Business

Four Killed as Gulfstream Jet Crashes

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 15:24:00 +0000

USA News: Four Killed as Gulfstream Jet Crashes - By PETER SANDERS A Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. business... http://ow.ly/1c19SW

Jets Make Emergency Landings

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 17:23:00 +0000

USA News: Jets Make Emergency Landings - By ANDY PASZTOR Two U.S. jetliners made emergency descents and... http://ow.ly/1c0H2i

Rx for Combat Stress: Comradeship

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 04:21:00 +0000

USA News: Rx for Combat Stress: Comradeship - By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS GARMSIR, Afghanistan—The morn... http://ow.ly/1c0qiX

Cobra in Its Dressing Room

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 04:21:00 +0000

USA News: Cobra in Its Dressing Room - BY SUMATHI REDDY The city has a newfound celebrity, but she won... http://ow.ly/1c0qiW

Stepping on the Gas

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:23:00 +0000

USA News: Stepping on the Gas - By DANIEL YERGIN Read more >> http://ow.ly/1c0pae

Sitting Down With Frank Gehry

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:23:00 +0000

USA News: Sitting Down With Frank Gehry - View Full Image Read more >> http://ow.ly/1c0pab

Obama Sets Stage to Launch Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:22:00 +0000

USA News: Obama Sets Stage to Launch Campaign - By CAROL E. LEE President Barack Obama will officially o... http://ow.ly/1c0paf

Dieting Becomes a Federal Affair

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:22:00 +0000

USA News: Dieting Becomes a Federal Affair - By JANET ADAMY Fans of convenience store hot dogs will get ... http://ow.ly/1c0pad

Mixed Signals Marked Sokol Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:22:00 +0000

USA News: Mixed Signals Marked Sokol Meeting - By GINA CHON and SERENA NG When bankers from Citigroup In... http://ow.ly/1c0pac

Secretary Chu: Reactor Core Is Damaged

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:23:00 +0000

USA News: Secretary Chu: Reactor Core Is Damaged - By STEPHEN POWER WASHINGTON—Japanese authoritie... http://ow.ly/1c0aav

Jobs Report Signals Improving Economy

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:27:00 +0000

USA News: Jobs Report Signals Improving Economy - By LUCA DI LEO And JEFF BATER WASHINGTO... http://ow.ly/1c08vu

Alaska Pushes Offshore Drilling

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:26:00 +0000

USA News: Alaska Pushes Offshore Drilling - By CASSANDRA SWEET Alaska's governor asked federal regulator... http://ow.ly/1c08vs

Transocean Workers Won't Testify in Probe

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:26:00 +0000

USA News: Transocean Workers Won't Testify in Probe - By TENNILLE TRACY WASHINGTON—Employees of T... http://ow.ly/1c08vt

Placing a Trade in The Forex Market

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:03:00 +0000

Placing a trade in the forex market is basically the same as placing a trade in any other market. Some people get confused because they feel they are not buying or selling anything like in the stock market, were you buy or sell part of a company.

We will dissect a trade from beginning to end in order to understand what is being done in the process.

Step 1: The trader has USD 10,000 in his forex broker account.

Step 2: In the morning the GBP/USD quote is 1.7478. This means that every GBP (Great British Pound) is worth 1.7478 dollars (i.e. 1:1.7478). Based on his analysis, the trader thinks that within the next 24 hours the GBP will gain strength against the US Dollar (i.e. a single GBP will exchange for more dollars). The trader wants to profit from the speculated move.

Step 3: The trader places a BUY GBP 100,000 (remember,
although the trader does not have that amount of money in the account, trading on margin will allow this transaction) order with his broker either through the phone or through the broker’s on-line trading platform. At this moment the trader has purchased GBP 100,000 at a cost of 1.7478 USD per GBP. In effect, what has also happened is that the trader sold USD 174,780.

Step 4: About 12 hours after placing the trade, things turned out as the trader has speculated and the GBP has appreciated in value against the USD and the quote is 1.7578, a difference of 0.0100 (or 100 pips) from the quote 12 hours ago. The trader decides to liquidate the position with the current profit.

Step 5: In order to close the position the trader has to now SELL the GBP’s he bought earlier and buy back USD. An order to sell GBP 100,000 is placed.

