British Pound Currency Profile (Part II)

By Ahmad Hassam

The Chancellor of the Exchequer still determines the inflation target for the economy. The monetary policy is dictated by the inflation target set by the Treasury Chancellor despite the independence of the Bank of England (BOE). BOE has the power to change interest rates to levels that it believes will allow it to meet this target.

You must have heard about George Soros who is famously known as the, Man who had broken the Bank of England. How did he form his opinion about the inability of Great Britain to say within the EMU in the early part of 1990s? By watching the policy statements of MPC! MPC meetings are held on a monthly basis and are closely followed by changes in the monetary policy including changes in the interest rates. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings are closely followed by the professional forex traders all over the world as GBP is a highly popular currency among the traders.

MPC issues statements after each meeting. A Quarterly Inflation Report detailing the MPCs forecasts for the next two years of growth and inflation and its justification for its policy movements is also published.

The Quarterly Bulletin is another publication. It provides information for the past monetary policy movements and analysis of international economic scene and its impact on the British economy. All of these reports are highly informative for professional forex traders who trade GBP heavily.

The main policy tools used by MPC and BOE are the Bank Repo Rate and the Open Market Operations. Bank repo rate is the key rate used in the monetary policy to achieve the Treasurys target inflation rate.

Changes to the bank repo rate affect the commercial banks interest rates for its savers and borrowers. Bank repo rate is set by the BOE for its own operations in the market such as the short term lending activities.

When the economy is overheating, the central bank tries to cool it down by increasing the interest rte. An increase in the Bank Repo Rate means BOE wants to curb the inflation. A When the economy slumps into a recession just like what has happened currently, the central banks will try to lower interest rates to promote more economic activity so that the economy starts expanding again. Decrease in the interest rate would be to stimulate growth and expansion. Changes in the bank repo rate changes the commercial interest rates. In turn these commercial interest rates will affect spending and output in the economy and eventually the costs and prices.

While assuring adequate liquidity in the market and continued stability in the banking system, the goal of the open market operations is to implement the changes in the bank repo rate.

The present financial crisis has been very severe. It started in the US sub-prime markets but eventually UK economy also suffered tremendously from it. Many UK banks had heavily invested in the US mortgage securities. Now it just shows how the individual economies are interlinked in this global economy now. Both the bank repo rate and the open market operations are used by the BOE to achieve its broad monetary policy objective. The three main objective of the BOE are to maintain the stability of the financial system, maintain the integrity and value of GBP and seeking to ensure the effectiveness of the UK financial services. These objectives are very important for the BOE to maintain in the present global financial crisis.

These monetary policy objectives are met primarily through the open market operations. In order to ensure liquidity in the economy, BOE daily conducts open market operations to buy or sell short term fixed income government instruments. BOE can conduct additional overnight operations as well if this is not sufficient to meet the liquidity needs. The United Kingdom is a pivotal nation because it bridges the economical, geographical, and ideological divide between the United States and Europe.

Because the United Kingdom is an oil producer, the GBP can be affected more directly by oil prices than other currencies. The relationship between oil and the pound is fading, however, because production in the United Kingdoms North Sea oil fields is steadily decreasing. - 23221

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try 1500 Pips a day Forex Signals. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot Trading System!

Tips To Trade Penny Stocks Professionally

By Robert Brown

You have to keep various things in mind while buying and selling penny stocks. It is important to choose good stocks for which you need to research them before buying any stock.

You can get the information about profitable trades from various alert services. These will help you buy the stocks that are expected to rise in price. Many experts run their own alert services.

Before signing up for any alerts service, you should check out whether the person offering these tips is real or not. You should not act on the wrong trades or you may end up losing a lot of money.

Excel worksheets can be used to keep all records of trades done. You should use these tools to do trade like professionals. Microsoft Excel is a good option. You can use other free software that offers the same functionality.

Stock trading forums can help you a lot. Many experts hang out at leading forums. So you can get free advice and tips on buying the right stocks. You can also learn from the experts in trading.

You should get the training from an expert to fully learn penny stock trading. It can generate huge profits for you if you know how to do it. You should consider opting for a good online training program.

There are many people selling tools, training programs and services for people interested in trading penny stocks. You can gain a lot by using the right tools and services. You should also work with a trusted online broker.

Penny stock trading can be highly profitable. You should get the advice of various people. But you should buy any stock using your own judgment and risk taking ability. Thus you can become a successful penny stock trader. - 23221

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Investment in Stocks can generate huge returns if done the correct way. Penny Stocks can provide the highest profits in the shortest period of time.

Understanding Forex Trading Sessions

By Ahmad Hassam

Currency trading volumes in the Asia Pacific session account for about 21% of the total daily global volume. The financial centers active during the Asia Pacific session are Wellington, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. The currency pairs traded are USD/JPY, EUR/JPY and AUD/JPY.

