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gft is better
I didn't really mean any offence, nlightn.
I've been watching the furor over the dinar for some time and most if not all of the companies offering to deal them are scams looking to part the willing from their money.
The reasons I say this is because of the turmoil in Iraq.
What would it take for the dinar to increase in value?
Will any of that happen in the near future?
Nope.
I agree wholeheartedly with the strategery behind the Iraq war.. I also know the timeframe for their economic recovery will be more of a snail's pace than any will tell you.
The people promoting the Dinar are the same ones promoting penny stocks.
I think we can both agree that I have an uncanny knack at spotting scams a mile away.
I am quite in tune with the goings on in Iraq.
I'll thank you to peddle your paper elsewhere.
At this point the only people peddling the Iraqi Dinar are crooks.
The dinar won't have any value for a very long time considering the shape that country is in.
They won't be able to really produce oil on a large scale with any sort of reliability untill the war on terror is over... and as we know from our fearless leaders the war on terror will be ongoing for eons.
Spectacular week for the euro..
Judging from the pattern I see on the two hour chart it looks like more to come.
Yeah true.. When I say hefty.. I'm meaning maybe half a day of consolidation.. not dropping too much but certainly playable.
I'm thinking we linger for a bit in this range.
I just closed a short from 1.3309 and am still holding one from 1.3303..
When the RSI lags the stochs like this it usually means there is more left.
Welcome aboard.
The reasons you have stated for leaving pennyland for this bliss we call forex is at the very heart of why I and others left.
The only drama going on in forex is the buy and short buttons arguing in my head.
What I'm looking at is we might see a short repreive from the run here.
My reasoning for thinking this is the stochastics are quite overbought.. in the nineties.. however the RSI has yet to catch up.
I'm seeing a decent little short here.. maybe ten of twenty pips.. then another run up to peak the RSI before a hefty fall.
This is off the 2 hour chart.
1.33 is pretty big resistance especially with indicators from short time frames up to the two hour showing overbought.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
- Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961)
Hemingway, who took his own life in 1961, knew his share of both intelligent people and of unhappiness. He lived through two world wars, the Great Depression, four wives and an unknown number of failed romantic relationships, none of which would help him to develop happiness if he knew how.
As Hemingway's quote was based on his life experience, I will base the following speculation on both my personal and my professional experience as a sociologist. Not enough study exists to quote on this subject.
Western society is not set up to nurture intelligent children and adults, the way it dotes over athletes and sports figures, especially the outstanding ones. While we have the odd notable personality such as Albert Einstein, we also have many extremely intelligent people working in occupations that are considered among the lowliest, as may be attested by a review of the membership lists of Mensa (the club for the top two percent on intelligence scales).
Education systems in countries whose primary interest is in wealth accumulation encourage heroes in movies, war and sports, but not in intellectual development. Super intelligent people manage, but few reach the top of the business or social ladder.
Children develop along four streams: intellectual, physical, emotional (psychological) and social. In classrooms, the smartest kids tend to be left out of more activities by other children than they are included in. They are "odd," they are the geeks, they are social outsiders. In other words, they do not develop socially as well as they may develop intellectually or even physically where opportunities may exist for more progress.
Their emotional development, characterized by their ability to cope with risky or stressful situations, especially over long periods of time, also lags behind that of the average person.
Adults tend to believe that intelligent kids can deal with anything because they are intellectually superior. This inevitably includes situations where the intelligent kids have neither knowledge nor skills to support their experience. They go through the tough times alone. Adults don't understand that they need help and other kids don't want to associate with kids the social leaders say are outsiders.
As a result we have many highly intelligent people whose social development progresses much slower than that of most people and they have trouble coping with the stressors of life that present themselves to everyone. It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of prison inmates are socially and emotionally underdeveloped or maldeveloped and a larger than average percentage of them are more intelligent than the norm.
Western society provides the ideal incubator for social misfits and those with emotional coping problems. When it comes to happiness, people who are socially inept and who have trouble coping emotionally with the exigencies of life would not be among those you should expect to be happy.
