Taking a look at the recent price action on USDJPY, we can see how the use of patterns and structure can be used to increase the probability for any potential trade setup.
As you can see from the 15 Minute chart, USDJPY was on the rise until it ran out of steam and started to trade into an ascending channel. This ascending channel completed a bearish (selling) 3 drive pattern at the highs which can indicate price exhaustion.
Once we saw this pattern complete and start to break down, we still don't look to enter the market until we locate a lower inner trend line to also break to the downside as this can help increase the strength of the pattern holding enough to extract pips from the market. Once the trend line breaks we can look to enter on the retest on the other side.
As we saw continued weakness in USD, we were given another opportunity to enter the market for a potential continuation play, this time in the form of a bearish head & shoulders pattern. Just like the 3 drive pattern we don't look to enter the head & shoulders until we see a lower inner trend line also break to the downside on the retest.
We would look to minimise our risk to the downside in both setups by placing a stop loss not to far above the 3rd drive high of the 3 drive pattern and just above the head of the head & shoulders pattern.
As you can see from the 15 Minute chart, USDJPY was on the rise until it ran out of steam and started to trade into an ascending channel. This ascending channel completed a bearish (selling) 3 drive pattern at the highs which can indicate price exhaustion.
Once we saw this pattern complete and start to break down, we still don't look to enter the market until we locate a lower inner trend line to also break to the downside as this can help increase the strength of the pattern holding enough to extract pips from the market. Once the trend line breaks we can look to enter on the retest on the other side.
As we saw continued weakness in USD, we were given another opportunity to enter the market for a potential continuation play, this time in the form of a bearish head & shoulders pattern. Just like the 3 drive pattern we don't look to enter the head & shoulders until we see a lower inner trend line also break to the downside on the retest.
We would look to minimise our risk to the downside in both setups by placing a stop loss not to far above the 3rd drive high of the 3 drive pattern and just above the head of the head & shoulders pattern.