Outcome: The market moved into the direction the trader speculated and a 100 pip profit was achieved. The profit is calculated in the following manner:
Trade Open (rate 1.7478) GBP +100,000 USD -174,780
Trade Close (rate 1.7578) GBP -100,000 USD +175,780
Profit: USD +1,000

Important!
Here we saw a trade from beginning to end with a final outcome of a USD 1,000 profit or a return of 10% on the trader’s equity. By now you obviously understood why it was possible to make a 10% profit in less than one day, we traded on margin. Remember how we mentioned above that using leverage can bring you incredible profits (like in our example)? Well, what if instead of the price going up 100 pips it would have gone down 100 pips to 1.7378? That would have been a loss of 10% of the trader’s total equity.

Bottom line, and as already mentioned above, leverage can bring you big profits but it can also bring you big losses if not used properly. Again, this issue is of extreme importance and will be dealt with in the “money management” section of the course.

Understanding Pips And Calculating that Value

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:08:00 +0000

Every currency pair has a corresponding value and hence a quote. For example, a GBP/USD quote could be 1.5776. This means that the exchange rate for every GBP is USD 1.5776. In other words, it would cost the trader USD 1.5776 to buy a single GBP. A pip is the smallest price change that a given exchange rate can make.

In our example a move from 1.5776 to 1.5777 would indicate a 1 pip increase. Since most major currency pairs (but not all, example of an important exception is the USD/JPY pair) are priced to four decimal places (.0000), the smallest change is obviously that of the last decimal point, or one basis point.

The value of a pip depends on the amount that is being bought or sold of that specific currency. Let’s use a 10,000 unit purchase for our example.

Formula: (one pip with proper decimal placement/currency exchange rate) X (amount being purchased) = pip value

Example 1: GBP/USD Rate is 1.5776
0.0001/1.5776 X GBP 10,000 = 0.6339 GBP. Since we want the value in USD we multiply the GBP pip value by the exchange rate:
0.6339 X 1.5776 = USD 1.00. In other words, in a USD 10,000
purchase of GBP’s the pip value is one dollar.

Example 2: EUR/USD Rate is 1.2000
0.0001/1.2000 X EUR 10,000 = 0.8333 EUR. Since we want the value in USD we multiply the EUR pip value by the exchange rate:
0.8333 X 1.2000 = USD 1.00. In other words, in a USD 10,000
purchase of EUR’s the pip value is one dollar.

We can see that when the USD is the weaker currency between the two, a pip value will be one USD. However, this is not the case if the USD is the stronger currency. Let's look at some examples:

Example 1: USD/JPY Rate is 113.20
.01/113.20 X USD 10,000 = USD 0.8834. Since the USD is the base currency we do not have to go on and multiply the pip value by the exchange rate (like in the above examples).

Example 2: USD/CHF Rate is 1.5285
.0001/1.5285 X USD 10,000 = USD 0.6542. Again, since the USD is the base currency we do not have to go on and multiply the pip value by the exchange rate (like in the above examples).

Don’t worry! I just wanted you to know the correct way to calculate pip value but in reality most trading platforms will tell you automatically the correct pip value of the currency pair you are about to trade.

Reading A Currency Quote

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:33:00 +0000

Currencies are quoted in pairs, e.g. GBP/USD, USD/CHF etc. The first listed currency is called the “base” currency. The base currency is the basis for the buy or sell transaction. The second listed currency is called the “counter” or “quote” currency. As an example, if you place a buy GBP/USD order with your broker what you have effectively done is sell US dollars and bought Great British pounds (GBP). By definition, the first currency is the stronger between the two.

Let’s look at another example:

USD/CAD
If you believe that the Canadian government is going to weaken its currency (Canadian dollar) in order to help its export industry you would BUY USD/CAD (in trading terms: GO LONG). Why? Because you want to own US dollars while they appreciate against the Canadian dollar.

On the other hand, if you believe that due to instability in the US economy the US dollar will lose value you would execute a SELL USD/CAD (in trading terms: GO SHORT). By doing so you have sold US dollars with the expectation that they will depreciate against the Canadian dollar.

There are many currency pairs in existence. However, the ones I consider important are those with the best market liquidity, i.e. the most heavily trade. They posses all the quality a good market has for trading purposes. The following is a list of these currency pairs:

EUR/USD : Euro and United States dollar
USD/JPY : United States dollar and Japanese yen
USD/CHF : United States dollar and Swiss franc
GBP/USD : Great British pound and United States dollar
AUD/USD : Australian dollar and United States dollar
USD/CAD : United States dollar and Canadian dollar

(Forex Trading Machine)

FOREX MARKET PARTICIPANTS

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:16:00 +0000

There are various entities in the FX market arena. Each trades for its own financial objective. The following are the main FX participants.

