It was Europe just about all the time once again last week as markets moved to the cadence of the political machinations in Greece, Italy and the EU. After what seemed like inertia in Greece and Italy concerning their respective political leadership, both countries moved to replace their prime ministers. In Greece after several days of dithering, missed deadlines and public and private outrage, there finally is a new prime minister. On November 10th, Lucas Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank, was named to replace George Papandreou, who had pledged to stand down four days earlier. Mr Papademos, an academic economist and a member of no political party, has the reputation that is reassuring to Greece’s bailout partners. His financial expertise should prove useful when it comes to implementing the complexities of the agreements reached with the EU and IMF.
Archive for the ‘Euro’ Category
Light years ago, in a galaxy far, far away…. financial institutions, banks and international monetary funds were the only participants in the trading of foreign exchange instruments.
Thats a fancy way of saying forex!
Forex brokers at the retail level did not exist because these institutions monopolized the foreign exchange due to their abilities to have access to information and data that allowed them to hedge their interests and profit from the monetary policy that the average investor could not get to very easily. This, combined with government regulations and the huge volume required in trades to maintain adequate liquidity, prohibited the small speculator from participating.
Forex broker is an intermediary between a trader and a currency market. Retail trading isn’t possible with Forex brokerage. Finding the right Forex broker among hundreds of the online firms isn’t an easy task. That’s why you need to inform yourself on the specific broker that you will want to work with and collect important information on certain aspects.
The first question you have to ask yourself is: is the broker I want to use regulated? There must be no doubt about this first point. All regulated brokers must submit financial reports to regulatory authorities, and when they fail to do it, authorities have the right to fine them or terminate their membership. This enforces Forex brokers to keep transparent financial reports.
The brokers must be regulated by their local regulatory authorities, for instance, for brokers based in the US, they must be regulated by the NFA (National Futures Association) and CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), Swiss based brokers must be regulated by the FDF (Swiss Federal Department of Finance) and so on.
The online forex trading industry is one of the most dynamic online industries. Most online forex traders are US citizens so the recent events regarding the top poker rooms active on US market also affected the forex market. The events on the Black Friday were totally unexpected and no one saw it coming. This unprecedented event raised the level of uncertainty in the online environment as the forex industry was already in a tough situation after the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) imposed new regulations.
These CFTC regulations led to the limitation of the number of forex brokers that accept US traders and most of the brokers available on the US market have low leverages and unfavorable trading conditions. Under these circumstances more and more US traders look for offshore forex brokers with higher leverages and better trading conditions. Read more…
Stemming the Malaysian Exodus
Recently, YB Teresa Kok asked me “Why are Malaysians so keen to leave this country? Life overseas is not necessarily easier!” I agree that life overseas is not necessarily. In fact my cousins living in Hong Kong, Singapore and London tell me regularly that they miss the food and that things are much cheaper at home. They complain about the weather, high cost of living and their long working hours. Despite this, when the possibility of coming back home is raised, they give me a smile and a shake of their heads.
Is living in Malaysia really so bad? What is it that other countries have that we don’t? Lim Kit Siang posted on his blog in December 2009 that more than 630 Malaysians are migrating overseas everyday, and that number is increasing year on year. Read more…
My first real job was as a junior enlisted member of the United States Air Force. I had great benefits, but as a low ranking enlisted member my take home pay wasn’t worth bragging about. I was earning a comfortable living for a 19-year-old, but I didn’t think I had enough money to invest. It turns out I was wrong.
A talk with one of my mentors, a senior enlisted member in my squadron, made me rethink the way I viewed investing. During one of our conversations I brought up the topic of investing and mentioned I would like to start in a couple years when I had more money. He listened to me give several excuses why I couldn’t invest and then he said something that changed the way I think and act about investing. Read more…
The currency exchange rate is the rate at which one currency can be exchanged for another. It is always quoted in pairs like the EUR/USD (the Euro and the US Dollar). Exchange rates fluctuate based on economic factors like inflation, industrial production and geopolitical events. These factors will influence whether you buy or sell a currency pair.
Example of a Forex Trade:
The EUR/USD rate represents the number of US Dollars one Euro can purchase. If you believe that the Euro will increase in value against the US Dollar, you will buy Euros with US Dollars. If the exchange rate rises, you will sell the Euros back, making a profit. Please keep in mind that forex trading involves a high risk of loss.
Forex is the world’s largest market, with about 3.2 trillion US dollars in daily volume and 24-hour market action. Some key differences between Forex and Equities markets are:
- Many firms don’t charge commissions – you pay only the bid/ask spreads.
- There’s 24 hour trading – you dictate when to trade and how to trade.
- You can trade on leverage, but this can magnify potential gains and losses.
- You can focus on picking from a few currencies rather than from 5000 stocks.
- Forex is accessible – you don’t need a lot of money to get started. Read more…
