Dollar Firms as Export and Import Prices, Retail Sales and Business Inventories Drop
EUR/USD declined today after rising above the week’s opening level yesterday as the dollar-bullish traders got help from the sale of the euro-denominated assets spurred by the worsening of the global macroeconomic situation. EUR/USD is currently trading near 1.2690.
The U.S. export prices fell by 1.9% in October, while the import prices decreased by 4.7% during the same period. This decline followed the 2-month drop and exceeded the analysts’ expectations.
Advance retail sales report showed a 2.8% decline in October, following 1.2% drop in September. The average forecast for the October retail sales was also 1.2% drop.
Business inventories were down by 0.2% in September after advancing by 0.3% in August. The market analysts expected that the business inventories will add 0.2% in September.
2008-11-14
2008-11-13
How the Credit Crunch Affects You
The credit industry has taken a big hit recently as the credit crisis is clamping down on the US and world economies. Many companies are feeling the credit crunch, and as a result are changing their business practices. This week, American Express gained government approval to classify their company as a bank in order to more easily apply for economic bailout money.
The credit crunch restricts lending
The credit crunch is affecting businesses and consumers alike. On the business end, many companies are finding it difficult to obtain large loans in order to expand operations, or in some cases pay operating expenses. Many companies are in serious financial trouble and layoffs are a distinct possibility. Consumers are also finding it difficult to obtain loans to purchase large ticket items such as automobiles and houses. While I am not a fan of unrestricted lending and spending, stopping the flow of credit will kill our economy.
Credit Card programs changing
Many credit card companies have been hit by this financial crisis as well and are cutting costs and raising fees. Some of the best rewards cards are also being eliminated. Recently, Chase got rid of the Chase Freedom Visa card, and replaced it with the Chase Freedom Card, which has a similar, but slightly less generous rewards plan. It appears as though several other credit card companies are planning on making similar cuts.
Many companies are also getting rid of generous balance transfer deals. A little over a year ago, it was relatively easy to find free, 0% balance transfer offers. Many people would transfer their credit card balance at 0% interest and invest the money in a high yield savings account, while maintaining minimum payments on their credit cards. As the credit industry has tightened lending, these free 0% balance transfer offers are becoming more difficult to find.
Credit card bonus offers may be the next place that credit card companies look to save money. With these changes happening, it may be best to take advantage of deals before they are gone.
Take care of your credit score
The credit crunch is affecting all aspects of our economy - from businesses, to employment, to consumers’ ability to spend. No one knows when the credit crunch will end and it may get worse before it improves. Your credit score is an asset and you need to treat it as such. As the credit crunch continues and the economy worsens, your credit score will become more valuable. Now is a good time to understand your credit score and work toward improving your credit score. You owe it to yourself, especially in a bad economy.
The credit crunch restricts lending
The credit crunch is affecting businesses and consumers alike. On the business end, many companies are finding it difficult to obtain large loans in order to expand operations, or in some cases pay operating expenses. Many companies are in serious financial trouble and layoffs are a distinct possibility. Consumers are also finding it difficult to obtain loans to purchase large ticket items such as automobiles and houses. While I am not a fan of unrestricted lending and spending, stopping the flow of credit will kill our economy.
Credit Card programs changing
Many credit card companies have been hit by this financial crisis as well and are cutting costs and raising fees. Some of the best rewards cards are also being eliminated. Recently, Chase got rid of the Chase Freedom Visa card, and replaced it with the Chase Freedom Card, which has a similar, but slightly less generous rewards plan. It appears as though several other credit card companies are planning on making similar cuts.
Many companies are also getting rid of generous balance transfer deals. A little over a year ago, it was relatively easy to find free, 0% balance transfer offers. Many people would transfer their credit card balance at 0% interest and invest the money in a high yield savings account, while maintaining minimum payments on their credit cards. As the credit industry has tightened lending, these free 0% balance transfer offers are becoming more difficult to find.
Credit card bonus offers may be the next place that credit card companies look to save money. With these changes happening, it may be best to take advantage of deals before they are gone.
Take care of your credit score
The credit crunch is affecting all aspects of our economy - from businesses, to employment, to consumers’ ability to spend. No one knows when the credit crunch will end and it may get worse before it improves. Your credit score is an asset and you need to treat it as such. As the credit crunch continues and the economy worsens, your credit score will become more valuable. Now is a good time to understand your credit score and work toward improving your credit score. You owe it to yourself, especially in a bad economy.