Central Banks
Within the foreign exchange market national central banks play a very important role. Ultimately, the objective of central banks is to keep inflation low and steady by controlling money supply. One of the most important responsibilities of a central bank is the restoration of an orderly market in times of excessive currency rate
volatility.

Many times, the mere speculation of central bank intervention is enough to stabilize a currency. However, in the event of aggressive intervention the actual impact on the short term supply/demand balance can lead to the desired moves in exchange rates.

Banks
The inter-bank market provides for both the greater part of commercial turnover as well as huge amounts of speculative trading on a daily basis. The type or trading that banks do can be divided into two. First, trading on behalf of the banks customers.

Here instructions are given to the bank by the individual customer to buy or sell a specific amount of currency. The second type of trading is proprietary trading. Proprietary trading simply put is when the bank’s dealers trade the bank's capital to make the bank a profit. A very large part of interbank trading takes places on
electronic broking systems.

Interbank Brokers
Until not long ago, the foreign exchange brokers were doing large amounts of business, facilitating interbank trading and matching anonymous counterparts for relatively small fees. The increased use of the Internet has forced a lot of this business to move onto more efficient electronic systems that are functioning as a closed circuit for banks only.

The traditional broker box providing the opportunity to listen in on the ongoing interbank trading is still seen in most trading rooms, but turnover is noticeably smaller than just a few years ago.

Customer Brokers
These type of brokers are the ones that handle the trades you will make in the forex market. These brokers are a direct result of the increased use of the internet. Their numbers are growing fast and the service they provide is becoming better and better as days go by. Forex trading has become such a lucrative business for these
brokers that they literally will do everything to acquire customers. The function of these brokers is to provide foreign exchange dealing services, analysis and strategic advice to customers. The services of such customer brokers are more similar in nature to stock, futures and mutual fund brokers and typically provide a
service orientated approach to their clients.

Commercial Companies
Companies engaged in international trade conduct a lot of their business in foreign currencies. These companies use the currency market as a means of protecting themselves from unfavorable moves in the market. A US company operating in England would receive payments for its goods or services in Great British Pounds (GBP). The company decides at one point to change the GBP for USD. This trade, from GBP to USD, is where the company's transaction forms part of the daily liquidity of the forex market.

Investors and Speculators
It is estimated that the largest portion of the daily volume in the forex market derives from investors and speculators. Simply put, this group of market participants trade with one objective in mind, making a profit from rise and fall of currency prices. These type of traders are attracted to the forex market due to the incredible leverage it provides, fantastic short and long term moves, and high
liquidity. Ten years ago this group consisted mainly on big well funded traders.

Since the internet has become more used and more efficient in terms of connection speed big traders and investors are not the only ones who can take advantage of currency speculation. The field has leveled and today’s small speculator has the same
tools big investors and speculators had 10 years ago.

Hedge Funds
Simply put, a hedge fund is a managed investment where the fund manager is authorized to use derivatives and borrowing with the aim of providing a higher return. The fund manager is allowed to use aggressive strategies that are unavailable to mutual funds, including selling short, leverage, program trading, swaps, and arbitrage.

Hedge funds have increasingly been known for aggressive currency speculation in recent years. The main reason for this is due to the high leverage, volatility and liquidity the currency market provides.

Spot and Forward Outrights Of the Forex Market

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:25:00 +0000

The most important forex market is the spot market, it also has the largest trading volume and it is the market you will be dealing with should you chose to trade forex. It is called “spot” simply because the trade is settled instantaneously.

Another part of the forex market is called forward outright. Don’t panic! You will not be dealing with it and in essence you do not even need to know about it but it is always good to understand the whole picture.

A forward outright contract locks in the price at which an entity can buy or sell a currency on a future date. The contact holder is obliged to buy or sell the specific currency at a specified price, at a specified quantity and on a specified future
date.

Several pro’s and con’s for the individual trader

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:43:00 +0000

Pro's:1. The trader can respond to currency moves caused by economic, social and political events at the time they occur. This is a huge advantage the forex market has over any other markets. If a company listed on the NYSE is scheduled to release quarterly earnings after the close of the market (as they almost always do), owners of the stock cannot react to the data (since there is no after hours trading) and may suffer
huge losses depending if they are short or long the stock once the market opens again the day after.

