Gold M Formation: Forex Chart Markups, 15 June 2026

A gold M formation on Wednesday 17 June 2026 topped out at 4382.13 at 13:30 New York, half an hour before the Fed decision, and fell 163 pips that day and 261 by Friday. (We count gold at 1 pip = $1.) It was the high of the week and the end of a three-day induction trend. Fed week gave us 5 textbook setups, 3 partials and three weekly cycles.

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: 5 textbook and 3 partial.
Weekly cycle: 3 of 8 markets turned midweek (USDJPY, USDCHF and XAUUSD).
Setup of the week: Gold (XAUUSD) on Wednesday, M formation, 6 of 8 on confluence: 163 pips that day, 261 on the week.
News in sync with a stop hunt: USD Fed Interest Rate Decision (14:00), Fed Monetary Policy Statement (14:00), FOMC Economic Projections (14:00), Interest Rate Projections - 1st year (14:00).

Gold 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. Gold (XAUUSD) leads with 6 of 8.

The weekly cycle: induction, trap, reversal

The weekly cycle is the bigger picture behind every daily setup: an induction trend early in the week, the high or low of the week on Tuesday or Wednesday, then the reversal. We only draw it when the week actually turned, and each chart carries a checklist of which parts held. The idea is laid out in How to Read a Forex Chart Markup.

USDCHF · 182-pip reversal. The trap printed the low of the week at 0.79097 on Wednesday 03:15 New York, and the reversal ran 182 pips to 0.80915 by Friday. 3 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: no induction trend, Sun to Tue ranged instead of trending.

Gold (XAUUSD) · 261-pip reversal. The trap printed the high of the week at 4382.13 on Wednesday 13:30 New York, and the reversal ran 261 pips to 4121.44 by Friday. 4 of 4 textbook checks held.

USDJPY · 88-pip reversal. The trap printed the high of the week at 161.807 on Thursday 15:00 New York, and the reversal ran 88 pips to 160.928 by Thursday. 1 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: the high of the week came Thursday, not Tuesday or Wednesday.

No weekly cycle chart for EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, USDCAD and NZDUSD: those markets did not make a midweek high or low and then reverse by at least 1.25 average daily ranges.

Setup of the week: Gold (XAUUSD) M formation, 17 June 2026

XAUUSD spent the Asian session in a 32-pip range between 4317.41 and 4349.41. New York then broke the high of that range by 14 pips, to 4363.88 at 10:30 New York, taking Tuesday's high (4354.90) on the way: the breakout the crowd buys. Price pulled back to a neckline at 4330.61, then ran a second leg to 4382.13 at 13:30 New York, 18 pips past the first leg. 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 163 pips to 4218.81 in 2h, 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, 4349.41: taken by the first leg.
New stops above the first leg, 4363.88: taken by the second leg.
Stops above Tuesday's high, 4354.90: taken by the first leg.
Buyers' stops below the neckline, 4330.61: taken as the reversal broke it.
Buyers' stops below the Asian low, 4317.41: 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 (4382.13). The stricter trigger, the first 15-minute close back inside, came with 98 pips of risk to the extreme and 65 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, the previous day's level taken, a Tuesday or Wednesday date, the high or low of the week and induction from the week's open. Missing: a hunt at a session open and high-impact news in sync. 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 Gold (XAUUSD), see forex weekly cycle, week of 4 May 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.

Wednesday · USDCHF · London stop hunt (105 pips). London took the stops below the Asian low at 0.79097 (03:15 New York); price reversed 105 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 4 of 8. It was the low of the week.

Wednesday · USDJPY · London stop hunt (68 pips). London took the stops below the Asian low at 160.116 (04:00 New York); price reversed 68 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. The low held for the rest of the week.

Wednesday · AUDUSD · New York stop hunt (80 pips). New York took the stops above the Asian high at 0.70749 (13:45 New York); price reversed 80 pips, through the whole Asian range. High-impact news in the same candle: USD Fed Interest Rate Decision (14:00), Fed Monetary Policy Statement (14:00), FOMC Economic Projections (14:00), Interest Rate Projections - 1st year (14:00). Confluence 4 of 8. The high held for the rest of the week.

Thursday · USDJPY · London stop hunt (133 pips). London took the stops below the Asian low at 160.475 (05:00 New York); price reversed 133 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 1 of 8. The low held for the rest of the week.

Partial setups: the structure without the follow-through

These printed the structure, but the reversal stalled inside the Asian range. They are worth studying for exactly that reason: the trap was real and the payoff was small.

Monday · Gold (XAUUSD) · M formation (63 pips). The second leg took the stops above the first leg at 4369.48 (10:00 New York); price reversed 63 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. Its high became the target of the weekly trap.

Thursday · AUDUSD · W formation (37 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 0.70005 (07:15 New York); price reversed 37 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. Friday traded back through it.

Friday · USDCAD · M formation (35 pips). The second leg took the stops above the first leg at 1.41829 (11:30 New York); price reversed 35 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 4 of 8. It was the high 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.

USDJPY. 2 setups, best 2 of 8 (Wednesday, London stop hunt at the low).

USDCHF. 1 setup, best 4 of 8 (Wednesday, London stop hunt at the low).

AUDUSD. 2 setups, best 4 of 8 (Wednesday, New York stop hunt at the high). No midweek reversal.

USDCAD. 1 setup, best 4 of 8 (Friday, M off the high). No midweek reversal.

Gold (XAUUSD). 2 setups, best 6 of 8 (Wednesday, M off the high).

What this week teaches about reverse price action

Gold climbed for three days into the Fed, and by Wednesday afternoon the trend looked like the safest trade on the board. That is the induction. The second leg of the M pushed above the first just before the announcement, when breakout buyers were most confident and their stops were closest. The high was in before the decision was read. Trend-following into scheduled news means buying at the point where the most traders agree with you, which is exactly where the orders are.

On the news itself: the event gives the crowd its reason, and the chart shows where the orders already were.

Frequently asked questions

What was the best forex setup in the week of 15 June 2026?

By confluence, Gold (XAUUSD) on Wednesday: an M off the high that scored 6 of 8. It moved 163 pips that day and 261 on the week. It was the high of the week.

Was there a midweek reversal in the week of 15 June 2026?

Yes, on 3 of the 8 markets we track: USDJPY, USDCHF and Gold (XAUUSD). The largest was USDCHF, 182 pips from the low of the week at 0.79097.

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.

Where do retail traders put their stop losses?

Where they are taught to: just above the most recent high when selling, and just below the most recent low when buying. That puts them at the edges of the Asian range, beyond the previous day's high and low, and beyond the first leg of a pattern.

Related chart markups

Previous week: USDCAD W formation, week of 8 June 2026
Next week: EURUSD midweek reversal, week of 22 June 2026
Forex weekly cycle, week of 4 May 2026: the same M formation on Gold (XAUUSD)
FOMC stop hunt, week of 14 September 2026: the same M formation on Gold (XAUUSD)
NFP stop hunt, week of 1 June 2026: another M formation, on EURUSD
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.