This may be changing in the 21st century as the geeks gain recognition as people with great potential, especially as people who might make their fortune in the world of high technology. Geeks may be more socially accepted than in the past, but unless they receive more assistance with their social and emotional development, most are destined to be unhappy as they mature in the world of adults.
People with high intelligence, be they children or adults, still rank as social outsiders in most situations, including their skills to be good mates and parents.
Moreover, they tend to see more of the tragedy in the communites and countries they live in, and in the world, than the average person whose primary source of news and information is comedy shows on television. Tragedy is easier to find than compassion, even though compassion likely exists in greater proportion in most communities.
Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to make the difficult problems easier to understand so someone can change the system.
Learn more at http://billallin.com
Agent,
Glad to see you have grown up since last we spoke.
What are you four or five now?
Xan, I agree with much of that... infact all but the part about the pump.
The pump is coming from paid promotion companies.
I've seen it all over pennyland throughout my trading history.
GZFX isn't really a horrible company.. they just need to get their financing in order and start advertising their product more than their stock.
Agent, complaining that someone believed the to da moon mentality is a tad insane when the board you are on has in it's i-box a beautifully contructed gif that plainly says and depicts "To Da Moon".
You have eagerly perpetuated this get rich tomorrow mentallity.
You and many others on this board have been blindly parroting every idiotic PR from this scam company for over a year now.
The fact that the market has proven you wrong beyond the ponderance of a doubt is the reason for the anger seen in your every response.
Under 0.001?
Who predicted that a year ago?
Not you.
Troubles Hit Real Estate at High End
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Until now, deep-pocketed Wall Street tycoons and foreign investors benefiting from a weak dollar seemed to be holding up the luxury real estate market even as the low-end fractured. But there are signs that some high-end real estate developers are also being hit by the slowdown.
Last night, a condo-hotel developer who was a partner with celebrities in selling luxury perches from Miami to Chicago let the mortgage on the Royal Palm Hotel in South Beach, a trendy section of Miami Beach, expire. The missed deadline places another luxury condo project into the hands of bankers specializing in troubled mortgages.
Jack McCabe, a real estate consultant in Deerfield Beach, Fla., said there would be more troubles for developers, lenders and title insurance companies.
“This is the first of what will probably be several high-end developers who had a number of luxury projects,” he said. “We’re going to see some where the banks take them back. We’re going to see some sold to other developers. We’re also going to see a lot of litigation.”
The developer, Robert Falor, planned to turn 160 of the Royal Palm’s more than 400 rooms into condo-hotel units with a Maxim-themed bar operated by Cindy Crawford’s husband, Randy Gerber, in the same complex.
According to a report this week by the rating agency Standard & Poor’s, Mr. Falor, whose company is Robert Falor Investments, did not sell any condos and has put the hotel up for sale.
As a result, the agency lowered its rating on the commercial mortgage-backed security — a type of bond — that includes Royal Palm’s mortgage; the mortgage had been packaged into the security by Credit Suisse. Last night, Mr. Falor let his $109 million mortgage mature without any payment or refinancing.
Mr. Falor also failed to meet requirements for an extension set by Wachovia Securities, which services the loan. Both banks declined to comment about the status of the loan made to Mr. Falor.
“The financing was based on a successful condo-hotel conversion,” said Larry Kay, director of structured finance ratings for Standard & Poor’s. “My understanding is that the conversion or renovation is moving forward. But there have not been units sold to date.”
Mr. Falor did not return calls made to his office in Florida and to one of his lawyers in Chicago. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gerber did not return calls.
While Wall Street bonus money and foreign investors have kept the luxury market far stronger than most segments of Florida real estate, Seth Semilof, a former broker and publisher of the Miami lifestyle magazine Haute Living, says that buyers are becoming more cautious about the types of Miami luxury condo projects they will buy.
Consumers are rejecting any projects that involve developers turning existing hotel units into condominiums because the consumers fear that they could lose their deposits if these projects are never converted.
Instead, Wall Street bankers, baby boomers and Europeans are more often snapping up condominiums from developers with projects that are being built from the ground up.