2. A trader has the opportunity to have an active market no matter what part of the world he or she lives in. As an example, if someone living in Australia would like to trade the US stock market they would have to be awake all night because of the time differences. Not so with the FX market.

3. Different times within the 24 hour period provide opportunity for different strategies. As an example, during the European and US sessions the market tends to be quite volatile allowing the trader to take advantage of big moves in currency prices. In the Asian session the market tends to range meaning the trader could play range strategies (don’t worry, we will cover the meaning and significance of these
strategies later on in the course).

Con's:
1. For the small trader who is most of the times trading alone (unlike banks for example who have traders 24 hours a day viewing and analyzing the market) it is impossible to take advantage of all the action that takes place. For example, if a
trader lives in New York and a big move starts in the specific pair he or she is trading during the mid European session he or she would probably miss it (remember the time differences).

2. Some periods within the 24 hour day present low trading interest from the various market participants which means very small moves, no liquidity and sometimes (depending on the broker the trader works with) widening of the bid/ask spread.

Background of Foreign Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:42:00 +0000

Foreign exchange, or as it is referred to many times: “forex”, “fx”, or “currency exchange market”, is the term used to describe the trading of world currencies. A currency trade is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another one, e.g. Buying US dollars with euros, buying British pounds with US dollars, selling Swiss francs for Japanese yens etc. The currency combination used in the trade is called a pair. We will dive more into this later on.

The foreign exchange market is by far the largest financial market in the world. Just to put things into perspective, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) daily volume fluctuates around US$30 billion per day. Forex market daily volume is estimated to be
around US$1.5 trillion! In fact, daily world stock and bond market volume added up is only a fraction of the daily forex trading volume.

We always hear the word “market” after mentioning forex and this usually invokes the idea of a central market place like the New York, Nasdaq or London stock exchange. This is not the case in the forex market. The forex market is considered an over the
counter (OTC) or “interbank” market, due to the fact that transactions are conducted between two counterparts over the phone or via an electronic network. Trading is not centralized on an exchange as in the case of stocks and futures. This is also the
reason why the forex market is a 24 hour market.

The following shows at what times forex trading takes place around the world:

Time zone	GMT
Tokyo Open	23:00
Tokyo Close	08:00
London Open	07:00
London Close	16:00
New York Open	12:00
New York Close	21:00

The major dealing centers today are London and New York, together covering approximately 50% of the daily trading volume. This is also the reason why most of the action in the forex market happens within those timeframes (7 GMT – 21:00 GMT).

The System of Forex Intraday Pivots Trading - HOW THE TRADE SYSTEM WORKS

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:25:00 +0000

When price penetrates a pivot number, it often retraces back to the pivot, and touches it briefly. If it was support that was penetrated, and it does not move back up above it, but continues to hover just below it, there is about to be a drop in price.

At the point that it retraces after dropping below support, enter a sell with a modest stop loss somewhere on the other side of the broken support line. Notice the illustration below of the USD/JPY at 2 am EST. The price had just broken below the S2 number, which was 123.38. It briefly touched the 123.38 to 123.41 area and then began to descend. As you can see, it moved down all through the European and US market sessions.

This USD/JPY trade exhibits a problem sometimes encountered. Price either moves higher than the R2 or lower than the S2 number. At that point, it is best to re-calculate the numbers, or monitor the trade based on its relationship to weekly pivot numbers.

Other examples are seen below in the USD/CHF and GBP/USD.

This GBP set-up is an example of simply buying or selling depending on which side of
1.5000 the price is at 07:00 GMT (2:00 am EST). Since the price broke below 1.5000,
you would wait until it retraced back to 1.5000, and then sell. Your target would be the next pivot line which was 1.4960. If all you did was trade one set of pivots each tradingsession, you would have a high percentage of wins to losses, and could realistically book 20 to 50 pips on each of the 4 major currencies. (Note: Had you been using a MVA crossover method, you would have entered the market well into “NO MAN’S LAND.” The same would be true of any indicator that lags behind the market action).

