Few currencies — with the exception of the Canadian dollar — have enjoyed as strong a run vs. the U.S. buck as the New Zealand dollars (NZD) in recent months. As detailed in "How many gdays do Aussie, kiwi have left?" (Currency Trader, May 2007), the "kiwi" dollar has been in an uptrend since mid-2006, with an incredible upside burst occurring in March through mid-April 2007.

To understand the New Zealand dollar, we will review the daily data for the New Zealand dollar/U.S. dollar (NZD/USD) pair from May 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007 — a total of 260 trading days. The analysis will cover four aspects of price behavior: daily ranges, close-to-close changes, the lows on days that closed higher, and the highs on days that closed lower.

To expand on the daily analysis, we will also analyze intraday price action from March 1 through April 30, 2007 to identify which hours of the trading session offer the most volatility.