“The market is separating the contenders from the pretenders,” Mr. Semilof said. “The consumer is not buying projects where they sell units and then do the conversions. People are willing to put money where they know where the building is going to be built.”
In February, Mr. Falor sued Paris Hilton’s sister, Nicky, and her agent, Paul Fisher, over their former proposed partnership to open in South Beach the “Nicky O” condo hotel. The hotels, he told The Miami Herald, were supposed to feature cupcakes with turn-down service. Mr. Falor started a partnership with Ms. Hilton less than a year ago to redesign the Blake Hotel in Chicago and the Breakwater-Edison condominium in Miami under her name.
Court documents state that she failed to meet her plans to design the Blake Hotel’s interiors, misrepresented herself as having experience in hotel design and gave parties for herself and friends that never promoted the projects. He says that Ms. Hilton owes him more than $1 million on hotel rooms, public relations fees and travel.
“Nicky and Fisher intended to use the Falor group to promote Nicky and underwrite a lavish lifestyle for both Nicky and Fisher,” according to court documents. Ms. Hilton and Mr. Fisher did not respond to e-mail messages and phone calls.
On March 2, Mr. Falor filed for bankruptcy against a mezzanine lender on a 454-unit conversion project in Chicago called Hotel 71. Now his mezzanine lender, Oaktree Capital Management of Los Angeles, may face more roadblocks in foreclosing on the property from Mr. Falor after he defaulted on a $27 million loan. Oaktree declined to comment on the negotiations.
China to Open Fund to Invest Currency Reserves
By JIM YARDLEY and DAVID BARBOZA
BEIJING, March 9 — China will create an agency to invest its immense reserves of foreign currency, now totaling more than $1 trillion, the country’s finance minister announced on Friday.
The minister, Jin Renqing, offered no specifics about how much of China’s currency reserves would be under the agency’s control. But whatever the precise figure, analysts say that the agency is certain to begin life as one of the world’s biggest investment funds.
China’s currency holdings are already the world’s largest, and they are growing rapidly because of China’s huge trade surpluses. Most of the reserves are now invested very conservatively, in United States Treasury bonds and other government securities, a strategy that helps to keep interest rates low in the United States and other developed countries but earns little profit for China.
The new agency would be able to invest some of the money more diversely and aggressively, analysts said, with the possibility of hundreds of billions of dollars being used to acquire “strategic assets” — mines, oil fields, whole companies — around the world, especially in developing countries in Africa and Latin America.
“They’re not going to be looking for financial assets, but energy assets and natural resources, minerals, things China desperately needs,” said Jing Ulrich, an analyst at JPMorgan.
The government said the new agency would be modeled in part on Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government’s hugely successful investment agency, which manages an $84 billion global portfolio of investments.
Like most countries, China’s huge foreign exchange reserves are largely kept as insurance, in case of a financial panic or swift reversal of fortune for the economy.
The reserves are now held by the Chinese central bank, and most of the reserves are expected to remain there, in safe, conservative investments in government securities. Still, the new agency is expected to get a substantial portion to work with.
Some financial experts are already talking about the huge impact China could have as a major global investor, and the possibility that its purchases could push asset prices higher and create even more competition for scarce commodities and resources.
But Mr. Jin, the finance minister, said the new agency would not be allowed to simply speculate.
“The biggest priority is safety, and under the principle of security, we will try to increase the efficiency of management and the investments’ returns,” Mr. Jin said at a news conference this morning, held as part of a two-week meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s largely ceremonial national legislature.
The formation of such an agency has been rumored for months, and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in January that the government was exploring new ideas about investing the currency reserves.
Andy Rothman, a strategist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, said the government was likely to proceed cautiously and give the agency only a relatively small part of the reserves to work with at first, perhaps $20 billion.
“I think they are going to move very, very slowly in diversifying what they are doing,” he said. “Nobody should expect that suddenly they are going to invest $1 trillion.”
Some analysts say the formation of the new agency means China is moving away from heavy reliance on investing in United States dollars through Treasury securities. Such a shift could affect American interest rates, which remain low in part because of China’s huge bond purchases.