The System of Forex Intraday Pivots Trading - HOW THE SET-UP SYSTEM WORKS

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:53:00 +0000

After you have calculated the pivot numbers for the day, place horizontal lines on your 5-minute and 1-hour charts at the pivot numbers for the day, or at least as many lines as your chart gives you room for. It should look something like this:

The lines in the above illustration represent five of the nine calculated numbers. On this five-minute chart, that was all there was room for. The nine numbers are:
R2,M4,R1,M3,Pivot,M2,S2,M1,S1

There are several basic ways to trade pivot numbers. Some look for the prices to move to the higher end, and then sell in the upper third of the scale, or buy in the lower third of the scale of numbers (S1, M1, and S2).

However, in forex, the number of pips (points) that the currency will move in a 24-hour period is usually substantial. This means that a move from the pivot or even the M2 number down to S2, M1, or S1 could represent 40 to 100 pips. If this is true, in USD/CHF, that is worth between $272 to $680 per lot traded. Therefore, to ignore the move down from this area to the projected low of the day could represent losing out on a good opportunity.

Additionally, the currencies are the most trending markets in the world, and frequently they do not stop if they reach these lower levels. Therefore, to look to buy at these low points can be dangerous unless you have a clear reversal pattern in place, or some other criteria for a reversal being met.

Others look for a break of the pivot and trade it lower or higher to the S2 or R1 numbers, take a portion of the profit, and leave the rest anticipating a continued move to either S1 or R2. The system I use is an extension of this method of trading pivots. I will present the method in two parts. The first application is simply trading the pivots with NO INDICATORS. Then the second application is to utilize the MOVING AVERAGES and MACD. In this way, you will see that the most important aspect of the system is the relationship between price and the pivot numbers. Secondarily, and of lesser importance, are the indicators.

The reason for this is because indicators tend to lag behind the action. If you follow only indicators, you will frequently find yourself in “NO MAN’S LAND.” This is that area in the middle between two points of support and resistance. The price can either continue on to the next point or reverse and go back to where it came from. This is the worst possible place to enter a trade, and yet that is where indicator trading often puts you. The best place to enter a trade is as close to support or resistance as possible. Obviously, if you are buying, you want to be sitting right on top of support and if selling, right below resistance. (Peter R.Bain and Dr. Brent Strouse.)

The System of Forex Intraday Pivots Trading

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:40:00 +0000

This is a trading system that I use primarily on the Swiss Franc (USD/CHF) in the Spot Foreign Exchange market. I will outline the system as I apply it to the Swiss Franc, hereafter known just as USD/CHF (I believe this stands for Confederation Helvetica Franc).

WHAT YOU NEED
1. Five-minute and 1-hour charts for the forex currencies. The 1-hour chart helps define the intraday trend and the five-minute is used for entry and exit. I use MG Forex’s charting package because their charts represent broker prices and closely reflect the prices of all retail brokerages (i.e., MG Forex, FX Solutions, FXCM, GFT Forex, Gain Capital, etc.).

I used to use premium charting packages such as WebTrader, Comstock and so on, but I
found that the charts reflected prices that no retail FX broker in the world was quoting. Therefore, when watching support and resistance points (pivots), I would see the price shoot way beyond the support or resistance, and it would look like the point had been broken, when in reality it was just a price quote that was out of line with the filtered quotes that brokerages use. When using charts that reflect brokerage prices, you have a better idea of where you are.

MG Forex's charting package costs US$44 a month. They also provide the DDE link for
a forex feed to those who use professional charts like Tradestation. FX Solutions is
revamping their trading software and charting package, and the news will come out early in October. The changes will set FX Solutions above and apart from much of the
competition in the industry. The charts they have now are functional. Regarding their
trading platform, FX Solutions has NO slippage at all on entry limit or entry stop orders.

They do re-quote you if the price has changed while you are entering a market order, but this is standard market practice. Their competition is one of the worst at that.
www.mgforex.com is the site for MG Forex, but they have another site that features their news, charts and analysis packages: www.forexnews.com. This is where you can
subscribe to the charts; they allow you a 30-day demo of the charts for free.
When MG Forex's price on the chart monitor changes, it is reflective of all the brokers.

When the price changes on charts that have a so-called "premium" feed like Comstock or WebTrader, it is constantly moving and is not filtered like the brokerage prices are. It jumps all over the place, and sometimes it looks like support has broken, when it's just one of those renegade prices, out of line with the filtered quotes.
The FX Solutions charts are free and work fine. The new charts will probably be free to all FX Solutions clients. I will probably change to the FX Solutions charts; I can always still calculate the pivot numbers by using an hourly chart from 3 pm EST to 3 pm EST.

