EUR/JPY: Bullish Setup on 170.00 Breakout & Dovish BoJWe've identified a compelling, high-conviction long trade setup on EUR/JPY, perfect for a limit order right now. This trade leverages a powerful combination of fundamental divergence and a confirmed technical breakout, setting the stage for quick execution and potential profit! 🎯💰
Fundamental Rationale: 🌍📊
Japanese Yen (JPY) Weakness: The JPY is under significant bearish pressure. 📉 The Bank of Japan's (BoJ) persistently dovish monetary policy, keeping interest rates at historic lows, creates a wide interest rate differential. This fuels "carry trades," where investors borrow low-yielding JPY to invest in higher-yielding currencies like the Euro, increasing JPY supply. Recent weak economic data, including a decline in Tokyo CPI, reinforces expectations that the BoJ will not hike rates in 2025. Additionally, a global "risk-on" sentiment diminishes the JPY's safe-haven appeal, leading to capital outflow and sustained Yen depreciation. 🐻📉
Euro (EUR) Stability: While the Euro isn't showing explosive bullish momentum, its relative stability provides a crucial counter-balance to the weakening Yen. 🇪🇺 The European Central Bank (ECB) is inclined to maintain its current policy, and recent Eurozone inflation data hasn't significantly altered expectations for further rate cuts in H2 2025. This steady footing, paired with the pronounced JPY weakness, creates a compelling bullish case for EUR/JPY. The Euro's role is to be a stable anchor against a fundamentally weak JPY, allowing the cross to climb. ⚖️
Technical Setup: 📊✨
Decisive Breakout Confirmed: EUR/JPY has achieved a powerful and decisive breakout above the critical psychological resistance of 170.00 and its previous yearly high of 169.75. This is a monumental technical event! Such a sustained move above key long-term barriers signals strong underlying buying pressure and confirms a "new trigger for the bulls," indicating a high probability of continued uptrend. 🚀⬆️
High-Probability Entry Strategy: Our entry strategy is designed for a quick and successful fill. Following the confirmed breakout, we anticipate a classic "breakout and retest" phenomenon, where price pulls back to retest the former resistance (now new support). By placing a limit order slightly below the current market price, at 170.10, we aim to catch this anticipated pullback, securing an optimal entry with a tighter risk profile. 🔄🎯
Clear Resistance Target: Our single Take Profit target is strategically set at 170.90, just below the next significant resistance: the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level at 170.93. This level, derived from a previous long-term decline, represents a key area where price might encounter resistance. Targeting slightly below it increases the probability of the TP being hit before any potential reversal. 🎯✅
Trade Parameters: 📋✨
Currency Pair: EUR/JPY 💶🇯🇵
Direction: Long (Buy) ⬆️
Entry (Limit Order): 170.10
Take Profit (TP): 170.90
Stop Loss (SL): 169.60
Risk-Reward Ratio: 1.6:1 (A favorable ratio for a high-probability setup!) ✅
Dovishboj
LONG USDJPY @105.8: NEUTRAL FOMC; DOVISH & EASE BOJ & RISK-ONWe had the best possible outcome for FOMC's Rate decision and Fed Yellens speech which was neutral IMO as expected, with the Economic Projections being dovish, downgrading the projected rate hike cycle. We now look to BOJ.
Trading strategy:
LONG USDJPY (possibly short also GBPJPY for longer term investors or investors that want to hedge against a hawkish BOJ)
TP @>107 = 100pips at least - SL @104.9-105.2
Reasoning
- FOMC overall was neutral, we had lower projections but Yellen remained mildly upbeat, telling the market to shrug off the short NFP report (quite rightly).
- So this means $ demand/ supply remains flat.
- The main driver of the LONG UJ play is on the JPY side. Given that FOMC was flat, this means JPY "risk-off" and uncertainty buying which would have arisen if the fed was aggressively hawkish/ hiked was neutralised - meaning JPY "rate hike induced" safe haven demand was neutralised as instead the FOMC helped risk trade higher = LONG USDJPY as JPY demand falls
- So now we have a situation of neutral USD and neutral JPY as there was no rate hike to unsteady markets and cause JPY to be brought
- So the driver of the LONG USDJPY is the fact that IMO the BOJ will be aggressively dovish and likely to cut rates - their core and CPI prints are consistantly below 0% at -0.5% for Tokyo CPI and Core, with National at -0.3% for both.
These CPI prints are the average print for the last 6 months meaning BOJ policy has been inefective in reaching their goal as inflation is stale and not rising. Thus IMO they have to CUT and EASE and be DOVISH = Long USDJPY
- Further, Kuroda BOJ head said he is aware of JPY trading strongly due to its safe haven properties and he has stated he is prepared to fight this risk-off led Yen appreciation - this means HEAVY easing to negate the JPY risk-off strength and weaken the currency = long USDJPY
- Finally, a dovish BOJ helps ease the risk-off sentiment in the market at the moment (stocks falling and gold rallying) as BOJ easing puts more liquidity into the markets - calming the risk-off sentiment means LESS JPY buying and MORE JPY selling = LONG USDJPY
Evaluation
- So with USD as a stable denominator, I expect the BOJ to heavily ease in order to 1) improve their inflation performance closer to their target 2) to devalue JPY from the risk-off buying that brexit uncertainty has caused.
- Further, UJ is the best expression of the short JPY play as EUR and GBP are both comprimised by BREXIT uncertainty - which is constantly trying to trade eur and gbp lower - hence a long ej or gj is not advised - UJ is the least affected of the majors by brexit - *see my dynamic straddle post attached for more details*
- on that note one may argue AUD or NZD could be used for the long, since they too are even less affected by brexit downside, which is true, however i dont have enough experience in those markets - if think there is a better denominator than USD for the long then by all means use it - however IMO USD is the best of the bunch for future dollar demand as they are the only Central bank to be hiking NZD and AUD are still cutting.
- Also UJ imp volatility is finally falling with 1wk implieds dropping to 12.55 (-3.45), which improves the environment for buying.
Plus as you can see below Historical Vol is also falling, once again illustrating that price may be ready to start rising again - low vol = more buying. Plus the ATR trades lower than average which is a bullish sign - bull markets range less.
- And we are still oversold massively at -2/3 SD of the mean of the weekly. Plus we trade close to the handle at 105.35 which is the strongest support level in USDJPY history thus helping upside from here (unless we break ofc).
Comments welcome