But foreign exchange reserves in China are accumulating so quickly — by more than $20 billion a month, analysts say — that China is likely to continue buying huge numbers of Treasury bonds for a long time to come even if the new agency gets a fast start.
The immense foreign exchange holdings are just one of many signs of China’s spectacular rise, and its growing influence in the global economy and financial markets.
And with that growth has come rising costs at home for education, health care and pensions. Earning more on government holdings, analysts say, would allow the government to better cope with some of these problems.
Mr. Rothman said the decision to set up the new agency should be seen in the context of other new government measures, like the recent efforts to enact a private property law and another new law to equalize corporate taxes. He said China was trying to create the legal and regulatory structure to underpin its still-evolving market economy.
Mr. Jin, the finance minister, said the new agency would answer directly to the State Council, the equivalent of China’s cabinet.
It's just this easy.
Get rid of the eight million laws on the books.
We don't need them
Go back to two laws.
Don't kill people
and don't steel things.
That's it.
I agree as well.. but it is not government's place to make us do it.
We will do it because it is right... not because government forces us.
Yep, you're right.
It's as much the fault of the citizens as it is power hungry government.
The spirit with which this nation was created was squashed long ago.
Big mother is watching with new laws in mind
Democratic proposals to regulate behavior draw Republican scorn.
By Nancy Vogel
Times Staff Writer
March 8, 2007
SACRAMENTO — Enjoy fast food? Like to light up while you watch the waves? Forget to sock away money for your kids' education?
Some California lawmakers want to change your ways. They've planted a crop of proposals this year — "nanny" bills, as they're called — that would:
• Restrict the use of artery-clogging trans fat, common in fried and baked foods and linked to heart disease, in restaurants and school cafeterias.
• Bar smoking at state parks and beaches, and in cars carrying children.
• Open a savings account, seeded with $500, for every newborn Californian to use at 18 for college, a first home purchase or an investment for retirement.
• Fine dog and cat owners who don't spay or neuter their pets by 4 months of age.
• Require chain restaurants to list calorie, saturated fat and sodium content on menus.
• Phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs, which are less energy-efficient than compact fluorescent bulbs.
The debate has commenced in the Capitol: How far should government go?
The proposals are the brainchildren of Democratic legislators. Republicans, who say the sponsors are trying to parent the whole state, are having none of it.
"Could you imagine the founding fathers dealing with — I don't know — wearing a helmet when you're in the buggy?" said the Assembly's Republican leader, Mike Villines of Clovis.
"We all know you can't mandate behavior; it just does not work," he said. "It creates criminals of people for things that are not criminal behavior…. You can't legislate for stupidity."
Political scientists say legislative paternalism can be taken as a sign of economic success. It's "post materialist," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, because such measures are about quality of life, not survival.
"These post-materialist concerns may be ahead of the curve," Cain said. "Some of the things we did that seemed kooky 20 years ago are now widely accepted."
New York City made history in December by voting to eliminate trans fat from the city's 20,000 restaurants by July 2008. Nineteen Southern California cities ban smoking on city beaches, and it's illegal to smoke in a car with children in Louisiana and Arkansas.
Australia recently moved to end the sale of incandescent light bulbs, and 15 countries ban all corporal punishment of children.
No wonder there are so many brats in the world
Last year, Rhode Island became the first state to require cat owners to spay or neuter their pets or buy permits. And since 2005, the United Kingdom has opened investment accounts for its newborns.
But that doesn't mean Californians — often the pioneers on such things — will follow.
One lawmaker has already tripped on the threshold of public tolerance.
After Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View) told a reporter in January that she intended to propose a ban on the spanking of children younger than 4 years, news spread around the world. Lieber's office was deluged with calls and e-mails, some expressing support but most voicing outrage.
Lieber's fellow Democrats refused to back her, and last week she retooled her measure to allow spanking but make it easier to prosecute parents who hurt children.
spank them but don't hurt them?... only a commie dem could pen legislature like that.
Lieber said she welcomed the attention — good, bad or uninformed.
