USD/CAD Ascending Triangle BreakoutUSD/CAD was hit hard during the Q2 sell-off in the USD. And with the almost decade long range still in-play for the pair, with the reversal around 1.4500 in February, that makes sense.
The problem quickly became sentiment as sellers jumped on the move so aggressively, and since mid-June bears have had trouble breaking down to any fresh lows.
We can even see an element of this from May, when prices found support at 1.3750 and sellers were suddenly stalled despite a clear downside trend.
This is a great illustration of why sentiment is so important - if anyone that wants to sell or that can sell the pair already has - even the worst news in the world would have trouble pushing fresh lows. Because if there's no supply coming into the market and there's more demand, well, then prices will go up just given basic supply/demand dynamics. And with a heavy built in short position following a clean downside trend, there will be some sellers looking to take profit which is what generates the start of that demand. And then more shorts will be motivated to take profit as they see price rising even with negative news flow, when prices should be falling.
This can continue all the way until we get to a point that is attractive again to draw fresh sellers into the market and in USD/CAD, that was the 1.4000 handle that held a clean show of resistance in mid-May, and that ushered in another wave of selling. But in mid-June, as price got close to the 1.3500 handle, a similar type of thing started to happen as sellers began to shy away from chasing the move.
Initially that allowed for pullback to that same 1.3750 level that was support in May. Sellers took another shot and even as the USD was setting fresh three-year-lows on the first day of Q3, USD/CAD was setting a higher-low above the prior swing. The trendline produced from those two lows came into play just last week - and when combined with the 1.3750 level made for a textbook ascending triangle formation.
Those setups are often tracked with aim of bullish breakout as it's essentially showing a line in the sand that sellers have defended, in this case at 1.3750; but there's a diminishing impact of that resistance as shown from the increasingly higher-lows. The thought is that, eventually, sellers will give way to the buyers that have been defending higher-lows and that will lead to a breakout and fresh highs.
This is what's taking place now in USD/CAD.
This doesn't necessarily mean that bears are done for, as the big question here is the same from back in May, whether we get to a resistance level that's appealing enough to draw fresh shorts into the market. From the chart attached, I've outlined three areas of interest for such, with 1.3900 nearby and 1.4000 above that. If we do see a prolonged push of USD-strength, there's a zone of support-turned-resistance around 1.4151-1.4178 that becomes of interest for bigger-picture scenarios. - js
