Sep 28, 2008

eToro Forex Platform

eToro offers of the most innovative Forex trading platforms on the on-line market. eToro Forex platform allows beginner traders to start trading almost without a traditional Forex learning:

  • Low minimum deposit — $50.
  • eToro offers up to $200 bonus upon your first deposit.
  • All trades are displayed visually in your platform.
  • Observe trades in real-time in several convenient ways.
  • Unlimited virtual money is offered if you want to improve your skills.
  • Demo trading shares the same functionality as the real trading.
  • Regular contests on both real and demo accounts.
  • Prizes and bonuses for the most valued customers.
  • Forum and real-time chat are available for the traders to discuss and share their success.
  • Effective support team to answer all your questions.
  • Multilingual site to offer a quality service to the international clients.
  • Live news feeds to point out the best opportunities for the Forex trading.
  • Real money orders are executed in a real-time mode, without delays and requotes.
  • Wire transfer, PayPal and credit cards are accepted to handle the funds transfers.
  • 1:100, 1:200 and 1:400 leverage to control your risks more accurately.

You can open a trading account and download eToro platform in minutes.

If you want to learn more about eToro you can read an on-line interview with eToro's Jeff MacKenzee about their platform and plans for the further innovations: Interview with eToro.

Sep 24, 2008

How will Bailout Impact Inflation?

In day 2 of our bailout coverage, let's look at the potential impact on inflation. On one hand, the government is proposing spending $700 Billion to buy faltering mortgages. Combined with the funds that have already been spent to deal with the credit crisis, this brings the total expenditure $1 Trillion, which amounts to more than 10% of the current liquid money supply. On the other hand, global food and commodity prices have eased over the last few months, causing a similar abatement in record rates of inflation. As a result of the economic recession and consequent depressed demand, prices don't appear likely to return to the stratospheric levels of early 2008. In the end, the risk of inflation is probably most closely connected to the willingness of foreign institutional investors and Central Banks to continue financing American borrowing. If they hesitate, this would send the government running to the Federal Reserve Bank, which would be forced to print money, thereby stoking inflation. The Wall Street Journal reports:

If the Fed has to print money to pay this debt, "the more dollars put into the system, the more you dilute the value of the dollars out there," said Chuck Butler, at EverBank World Markets.

Read More: Will Bailout Spur Inflation? Hedge That Bet

Bailout Plan Seen as Dollar-Negative

Congress remains deadlocked over the proposed $700 Billion plan to bail-out the American mortgage industry and alleviate the financial crisis, but that hasn't stopped forex traders from weighing the implications. Suffice it to say that the Dollar fell 2.5% against the Euro-its worst-ever single session performance- in the first day of trading since a loose outline of the proposal was made available to the public. The consensus, thus, is that the plan is unambiguously bad for the Dollar. Investors expect the US national debt will balloon, and it isn't clear whether foreign institutions and Central Banks are willing to play along, as they have in the past. In fact, treasury bond prices mirrored the performance of the Dollar, recording the sharpest fall in nearly two decades. Ironically, the potentiality that is more disconcerting for Dollar bulls is that the proposal won't be passed at all, and the global financial system will collapse as a result. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Marketwatch reports:

"Investors [will] favor currencies where the central banks retain an anti-inflationary stance and where there is a well-developed government bond market where they can leave their capital. The euro would seem the most likely home for such investment flows."

Read More: Dollar buckles under bailout's fiscal weight

Unpacking the Credit Crisis

In case you were asleep, US and global capital markets last week experienced unprecedented turmoil, followed by an unprecedented rebound. US stock market indices, for example, declined nearly 10% over the course of two days as it was revealed that three financial institutions (AIG, Merril Lynch, Lehman Brothers) were in deep trouble. Granted, the three scenarios managed to resolve themselves (government purchase, shotgun merger, bankruptcy), but the unthinkable had transpired. The following day, the markets promptly recouped their losses, as the earliest details of a sprawling US government bailout were announced. However, investors remain wary as they attempt to sort out the details. According to one piece of analysis, the forex implications are as follows:

First, the carry trade has officially fallen out of favor. Look for funding currencies (Japanese yen, Swiss Franc) to benefit and recipient currencies (Australia, New Zealand, etc.) to continue suffering. Next, while the US remains a safe haven because of perceived stability/liquidity, the monetary situation could still ignite a sharp decline in the Dollar, as the Federal Reserve performs an about-face and cuts interest rates in order to avert a complete financial meltdown. Instead, economies that have performed relatively better (less poor, to be more accurate) than the US, will probably witness a rise in their currencies. Think Canada and perhaps, the EU.

