Large Round Figures

Many traders, from the individual speculator to the large fund will focus on the large round figures or round numbers when applying their analysis to the FX-market for a number of reasons. Option traders tend to select these price levels whether their exercising American, European, or Exotic options, as well as the placement of protective stop orders.

For that reason, the 'large round figure' such as 1.3100 or 1.3250 tend to carry a greater weight of importance. However this can be deceitful as the market often times will spill over to trade slightly above or below a price level of importance. For that reason we should naturally expect the ultimate highs and lows to rest at times slightly beyond these areas. For example, we can see the following (15-minute) chart, the EURUSD has recently found major turning points very close but not exactly on the 1.3100, 1.3200, and 1.3250 figures respectively. In fact notice, how each turning point was established within 15-pips of a figure. We should suspect the market as it approaches and fails to break beyond a large round figure, even if we cannot take the exact figure literally.

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