"Maybe some people get confused and think [spanking] is already illegal," she said, "which would be great."
Some lawmakers see "nanny" legislation as life-or-death decisions on behalf of their constituents.
"Trans fat kills," said Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia), who proposes banning trans fat from restaurants, grocery store delis and school cafeterias by July 2009. "We have a responsibility to protect the public from harmful products."
Moreover, Mendoza said, "the cost of healthcare is an issue for everyone. If we can lower the incidence of diabetes and heart disease, it will help everyone."
To encourage more healthful choices, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) introduced the measure that would require restaurant chain menus to include nutritional information.
Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach) would make it illegal to smoke on a state beach or in a car with a child. "A lot of people don't realize the full impact" of second-hand smoke on the immature lungs of a youngster, she said.
"I'm not into going into people's homes and telling them what to do, but when it comes to children and those who cannot stand up for themselves, I do draw a distinction," she said.
OK so you are going to tell us what to do... funny cause you just said you weren't...
It's easy to move away from somebody smoking on a beach. But "why should we have to?" Oropeza said. "They have a right to smoke. The line is drawn where their smoke affects someone else."
Should we not also draw a line limiting your ability to make idiotic laws that affect us?
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) likewise defends his proposal to ban mutt owners from breeding their dogs. Owners of purebred, registered dogs and cats could buy a breeder's license under his legislation.
OK so now dogs aren't allowed to breed.. this from the animal loving commies of cali
"Am I taking away your right to indiscriminately breed a dog," he said, "or am I helping everybody else whose tax dollars go to pay for the shelters that house unwanted animals?"
As for his bill to eventually ban incandescent light bulbs so people would replace them with compact fluorescent bulbs, Levine said it would spare California from pollution and construction of new power plants. He called people's notions of light bulbs "outdated" and said regulation is needed.
Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), one of the most respected members of the Legislature, sounds like a concerned father when he discusses the virtues of building financial assets and laments the nation's low rates of personal saving. But he bristles at the suggestion that his proposed savings accounts for newborns could be considered "nanny" government.
I didn't have a spare five hundred bucks when my kid was born.. throw me in jail.. I'm a danger to society... I'm sure I'm the only one.
"How is it any different than what we do with the tax code by providing deductions for the number of children you have?" he said. "There is no requirement that families put money into these accounts. What we're saying, as a state, is we need to invest in children."
He acknowledged his bill's long odds: It would cost roughly $283 million a year in a state that has a budget deficit, and require Republican votes to pass the Legislature.
The single Republican senator who stood alongside Steinberg in support of his bill at a Capitol news conference last week — Sen. Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga — withdrew his support two days later after criticism from conservatives.
Steinberg insisted that he was not tilting at windmills and that the idea was "going to have to build over time."
Yes communism takes time to warm up to... bad press and all.
"This job is not just to pass bills," he said, "it's to elevate debates that are needed."
Don't expect a resolution on most of this year's issues.
politicians don't do that
"There's always been the idea of what's the appropriate role of government — the common good versus individual liberties," said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland). "But we frankly never seem to have that debate when these bills come.
"What we end up doing is debating the bill on the merits or on the motions or on the politics," Perata said, "and then we dismiss it and then we start again."
Like I said... politicians don't resolve anything
Neither have the gonads to do that.
In this day of media whining and worries about global image,
no country will do what's needed.
The sad thing is all this fretting about image is only going to make the coming war worse.
You thought it was over?
Oh no.. just a breather.
Syria has positioned on its border with Israel thousands of medium and long-range rockets capable of striking major towns across northern Israel, military and government sources told AFP.
This deployment, coupled with other recent reports of Syrian troop mobilisation, is seen in Israel as an indication that Damascus may be preparing for future "low intensity warfare," they said.
The report comes only two weeks after Israel held war games on the occupied Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967, in a bid to learn the lessons of last summer's conflict in neighbouring south Lebanon.
The Syrian army accelerated its deployment of medium and long-range rockets in the wake of the Lebanon war, during which the Hezbollah militia fired moe than 4,000 rockets against northern Israel.
