Robert Prechter warned of this. It doesn’t matter if you traded right, if you can’t cash in your nominal winnings:
Dear Client,
Please be advised that that most Western Banks have stopped pricing USD/RUB. As such, FXCM can no longer offer this instrument to our clients and will begin closing any existing client trades in USD/RUB effective at Noon EST today, December 16th, 2014,
So for those curious why there appears to be a collapse in Ruble volatility in the past few hours which in turn has sent both stocks and crude soaring, the answer is simple: nobody is trading it!
And this is what happened following the post: as soon as all those
short the RUB (long USDRUB) realized they have to take profits, the USDRUB tumbled some 500 pips (!) in the process sending stocks surging.
We appear to have a full-blown financial war underway. I wonder how long it will take Putin to put the ruble on the gold standard. That’s always been his trump card; it eliminates Russia’s ability to play the money multiplication game, but in the end, will provide Russia with a sounder currency than the so-called currency of last resort.