If you’ve spent any time observing the financial markets, or watched the talking heads on Business Sunday, you’ve probably gained the impression that currency markets are driven by fundamentals - interest rates, trade balances - or maybe by technical factors - moving averages, candlesticks, the entrails of a goat. Nope. What really happens was best illustrated around midday today, Australian eastern time.
About five minutes before midday (UTC+10), the pound sterling (GBP, sterling, cable, or whatever other name it goes by) suddenly plummeted sixty points in about five minutes.