EURUSD M Formation: Forex Chart Markups, 13 April 2026

An EURUSD M formation at 09:00 New York on Friday 17 April 2026 marked the high of the week at 1.18491 and reversed 89 pips by the close. It did not happen alone: GBPUSD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD and USDCAD printed their own stop hunts in the same 15-minute candle. This week's chart markups cover 10 textbook setups on the majors and gold, and not one pair showed a midweek reversal.

The week in brief

• Markets: the seven forex majors and gold (XAUUSD, counted at 1 pip = $1), on 15-minute and 1-hour candles.
• Daily setups: 10 textbook and 0 partial.
• Weekly cycle: none. No market made a Tuesday-to-Thursday high or low and then reversed.
• Setup of the week: EURUSD on Friday, M formation, 6 of 8 on confluence: 89 pips that day, 89 on the week.

EURUSD M formation: how to read these chart markups

If this is your first markup, read it backwards. We are not asking where price will go. We are asking where the crowd has put its orders, because retail education puts them in the same places every week: stops above the highs, stops below the lows, breakout orders just past both. On each chart the blue box is the Asian range, the bands of red crosses are retail stop losses, the hatched zone is the stop hunt, and the header shows the pips the reversal made. How to Read a Forex Chart Markup explains every mark.

The week at a glance: confluence ranking

Every daily setup of the week on one page, best first. The score is a tally of the eight confirmations the method lists, and the last column says what the rest of the week did with each level. EURUSD leads with 6 of 8.

The weekly cycle: induction, trap, reversal

No market showed a weekly cycle this week. Not one of the eight made a high or low on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and then reversed by at least 1.25 average daily ranges, so there is no weekly chart to draw. That happens: the cycle is a concept that adds confidence when it appears, not a rule every week obeys. The daily setups below stand on their own.

Setup of the week: EURUSD M formation, 17 April 2026

EURUSD spent the Asian session in a 15-pip range between 1.17720 and 1.17871. London then broke the high of that range by 12 pips, to 1.17991 at 05:15 New York: the breakout the crowd buys. Price pulled back to a neckline at 1.17908, then ran a second leg to 1.18491 at 09:00 New York, 50 pips past the first leg and 25 pips through Thursday's high (1.18238). That second leg is the stop hunt. It took the stops resting above the first leg and trapped everyone who bought the new high. From there price reversed 89 pips to 1.17601 in 7h 45m, through the whole Asian range.

Now read it in reverse. At each of those prices, whose orders were waiting?

Where the retail stops were

• Sellers' stops above the Asian high, 1.17871: taken by the first leg.
• New stops above the first leg, 1.17991: taken by the second leg.
• Stops above Thursday's high, 1.18238: taken by the second leg.
• Buyers' stops below the neckline, 1.17908: taken as the reversal broke it.
• Buyers' stops below the Asian low, 1.17720: taken as the reversal cleared the range.

The trade. The method sells against the breakout, on the second leg at the high of the day (1.18491). The stricter trigger, the first 15-minute close back inside, came with 51 pips of risk to the extreme and 38 pips to the low of the day, about 1 to 0.7. The method skips anything under 1 to 3, so from that trigger this one does not qualify. These numbers are measured after the fact from 15-minute candles.

Confirmations: 6 of 8. It had a clear Asian range, a second-leg stop hunt, a hunt at a session open, the previous day's level taken, the high or low of the week and induction from the week's open. Missing: high-impact news in sync and a Tuesday or Wednesday date. It is the high of the week.

The rules for this pattern are in How to Read a Forex Chart Markup. For the same M formation on EURUSD, see NFP stop hunt, week of 1 June 2026.

Textbook setups, day by day

A setup is textbook when the reversal clears the whole Asian range, or runs at least three quarters of the pair's average daily range. The daily cycle behind all of them, Asia consolidating, London breaking out and the reversal after, is covered in How to Read a Forex Chart Markup.

Tuesday · USDCAD · W formation (47 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 1.37305 (09:00 New York); price reversed 47 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 4 of 8. Wednesday traded back through it.

Wednesday · USDCHF · London stop hunt (33 pips). London took the stops below the Asian low at 0.77983 (04:15 New York); price reversed 33 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 4 of 8. Friday traded back through it.

Wednesday · USDJPY · Both sides hunted (51 pips). London took the stops below the Asian low at 158.644 (04:15 New York); price reversed 51 pips, through the whole Asian range. Then the other side was hunted at 08:15 New York, 9 pips above the Asian high. Confluence 3 of 8. Thursday traded back through it.