The FX Solutions charts have the capability to switch back and forth between a 5-minute and 1-hour chart. They also have the necessary indicators. They work quite well for that purpose. The only thing I don't like about those charts is that, on the 5-minute chart, I use candlesticks, and the candle updates every 2 1/2 minutes, rather than tick-by-tick.

There is a refresh button if you want to update it before the 2 1/2 minutes, but I like the constantly updating candlesticks. The new charts will be real-time updating charts, and that will definitely change my feelings about them. Regarding the bar or candlestick charts, they both update every 2 1/2 minutes rather than
tick-by-tick. Some people prefer this, because it keeps them from making decisions until they actually have a close of a bar or candlestick.

As far as I know, they are both the same, updating every couple minutes, unless you hit the refresh button. Lately, I have been calculating the pivot numbers at 3 pm EST, and then again at 12 am EST just to note the difference. Most of the time the numbers are pretty close, and in the same area. I go with the 12 am EST if there has been any significant movement since 3 pm EST, or if for some reason the numbers don't seem to be matching up with the price action.

2. Indicators: The 9 and 18 Exponential Moving Averages on both the 5-minute and 1-
hour charts. The MACD on both the 5-minute and 1-hour charts.

3. Pivots calculator or pivots calculation which provides not only the Pivot, R1, R2, S1, S2, but also the M1, M2, M3, M4 points as well. It is common to find many
commodities futures traders calculate only the Pivot, R1, R2, S1, S2 points. Often, in the forex market, these minor points of support and resistance are very significant, and most of the time there seems to be no difference in their significance.

There is some difference in which 24-hour time frame to use to compute the daily open, high, low, close numbers. MG Forex begins their 24-hour day at 3 pm EST, and
concludes the next day at 3 pm EST. FX Solutions’ 24-hour day is 12 am EST until 12
am the next day. WebTrader daily charts are calculated upon 2400 GMT to 2400 GMT.
Of all the times that I have reviewed to calculate the daily numbers, 3 pm EST to 3 pm EST seems to have the best consistency for the forex market. I believe the reason is because this coincides with the opening of the Australian, New Zealand markets, which technically represent the first markets of the day to open, followed by the Asian, then the European, and finally the U.S. market.

There is one exception to my usage of this time frame. At 3 pm EST, I will calculate the new Pivots based on the completed 24-hour period, and if the prices move up or down significantly during the Australian and Asian sessions so that they come close to exceeding the R2 or S2 numbers before the start of the European session, I will
recalculate them at 2400 GMT (8 pm EST), or even later at 12am EST. This way I have
a fresh set of pivot numbers for the European and U.S. market sessions, which I trade.

The latest numbers for daily volume in the Global Foreign Exchange market say that
between 2 trillion and 7 trillion dollars a day change hands! This is up from the normally quoted numbers of 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion. Because of this, even time frames such as the late U.S. market hours and early Australian and Asian time frames are producing significant market movement. A year or so ago these time frames produced very little market movement, and were not usually the best times to trade, but that is changing. I trade from the Frankfurt opening (11 pm PST) or the London opening (12 am PST) to 9 am PST, the mid-point of the US market time frame. This normally produces profitable market movement.

At 11 pm PST, I see where the prices are located. Generally, they have not moved too much since 3 pm EST, and I await a fresh break of one of the pivot numbers. The times on the charts that I use for illustration purposes are Eastern Standard Time. Therefore, 2 am on the charts is the beginning of the time frame I use.
(Dr. Strouse’s)

The ideal market for trading [How to Trade The Forex like a Pro in One Hour]

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:35:00 +0000

Tired of giving money to your broker and feeling broker? Well, outperform him or her. Currencies don’t crash. They outperform stocks. Earn immediate income and stop worrying about job security and layoffs forever.

WHY YOU SHOULD GIVE THE FOREX A SECOND LOOK
- Large returns
- Currencies trend well.
- There are no commissions.
- US$6 trillion a day and growing
- The forex is a very efficient market.
- High leverage: Each pip is worth US$10
- There is lots of movement in this market.
- You can trade 24X5 from home or anywhere.
- Little capital is required – as little as US$500.
- You can easily start out by taking 20 pips a day.
- You can trade whether you have a day job or not.
- You can hedge at FX Solutions. Not all market makers allow this.
- All you need is an Internet connection; charting/dealing software is free.
- This is real-time trading; 2.5 to four second response time; rare re-quotes.
- Low lot size: 100 to one ratio; US$100 controls US$10,000 (1,000 = 100,000)

RISKY YOU SAY?
Is forex risky business? Comparing trading the forex to other forms of trading, you will find that from a risk/reward standpoint, forex trading provides respectable returns.

