Posts Tagged ‘shareholders’

Momentum funds have a different trading approach as regards currency speculation. Rather than focusing on apparent disparities between the economics and the price, they use so-called momentum models to trigger buy or sell signals in currency pairs irrespective of the economics. Granted, one could argue that since economics affects the price of the currency, so it also affects their models and therefore their trading approach. However, it is fair to say that economics is not their primary focus. Their aim is to be disciplined to the extent that they rigorously follow the trading signals of their momentum models. As one might expect, the nature of these models varies. For instance, one such momentum model relies on technical analysis indicators to provide short-term moving averages. When a 5-day moving average crosses up through the 15-day moving average they buy and when the opposite happens they sell. Granted, this is a vast oversimplification and there are many significantly more sophisticated momentum models than this. That said, the principle is surely the correct one. Momentum models, however complex and whatever indicators they rely on, focus on changes in market prices as their key determinant for providing signals rather than economic fundamentals. Therefore, it is probably a reasonable generalization to say that they are more short term in their trading approach than macro-based currency speculators might be, depending of course on how long the momentum signal lasts.