Sunday, August 3, 2008

Forex reserves drop at USD 306.61 bn

Mumbai, Aug 1 (UNI) India's foreign exchange reserves dropped by USD 50 million to USD 306.61 billion on July 25 from 307.11 billion a week earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its weekly statistical supplement here today.

The forex reserves even shrinked by about Rs 9.60 bn in the last two months, which was a record high at USD 316.17 bn in late May this year.

Market analysts say the decline was due to dollars given by the central bank to refiners in exchange for their oil bonds in order to meet their demand after sharp rise in oil prices.

The suspected intervention in the currency market by the central bank to support the falling rupee through Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) mode also squeezed the reserve kitty in the past two months, analysts said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Currency Assets reserve declined by USD 50 mn to USD 296.87 bn during the week, from USD 297.37 billion in the previous week. However, the gold reserves and special drawing rights (SDR) reserve remained unchanged at USD 9.21 bn and USD 11 mn, respectively. While, reseves with International Monetary Fund (IMF) dropped at USD 515 mn from USD 517 mn, RBI stated.

The central bank said foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, included the effect of appreciation or depreciation of other currencies held in its reserves such as the euro, pound sterling and yen.

The foreign exchange reserves include India's Reserve Tranche Position in the IMF, the central bank said.

FOREX-Dollar rises to 5-wk high vs euro, buoyed by US data

* Dollar rises after U.S. nonfarm payrolls report

* U.S. manufacturing activity holds steady in July

* Yen rises broadly as risk aversion increases (Recasts, updates prices, adds comments, changes byline)

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar climbed to five-week peaks against the euro and three-week highs against the British pound on Friday as better-than-expected economic data allayed worries about a much sharper slowdown.

The yen, on the other hand, gained broadly, benefiting from heightened stress in financial markets on news that General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) had hefty losses in the second quarter. That dragged U.S. stocks lower and triggered safe-haven bids for Treasuries.

"U.S. dollar sentiment has certainly changed for the better over the last couple of weeks," said Mark Frey, head foreign exchange trader at Custom House, a global payments dealer in Victoria, British Columbia.

"The U.S. economy has gone through some tough phases, but the jobs number was negative, but still better than expected. I think, more importantly, recent consumer confidence numbers and leading indicators, which are more forward-looking, have been more positive," he added.

Friday's data showed that U.S. employers eliminated 51,000 jobs in July, lower than market expectations for a payrolls decline of 75,000. A separate report said U.S. factory activity was unchanged in July, compared with the previous month, but above market forecasts. For details, see [ID:nN01429062].

ExpressFX Rules

Trading Forex for profit

How do you make money on Forex? Try selling or buying some currency with a free ExpressFX demo account and see how you can make or lose money as currency rates fluctuate.

Selecting the size of the trade

The larger your trade size, the more profits you will make if the price goes in your favor and the more you will lose if it goes against you. The Demo account is a great way to practice making trades of different sizes because you are not putting money at risk.

The minimum trade size is $1,000. But thanks to the leverage of up to 100:1 you can trade $1,000 when you have just $10 in your trading account. It is easy to calculate the maximum trade size. All you need to do is take the amount that is in your account and multiply it by 100.(!!! The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you)

Opening and closing a position

When you buy a currency you open a position. When you sell the same amount of the same currency, you close the position. During when your position is open you will be making or losing money depending on how currency rates change. If you bought a USD for EUR (USD/EUR) and its rate goes up, you are making money. If it goes down, you are losing money.

Take Profit and Stop Loss

Market prices move almost every moment, but this does not mean that you have to keep an eye on your positions every second. You can set a Take Profit order, which is a command to the dealing desk to automatically close your position when your profits reach a certain level. You can also set a Stop Loss order, which is a command to the dealing desk to close your position when your losses reach a certain level except for extraordinary market conditions. It is a good idea to set both of these orders simultaneously to establish a price range of how much you are willing to make and how much you are ready to risk.

Take Profit and Stop Loss II

The minimum stop-loss and take-profit limits are is $1.20 for every 1000 units of the base currency. For example, if your position size is $3000, the minimum limit for stop-loss and take-profit is 3 x $1.20 = $3.60. The Company retains the right to reject any trade with limit orders that violate this rule.

When you are changing your take-profit order on an open position that is currently making a profit, the new take-profit level should be set at not less than $1.20 for every 1000 units of the base currency from the current P/L.

When you are changing your stop-loss order on an open position that is currently making a loss, the new stop-loss level should be set at not less than $1.20 for every 1000 units of the base currency from the current P/L.