Read More: Lehman Fails And AIG Is On The Verge - What Is The Currency Impact?

Bank of Australia Lowers Rates

It would seem as if the world is conspiring against the Australian Dollar. In the last couple months, the currency has plummeted nearly 20% from the 25-year high it had reached against the US Dollar. A combination of global economic weakness, falling commodity prices, and a trend towards risk aversion have turned the tables in favor of currencies perceived as more stable in times of crisis. To add insult to injury, the Central Bank of Australia decided to cut its benchmark lending rate, narrowing the interest rate differential that had been partially responsible for the Australian Dollar's multi-year appreciation. Bloomberg News reports:
"In the near term, the question will be do we hold here or go down a bit more on interest rates?'' said [Central bank Governor Glenn] Stevens.

Sep 21, 2008

Controlling one's emotions is vital for every Forex trader. Here you will find the free e-books about Forex trading psychology and emotion control in the financial trading. You will learn how to calm yourself and set the long-term goals in your trading. Recommended for all traders.

Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.

If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, just comment on this post, I will gladly remove them.

A Course in Miracles — A Christian view on the probability by unknown author.

Thoughts on Trading — Some general thoughts about financial trading by Joe Ross.

Calming The Mind So That Body Can Perform — by Robert M. Nideffer, Ph.D.

Emotion Free Trading — "How to consistently act in your own best interest with your off-the-floor trading!" by Larry Levin.

How George Soros Knows What He Knows — a must-read book by Flavia Cymbalista, Ph.D.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Pipped — by Rob Booker & Kim Shaftner, M.D.

The Miracle of Discipline — by W.R. Booker & Co.

Zoom in on Personal Trading Behavior And Profit from It — by Linda Bradford Raschke.

The Woodchuck and the Possum — by Rob Booker.

25 Rules Of Forex Trading Discipline — by Douglas E. Zalesky.

Stop Losses Are For Sissies — by W. R. Brooker & Co. - a rather descriptive evidence of how important stop losses in Forex trading are.

Your Personality and Successful Trading — by Windsor Advisory Services - describes and discusses almost all psychological and emotional aspects of financial trading.

Forex Trading Psychology Books

Controlling one's emotions is vital for every Forex trader. Here you will find the free e-books about Forex trading psychology and emotion control in the financial trading. You will learn how to calm yourself and set the long-term goals in your trading. Recommended for all traders.

Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.

If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, just comment on the post, and I will gladly remove them.

A Course in Miracles — A Christian view on the probability by unknown author.

Thoughts on Trading — Some general thoughts about financial trading by Joe Ross.

Calming The Mind So That Body Can Perform — by Robert M. Nideffer, Ph.D.

Emotion Free Trading — "How to consistently act in your own best interest with your off-the-floor trading!" by Larry Levin.

How George Soros Knows What He Knows — a must-read book by Flavia Cymbalista, Ph.D.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Pipped — by Rob Booker & Kim Shaftner, M.D.

The Miracle of Discipline — by W.R. Booker & Co.

Zoom in on Personal Trading Behavior And Profit from It — by Linda Bradford Raschke.

The Woodchuck and the Possum — by Rob Booker.

25 Rules Of Forex Trading Discipline — by Douglas E. Zalesky.

Stop Losses Are For Sissies — by W. R. Brooker & Co. - a rather descriptive evidence of how important stop losses in Forex trading are.

Your Personality and Successful Trading — by Windsor Advisory Services - describes and discusses almost all psychological and emotional aspects of financial trading.

Forex Resources This list of Forex resources co

This list of Forex resources contains URLs to other useful Forex sites - Forex forums, general Forex information resources, Forex signals providers and our partners. If you find a broken link, or wish to exchange links with us - please, contact me via the link exchange form.

Forex market news

FXstreet — Many useful articles, constantly added expert commentaries and forecasts

DailyFX — Everything happening in Forex world is covered here

ForexCenter.net — The complete Forex portal offering live forex rates, forex charts, forex news, forex trading forecasts, technical analysis, currency converter, forex books & educational material

Forex charts and technical analysis

Incredible Charts — A very good resource to learn everything about charts

Forex Software Reviews — Forex Software Reviews, Informations and News

Inspectd.com — practice your technical analysis skills.