2008-11-11
Prime4x — Forex Broker with MT4 and CFD Trading
Prime4x is a new Forex broker that started offering its services on-line in 2008 and its description was added to my site today. Prime4x offers MetaTrader 4 platform, CFD instruments to trade on, deposits via wire transfer and credit cards only and various bonuses. The minimum account size is $100 and all traders receive 10% bonus on their deposit. There is also a free promotional bonus $500 available on every new account, which can’t be withdrawn, but the profit earned from trading this bonus can be. Prime4x is based in Cyprus and although they are not currently regulated by any authority there, they claim to get the regulation by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission from the beginning of 2009. Trading is leveraged by 1:500 for mini accounts, 1:400 for standard accounts and 1:100 for institutional accounts. Apart from the retail Forex trading Prime4x offers managed accounts service.
The only problem with this Forex broker is their website. It’s completely unprofessional, features examples of some really awkward spelling and punctuation and also tries to resize the browser window with each page load.
The only problem with this Forex broker is their website. It’s completely unprofessional, features examples of some really awkward spelling and punctuation and also tries to resize the browser window with each page load.
2008-11-10
Forex Strategy Books
Forex strategy e-books that are listed here provide information on the specific trading strategies as well as the use of particular Forex trading instruments. Basic knowledge of Forex trading is required to correctly understand and use these strategies.
Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.
If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, contact me and I will gladly remove them.
1-2-3 System — A simple pattern trading system by Mark Crisp.
Bollinger Bandit Trading Strategy — A trading system based on Bollinger bands indicator by unknown author.
Value Area — from The Likos Letter.
The Dynamic Breakout II Strategy — by unknown author.
Ghost Trader Trading Strategy — by unknown author.
King Keltner Trading Strategy — by unknown author.
Scalp Trading Methods — by Kevin Ho.
LSS - An Introduction to the 3-Day Cycle Method — by George Angell.
Market Turns And Continuation Moves With The Tick Index — by Tim Ord.
The Money Manager Trading Strategy — by unknown author.
Picking Tops And Bottoms With The Tick Index — by Tim Ord.
The Super Combo Day Trading Strategy — by unknown author.
The Eleven Elliott Wave Patterns — by unknown author.
The Thermostat Trading Strategy — by unknown author.
Intraday trading with the TICK — by Christopher Terry.
Traders Trick Entry — by Traders Educators of Traders University.
Fibonacci Trader Journal — a journal covering different trading techniques based on Fibonacci indicators, by Robert Krausz. 12 issues.
Rapid Forex — a set of aggressive Forex trading strategies (Rapid Forex) by Robert Borowski and Stephen A. Pierce.
Microtrading the 1 Minute Chart — a small e-book aimed on Forex newbies to teach them the basics of M1 scalping.
BunnyGirl Forex Trading Strategy Rules and FAQ — set of rules for a BunnyGirl trading strategy based on WMA crossing.
The Daily Fozzy Method — by Michael Dunbar.
Forex Trader's Cheat Sheet — real Forex cheat sheet for position entry times/conditions by Quantum Research Management Group.
Offset Trading — a basic Forex news trading range breakout system by Dana Martin.
How to Trade Both Trend and Range Markets by Single Strategy? — by S.A. Ghafari.
A Practical Guide to Technical Indicators; Moving Averages — by S.A. Ghafari.
FX Wizard — essential Forex trading rules by Rob Walton.
FX Destroyer — a description of a rather simple Forex trading strategy, invloving moving averages, parabolic SAR and ADX indicators, by Izu Franks.
A Practical Guide to Swing Trading — a simple and practical guide to the swing trading strategy, by Larry Swing.
Practical Fibonacci Methods for Forex Trading — practical guide to Fibonacci levels with the real trade examples of the Forex strategy based on these levels, by Ken Marshall and Rob Moubray.
What is Forex?
FOREX - the foreign exchange market or currency market or Forex is the market where one currency is traded for another. It is one of the largest markets in the world.
Some of the participants in this market are simply seeking to exchange a foreign currency for their own, like multinational corporations which must pay wages and other expenses in different nations than they sell products in. However, a large part of the market is made up of currency traders, who speculate on movements in exchange rates, much like others would speculate on movements of stock prices. Currency traders try to take advantage of even small fluctuations in exchange rates.
