The Sentiment Index can be a valuable tool for intraday currency trading. The Index is based on transaction flow information and is designed to show long and short ratio in the most popular currencies and currency pairs consolidated by liquidity consumers and providers.
Liquidity consumers are represented by individual clients, brokers, investment companies and hedge funds. The sentiment ratio of this group is the percentage of longs or shorts in the overall amount of open trades, executed by the liquidity consumer. The index also includes liquidity from individual bids and offers of the foregoing participants if it is not provided on a regular basis.
Liquidity providers are represented by centralized marketplaces and a number of banks which continuously provide ask and bid prices on the market. The sentiment ratio of this group is opposite to liquidity consumers data because, for each trade executed through SWFX, there are two equal and offsetting over-the-counter transactions.
The index reflects the distribution of the current market conditions and is updated every 30 minutes.
How to use
The Sentiment Index has the ability to indicate the ebbs and flows of sentiment and keep your fingers on the pulse of the market. The Sentiment Index gauges effective speculative interest in currency pairs and currencies, and therefore can be used as a contrarian indicator.
Example: the Sentiment index can become an additional confirmation filter and thus approve or disapprove of trading signals from any intraday strategies like MACD divergence or MA crossovers. If the strategy gives a BUY signal on EURUSD and the sentiment indicators for EURUSD and EUR are overbought, the trader should avoid entering into position. If the strategy gives a SELL signal on GBPUSD and the sentiment indicator for GBPUSD and GBP are overbought or at least neutral, the probability of a successful trade is increased.