"We have noticed that in recent months Syria has deployed hundreds, possibly thousands, of medium and long-range rockets along the border (with Israel)," one military source said.
"Many of the rockets are hidden in underground chambers and in camouflaged silos, which make them very difficult to locate," the source said.
Three of the sources were from the military and two from the government, and they all spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. They said Syria has built a system of fortified underground tunnels along its border with Israel.
Most of the rockets deployed are 220 millimetre, with a range of 70 kilometres (43 miles), and 302 millimetre rockets capable of striking targets at a distance of more than 100 kilometres (56 miles).
The latter would be well within range of the main population centres in northern Israel such as Tiberias and Kiryat Shmona.
These long-range rockets could also reach Israel's third largest city of Haifa and its industrial zone, which is home to several essential industries, including oil refineries and a deep-water port.
It is also believed that Syria has deployed several FROG rocket launchers, with a a 550-kilogram (1,200-pound) warhead and 70-kilometre range, in areas between the border and the capital Damascus, 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.
According to the sources, such a massive deployment of well entrenched rockets poses "a real strategic threat" to Israel.
While Syria concentrates most of its long-range surface-to-surface missile arsenal in the north of the country, its decision to deploy rockets so close to the border may indicate that Syria is mulling an attack on Israel, experts say.
"Syrian President Bashar al-Assad realised after the Lebanon war that Israel was not as strong as it seems and that it could be threatened by simple means rather than an advanced army," the director of the Begin-Saadat Centre for Strategic Studies, Ephraim Inbar, told AFP.
Inbar, as well as the military sources, believe that "Assad could be preparing for low intensity war, a type of war of attrition with Israel, where Syria fires several rockets against Israel without provoking full-fledged war."
"Israel has absolute superiority in several fields in warfare," a senior government official said, referring mainly to Israel's advanced air force and "smart" weapons.
"So Syria is investing in fields where it can have an edge. It has invested in recent years in anti-aircraft weapons, rockets, missiles and bunkers. The war in Lebanon proved to the Syrians they were right to do so."
Israel's military intelligence chief, Major General Amod Yadlin, told the government's annual intelligence assessment that while Syria was beefing up its military, war between the two neighbouring countries was unlikely in 2007.
"Syria is continuing its military build-up and preparing for war," he told the cabinet.
"The chances of a full-scale war initiated by Syria are low, but the chances of Syria reacting militarily against Israeli military moves are high."
Government sources told AFP that Syria was close to concluding a deal with Russia to procure thousands of advanced anti-tank missiles, of the sort Hezbollah used with great success against Israeli armour last year.
Tensions between Israel and Syria have peaked in recent months, with Israel rejecting peace overtures from Damascus and both sides toughening rhetoric.
Damascus has repeatedly demanded the return of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981. It is now home to more than 15,000 settlers.
Peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000.
Just further proof that our witless government
canNOT do anything right.
Hourly chart
Paying pretty close attention to this trendline as it has proven itself a few times in the past.
Watching an ascending trendline on the hourly.
Looking like the EUR/USD might dip close to or below 1.3
[EUR/DLR] rises to 1.3142 this mng through the highs marked y/day at 1.3132/29,...
[EUR/DLR] rises to 1.3142 this mng through the highs marked y/day at 1.3132/29, pulled by Eur/Yen early mng stop led rally, then eases to 1.3116 along with Eur/Yen's decline driven by the falling Nikkei. Offers are noted at 1.3150-60. 1.3050 is the former ceiling that turned support, and the 90D-MA currently at 1.3048 has been playing a role also as a good support. Clear strength vs the 21D-MA at 1.3122 would be able to improve the situation. Watch an immediate resilience of 1.3080-70. The expected ECB rate hike would not be at least a negative factor for the pair, but Eur/Yen movements needs close watching.
Yeah apparently we can solve this horrific global warming problem if we just use the alien technology our governments are hiding from us....
Decision coming soon For the EUR/USD
Two trendlines are quickly converging, meaning a new trend will be confirmed... or the exsisting uptrend will continue.
