A strength meter says a currency went up. It cannot say whether anything is underneath it.
Strength measured from price is useful and circular at the same time: the currency is strong because it rose, which is what you were looking at when you asked. WatchTower carries that reading live and free, in Live prices, and a second one built from the drivers underneath, free in Asset scores. The interesting case is when the two disagree. On Pro, the Currency strength index draws the first reading over any window, hourly to monthly.
Two readings
What each one answers, and what it is blind to.
Strength from price
- Built from
- Free, live: the Currency strength read in Live prices scores each currency across every pair it trades in, from the live tick stream. On Pro, the Currency strength index sets each currency at 100 at the start of the window you choose, hourly to monthly, and draws where it went from there.
- Answers
- What has actually happened. Which currencies are being bought and sold, right now and over the week.
- Blind to
- It is circular by construction: a currency is strong because it went up. It cannot say whether anything is underneath the move, so a squeeze and a repricing look identical.
Strength from drivers
- Built from
- Free: the composite score in Asset scores, built from data against consensus, the central bank, what the desks are writing, seasonality and positioning.
- Answers
- Whether the case for a currency is improving or deteriorating, independently of what price has done this week.
- Blind to
- It is not a forecast. A currency can score well for a month while the market trades something else entirely, and nothing here promises price will come round to it.
Neither replaces the other. A price meter with nothing underneath it and a driver score that price is ignoring are two different kinds of incomplete.
Depth
Eight bars, or eight bars and the reason.
Being straight about it
A disagreement is information, not a signal.
When a currency scores well on its drivers and badly on price, that says the market is not trading its fundamentals at the moment. It does not say price will come round, and nothing on this page claims it will. Currencies go months being driven by flow, positioning or risk appetite while their own data sits ignored.
What the disagreement is good for is knowing which fight you are in. A trade built on the driver case while price disagrees is a trade against the current flow, and that is worth knowing before the position is on rather than after.
The panels
Five panels, two free.
- Live prices. Free. What is moving right now, from the live tick stream. Its Currency strength read scores each currency across every pair it trades in, so you see which are being bought and sold this minute, scaled to the strongest move or fixed at plus or minus 1% so one look compares with the next. Switch to Biggest movers for the gainers and losers ranked.
- Asset scores. Free. The other reading: every monitored asset with its composite score and the drivers behind it. The Every driver read sets every driver against every currency at once, so a currency strong for one reason and one strong for six are visibly different.
- Currency strength index. Pro. Relative strength over time, each currency indexed to 100 at the start of the window and measured against an equal-weighted basket of the other G8 currencies: as lines over the window, or ranked by where each finished. Pick the currencies and the timeframe, from hourly to monthly, so the shape of the move is visible rather than a single bar.
- Asset in full. Pro. One currency taken apart into its scored drivers, with the weight each carries and how hard it pulls.
- Asset statistics. Pro. Volatility ranked against each asset's own history and average daily range, because a strong currency in a violent week is a different proposition from a strong one in a quiet week; and how the currencies move together, which is how you find out that two you thought were separate bets are one.
Currency strength, answered.
How does a currency strength meter work?
The usual kind takes every pair a currency appears in and combines the moves into one figure, so eight currencies become eight bars. It is a compact way to see what has been bought and sold, and it is genuinely useful for that. The Currency strength read in Live prices works this way, live from the tick stream, and it is free.
What is wrong with strength measured from price?
Nothing, as long as its limit is understood. It is circular by construction: it says a currency is strong because it went up, which is the thing you were already looking at. It cannot distinguish a squeeze from a repricing, and it has nothing to say about whether the move has support underneath it.
What is the second reading?
The composite score in Asset scores, built from the data against consensus, the central bank, what the research desks are writing, seasonality and positioning. It asks whether the case for a currency is improving, independently of what price did this week. Asset scores is free.
What does it mean when the two disagree?
That the market is not currently trading the fundamentals of that currency, which happens often and for long stretches. It is information rather than a signal: it does not mean price will come round, and nothing here claims it will. It does mean a trade built on the driver case is fighting the current flow, which is worth knowing before rather than after.
Which currencies are covered?
Strength from price covers the eight majors: USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, AUD, CAD and NZD. The driver score covers all 9 currencies, the Mexican peso included, and 24 markets in total once metals, energy and indices are counted.
Is it free?
Both readings are free. Live prices carries the Currency strength read, each currency scored across every pair it trades in, live; Asset scores carries the driver score. The step up is the Currency strength index, which indexes each currency to 100 over a window you choose and draws it as lines or ranks where each finished. That panel is Pro, with Asset in full and Asset statistics, at $49 a month or $490 a year. Every new account opens with 14 days of Pro, no card, and then stays free with 15 of the 49 panels across 2 boards.