FX Trade View: Downside via EURUSD put option

EURUSD is heavy near range support, with the turnaround in the US Federal Reserve guidance since the hawkish December Federal Open Market Committee meeting unable to engineer a more profound sell-off in the US dollar as the Eurozone outlook has worsened so drastically that the European Central Bank may be forced to consider easing measures at coming meetings while the FOMC is actively tightening. EURUSD may eye new local lows for the cycle, driven chiefly by concerns for the Eurozone economic outlook and ECB being a first mover in bringing new policy accommodation.

As well, given the weakening outlook for global growth, markets may have been a bit premature in celebrating the Fed’s and other central banks’ turn away from a tightening bias as historically, an easing cycle from central banks only arrives at this point in the cycle due to mounting worries of recession and with a backdrop of very weak asset markets. A fresh sell-off in global equity markets could support the US dollar, typically a safe haven from a liquidity angle during times of crisis. A wildcard risk for the euro side of the EURUSD equation is the risk of fresh existential worries driven by populist demands for expanding fiscal stimulus and concerns on sovereign debt funding at the periphery.

  

Technically, the EURUSD softness points to the range lows as a possible trigger for a more profound move lower in coming months. We take a three month put option position, in the hopes of the price action moving well below 1.1000 over the three month time frame. 

Consider longer dated options and different strike prices for a different risk/reward profile.

Risks: risk to this trade is 100% loss of the amount paid up front for the option premium.