Metatrader Expert Advisors and Metatrader Indicators, MQL4 Coding Service

Forex brokers

MasterForex — offers a wide variety of trade instruments (Forex, CFD, Futures), an easy and user-friendly trading platform (MT4), terminal for PDAs and Smartphones. 24/5 customer support is always online. Minimum deposit is 1$. We also have Islamic accounts. Spreads begin from 2 pips. Leverage can be up to 1:500. We have the best conditions for partners!

Forex signals and market forecasts

Profit Guide Forex — reliable Precise Trading System with free software that can generate your own signal.

Open Forex — Foreign Exchange Trading, Forex Analysis and Forecasts

Forex Training - Work at Home Business Opportunity — Offers forex training - internet home based business opportunity. Work from home job.

AceTrader - FX signal provider — Provides 24-hrs Intraday and Daily FX trading commentaries & signals. Services started on Reuters since 1989, on Internet since 2000.

Forex forums and community sites

ForexFactory — a popular Forex discussion forum

MoneyTec — Forex related Forum dedicated to technical analysis.

Forex trading information

TradeJuice — The largest selection of FREE day trading articles in the world

Investopedia.com — a large educational Internet resource about investing and trading.

Forex Glossary — Terms and terminology used in Forex Trading. Index of financial and investment terms.

Forex trading — Forex technical and fundamental analysis, forex charts and brokers.

Forex Training with Peter Bain's Forex Currency Day Trading Course — Forex training course and forex services by professional forex traders.

Online Trading Class — Once a Month Trading provides an online trading class which focuses on teaching you important investment principles, on giving you access to market professionals, and on providing a system that will outperform the market.

Forex directories

Forex Directory — Whole Forex in one place

Forex Web Directory — link to forex related sites and more business information.

Business Web Directory — a large resource of all kind of financial information.

Forex Supersite Directory — a directory of forex and currency trading sites online.

Most Visited Forex Websites — Ranking the most visited forex websites based on alexa and compete statistics. Includes website reviews and historical ranking information.

Sep 17, 2008

Mid-East to Form Monetary Union

It's all but official: five Middle Eastern nations will form an EU-style Monetary Union by 2010. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain have signed a draft agreement to participate in a single-currency system, ostensibly to stimulate intra-regional trade. In fact, the Dollar's recent volatility is probably the driving force behind this initiative. All five countries currently peg or formerly pegged their currencies to the Dollar, which contributed to domestic inflation as the Dollar depreciated. If this arrangement is implemented successfully, it could provide the impetus for similar currency unions in Asia and Africa. Bloomberg News reports:
The agreement allows for the creation of a monetary council, a precursor to the Gulf central bank. The council will be responsible for deciding the level at which the Gulf currency is pegged to the dollar, aligning interest rates, monetary tools and goals.

Euro Rises Against Dollar on Housing Decline in U.S.

Dollar dropped its position against the euro today after the yesterday’s interest rate decision failed to support the U.S. currency for more than several hours. Poor housing reports showed another (unnecessary) sign of the ongoing recession in the United States. At this level interest rate don’t play the role they usually do. Traders try to look at the countries’ financial system and sell the money of the worst. EUR/USD is currently trading near 1.4180 level.

Housing starts in U.S. were reported at 895k annual rate in August, following 954k rate in July, — significantly below the 950k forecast. Building permits also dropped at a very large scale — from 937k to 854k; they were expected to go down only to 925k.

Crude oil inventories decreased by 6.3 million barrels last week after declining by 5.9 million barrels a week earlier. They are still in the lower half of the average range for this time of year.

Sep 14, 2008

My FOREX Trading Strategy

by Timothy Rohrer

I ventured into the Forex market a little more than 1 year ago. I have tried and tested many different types of trading techniques and styles. Most were failures and some were successful. From my experience, traders making money in Forex will not reveal their trading system, simply because somebody has to lose money in order for you to make money.

Currently I have two strategies working for me. I started with a demo account a little more than one year ago and used the obvious techniques such as technical analysis and fundamentals. Technical analysis seemed to be the easiest method for an inexperienced trader since it only required looking at charts as opposed to watching the news. I used indicators such as MACD, Fibonacci, and RSI to help assess the market and make a prediction on price movement. Needless to say I was successful in my demo account, however when I went live, fear set in and I could not trade using the same techniques I had developed over 4 months of trading with a demo account.

The stress was too much and like a lot of people, I started looking for a Forex signals provider to minimize the time spent and stress. After some due diligence on quite a few Forex signals providers, I did find a reliable Forex charting software package that provided excellent signals. To my surprise, the signals worked. The only difficult part was to discipline myself to take each signal whether I agreed with it or not. After all, the company I chose had a winning track record for 3 consecutive years.