1.3ish is the floor for now.
Risk aversion drives yen higher
By Peter Garnham
Published: March 2 2007 11:32 | Last updated: March 2 2007 17:23
The yen staged its sharpest rally for 14 months against the dollar this week as global equity markets tumbled.
Analysts said there were signs that rising risk aversion was prompting investors to unwind carry trades, in which long positions in high-yielding currencies are funded by selling low-yielding currencies such as the yen and the Swiss franc.
The increasing popularity of carry trades has put both currencies under pressure in recent months.
However, analysts said there was evidence this week that investors faced with losses on long positions in the equity markets were covering their losses by closing out profitable carry trade positions.
Over the week, the yen rose 3.3 per cent to Y117.05 against the dollar, its biggest one-week gain since December 2005, and climbed 3.2 per cent from a record low to Y154.20 against the euro. The yen also advanced against sterling, rising 4.3 per cent to Y227.40 and rallied 4.3 per cent to Y91.66 against the Australian dollar.
Against the high-yielding New Zealand dollar and South African rand the yen rose 5 per cent to Y80.28 and 7.1 per cent to Y15.89 respectively.
Marc Chandler, foreign exchange strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, said the kiwi and the rand had come under particular pressure since they have both been popular currencies for uridashis – Japanese bonds bought by domestic investors but issued in foreign currencies.
Meanwhile, the Swiss franc also made progress, rising 1 per cent to SFr1.2195 against the dollar and 1 per cent to SFr1.6065 against the euro on the week.
The exact trigger for the rout in global equity markets was the subject of some debate, with analysts citing continuing tension over Iran’s nuclear weapons programme and worries that weakness in the US subprime mortgage market could spill over into the wider economy.
But David Woo at Barclays Capital said the key trigger for the sell-off was renewed pessimism about growth prospects in the US, reflected in the sharp decline in real yields.
According to Mr Woo, this prevailing growth pessimism was not likely to last and strong data in the months ahead would limit significant downside for equities.
“For this reason we do not believe that we are on the verge of a more serious unwinding of carry trades,” he said.
However, Ian Gunner, currencies strategist at Mellon Financial, said the yen was likely to remain firm for the time being.
“There remains a high risk of further equity weakness through the course of next week,” he said. “Given the psychological damage inflicted by the scale of this week’s price action, any residual short yen positioning will be easy prey in such an environment.”
Although rising risk aversion was the dominant driver of the yen, Japanese economic data also provided some support for the currency.
Net securities investment inflows into Japan rose to Y5,500bn in the last four weeks.
Derek Halpenny, senior currency economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, said although these massive inflows might be largely hedged, they were likely to deter a re-establishment of short yen positions in the near term.
Elsewhere, the dollar had a volatile week, failing falling to a two-month low of $1.3259 against the euro on Tuesday after a larger than expected drop in US durable goods orders raised fears over a slowdown in the world’s largest economy
However, the Institute for Supply Management survey of the US manufacturing sector eased some of those fears on Thursday, coming in stronger than expected and boosting the dollar. Meanwhile data released on Friday, which showed a sharp fall in German retail sales in January, weighed on the euro.
Over the week, the dollar was flat against the euro at $1.3170 but rose 0.9 per cent to $1.9450 against the pound.
UFO science key to halting climate change: former Canadian defense minister
Wed Feb 28, 2:45 PM ET
A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change, a local paper said Wednesday.
"I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet," Paul Hellyer, 83, told the Ottawa Citizen.
Alien spacecrafts would have traveled vast distances to reach Earth, and so must be equipped with advanced propulsion systems or used exceptional fuels, he told the newspaper.
Such alien technologies could offer humanity alternatives to fossil fuels, he said, pointing to the enigmatic 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico -- which has become a shrine for UFO believers -- as an example of alien contact.
"We need to persuade governments to come clean on what they know. Some of us suspect they know quite a lot, and it might be enough to save our planet if applied quickly enough," he said.
