hold. 0.691 is possible but is skewed towards the bottom of the range, with 0.681 at the very LHS - a 50bps cut and strong dovish forward guidance e.g. like BOE will likely offer us here - cable managed to fall some 350-400pips which ceteris paribus takes kiwi into the 0.681 level also.
Volatility
1. Realised vol has contracted aggressively in the last few days as the daily ranges have tightened unsurprisingly going into RBNZ - IV on the other hand also unsurprisingly has traded bid as option positioning increases as investors place bets on RBNZ.
- Net bets to date look to be bearish, with current 25d risk reversals skewed to the downside at -2.6vols, and across the view we observe a -0.5 to -1 downside bias reflecting the expected RBNZ dovish pressure expected.
- 50d ATM vols trade currently at 30%, 14.8% 1wks, 12.3% 2wks and 11.3% 1m - clearly the RBNZ and following speakers are steepening the vols here. Though interestingly past current and 1wks, 2wk and 1m IVs are flatter than RV, indicating the market expects kiwi price action to settle after the next week which could mean we see NZD$ move post RBNZ then stabalise at this level vs obseriving continued seesaw action of the past 6wks e.g. 0.70-3 ranging.
- Interestingly RV has developed a 60-80% correlated pattern of aggressive/ volatile price action emerging AFTER RV reaching the 5.0-5.5 level (current levels) so assuming my/ markets RBNZ forecasts are correct one would expect this move to be lower (ive highlighted these moves).
Standard Deviation:
1. On the daily weve seen SD normalise from the previous levels where kiwi tested the +2 levels after realising these upper 0.72 levels for a sustained amount of time now - hence NZD$ trades at pretty normal levels for the linear regression though an uptrend as now formed vs sideways/ flat being the previous trend. However, I am betting on the RBNZ offering kiwi lower and realising some days below the 0.70 which should see the kiwi trade at 0.70 as an average price at years end - assuming the RBNZ has seen RBA and BOE (and the difference in response and will use this to make their policy effective).