Commissions

Commission is a one time charge for opening a position. Forex Club charges just 60 cents for every $1,000 traded (or 1,000 pounds; or 1,000 Euro). Forex Club returns commission charges to you automatically and instantaneously on non-profitable trades.

Calculating Profit and Loss

You don't need to worry about doing any math because expressFX will do all calculations for you. However, if you would like to know how profits and losses are calculated there is one simple formula.

For the currency pairs where dollar is the base currency (USD/***):

Where dollar is not the base currency (***/USD):

Carrying positions over to the next day

Even though Forex market works around the clock, technically, each trading day ends at 21:00 GMT and the next trading day starts just a few moments after. 21:00 GMT is equivalent to 4 pm New York time in the winter and 5 pm New York time in the summer. All opened positions are automatically closed at the end of each trading day.

However, you don't have to close your positions each day as we offer an option of carrying positions over to the next day for a small fee of 15 cents for every 1,000. Please note, fees for carrying positions over are non-refundable.

Adjusting your positions

In addition to closing your position, you can also downsize, upsize or reverse it. To downsize a position you just need to sell some part of the currency that you have purchased. For example, if you have purchased 1000 Euro for dollars (BUY 1,000 EUR/USD) you can downsize your position by selling 500 Euro. You can upsize your position the same way by buying additional 500 Euros for dollars. You can also reverse a position altogether by selling 2000 Euro for dollars. This way your position will become SELL 2,000 EUR/USD. Please note downsizing or upsizing a position is not necessarily beneficial. It is merely a trading strategy.

ExpressFX - zero-spread trading with a particularly user-friendly platform

ExpressFX is one of our most recent innovations. This trading platform features zero-spreads. With this platform, you pay only $0.6 for every $1,000 traded and get commission refunds for non-profitable trades. This features combined mean that you pay commissions to your broker only when you make profits on your trades.

· Zero-spreads

· $0.6 for every $1,000 traded

· Instant commission refunds on non-profitable trades

· And a built-in wizard that teaches you how to make trades, limit losses and make profits.

· Dow Jones news, candle charts and simple orders

How do I know what currencies to buy or sell?

There are two general approaches to understanding the markets, including the Forex market. The first - technical analysis - focuses on price patterns and uses charting tools to discover them. The second - fundamental analysis - regards price behavior as a product of economic and political events.

Why trade Forex?

Global economic and political events have a large impact on currency rates. Take a look at the Forex market today and see how prices fluctuate. If you buy low and sell high, you make profits. If the market moves against you, then you incur losses. Unlike with the stock market, when one currency is going down, there is always a currency that is going up, which makes Forex attractive for banks and hedge funds, businesses and retail investors.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Forex Broker Reviews and Comparisons


Hello there everyone, found a few sites that will help you find a Forex Broker that’s right for you. Even if you have a broker already, you can use these sites to review your current one or find a better one. Personally, I think I might try out a couple of MT4 (MetaTrader4) compatable brokers from these lists by opening up mini accounts for $250 or less and test out some indicators that I want to try live, but don’t have the nerve (or stomach) to try with big lots. I don’t see anything too risky about this new approach, the initial investments I can easily part with if the markets don’t go my way. Let me know if this is too foolhearty, even if I trade mini lots. just know testing out these expert advisers out, they will be 3:1 win to loss, and losses always smaller than gains, historically. I’m interested in seeing what the spreads will be like, alot of these brokers keep that under wraps unless you ask. Read the story »

Using Fibonacci Levels is the cornerstone of many successful forex traders’ systems and it is based on centuries old mathematical techniques that can be applied to almost everything in nature. The numerous Forex trading systems based on this “Fibonacci numbers sequence” result in billions of dollars in profit annually by traders worldwide, and indeed, after trading Forex for a few years, I have come to use them myself every chance I get.

I’ve learned that the ratio between numbers in the Fibonacci sequence that is significant, rather than the actual numbers in the sequence.

The definition of this Fibonacci sequence is basically formed by a series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers; for example: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13.

Quite simply, the a pair will move up, stop at a point, move back down to another point, “pivot” off of that price and the process continues forever. These “oscillations” in the price of currency pairs are clear indicators of support and resistance. Support occurs when a pair begins to be bought after a move down, and resistance occurs when a pair begins to be sold after a move up. Now, admittedly, these moves occur many times per second, but we should be concerned with support and resistance on longer time frames. Fibonacci levels, when drawn correctly, can be excellent indicators (on almost any time frame) of where a price might go next, Read the story »