Now that I had a positive flow of income from a Forex signals provider, I decided to open a second account using my own trading system. This is where I discovered what I feel is a full proof system when it comes to making a fast 30 to 50 pips in Forex.

Trading now for a little more than 1 year, I noticed that the market moved on speculation. Speculation based on fear and news events, such as the CPI and retail sales. I noticed that between the times of 4:30 am eastern and 8:30 am there was a lot of critical news in majors such as the Euro and the British Pound. The market would move at the exact moment these major news events were released. If a news event was due out at 4:30 am on the British Pound, more than likely the market spiked at that exact moment 30 to sometimes 50 pips up or down. What I started to do was trade on these news events. I would wait until that exact moment the news was due out and execute a trade when the market moved more than 7 pips from its current price 15 seconds before the news is released. A stop-loss should be set at 10 pips above or below the current price.

The trick to this method is executing the trade at the right time and discipline yourself to keep your stop-loss very tight, setting it to no more than 10 pips after you got into the trade. The reason being, this works all of the time, but if you click too soon or too late you could fail to predict the direction of the market. However, when you are right, your winning trades will outweigh your losing traders significantly since you are looking to make a gain of 30-50 pips and if you a wrong a loss of only 10 pips. I have used this method for 5 months and it works.

Introduction To Forex

by Norman Fleming

The Foreign Exchange Market — better known as Forex — is a world wide market for buying and selling currencies. It handles a huge volume of transactions 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Daily exchanges are worth approximately $1.5 trillion (US dollars). In comparison, the United States Treasury Bond market averages $300 billion a day and American stock markets exchange about $100 billion a day.

The Foreign Exchange Market was established in 1971 with the abolishment of fixed currency exchanges. Currencies became valued at 'floating' rates determined by supply and demand. The Forex grew steadily throughout the 1970's, but with the technological advances of the 80's Forex grew from trading levels of $70 billion a day to the current level of $1.5 trillion.

The Forex is made up of about 5000 trading institutions such as international banks, central government banks (such as the US Federal Reserve), and commercial companies and brokers for all types of foreign currency exchange. There is no centralized location of Forex — major trading centers are located in New York, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, and Frankfurt, and all trading is by telephone or over the Internet. Businesses use the market to buy and sell products in other countries, but most of the activity on the Forex is from currency traders who use it to generate profits from small movements in the market.

Even though there are many huge players in Forex, it is accessible to the small investor thanks to recent changes in the regulations. Previously, there was a minimum transaction size and traders were required to meet strict financial requirements. With the advent of Internet trading, regulations have been changed to allow large interbank units to be broken down into smaller lots. Each lot is worth about $100,000 and is accessible to the individual investor through 'leverage' — loans extended for trading. Typically, lots can be controlled with a leverage of 100:1 meaning that US$1,000 will allow you to control a $100,000 currency exchange.

There are many advantages to trading in Forex.

— Liquidity — Because of the size of the Foreign Exchange Market, investments are extremely liquid. International banks are continuously providing bid and ask offers and the high number of transactions each day means there is always a buyer or a seller for any currency.

— Accessibility — The market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The market opens Monday morning Australian time and closes Friday afternoon New York time. Trades can be done on the Internet from your home or office.

— Open Market — Currency fluctuations are usually caused by changes in national economies. News about these changes is accessible to everyone at the same time — there can be no 'insider trading' in Forex.

— No commission — Brokers earn money by setting a 'spread' — the difference between what a currency can be bought at and what it can be sold at.

How does it work?

Currencies are always traded in pairs — the US dollar against the Japanese yen, or the English pound against the euro. Every transaction involves selling one currency and buying another, so if an investor believes the euro will gain against the dollar, he will sell dollars and buy euros.

The potential for profit exists because there is always movement between currencies. Even small changes can result in substantial profits because of the large amount of money involved in each transaction. At the same time, it can be a relatively safe market for the individual investor. There are safeguards built in to protect both the broker and the investor and a number of software tools exist to minimize loss.

Interested in FOREX Trading?

by Jill Kane

The Foreign Exchange Market (Forex) has no central exchange location yet it is the largest financial market in the world. It is over 3x's the size of the stock and futures markets combined and operates via an electronic network of a banks, corporations and investors.