Wednesday · EURUSD · W formation (36 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 1.17718 (06:30 New York); price reversed 36 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 3 of 8. Thursday traded back through it.

Wednesday · USDCAD · London stop hunt (62 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 1.37879 (07:30 New York); price reversed 62 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 1 of 8. The high held for the rest of the week.

Friday · AUDUSD · M formation (57 pips). The second leg took the stops above the first leg at 0.72214 (09:00 New York, 24 pips through Thursday's high); price reversed 57 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 6 of 8. It was the high of the week.

Friday · GBPUSD · M formation (86 pips). The second leg took the stops above the first leg at 1.35990 (09:00 New York, 4 pips through Thursday's high); price reversed 86 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 5 of 8. It was the high of the week.

Friday · NZDUSD · New York stop hunt (51 pips). New York took the stops above the Asian high at 0.59288 (09:00 New York, 7 pips through Thursday's high); price reversed 51 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 5 of 8. It was the high of the week.

Friday · USDCAD · W formation (46 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 1.36489 (09:00 New York); price reversed 46 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 5 of 8. It was the low of the week.

Daily and weekly confluence, pair by pair

Each chart pins a pair's daily setups on its hourly chart for the week. The solid line is the move that day, the dashed line is how far it ran before the level was traded back through, and a gold band marks a weekly reversal. The table under each chart ticks the confirmations.

EURUSD. 2 setups, best 6 of 8 (Friday, M off the high). No midweek reversal.

GBPUSD. 1 setup, best 5 of 8 (Friday, M off the high). No midweek reversal.

USDJPY. 2 setups, best 3 of 8 (Wednesday, London stop hunt at the low). No midweek reversal.

USDCHF. 1 setup, best 4 of 8 (Wednesday, London stop hunt at the low). No midweek reversal.

AUDUSD. 1 setup, best 6 of 8 (Friday, M off the high). No midweek reversal.

USDCAD. 3 setups, best 5 of 8 (Friday, W off the low). No midweek reversal.

NZDUSD. 1 setup, best 5 of 8 (Friday, New York stop hunt at the high). No midweek reversal.

What this week teaches about reverse price action

When five pairs hunt stops in the same candle, you are looking at one dollar move seen from five charts. The week trended into Friday, breakout buyers kept adding above every prior high, and the final push at the New York open took the stops above Thursday's high on EURUSD before the reversal. The M formation is the footprint of that: a first leg the crowd buys, then a second leg that takes their stops. Treat the five charts as one idea, not five separate trades.

Frequently asked questions

What was the best forex setup in the week of 13 April 2026?

By confluence, EURUSD on Friday: an M off the high that scored 6 of 8. It moved 89 pips that day and 89 on the week. It was the high of the week.

Was there a midweek reversal in the week of 13 April 2026?

No. None of the eight markets printed a Tuesday-to-Thursday high or low followed by a move of 1.25 average daily ranges the other way.

What is an M formation in forex?

An M formation is a reversal at a high. Price breaks above the Asian range (the first leg), pulls back to a neckline, then makes a second leg slightly above the first. That second leg takes the stops above the first high and traps breakout buyers. The method only trades an M off the high of the day.

What is reverse price action?

Reverse price action is reading a chart from the other side of the trade. Retail traders are taught the same rules, so their stops and breakout orders sit at predictable prices. Instead of following the textbook signal, you ask who is about to be trapped by it and where their stops are.

Related chart markups

• Previous week: USDJPY stop hunt, week of 6 April 2026
• Next week: USDCAD stop hunt, week of 20 April 2026
• NFP stop hunt, week of 1 June 2026: the same M formation on EURUSD
• EURUSD stop hunt, week of 28 September 2026: the same M formation on EURUSD
• Forex weekly cycle, week of 4 May 2026: another M formation, on Gold (XAUUSD)
• All forex chart markups, week by week
• How to Read a Forex Chart Markup: what every mark on these charts means

Learn to read the chart this way. The Forexia Academy courses cover the Asian range, M and W formations and the weekly cycle step by step. Browse the courses.

These chart markups are made after the fact, for study. They are not signals and not trade advice. Candles: Dukascopy. Economic calendar: FXStreet. All times are New York. Stop-loss positions are the method's reading of the structure, not order-book data.