Forex Investment and Currency Trading

Foreign Exchange-The Fastest-Growing Market of Our Time
The foreign exchange market is the generic term for the worldwide institutions that exist to exchange or trade currencies. Foreign exchange is often referred to as “forex” or “FX.” The foreign exchange market is an over-the-counter (OTC) market, which means that there is no central exchange and clearinghouse where orders are matched. FX dealers and market makers around the world are linked to each other around the clock via telephone, computer, and fax, creating one cohesive market.
Over the past few years, currencies have become one of the most popular products to trade. No other [...]

[Read more →]

USD The USD began to weaken in mid month as expectations for Fed tightening began to subside. Renewed economic weakness in the months ahead should weigh on the USD, reversing recent gains.
EUR Recent Euro zone data have turned decidedly mixed, even in Germany. A July ECB rate hike will likely mark the final stage of the overshoot of the trade-weighted EUR, which is likely to fade in 2H2008.
JPY USD/JPY has kept failing to close above the 200-day moving average, suggesting near-term downside potential. Nonetheless, seasonal Japanese capital outflows should limit JPY appreciation.
GBP A strong retail sales report has boosted market [...]

[Read more →]

Currency
The USD has held to reasonably tight ranges last week despite FOMC Minutes and key rate decisions by the ECB and BoE. However, the underlying economic performance appears to have deteriorated sharply in March, suggesting additional Fed easing late this month. With other central banks focusing on inflation risks, the prospect remains strong for new lows for the USD Index during the weeks in the run-up to the April 30 FOMC meeting.
The ECB maintained its hawkish stance with commodity prices maintaining concerns about future inflation risks. From a technical perspective, EUR/USD established a potentially important triple-top just above 1.59 [...]

[Read more →]

Every currency has a three letter code.

Typically, the first two letters refer to the country, the final letter to the currency.

But the exceptions are numerous.

Convention: first currency/second currency refers to the number of units of the second currency per one unit of the first currency.

EUR/USD …… Spoken as “Euro-dollar” ……refers to the number of U.S. dollars per euro.

USD/JPY …… Spoken as “Dollar-yen” …… refers to the number of Japanese yen per U.S. dollar.

Usually, when referring to currencies versus the U.S. dollar, ‘USD’ is left out, thus EUR, JPY, etc. It is assumed that you are aware of quoting conventions.

Convention: some [...]

[Read more →]