Foreign exchange consists of a simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. Currency is traded in pairs, in other words, one currency is traded for another. The major currencies are:

USD — United States Dollar
EUR — Euro members Euro
JPY — Japan Yen
GBP — Great Britian pound
CHF — Switzerland franc
CAD — Canadian dollar
AUD — Australia dollar

There are 2 types of investors involved in the Forex market.The first type of investor is the hedger. The hedger is involved in International trades and utilizes Forex trading to protect their interest in a transaction from adverse currency fluctuations. The 2nd type of investor is the speculator who invests in currency solely for profit.

Currency prices fluctuate due to a variety of economic and political factors. The major factors are:

Interest rates
International trade
Inflation
Political stability

There are many reasons investors take a great interest in FX trading Some of the major reasons are:

No fees
No middlemen
No fixed trade sizes
Low transaction cost
High liquidity
Instant transactions
Low margin / High leverage
24 hour market
Online access via online trading platforms
Always good opportunities to trade, unlike the stock market the market is never bullish or bearish.
No one entity can control the market
No insider trading can occur

To begin trading in the Forex market, an investor only needs a computer, a high-speed internet connection and an online trading currency account. A mini account can be opened for as little as $100.

Why Trade the FOREX?

by Susan Walker

My purpose for writing this article is to demonstrate to you the advantages of trading on the Forex market. However, there is one myth that I want to dispel before I go further. The myth is that there is a difference between trading and investing. To dispel that myth I quote from Al Thomas, President of Williamsburg Investment Company, who wrote "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It". He said "Everyone who invests is a trader, only the time period is different." It is a lesson that I took seriously after taking a beating in the stock market in 2000.

So now, let's compare features of currency trading to those of stock and commodity trading.

Liquidity — The Forex market is the most liquid financial market in the world around 1.9 trillion dollars traded everyday. The commodities market trades around 440 billion dollars a day, and the US stock market trades around 200 billion dollars a day. This ensures better trade execution and prevents market manipulation. It also ensures easily executable trading.

Trading Times — The Forex market is open 24 hours a day (except weekends) which means that in the US it opens at 3:00 pm Sunday (EST) and closes Friday at 5:00 (EST), allowing active traders to choose the times they want to trade. Commodities trading hours are all over the board depending on which commodity you are trading. Including extended trading times US stocks can be traded from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm (ET) on weekdays.

Leverage — Depending on your Forex account size, your leverage may be 100:1, although there are Forex brokers that offer leverage of up to 400:1 (not that I would ever recommend that kind of leverage). Leverage in the stock market can be as high as 4:1, and in the commodities market, leverage varies with the commodity traded but it can be quite high. Because the commodity markets are not as liquid as the Forex market, its leverage is inherently riskier. Although I was never shut out of a commodity trade by the day limit, the fear was always in the back of my mind.

Trading costs — Transaction costs in the Forex market is the difference between the buy and sell price of each currency pair. There are no brokerage fees. For both the stock and the commodity markets, there are transaction costs and brokerage fees. Even when you use discount brokers, those fees add up.

Minimum investment — You can open a Forex trading account for as little as $300.00. It took $5,000 for me to open my futures trading account.

Focus — 85% of all trading transactions are made on 7 major currencies. In the US stock market alone there are 40,000 stocks. There are just over 200 commodity markets, although quite a few are so illiquid that they are not traded except by hedgers. As you can see, the fewer number of instruments allows us to study each one more closely.

Trade execution — In the Forex market, trade execution is almost instantaneous. In both the equity and commodity markets, you count on a broker to execute your trades and their results are sometimes inconsistent.

While all of these features make trading the Forex market very attractive, it still requires a lot of education, discipline, commitment and patience. All trading can be risky.

Explosive Profits: 7 Reasons to Trade Forex

by Sorna Devadas

There are many money-making opportunities out there and we've been involved with quite a few, namely property marketing, web development, residential construction security, multi-level marketing businesses etc.

We've come to a few conclusions with the help of some well-known properity coaches.

Often people with the income they desire don't have the time to enjoy it. Those that have time don't often have money. You don't have to sacrifice your life-style to earn an above-average income. If you focus on the for a few months you can make that dream a reality and create time and money to do what you REALLY want.

To earn a living money is given in exchange for a product or service rendered. It needs to be sold continuously otherwise your income stops abruptly unless it's a repeat type of product or service.

Money is a medium of exchange. There's no magical formula to possess it, you need to exchange something of value for it.

What if, you could have access to thousands of customers who are ready, willing and able to buy from you whenever you wanted? Wouldn't it be great to avoid any hassles like money collection problems (just had a delayed payment from my web business), keeping difficult customers happy (we all know what that's like), competition stealing your business without providing the same value etc.

