USDCAD M Formation: Forex Chart Markups, 25 May 2026

A USDCAD M formation on Friday 29 May 2026 fired at 08:45 New York, minutes after Canadian GDP, and fell 59 pips through the whole Asian range before the low side was hunted too. The bigger story is the calendar: seven of eight instruments showed a weekly cycle, and on at least five of them the trap came on Thursday, a day later than the textbook. We marked up 8 textbook setups and 2 partials.

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: 8 textbook and 2 partial.
• Weekly cycle: 7 of 8 markets turned midweek (EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF, AUDUSD, USDCAD, NZDUSD and XAUUSD).
• Setup of the week: USDCAD on Friday, both sides of the Asian range hunted, 5 of 8 on confluence: 59 pips that day, 59 on the week.
• News in sync with a stop hunt: CAD Gross Domestic Product Annualized.

USDCAD 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. USDCAD leads with 5 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 · 104-pip reversal. The trap printed the high of the week at 0.78991 in Thursday's session (Wednesday 23:45 New York), and the reversal ran 104 pips to 0.77950 by Friday. 1 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: the high of the week came Thursday, not Tuesday or Wednesday.

USDCAD · 100-pip reversal. The trap printed the high of the week at 1.38696 on Thursday 06:30 New York, and the reversal ran 100 pips to 1.37698 by Friday. 2 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: the high of the week came Thursday, not Tuesday or Wednesday.

EURUSD · 100-pip reversal. The trap printed the low of the week at 1.15861 on Thursday 00:00 New York, and the reversal ran 100 pips to 1.16857 by Friday. 1 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: the low of the week came Thursday, not Tuesday or Wednesday.

AUDUSD · 103-pip reversal. The trap printed the low of the week at 0.70973 on Thursday 00:00 New York, and the reversal ran 103 pips to 0.72001 by Friday. 2 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: the low of the week came Thursday, not Tuesday or Wednesday.

GBPUSD · 118-pip reversal. The trap printed the low of the week at 1.33672 on Thursday 00:00 New York, and the reversal ran 118 pips to 1.34852 by Friday. 0 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: the low of the week came Thursday, not Tuesday or Wednesday.

NZDUSD · 163-pip reversal. The trap printed the low of the week at 0.58313 on Tuesday 13:45 New York, and the reversal ran 163 pips to 0.59939 by Friday. 2 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: no induction trend, Sun to Mon ranged instead of trending.

Gold (XAUUSD) · 229-pip reversal. The trap printed the low of the week at 4366.05 on Thursday 00:15 New York, and the reversal ran 229 pips to 4594.66 by Friday. 2 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: the low of the week came Thursday, not Tuesday or Wednesday.

No weekly cycle chart for USDJPY: that market did not make a midweek high or low and then reverse by at least 1.25 average daily ranges.

Setup of the week: USDCAD both sides hunted, 29 May 2026

USDCAD spent the Asian session in a 24-pip range between 1.37713 and 1.37957. London then broke the high of that range by 19 pips, to 1.38143 at 07:15 New York: the breakout the crowd buys. Price pulled back to a neckline at 1.37992, then ran a second leg to 1.38291 at 08:45 New York, 15 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 59 pips to 1.37698 in 2h, through the whole Asian range.

Then the other side was hunted. At 10:45 New York price was 1 pip under the Asian low, at 1.37698: 59 pips from the first extreme, with the buyers' stops taken and new sellers trapped. Price then ran 31 pips back to 1.38013 by 12:45. Both sides of the Asian range were cleared before the day picked a direction.

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, 1.37957: taken by the first leg.
• Buyers' stops below the neckline, 1.37992: taken as the reversal broke it.
• Buyers' stops below the Asian low, 1.37713: 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 (1.38291). The stricter trigger, the first 15-minute close back inside, came with 20 pips of risk to the extreme and 39 pips to the low of the day, about 1 to 1.9. 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 (the M off the high): 5 of 8. It had a clear Asian range, a second-leg stop hunt, a hunt at a session open, high-impact news in sync and induction from the week's open. Missing: the previous day's level taken, a Tuesday or Wednesday date and the high or low of the week. The high held for the rest of the week.