Hellyer became defense minister in former prime minister Lester Pearson's cabinet in 1963, and oversaw the controversial integration and unification of Canada's army, air force and navy into the Canadian Forces.
He shocked Canadians in September 2005 by announcing he once saw a UFO.
you can easily have a day trade mentallity here in forex.
Many of my trades are ten minute holds...
Some even less.
Just learn to time your entries, because with the margin leverage in forex... entry is everything.
Oh I can easily see it going back to the low 1.3's.. maybe even into the 1.29's... But I still see this as a cycle inside a continuation pattern.
EUR/USD monthly showing a nice pennant.
We could see 1.30ish before the next leg up.
But be sure.. This really looks like a continuation pattern.. meaning 1.4's are within reach.
Greenspan is predicting a recession later this year..
Apparently he IS listening to me...
Chart patterns for both the DOW and the NAZ are bearish reversal patterns...
NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The dollar weakened against the euro and yen on Friday, with German economic data boosting the case for higher European interest rates and investors cutting bets on further weakness in the Japanese currency.
The German Ifo business sentiment survey for February showed a larger decline than expected but did little to alter the outlook for euro zone interest rates to rise in March. The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, is expected to hold rates stable for some time.
"Euro zone (economic) fundamentals look better than U.S. fundamentals right now," said Meg Browne, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman.
At 4 p.m. (2100 GMT), the dollar was down 0.4 percent at 121.02 yen <JPY=>, snapping the pair's first five-day advance since April.
"The speculative community is reducing its short yen positions against various currencies," Browne said. Short positions are bets against a currency.
Despite Friday's gains in the yen, this week the Japanese currency dropped about 1.4 percent against the dollar. And versus the euro, the yen rounded up its worst weekly decline since September 2005.
The yen has been under broad pressure for weeks as investors embrace carry trades in which they borrow the yen at low interest rates and then sell it to buy higher-yielding currencies. However, expectations the Bank of Japan will raise rates has left investors wary of selling yen too aggressively.
EURO GAINS
The euro rose 0.3 percent to trade at $1.3160 <EUR=>, moving closer to a six-week high of $1.3189 touched on Monday.
"There is broad-based U.S. dollar weakness and technical factors are aggravating the situation," said Camilla Sutton, currency strategist with Scotia Capital in Toronto.
The euro rose to a record high against the yen of 159.33 yen <EURJPY=EBS>, according to electronic trading platform EBS, but struggled to break through tough resistance at those levels and surrendered gains to last trade down 0.1 percent at 159.36 yen.
Earlier, the yen fell against the euro after Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui repeated that raising interest rates further would be a slow process and the timing of the next rate hike is completely open.
"The trend hasn't changed and I would not be surprised to see the euro-yen push toward the 160 level in coming weeks," said Matthew Strauss, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.
The high-yielding Australian and New Zealand dollars were up around 2 percent on the week against the Japanese currency, taking the kiwi to a 14-month high on Thursday.
The carry trade "is still very much in vogue," said Strauss at RBC.
Elsewhere in the markets, sterling rose to one-week highs against the euro and dollar on Friday after a Bank of England policy-maker expressed concern about inflationary pressures, reigniting talk of a near-term interest rate hike.
Sterling was up 0.4 percent at $1.9636 <GBP=>, having earlier climbed as high as $1.9652. The euro was buying 67.04 pence <EURGBP=>, near the one-week low of 66.88 pence struck earlier.
The Canadian dollar jumped to a two-month high against the U.S. greenback on Friday, getting a boost from higher oil prices. The U.S. dollar changed hands at C$1.1590 <CAD=>, down 0.2 percent.
(Additional reporting by Nick Olivari in New York)
Freedom of speech is out the window.
So I can drive balls out.. I just can't have my balls out...
Told ya so
www.gftforex.com/
https://fxtrade.oanda.com/
GFT has the best charts and platform around.
They also offer 400:1 margin which is the highest I know of.
Oanda has a decent platform but their charts are lacking.
Also they only offer low margin.. 50:1 I think... so you have to use alot of cash to be profitable.
Welcome
GFT is my favorite, but quite a few here adore Oanda.