All that is possible with . You can also trade from anywhere. Take your laptop with you, find an internet connection and away you go.

Another advantage is that you don't need experience to get started. Get a traditionally job involves accumulating specialized experience, having a well-polished resume and having the right contacts. With the right training course, you can get started straight away.

Here's 7 more reasons to trade :

1. It never closes. It's open around the clock, worldwide. Trading positions open at Monday 7am, New Zealand time and close 5pm New York time on Friday. During this time, you can enter or exit the market whenever you like. It's a continuous electronic currency exchange. This is great because you can trade whenever you have spare time.

2. Leverage. Standard $100 000 currency lots can be traded with as little as $1000. This is mainly because of the ease with which you can buy and sell, some brokers will leverage up to 200 times, so with $100 you can control a 200 000 unit currency position. It's the best use of trading capital around, even banks lending on property investments don't come close.

3. Accurately predict the outcomes. Currency prices generally repeat themselves in predictable cycles so you can see what the trends are. 'Technical Analysis' helps to see these trends and profit from them.

4. Low Transaction Cost. In other words, you mistakes won't cost you a fortune. Good brokers won' charge commissions to trade or maintain an account even if you have a mini account and trade small volumes.

5. Unlimited Earning Potential. has a daily trading volume of over 1.5 trillion, the largest financial market in the world. It dwarfs the equities market (50 billion daily) and the futures market (30 billion).

6. You can make money in any market conditions. Each market is one currency against another, so when you buy in one, you're selling in another so there's no biase towards either currency moving up or down. This means it's up to you to choose which currency to buy or sell with. Yu can make money going up or down.

7. Market transparency. This is an advantage in any business or trading environment. It means you can manage risk and execute orders within seconds. It's highly efficient and allows you to avoid unexpected 'surprises'.

I hope you're now convinced that is the best investment and income opportunity around.

How to Control Yourself in Forex?

Joe Chalhoub presents an article about how to become a real Forex trader, not some opportunist who is trying to reap some fast rewards and become a millionaire in no time. Foreign exchange market has became very attractive for many people recently. Traders come with hopes and go without after losing some their hard-earned money. Taking control in trading, developing your own organized approach to trading is the only way the newbie financial trader can become a real professional and start to earn systematically on Forex.

The presented Forex article is called How to Take Control in Forex Trading. I hope you will enjoy it, especially if you are only starting to enter the world of the currency trading

Where the Future of Carry Trade Lies?

Global stocks markets calmed by central banks’ generous currency interventions last week are doing quite well so far. EUR/USD and other currency pairs influenced by carry trade and subprime lending crisis chain reaction (mostly EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY) also don’t jump madly through and out the support and resistance levels anymore. But what will happen next? Will the markets just soak up the liquidity, thrown in by Fed and other countries’ financial authorities, and crisis will go on? Or will the carry trade trade go on, feeding credit sector with cheap JPY money and pushing EUR/USD, EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY to the new historical maximums?

Current situation doesn’t hint in favor of any possible outcome - both stock markets and currency pairs are slow. In my opinion, the best way to understand the next movement is to look on the Japanese Nikkei market index. So far (today and yesterday), it has been increasing slightly, signaling the normalization of market situation. A sharp fall or rise on Nikkei can mean a faster crisis unveiling (in case of fall) or a return to carry trade dominance markets (in case of rise, not necessarily sharp, strong and long growth signals that too).

Other good method is a GBP/JPY pair, which stabilized in 220-230 range. Breaking this range at 220 level will most probably signalize a continuous bearish trend in EUR/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY and global stock markets too. Breaking the 230 level can be a sign of the return to bullish trend on those currencies and other financial markets.

FXOpen Forex Broker

FXOpen is a major Forex trading service providers for the Islamic traders, but it doesn't limit itself to Muslim traders only. Anyone can benefit their "no overnight interest" system which is rare for MetaTrader 4 platform broker. They also offer trading courses which might be useful to the beginning traders. Regular contests and deposit bonuses with e-gold and WebMoney payment options make FXOpen a reasonable player on the Forex brokers market.

* Spreads — as low as 2 pips on EUR/USD.
* Minimum deposit for micro account — only $1.
* Minimum deposit for standard account — only $25.
* Instant order executions and quote handling.
* Margin leverage from 1:1 up to 1:500.
* Free unlimited demo accounts available.
* Regular technical research and market news available.
* Experienced and helpful support.
* 100$ bonus on new standard accounts.
* Trading contests.
* Trading courses for new traders.
* MetaTrader 4 platform.
* Muslim friendly trading system.
* Serious company for serious traders.
* e-gold and WebMoney billing options.

