Joseph Trevisani is a currency analyst, with more than 25 years of experience, followed by thousands of traders. Chief Market Strategist at WorldWideMarkets, Trevisani has been quoted in the most important media such as the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswires, the Chicago Tribune and Futures Magazine.
In this exclusive interview, he explains us a bit more about himself and his new weekly show on FXStreet. Today, the interviewer becomes the interviewed.
Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you start in the Forex markets?
I started as a trading assistant on the Credit Suisse currency desk right out of graduate school. It was the height of the voice broker/market maker money center bank dominance of the interbank currency market.
Traders were responsible for making currency prices to the bank’s customers and in reciprocal relationships with other banks and managing their own position and of course, for P/L.There was no electronic market. The bank traders, connected through voice brokers, were the inter-bank market. I was a trader, trading deck manager and proprietary until 2001 when I joined the online market at FX Solutions.
Are you currently a trader or an analyst only, or both?
Analyst only. WorldWideMarkets does not have a proprietary trading operation.
What do you enjoy the most about trading and analyzing the Forex markets?
When I was trading the interbank market operated at such speed, risk and pressure that concen
tration had to be absolute. Performing at that level was exhilarating if sometimes nerve wracking.
Analysis is pattern recognition and psychology before it is economics. Markets do not respond in a linear fashion to information.Economic and political inputs are filtered through expectations, recent market activity and existing positions before they influence price action. Isolating the most important information and combining it with market attitudes is consistently challenging, ever changing and rewarding.
What is the pair you think is the most interesting to follow lately and why?
I tend to follow currencies with the greatest volume for day to day analysis, so the euro, sterling, yen and other G-7 pairs. The larger statistical base of these currencies is a firmer ground for technical analysis. Fundamental analysis permits a wider scope of trading pairs since the analytical method is economic.
Over the last year the sterling, euro, yen and dollar have been consistently interesting as the markets were forced to incorporate political events that were not only unexpected but unfinished into an analytical framework that deals poorly with ambiguity.
What is your favorite trading strategy and why?
When I was trading for the banks I was largely a flow trader following the deals of the bank’s larger customers. As a proprietary trader I would look for potential breakouts, points where the market’s prior price action predicted an acceleration if it breached a specific level. Such levels are often illustrated by the accumulation of stop/loss orders.
Because a large portion of the lunge through a stop level is predicated on the rapid and mandated execution of orders, once the process begins, it has a certain mechanical quality and usually follows a standard pattern that can be exploited for profit.
Do you remember when your relationship with FXStreet started? Can you explain how it happened?
In the early days FX Solutions and FXStreet were both pioneers in the new world of internet trading and information. Our original business relationship quickly became mutually instructive. FX Solutions and others introduced the currency market to the retail trader and FXStreet became a source of reliable information about trading, the market and its participants.
When I switched from the sales side at FX Solutions to research, FXStreet was a natural partner and the relationship has flourished. My relationship with FXStreet began when the industry started and has continued ever since.
Your new weekly show in our Live Video channel is a series of interviews called “Market Directions“. What are these about and why should users watch them?
The global currency market has evolved continuously since its creation in the collapse of the Bretton-Woods fixed rate system in 1971. From an esoteric, institutionally dominated proprietary market in the 1980s and 1990s to the instantly accessible, globally uniform retail market of today, currency markets have evolved faster and with more flexibility than any other comparable trading instrument.
Technology, education, trading techniques, regulation and entrepreneurship have all played their part as currencies have expanded into the largest trading market and the only truly global one. There have been surprises, pitfalls, excitement, successes, failures and even danger along the way. The one thing there has not been is boredom.
Market Directions will cover the universe of global currencies, from education to economics, from central banks and hedge funds to the individual account, from Elliott Wave to Candle Charts and everything in between. Join us as we explore the personalities, knowledge, evolution and future of the world’s fiat currency system.
Can you give us the names of some of the people you expect to interview?
James Chen, Boris Schlossberg, Kathy Lien, Kathy Brooks, Steve Nison, Todd Gordon, Kiana Danial, Brian Dolan, Ashraf Laidi, Sam Seiden, Ed Moya, Thomas Plaut, Bob Cortright, Drev Niv, Mark Galant, Ed Ponsi, James Dicks, Marc Chandler, Axel Merk, Barbara Rockefeller, Valeria Bednarik and Harry Dent.
Wow! The list looks great! You’ve been presenting Webinars for many years with us. Over 10 years or so I think. What do you enjoy most about hosting these live video events?
The ability to share my experience and knowledge with a worldwide audience and the privilege to learn from the audience as I do.
What is your number one advice to Forex traders, if you had to pick just one
‘The real market you’re working on is the market called yourself’. Borrowed from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig, “The real cycle you’re working on is a cycle called yourself”.
Remember, watch Joseph Trevisani‘s Market Directions every Wednesday at 15:00 GMT on FXStreet Live Video Channel. It’s free!
