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GBP/JPY drifts higher but faces resistance at 186

By Daniela Hathorn

15:13, 9 November 2023

GBP
GBP

The British Pound has been showing some strength in recent sessions, but it continues to battle it out against the Japanese Yen to break above an area where resistance has been strong. GBP/JPY has been edging towards the 186.00 mark after a strong rally during the year which has taken it back to its pre-Brexit levels.

GBPJPY daily chartSource: tradingview - Past Performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

A lot of the move has been on the back of continued Yen weakness as GBP has struggled to garner momentum against other G7 currencies. The Bank of Japan’s relentless efforts to suppress the need for interest rate hikes have weighed on the Japanese currency, allowing GBP/JPY to advance 20% since the start of the year. In contrast, the Bank of England has been hiking relentlessly in an attempt to keep up with soaring inflation.

But the pair seems to have plateaued in recent weeks. The thing is, the BOE is now seemingly at the end of its hiking cycle whilst the BoJ has been taking steps towards tightening, meaning the factors driving GBP/JPY have started to reverse. Based on Governor Bailey's speech last week it’s unlikely that we see any rate cuts from the BOE any time soon, but traders will likely be cautious of the upcoming data from the UK, including the Q3 GDP on Friday morning. Market pricing around the future path of monetary policy could shift if the data comes out worse (or better) than expected, so GBP could be sensitive to the data.

Meanwhile, the BOJ failed to tweak its yield curve control (YCC) policy at its meeting last week as it remains flexible with its 1% bands for now. But with inflation having crept above 4% and having remained above 3% for over 6 months the BoJ can no longer assign the blame to external factors. A rise in interest rates would be a key step in the bank’s policy but according to data from Reuters, markets aren’t convinced that will happen until Q2 2024. 

BOJ rates vs CPISource: refinitiv - Past Performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

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The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely.
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