News and data reports from Australia, New Zealand and Japan are going to be hitting the market during the session. In terms of the move actively traded currency pairs during the Asia Pacific trading session this news and data affects their price action.

Because of the size of the Japanese market and the importance of Japanese data to the market much of the action during this session is focused on the Japanese Yen currency pairs. The Japanese financial centers are most active during this session so you can get a sense of what the Japanese market is doing based on price movements.

European trading session is very important for currency traders. European financial centers and London represent over 50% of the total global trading volume. European financial centers begin to open up and the market gets to its full swing about midway through the Asian trading day.

London, Bonn, Paris, Zurich and Geneva are important financial centers that are active during the European trading session. The forex market interest and liquidity is at its peak during the European session The European session overlaps with half of the Asian trading day and half of the North American trading day.

As a result some the biggest moves and the most active trading takes place in the European currencies (EUR, GBP and CHF) and the euro cross currency pairs (EUR/CHF and EUR/GBP). London is the global forex center with the highest volume of foreign exchange transactions. GBP is still the most liquid currency in the world and favorite of currency traders.

The trading volumes are much bigger in the European Session because of the overlap between the North American and European trading sessions. Some of the biggest and most meaningful directional price movements take place during this crossover period.

The North American trading session accounts for roughly the same share of the global trading volume as the Asia Pacific market, or about 22% of the daily global trading volume.

Nonfarm Payroll Figures are very important for those currency traders who heavily trade USD. Since USD is the global reserve currency that means almost all the currency traders give utmost attention to the US economic and political news. Most US data reports are released around 8:30 AM EST with others coming out later at around 9 AM and 10:00 AM EST. The North American morning is when US key economic data are released and the forex market makes many of its significant decisions on the value of USD.

However, there are some US economic reports that come out at noon or at 2:00 PM EST livening up the New York afternoon market. Canadian economic data reports are also released between 7 and 9 AM EST. Most of this news affects the CAD/USD pair. There are news traders who try to trade around these specific times and take benefit from the volatility caused in the markets by the release of this news.

The London or European close can bring volatile flurries of activity. London and European financial centers begin to wind down their daily trading operations around noon eastern time each day.

Market liquidity and interest falls off significantly in the New York afternoon on most trading days. This is the best time for scalping as the market is moving sideways. Scalping is done when a trader enters and exits a trade within a few minutes in order to make just a few pips per trade. The ideal time for scalping is when the markets are moving sidways with very low volatility. On quiet days, the generally lower market interest typically leads to stagnating price action. This can make for challenging trading conditions but not for the scalpers. - 23221

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Know Forex Rebellion!

Forex And Other Markets (Part II)

By Ahmad Hassam

The lower the prices of oil, the lower the inflationary pressures are going to become but this is not always true. The higher the price of oil, the higher the inflation would be and the slower the economic growth is going to become. Take oil as an inflation input and a limiting factor on the overall economic growth. Rising oil prices tend to retard economic growth that in turn depreciates the domestic currency. When you see oil prices making major moves, watch for the currencies that have a strong relationship with oil to make major moves as well. Some currencies have a positive correlation with oil meaning that when oil prices go up, the value of the currency also goes up. Other currencies have a negative correlation with oil meaning that when oil prices go up, the value of the currency goes down. If you can, utilize those currency pairs that have one currency with a positive correlation and one currency with a negative correlation in the pairing, like the CAD/JPY. This will help you not only make profits in your forex trading but also offset the additional expenses in your budget that will be brought on by rising oil prices.

The global oil reserves are finite. With the rising energy demand in emerging economies like China, India and Brazil, the prices of oil are expected to rise and reach around $200 per barrel in the coming few years. We would like to factor changes in the prices of oil into our inflation and growth expectations and then draw conclusions about the course of US Dollar from them. Above all, oil is just one input among many.

Stocks: Almost everyone is familiar with stocks and the stock markets. You can take stocks as microeconomic securities rising and falling in response to individual corporate results and prospects. Stocks are units of ownership rights that get traded on the stock exchanges. You must have invested in stocks sometimes back. Many people invest in stocks. Buy and hold is the best strategy that has been followed over the years by the stock investor. Warren Buffet is the famous example who became the second riches man in the world by investing in good stocks over the years.

On the other hand, currencies are essentially macroeconomic securities fluctuating in response to wider ranging economic and political developments. As such there is no intuitive reason that stock market should be related to the forex market.

