Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Currency Fluctuations

What can affect currency fluctuation?
1. Expectation of data release as well as the release itself. Data can be understood as a publication of countries economic indicators, where the traded currency is national, news about interest rate changes, economic reviews and other important events influencing the currency market.
Pre-event period and the event itself can strongly affect currency fluctuation. Sometimes it is hard to define what causes more effect – waiting of the event or its coming, but serious occurrences always cause significant and often continuous fluctuations.
Time and date of the upcoming event is reported beforehand. The information about the most important events in a certain country is published in economic calendars. Before the event comes, predictions about its impact on a certain currency exchange rate are published in analytical forecasts. Therefore, anticipating an event the exchange rate starts moving in the predicted direction and often, after the forecast is confirmed, the exchange rate reverses into opposite direction. It happens because traders close positions opened in expectation period.
2. Fund activity (investment, resignation and insurance funds) has the biggest impact on long-term currency fluctuation. Fund activity includes investing in various currencies. Their substantial capital enables them to turn the exchange rate to a certain direction. Capital management is run by fund managers.
They have their own methods, therefore, the position opened by a manager can be short-term, medium-term and long-term. Decisions of position opening are made after thorough analysis (fundamental, technical and other) of the market. When opening positions in time, in the right direction managers pursue a preemptive tactics and forecast the event consequences, indexes and news. Market analysis can never provide a 100% accurate result, but funds with their considerable capital and proven tactics are able to start, correct and intensify the strongest trends.
3. Import and export companies are straight Forex users whose activity affects currency fluctuation, as exporters are always interested in selling currencies and vice versa. Reliable export and import companies have analytics departments. They predict exchange rates for further profitable purchase or sale of the currency.
Tracking trends is also very important for exporters and importers in the context of hedging against currency risks. Opening a deal opposite to the future one minimizes the risk. The influence of exporters and importers in the market is short-term and does not create global trends, as volumes of their operations are insignificant in a market size.
4. Statements made by politicians during meetings, press conferences, summits and reports can make a serious impact on currency fluctuation. Their influence can be compared to the one of economic indicators.
Mostly their date and time is determined a priori, and their consequences are presupposed in forecasts. However, sometimes they are unexpected and cause strong and often unpredictable fluctuations. Statements containing data about long-term consequences (like changes in interest rate or federal budgeting) can start a long-term trend.
When the rate is critical the statements may cause central banks’ intervention. This is supposed to have a huge influence on the market. In a few minutes the exchange rate may move hundreds of points in the direction of intervention.
5. Government influences the market via central banks. Currency exchange operations being carried out without any intervention of central bank will make national currency of a certain country become free floating. Nevertheless, this is very rare situation. Countries with such rate can sometimes try to influence it via currency operations.
Countries interested in consumption growth and industry development regulate exchange rates. They mostly use direct and indirect regulation. Indirect regulation allows for inflation level, amount of money in turnover, etc. Direct one includes discount policy and currency intervention. The latter is connected to sharp discharge and intake of big volumes of currency from international markets. Central banks do not reach the market directly - they use commercial banks. Volumes amount to millions of dollars; therefore, interventions severely affect currency fluctuation. Sometimes central banks of different countries run joint interventions in the currency market.

Tuesday, 6 November 2012

what is futures


Futures is a contract concluded for delivery of a certain commodity in future at a fixed price. A futures contract buyer assumes responsibility to buy a commodity within a particular timeframe. A futures contract seller takes obligation to sell the commodity within the specified time limits. Both obligations are related to a standard quantity of a certain commodity, they will be implemented at a certain time in future at a price fixed during the trade execution. That is to say, this operation must be implemented till the date set in advance - it is specified in the futures contract specification. The most wide spread commodities are those often used in everyday life.
Here they are:
• Gas
• Oil
• Gasoline
• Gold
• Corn
• Currency
• Steel
• Cotton
• Wood
The futures market is more liquid than the commodity one where futures are traded. Futures for these commodities are traded by thousands of traders daily. All them are trying to earn profit speculating on futures - buying commodities cheaper and selling at a higher price. The futures trading takes place on the futures stock exchange, the most famous commodity and futures stock markets are:
• NYMEX (New York Merchantile Exchange)
• CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade)
• CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange)
• IPE (International Petroleum Exchange)
• LIFFE (London International Financial Futures Exchange)
• LME (London Metals Exchange)
The process of futures trading is similar to the process of trading on Forex. On the futures markets there are similar principles of technical and fundamental analysis, the same indicators and charts and also the way of setting orders. Moreover, firstly, all this system was worked out special for the futures trading, as it emerged much earlier than Forex market. But worth noticing that futures trading has several significant distinctions:
- A currency pair on Forex can be opened forever, i.e. once having bought pounds for dollars you can hold this position for a very long time - for months or even years. But it is different with futures. A futures contract has an expiration date. If you do not close position by yourself it will be closed involuntary at a closing price of the day and hour of futures contract maturity. You have to follow the validity period of a futures contract and switch to a later contract on time.
- The futures code consists of several parts. The first symbols in the designation point to a commodity type (gold, oil, cotton etc.), the next symbols show the month and year of futures delivery. For example, NGQ0 means gas futures (NG - Natural Gas), Q - August, 0 - 2010 year.
Here are the designations of months when futures are traded:
• January - F
• February - G
• March - H
• April - J
• May - K
• June - M
• July - N
• August - Q
• September - U
• October - V
• November - X
• December - Z
- The nearest expiration date of a futures contract is the most liquid. That means that the price for this asset is maximally close to the real one and there is a small possibility of sharp price surge.
- As it is known, Forex is a non-exchange market, the quotes are provided by a big number of banks and dealers. So you can trade at prices substantially different from prices of other brokers/dealers. It is impossible with futures.
- The futures trading is run only in the stock markets and only a certain buyer or seller determines the rates. Each quote has its price and volume - it has a certain buyer and seller. The stock exchanges submit quotes on their websites for the previous trading session (trading day) accurately to each tick.
- The size of futures contracts is strictly standardized by the stock exchange which sets the quantity and quality of a commodity specified in it. For example, 1 futures contract for pig bulks (PB) stipulates a delivery of 40000 pounds of certain sized pig bulks; Gold future (GC) stipulates a 100 ounce delivery of gold not less than 995 countermark; a crude oil futures contract stipulates a 1000 barrel delivery of crude oil meeting a specific quality requirement. Price quotes of futures contracts are globally universal.