In the foreign exchange market there is little or no 'inside information'. Exchange rate fluctuations are usually caused by actual monetary flows as well as anticipations on global macroeconomic conditions. Significant news is released publicly so, at least in theory, everyone in the world receives the same news at the same time.
Currencies are traded against one another. Each pair of currencies thus constitutes an individual product and is traditionally noted XXX/YYY, where YYY is the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currency into which the price of one unit of XXX currency is expressed. For instance, EUR/USD is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, as in 1 euro = 1.2045 dollar.
Unlike stocks and futures exchange, foreign exchange is indeed an interbank, over-the-counter (OTC) market which means there is no single universal exchange for specific currency pair. The foreign exchange market operates 24 hours per day throughout the week between individuals with forex brokers, brokers with banks, and banks with banks. If the European session is ended the Asian session or US session will start, so all world currencies can be continually in trade. Traders can react to news when it breaks, rather than waiting for the market to open, as is the case with most other markets.
Average daily international foreign exchange trading volume was $1.9 trillion in April 2004 according to the BIS study.
Like any market there is a bid/offer spread (difference between buying price and selling price). On major currency crosses, the difference between the price at which a market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") to a wholesale customer and the price at which the same market-maker will buy ("bid") from the same wholesale customer is minimal, usually only 1 or 2 pips. In the EUR/USD price of 1.4238 a pip would be the '8' at the end. So the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.4238/1.4239.
This, of course, does not apply to retail customers. Most individual currency speculators will trade using a broker which will typically have a spread marked up to say 3-20 pips (so in our example 1.4237/1.4239 or 1.423/1.425). The broker will give their clients often huge amounts of margin, thereby facilitating clients spending more money on the bid/ask spread. The brokers are not regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (since they do not sell securities), so they are not bound by the same margin limits as stock brokerages. They do not typically charge margin interest, however since currency trades must be settled in 2 days, they will "resettle" open positions (again collecting the bid/ask spread).
Individual currency speculators can work during the day and trade in the evenings, taking advantage of the market's 24 hours long trading day.
Some of the participants in this market are simply seeking to exchange a foreign currency for their own, like multinational corporations which must pay wages and other expenses in different nations than they sell products in. However, a large part of the market is made up of currency traders, who speculate on movements in exchange rates, much like others would speculate on movements of stock prices. Currency traders try to take advantage of even small fluctuations in exchange rates.
In the foreign exchange market there is little or no 'inside information'. Exchange rate fluctuations are usually caused by actual monetary flows as well as anticipations on global macroeconomic conditions. Significant news is released publicly so, at least in theory, everyone in the world receives the same news at the same time.
Currencies are traded against one another. Each pair of currencies thus constitutes an individual product and is traditionally noted XXX/YYY, where YYY is the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currency into which the price of one unit of XXX currency is expressed. For instance, EUR/USD is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, as in 1 euro = 1.2045 dollar.
Unlike stocks and futures exchange, foreign exchange is indeed an interbank, over-the-counter (OTC) market which means there is no single universal exchange for specific currency pair. The foreign exchange market operates 24 hours per day throughout the week between individuals with forex brokers, brokers with banks, and banks with banks. If the European session is ended the Asian session or US session will start, so all world currencies can be continually in trade. Traders can react to news when it breaks, rather than waiting for the market to open, as is the case with most other markets.
Average daily international foreign exchange trading volume was $1.9 trillion in April 2004 according to the BIS study.
Like any market there is a bid/offer spread (difference between buying price and selling price). On major currency crosses, the difference between the price at which a market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") to a wholesale customer and the price at which the same market-maker will buy ("bid") from the same wholesale customer is minimal, usually only 1 or 2 pips. In the EUR/USD price of 1.4238 a pip would be the '8' at the end. So the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.4238/1.4239.
This, of course, does not apply to retail customers. Most individual currency speculators will trade using a broker which will typically have a spread marked up to say 3-20 pips (so in our example 1.4237/1.4239 or 1.423/1.425). The broker will give their clients often huge amounts of margin, thereby facilitating clients spending more money on the bid/ask spread. The brokers are not regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (since they do not sell securities), so they are not bound by the same margin limits as stock brokerages. They do not typically charge margin interest, however since currency trades must be settled in 2 days, they will "resettle" open positions (again collecting the bid/ask spread).
Individual currency speculators can work during the day and trade in the evenings, taking advantage of the market's 24 hours long trading day.
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