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CFDs are complex instruments. 72% of retail client accounts lose money when trading CFDs, with this investment provider. You can lose your money rapidly due to leverage. Please ensure you understand how this product works and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing money.

GBP/USD latest: head-and-shoulders top points to falls ahead

The hourly GBP/USD chart shows a head-and-shoulders pattern that technical analysis suggests will lead to a near-term move to the downside before further gains.

Pound Source: Bloomberg

GBP price, news and analysis

  • A head-and-shoulders top pattern on the GBP/USD chart suggests near-term weakness in the pair
  • In the longer term, the pattern remains in an upward sloping channel that implies this weakness will be temporary and limited

Downside risk near term for GBP/USD

A head-and-shoulders top formation has formed on the hourly GBP/USD chart, which technical analysis suggests will lead to a near-term move to the downside. As the chart below shows, the price has now broken below the neckline of the pattern and could fall as far as the distance between the top of the head and the neckline, giving a target around $1.355.

GBP/USD hourly price chart Source: IG charts
GBP/USD hourly price chart Source: IG charts

Note though that there is trendline support around $1.36 and then at $1.352 from the low touched on 18 January. Moreover, the price is already recovering so the break lower may prove to have been a false one, and GBP/USD remains in a longer-term upward-sloping channel.

Any further weakness should therefore be temporary and limited, with the major trend still to the upside.


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