To open account with FXOpen — complete a registration process on their site and download a free MetaTrader 4 trading platform. Then you will be able to deposit money into your trading account and enjoy your Forex trading process.

Money Management Forex Books

While Forex trading is tightly connected with analysing the charts and the fundamental indicators, knowing where to enter and where to exit a position is not enough. Professional traders manage their risks and devote a lot of their time to learning the techniques of the proper money management. Here you can find some of the best Forex e-books about money management in the financial trading.

Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.

If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, just comment on this , and I will gladly remove them.

Risk Control and Money Management — by Gibbons Burke.

Money Management — A chapter from The Mathematics of Gambling.

Position-sizing Effects on Trader Performance: An experimental analysis — by Johan Ginyard.

Fine-Tuning Your Money Management System — by Bennett A. McDowel.

Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom — by Van K. Tharp.

Money Management: Controlling Risk and Capturing Profits — by Dave Landry, a short but educative guide to money management for the financial traders.

Money Management in Gambling — an excerpt seection of the classic book by Dr. Edward O. Thorp — The Mathematics of Gambling; this chapter deals with the probabilities and money management in risk activities, so it's included here.

Forex Tools

The presented Forex tools can assist you both in technical analysis and money management which will greatly enhance your trading results. All these online Forex tools are totally free and can be used at no cost:

MT4 Expert Advisors - Download free expert advisors for a Metatrader 4 trading platform. Test and use these EAs to empower your automated Forex trading and also to help the developing of your own Metatrader expert advisor or Forex strategy.

MT4 Forex Indicators - Free downloads of the MetaTrader indicators for a Metatrader 4 trading platform. You can use these indicators to improve your Forex trading strategy or develop your own MetaTrader 4 expert advisors.

Pivot Points Calculator - Four online web based pivot points calculators will help you to generate pivot points for any given time period. Pivot points are used to as the most important market trend points, where trend can meet support or resistance and actually change its course. Floor, Tom Demark's, Woodie's and Camarilla pivot points building rules are available with this free calculator. You don't need to download any software, just fill the form and get instant pivot point, resistance and support levels.

Pip Value Calculator - How much is one pip? How about EUR/CHF or CAD/JPY? With this free and fast online tool you can find out the value of 1 pip in USD for any lot size and any major or cross currency pair. Fill the form and get the pip value in one moment. No need to download any software!

Fibonacci Calculator - The web based Fibonacci retracement calculator will help you to generate basic Fibonacci retracement values for any given trend. These retracement values can be used as the most natural points of support and resistance for a given trend for any currency pair. On the currency trading market, the use of Fibonacci retracement levels to set orders and targets is one of the best ways to organize trader's portfolio.

Sep 12, 2008

Forex Trading

by Richard Goldie

So what is is Forex trading you may ask? Forex is the exchange you can buy and sell currencies. For example, you might buy British pounds (by exchanging them to the dollars you had), then, after pounds / dollar ratio goes up, you sell pounds and buy dollars again. At the end of this operation you are going to have more dollars, then you had at the beginning.

The Forex market has much higher liquidity, then the stock market, as much more money is being exchanged. Forex is spread between banks all over the planet and as a result it means 24 hour trading.

Unlike stocks, Forex trades are performed with high leverage, usually it is 100. It means that by investing $1000 you can control $100,000, and increase potential profits accordingly. Some brokers provide also so called mini-Forex, where the size of minimum deposit equals $100. It makes possible for individuals to enter this market easily.

The name convention. In Forex, the name of a "symbol" is composed of two parts — one for first currency, and another for the second currency. For example, the symbol usdjpy stands for US dollars (usd) to Japanese yen (jpy).

As with stocks, you can apply tools of the technical analysis to Forex charts. Trader's indexes can be optimized for Forex "symbols", allowing you to find winning strategy.

Example Forex transaction

Assume you have a trading account of $25,000 and you are trading with a 1% margin requirement. The current quote for EUR/USD is 1.3225/28 and you place a market order to buy 1 lot of 100,000 Euros at 1.3228, expecting the euro to rise against the dollar. At the same time you place a stop-loss order at 1.3178 representing a maximum loss of 2% of your account equity if the trade goes against you, 50 pips below your order price, and a limit order at 1.3378, 150 pips above your order price. For this trade, you are risking 50 pips to gain 150 pips, giving you a risk/reward ratio of 1 part risk to 3 parts reward. This means that you only need to be right one third of the time to remain profitable.

