USDCHF Stop Hunt: Forex Chart Markups, 21 September 2026

A USDCHF stop hunt on Thursday 24 September 2026 fired at 04:00 New York, in the same candle as the Swiss National Bank rate decision, and reversed 68 pips. Earlier in the week, Monday's New York open gave stop hunts at the highs on EURUSD and GBPUSD that became their highs of the week, worth 137 and 196 pips. We marked up 11 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: 11 textbook and 3 partial.
• Weekly cycle: 3 of 8 markets turned midweek (USDJPY, USDCHF and NZDUSD).
• Setup of the week: USDCHF on Thursday, London stop hunt, 3 of 8 on confluence: 68 pips that day, 69 on the week.
• News in sync with a stop hunt: CHF SNB Interest Rate Decision (03:30), CHF SNB Monetary Policy Assessment (03:30), CHF SNB Press Conference.

USDCHF stop hunt: how to read these chart markups

New to these charts? Every markup reads price action in reverse. Retail traders are taught the same rules: buy the breakout, sell the breakdown, and put the stop just beyond the last high or low. So we know where their orders sit without seeing an order book. The blue box is the Asian range. The red crosses are retail stop losses. The hatched zone is the stop hunt, where price goes to collect them, and the big number in the header is what the reversal paid in pips. The full walkthrough is in How to Read a Forex Chart Markup.

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 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 · 115-pip reversal. The trap printed the low of the week at 0.81831 on Tuesday 06:00 New York, and the reversal ran 115 pips to 0.82979 by Friday. 3 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: no induction trend, Sun to Mon ranged instead of trending.

NZDUSD · 99-pip reversal. The trap printed the high of the week at 0.57487 on Tuesday 05:45 New York, and the reversal ran 99 pips to 0.56496 by Thursday. 3 of 4 textbook checks held; the miss: no induction trend, Sun to Mon ranged instead of trending.

USDJPY · 210-pip reversal. The trap printed the high of the week at 159.034 on Thursday 11:30 New York, and the reversal ran 210 pips to 156.938 by Friday. 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 Gold (XAUUSD): 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: USDCHF London stop hunt, 24 September 2026

USDCHF spent the Asian session in a 21-pip range between 0.82345 and 0.82559. London then pushed 6 pips past the Asian low, to 0.82287 at 03:15 New York: the breakdown the crowd sells. There was no first leg and neckline beyond the range, so this is a plain stop hunt of the Asian range, not an M or a W. Price did not continue. It reversed 68 pips to 0.82962 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

• Buyers' stops below the Asian low, 0.82345: taken by the stop hunt.
• Sellers' stops above the Asian high, 0.82559: taken as the reversal cleared the range.

The trade. The method buys against the breakout, on the stop hunt past the Asian low (0.82287). The stricter trigger, the first 15-minute close back inside, came with 41 pips of risk to the extreme and 26 pips to the high of the day, about 1 to 0.6. 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: 3 of 8. It had a clear Asian range, a hunt at a session open and high-impact news in sync. Missing: 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. The low held for the rest of the week.

The mindset behind fading a breakout is in How to Read a Forex Chart Markup. For another stop hunt, on USDCAD, see USDCAD M formation, week of 25 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.

Monday · USDCHF · London stop hunt (33 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 0.82388 (03:00 New York); price reversed 33 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 1 of 8. Wednesday traded back through it.

Monday · EURUSD · New York stop hunt (34 pips). New York took the stops above the Asian high at 1.14957 (08:00 New York, 4 pips through Friday's high); price reversed 34 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 4 of 8. It was the high of the week.

Monday · GBPUSD · New York stop hunt (35 pips). New York took the stops above the Asian high at 1.34000 (08:00 New York, 2 pips through Friday's high); price reversed 35 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 4 of 8. It was the high of the week.

Monday · NZDUSD · M formation (25 pips). The second leg took the stops above the first leg at 0.57380 (08:00 New York); price reversed 25 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 3 of 8. Tuesday traded back through it.

Tuesday · USDCHF · Both sides hunted (41 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 0.82246 (04:30 New York); price reversed 41 pips, through the whole Asian range. Then the other side was hunted at 06:00 New York, 17 pips under the Asian low. Confluence 2 of 8. Wednesday traded back through it.

Tuesday · Gold (XAUUSD) · W formation (80 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 4291.24 (04:30 New York); price reversed 80 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 4 of 8. Wednesday traded back through it.

Thursday · GBPUSD · London stop hunt (52 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 1.32557 (03:45 New York); price reversed 52 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. Friday traded back through it.

Thursday · AUDUSD · London stop hunt (40 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 0.70448 (04:00 New York); price reversed 40 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. The high held for the rest of the week.

Thursday · EURUSD · Both sides hunted (40 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 1.13991 (04:00 New York); price reversed 40 pips, through the whole Asian range. Then the other side was hunted at 09:30 New York, 10 pips under the Asian low. Confluence 2 of 8. Friday traded back through it.

Friday · Gold (XAUUSD) · London stop hunt (61 pips). London took the stops above the Asian high at 4315.55 (07:00 New York, 13 pips through Thursday's high); price reversed 61 pips, through the whole Asian range. Confluence 2 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 · AUDUSD · London stop hunt (28 pips). London took the stops below the Asian low at 0.70920 (04:30 New York, 6 pips through Monday's low); price reversed 28 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 2 of 8. Wednesday traded back through it.

Thursday · Gold (XAUUSD) · W formation (44 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 4243.93 (06:30 New York); price reversed 44 pips, back inside the Asian range. Confluence 4 of 8. It was the low of the week.

Thursday · NZDUSD · W formation (25 pips). The second leg took the stops below the first leg at 0.56496 (11:30 New York); price reversed 25 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. 3 setups, best 5 of 8 (Thursday, W off the low). No midweek reversal.

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

USDCHF. 4 setups, best 4 of 8 (Tuesday, London stop hunt at the low).

AUDUSD. 2 setups, best 2 of 8 (Thursday, London stop hunt at the high). No midweek reversal.

NZDUSD. 2 setups, best 5 of 8 (Thursday, W off the low).

Gold (XAUUSD). 3 setups, best 4 of 8 (Tuesday, W off the low). No midweek reversal.

What this week teaches about reverse price action

One hunt with a headline, two without. On Monday the highs on EURUSD and GBPUSD were set by a quiet New York stop hunt with no release at all. On Thursday the Swiss franc got its hunt with the SNB decision as cover. News changes how many orders are in the market when a level is tested. It does not change where the level is. The Asian range was drawn hours before either event, and both hunts went to the same place: just past its edge.

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 21 September 2026?

By confluence, EURUSD on Thursday: a W off the low that scored 5 of 8. It moved 33 pips that day and 52 on the week. It was the low of the week.

Was there a midweek reversal in the week of 21 September 2026?

Yes, on 3 of the 8 markets we track: USDJPY, USDCHF and NZDUSD. The largest was USDCHF, 115 pips from the low of the week at 0.81831.

What is a stop hunt in forex?

A stop hunt is a push through an obvious high or low, where retail stop losses and breakout orders are clustered, followed by a reversal. The push triggers the stops and fills the breakout traders in the same moment, and that burst of orders is the liquidity larger players need.

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: FOMC stop hunt, week of 14 September 2026
• Next week: EURUSD stop hunt, week of 28 September 2026
• USDCAD M formation, week of 25 May 2026: another stop hunt, on USDCAD
• USDCAD BoC stop hunt, week of 27 April 2026: another stop hunt, on USDCAD
• USDCHF M formation, week of 29 June 2026: another stop hunt timed to news
• 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.