The mindset behind fading a breakout is in How to Read a Forex Chart Markup. For the same stop hunt on USDCAD, see USDCAD BoC stop hunt, week of 27 April 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 · EURUSD · London stop hunt (29 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 1.16451 (06:30 New York); price reversed 29 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. Wednesday traded back through it.

Wednesday · EURUSD · New York stop hunt (39 pips). New York took the stops above the Asian high at 1.16614 (08:30 New York); price reversed 39 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. Friday traded back through it.

Wednesday · USDCHF · New York stop hunt (33 pips). New York took the stops below the Asian low at 0.78429 (08:30 New York); price reversed 33 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. Thursday traded back through it.

Friday · AUDUSD · London stop hunt (51 pips). London took the stops below the Asian low at 0.71487 (04:45 New York); price reversed 51 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 1 of 8. The low held for the rest of the week.

Friday · EURUSD · Both sides hunted (61 pips). London took the stops below the Asian low at 1.16248 (04:45 New York); price reversed 61 pips, through the whole Asian range. Then the other side was hunted at 11:30 New York, 29 pips above the Asian high. Confluence 1 of 8. The low held for the rest of the week.

Friday · GBPUSD · Both sides hunted (77 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 1.34080 (04:45 New York); price reversed 77 pips, through the whole Asian range. Then the other side was hunted at 11:30 New York, 35 pips above the Asian high. Confluence 2 of 8. The low held for the rest of the week.

Friday · USDCHF · London stop hunt (52 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 0.78469 (04:45 New York); price reversed 52 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 1 of 8. The high 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.

Tuesday · USDCAD · New York stop hunt (22 pips). New York took the stops above the Asian high at 1.38209 (08:45 New York, 1 pips through Monday's high); price reversed 22 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 3 of 8. Wednesday traded back through it.

Wednesday · AUDUSD · W formation (26 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 0.71234 (08:15 New York); price reversed 26 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 3 of 8. Thursday traded back through it.

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. 4 setups, best 5 of 8 (Friday, M off the high).

GBPUSD. 2 setups, best 2 of 8 (Friday, W off the low).

USDCHF. 2 setups, best 2 of 8 (Wednesday, New York stop hunt at the low).

AUDUSD. 2 setups, best 3 of 8 (Wednesday, W off the low).

USDCAD. 3 setups, best 5 of 8 (Friday, M off the high).

What this week teaches about reverse price action

The textbook says the trap comes on Tuesday or Wednesday. This week it came on Thursday, and the checklist on each weekly chart says so plainly. The induction can be prolonged, and when it is, traders who expected the Wednesday turn are stopped out a day early and become part of the liquidity. The structure is still the same: a level with stops behind it, a push through it, then the reversal. Mark what the chart did, not what the calendar was supposed to do.

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 25 May 2026?

By confluence, USDCAD on Friday: an M off the high that scored 5 of 8. It moved 59 pips that day and 59 on the week. The high held for the rest of the week.

Was there a midweek reversal in the week of 25 May 2026?

Yes, on 7 of the 8 markets we track: EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF, AUDUSD, USDCAD, NZDUSD and Gold (XAUUSD). The largest was USDCHF, 104 pips from the high of the week at 0.78991.

What does "both sides hunted" mean?

It means the stops above the Asian high and the stops below the Asian low were both taken on the same day. One session hunts one side, the reversal runs through the whole range, and the other side is hunted before the day picks a direction.

Why do stop hunts happen on news releases?

A scheduled release brings the most orders into the market at a known minute. Price is often already sitting next to a level with stops behind it, and the release supplies the volume to take them. The timing of the event matters more than the number.

Related chart markups

• Previous week: EURUSD W formation, week of 18 May 2026
• Next week: NFP stop hunt, week of 1 June 2026
• USDCAD BoC stop hunt, week of 27 April 2026: the same stop hunt on USDCAD
• USDCAD stop hunt, week of 20 April 2026: the same stop hunt on USDCAD
• USDCHF stop hunt, week of 21 September 2026: another stop hunt, on USDCHF
• 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.