Forex Yellow Pages

By the end of the week the markets finally saw some calm as news about the sub-prime fiasco began to recede from the front pages.  On Friday, the announcement that Bank of China carried nearly 10 Billion dollars of exposure to asset-backed bonds on its books had little impact on trade, partly because the Chinese bank is well capitalized and partly because the marked is becoming somewhat inured to stories of MBS risk. Traders attention is now shifting to handicapping what effect the past two weeks of volatility in capital  markets may produce on the real economy.

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Before you open a real live account it is important that you familiarize yourself with the most common mental mistakes new traders make. You’ll probably still make them anyway, but at least you’ll actually be aware you’re making them which hopefully will make easier for you to correct them. Read more…

Today’s recovery in the US stock market, carry trades and bond yields brought optimism back into the financial markets.  News that BNP Paribas will be reopening its three frozen funds and reports that four of the nation’s largest banks tapped the Fed’s discount window as a vote of confidence has been taken very positively by traders and investors.  Even though the rebound today was strong, which means that we could see a bit more extension tomorrow, traders need to be cautious because this is nothing more than a reflex rally. 

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The aussie saw little changed in trading against the majors on Tuesday in New York. The Australian dollar was up on its U.S. counterpart , but gave back most of its gains from earlier in the morning. The aussie was basically flat with the euro and sterling.

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On Friday just before the opening US stock market trading the Fed announced a 50 basis point cut in the discount rate. The discount rate is the rate Fed charges to other banks and is nearly always higher than the far better known Fed funds rate which is the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans.

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The Nikkei took its cue from the strong Friday finish of the DJIA rising more than 450 points as a sense of stability returned to the financial markets. After initially  trading down at the Asia open USDJPY rebounded for the rest of the night rising as high as 115.50 when bargain hunters poured back into the carry trade on the assumption that the worst of market turbulence was over.

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