Buy Usd/Cad

Buy Usd/Cad - 0.9895
Stop Loss - 0.9800
Take profit - 35 pips, 70 pips

Trade on Ur risk

Investors remained cautious ahead of the start of voting in the U.S. presidential elections

 Gold futures were higher during U.S. morning hours on Tuesday, as voters in the U.S. went to the polls to decide on the winner of a closely fought Presidential election.
Gold Touched 1720.42

Gold futures were likely to find support at USD1,646.45 a troy ounce, the low from August 31 and resistance at USD1,727.25, the high from October 31.

Investors remained cautious ahead of the start of voting in the U.S. presidential elections, with opinion polls pointing to a tight race between incumbent President Barack Obama and Republican contender Mitt Romney.

If the election comes down to a thin margin in a swing state such as Ohio, the outcome could be delayed for days or weeks, roiling markets as it did during the extended presidential battle in 2000.

Market players will also be keeping a close eye on congressional races, amid concerns over how lawmakers may deal with the looming U.S. “fiscal cliff”, approximately USD600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on January 1.

Greece was also on investors mind, as the country’s parliament prepared to vote on the latest rounds of austerity measures on Wednesday, which could determine if Athens receives its next tranche of financial aid.

Markets also continued to eye developments surrounding Spain, amid ongoing uncertainty over whether the debt-strapped country is moving closer to formally requesting a bailout from its euro zone partners.

A bailout would allow the European Central Bank to step in and buy Spanish sovereign debt, which would result in reduced borrowing costs for the debt-strapped nation. But Spain has been reluctant to do so because it may come with conditions on its budget.

Investors will then turn their focus to the start of the 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress on Thursday, where a once-in-a-decade leadership change is to take place.

Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for December delivery rose 0.6% to trade at USD31.32 a troy ounce, while copper for December delivery added 0.4% to trade at USD3.484 a pound.

Copper traders were looking ahead to a flurry of Chinese economic data later in the week, including reports on inflation and industrial production, to gauge whether the world second largest economy is heading towards a hard or a soft landing.

The Asian nation is the world’s largest copper consumer, accounting for almost 40% of world consumption last year.

Why buy gold

Many professional and retail investors view investments in gold as a hedge against risks in the financial system. Two major recessions have occurred in just the last decade: first, the bursting of the new economy bubble and later the mortgage scandal followed by a global financial and later an economic crisis. The still ongoing financial and economic crisis and the government responses have led to a strong increase in government debt in most developed countries like the US and the UK. For that reason, the economic and financial crisis has over the last several months developed into a sovereign debt crisis.
Recognising this, many investors now try to protect their wealth or parts of it by investing in assets which are less dependent on the stability of the financial system. Gold is one asset class, which is perceived as a store of value in the long term.
Gold is a unique asset class. Gold investments have historically shown a low correlation with investments in other asset classes such as stocks or shares, mutual funds, government and corporate bonds and even commodities and other precious metals.
Investing in gold can help to preserve value by reducing the risk of severe losses. The relative independence of gold investments from other asset classes makes investing in gold an attractive strategy for diversifying an investment portfolio. Portfolio diversification is a pillar of risk reduction. The probability of one asset class or a single investment significantly dropping in value is far higher than the chances that a well balanced portfolio of many different investments from various asset classes will depreciate in value significantly.
Over the last decade, gold investments were one of the best performing asset classes. In nominal terms, the price of gold has risen from below 300 US-Dollars to above 1,800 US-Dollars. In contrast to paper currencies like the US-Dollar, the British Pound or the Euro, gold is a limited resource. Gold cannot be inflated. For this reason, gold has historically remained a relatively stable purchasing power, whereas practically all currencies have lost purchasing power in the long run.
The characteristic of gold to retain its value makes gold investments attractive for retirement and pension purposes. Over the past years, gold has gained in popularity as a retirement asset.