There was a boom in the Tokyo Stock Exchange a decade back. Many investors wanted to take part in that boom. But in order to invest in Japanese stocks, they needed Japanese Yen (JPY). Heavy buying pressure on JPY made it appreciate. So sometimes a relationship develops between a stock market and a currency. If you have all your money invested in the stock market, you are completely at the mercy of the movements of the stock market. If you diversify your investments a little bit, however, and put the majority of your money in the stock market and a portion of it in the Forex market, you can retain more control of your financial future. Diversifying your money enables you to react to the movements of the market, regardless of its direction. However, long term correlation studies bear this out that there is no major relationship between stocks and currencies. Major USD currency pairs and the US equity markets over the last five years have almost zero correlation coefficients. However, the two markets occasionally intersect as the above example shows.

For example, when equity market volatility reaches extraordinary levels lie when S&P 500 Index loses 2% in a single day, USD may experience more pressure than it otherwise would have. But there is no guarantee of that. The US stock market may drop on an unexpected hike in the US interest rates while USD may rally on the surprise move.

Bonds: When interest rates are on the rise, at some point, doing business becomes difficult, and when interest rates fall, eventually economic growth is energized. The bond market rules the world. Everything that anyone does in the financial markets anymore is built upon interest rate analysis. Globalization is here to stay. At the center of the globalization phenomenon is the entity known as the bond market. As a futures trader, you are likely to deal mostly, but not exclusively, with the U.S. Treasury bond futures. However, over the next 10 or 20 years, or perhaps sooner, the European bond market, and more than likely bond markets in Dubai and China, will play significant roles in the global economy.

That relationship between rising and falling interest rates makes the markets in interest-rate futures, Eurodollars, and Treasuries (bills, notes, and bonds) important for all consumers, speculators, economists, bureaucrats, and politicians. Globalization, or essentially the spread of capitalism around the world, has increased the number of short term interest rate contracts that trade at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and around the world.

How can you anticipate the interest rate changes in the market? By following the bonds market! Ten-year T-note yields are the key for setting long-term mortgage rates. By watching this interest rate, you can pinpoint the best entry times for re-mortgaging, relocating, or buying rental property, and you can keep tabs on whether your broker is quoting you a good rate. Both the bond market as well as the forex market reacts to interest rate changes and inflation. Bond or fixed income markets have a more intuitive relationship with the forex markets as both are heavily influenced by the interest rate expectations. However, the short term supply and demand fluctuations interrupt most attempts to establish a viable link between the two markets on a short term basis.

Just about every country in the world with a convertible currency has some kind of bond or bond futures contract that trades on an exchange somewhere around the world. Sometimes, the bond markets more accurately reflect the changes in interest rate expectations with the forex market doing the catch up. At other times, the forex markets react first and fastest to the shifts in the interest rate expectations.

Changes in the relative interest rates exert a major influence on forex markets. As a forex trader, you definitely need to keep an eye on the yields of the benchmark government bonds of the major currency countries to better monitor the expectations of the interest rate market. - 23221

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Develop Your Own Forex Trading System!

Isaac Toussie Looks At Real Estate in Florida

By Isaac R. Thompson

The current economic malaise has hit Connecticut as well, but there is no danger of oversupply in the state; inventory levels have been consistent, probably because Connecticut housing has not been subjected to the amount of speculative investment that other places have experienced, such as Florida or Nevada. Connecticut maintains its generally pro-business policies and there is no danger of an exodus among commercial tenants, either. Surely it has also helped that media attention has been focused on other states, whereby the panic selling that's ensued elsewhere has not gripped the Connecticut real estate market.

Connecticut has the most upscale estates in the country second only to California, with over three percent priced over a million dollars by the turn of this century. Most such residences are situated in the northeastern part of the state, where median values have been assessed in the multiple millions, Isaac Toussie comments. The state's southwest lies within the greater metropolitan area of New York City. In fact, three of Connecticut's eight counties form the Tri-State Region with New York and New Jersey. Despite the economic doldrums across the rest of the nation, Connecticut real estate has not experienced that much of an upheaval. While credit is tightened, inventory has been steady.

Statewide inventory of condominiums in Connecticut have been at consistent levels despite the economic downturn of late, and this is a good sign which bodes well for the real estate market there as a whole. Thanks to government action that's maintained access to credit, there is actually some good news for those savvy enough to "connect the dots."

Mortgage interest rates have dropped steeply and there is a tax credit stimulus package for first-time home-buyers with $7,500.00 available. Finally, people have got to live somewhere, so any decline in the condominium market can only be temporary. This is a market with a lot of upside, Isaac Toussie believes.

The ideas in this article have been presented strictly for informational and human interest purposes only, not for advisory purposes, and should not be depended on in any way by any person or institution. The reader should not rely on the veracity of any of the content provided herein. The reader is urged to seek a variety of professionals when making business or any other significant decision, including accountants, lawyers, investment advisors, insurance companies and the like. Again, this article has been posted merely for human interest and informational purposes, not for advisory purposes. - 23221

About the Author:

This article was submitted by Isaac Toussie to provide some helpful information on real estate. Keep an eye out for more Isaac Toussie articles to come!