THE STRAIGHT SKINNY ON THE “FX” OR FOREX MARKET
The currency (foreign exchange) market is the largest and oldest financial market in the world. It is also called the foreign exchange market, or "FOREX" or "FX" market for short. It is the biggest and most liquid market in the world, and it is traded mainly through the 24 hour-a-day inter-bank currency market - the primary market for
currencies. The forex market is a cash (or "spot") inter-bank market. By comparison, the currency futures market is only one per cent as big.

Foreign Exchange simply means the buying of one currency and selling another at the
same time. In other words, the currency of one country is exchanged for those of another. The currencies of the world are on a floating exchange rate, and are always
traded in pairs - Euro/Dollar, Dollar/Yen, etc. In excess of 85 percent of all daily
transactions involve trading of the major currencies - Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, and the U.S. Dollar.

Unlike the futures and stock markets, trading of currencies is not centralized on an
exchange. Forex literally follows the sun around the world. Trading moves from major
banking centres of the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand, to the Far East, to Europe and finally back to the U.S.

In the past, the forex inter-bank market was not available to small speculators due to the large minimum transaction sizes and often-stringent financial requirements. Banks, major currency dealers and the occasional huge speculator used to be the principal dealers. Only they were able to take advantage of the currency market's fantastic liquidity and strong trending nature of many of the world's primary currency exchange rates.

Today, foreign exchange market maker brokers such as FX Solutions are able to break
down the larger sized inter-bank units, and offer small traders the opportunity to buy or sell any number of these smaller units (lots). These brokers give virtually any size trader, including individual speculators or smaller companies, the option to trade the same rates and price movements as the large players who once dominated the market. Market makers quote buying and selling rates for currencies, and they profit on the difference between their buying and selling rates. (Peter R. Bain and Dr. Brent Strouse.)

How To Save On Auto Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (cHayo) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:32:00 +0000

One of the main considerations most of us take into account when shopping for automobile insurance is, of course, cost. No one wants to pay more for a auto insurance if you can get it for less, right? Isn’t that the American way? With that in mind, let’s explore some of the things you can do to keep your auto insurance costs as low as possible.

By far the biggest single factor in keeping your auto insurance rates as low as they possibly can is a clean driving record. Period. If you’ve had an accident or moving violation in the last three years, your auto insurance rates are going to go up. In some cases, even if you are involved in an accident, your auto insurance company is probably going to hike those rates up noticeably.

Other than keeping a clean driving record, what other things can you do to lower your auto insurance rates? Here are a few tips gleaned from internet searches and a brochure from State Farm Insurance, not necessarily in order of importance.

Shop till you drop — No kidding! Be sure to check out as many reputable auto insurance companies as you can to determine which one is offering the best rates for your particular circumstance. Reputable is the key word here. You don’t want to have an accident and then learn that the one you have your policy with is difficult to get
in touch with after an accident or who consistently low-balls you on their auto insurance estimate. The best place to check out the reputation of auto insurance companies is your state department, easily located in most states with a convenient Google search.

Credit rating — Believe it or not, some auto insurance companies (maybe most) will lower your rates if you
have a good credit rating. That is because a person who is credit worthy will constitute less of an expense for the auto insurance company that those customers who are always late with their auto insurance payments and sometimes even force the company to cancel the policy.

Know what you are buying — Automobiles with higher safety ratings are more likely to allow auto insurance
companies to charge lower premiums than for those that are not as safe. Auto safety ratings can be found at www.iihs.org. The price of the vehicle you are purchasing will also be figured into the cost of your auto insurance because of the replacement factor.

Loyalty rewarded — According to karen.blumenthal@dowjones.com, factor auto insurance companies reward the customers who have been with them for five years or longer with lower premiums. Also, it helps to purchase auto insurance from the same company that you have your home insured with.

Learn to earn — Many major auto insurance companies offer up to 5 percent discounts to their customers who take certified auto safety courses, either in person or on line. In some states, in fact, auto insurance discounts are mandated for anyone over 60 years of age who take an AARP defensive driving course.

Other auto insurance discounts are frequently offered for multiple vehicles insured in same household, anti-theft devices, student academic records and passive restraint devices.