The notional value of this trade is $132,280 (100,000 * 1.3228). Your required margin deposit is 1% of the total, which is equal to $1322.80 ($132,280 * 0.01).

As you expected, the Euro strengthens against the dollar and your limit order is reached at 1.3378. The position is closed. Your total profit for this trade is $1500, each pip being worth $10.

Investing in Forex

by Joe Clinton

Investing in foreign currencies is a relatively new avenue of investing. There are considerably fewer people are aware of this market than there are people aware of several other avenues of investing. Trading foreign currency, also known as forex, is the most lucrative investment market that exists. There are several factors that make this true among which, successful forex traders earn realistic profits of one hundred plus percent each month. Compared to some of the better known investment markets such as corporate stocks, this is an unheard of return on investment. It's very necessary to mention here that a person who invests in forex must, without exception, make it a point to learn the detailed, but simple strategies and information surrounding the market. This very fact is what makes the difference between successful forex traders and other traders.

A few additional points, which create such powerful leverage for investors within the forex market are: The amount of capital required to begin investing in the market is only three hundred dollars. For the most part, any other investment market is going to demand thousands of dollars of the investor in the beginning. Also, the market offers opportunities to profit regardless what the direction of the market may be; In most commonly known markets investors sit and wait for the market to begin an up trend before entering a trade. Even then, investors, as a rule must sit and wait some more to be able to exit the trade with a nice profit. Given that the forex market produces several up, down, and sideways trends in a single day, it can easily be seen that forex stands head and shoulders above other markets. Additionally there are trading strategies, which are taught that provide for compounded profits; these are profits on top of profits. In addition, free demo accounts are available within the industry of forex trading, which facilitate the sharpening of skills without the risk losing any capital. And the advantage regarding the time factor in trading foreign currency is a very attractive point for any investor. Compared to one of the most sought after avenues of investing, which often requires forty or more hours each week, namely in the real-estate market, the forex market requires a much smaller demand on the investor's time. Forex trading requires approximately ten to fifteen hours each week to earn a full time income. It's easy to see that the advantages and great leverage that exist in the forex market, make it among the most lucrative, time liberating, and easy to enter by far.

I hope this information gives you a clear understanding of how you can turn your investing into a true method of making your money work harder for you.

Advantages of the Forex Market

by Heather Redmond


What are the advantages of the Forex Market over other types of investments?

When thinking about various investments, there is one investment vehicle that comes to mind. The Forex or Foreign Currency Market has many advantages over other types of investments. The Forex market is open 24 hrs a day, unlike the regular stock markets. Most investments require a substantial amount of capital before you can take advantage of an investment opportunity. To trade Forex, you only need a small amount of capital. Anyone can enter the market with as little as $300 USD to trade a "mini account", which allows you to trade lots of 10,000 units. One lot of 10,000 units of currency is equal to 1 contract. Each "pip" or move up or down in the currency pair is worth a $1 gain or loss, depending on which side of the market you are on. A standard account gives you control over 100,000 units of currency and a pip is worth $10.

The Forex market is also very liquid. When trading Forex you have full control of your capital.

Many other types of investments require holding your money up for long periods of time. This is a disadvantage because if you need to use the capital it can be difficult to access to it without taking a huge loss. Also, with a small amount of money, you can control

Forex traders can be profitable in bullish or bearish market conditions. Stock market traders need stock prices to rise in order to take a profit. Forex traders can make a profit during up trends and downtrends. Forex Trading can be risky, but with having the ability to have a good system to follow, good money management skills, and possessing self discipline, Forex trading can be a relatively low risk investment.

The Forex market can be traded anytime, anywhere. As long as you have access to a computer, you have the ability to trade the Forex market. An important thing to remember is before jumping into trading currencies, is it wise to practice with "paper money", or "fake money." Most brokers have demo accounts where you can download their trading station and practice real time with fake money. While this is no guarantee of your performance with real money, practicing can give you a huge advantage to become better prepared when you trade with your real, hard earned money. There are also many Forex courses on the internet, just be careful when choosing which ones to purchase.

Books about Advanced Forex Trading

Here you will find the Forex e-books that contain more advanced information than the average popular book about financial trading. In some cases, understanding these books is impossible without a lot of experience in Forex and sometimes the extended knowledge of mathematics.

Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.

If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, comment on this and I will gladly remove them.

A New Interpretation of Information Rate — by J. L. Kelly Jr.

CCI Manual — by James L. O'Connell.

Nicktrader and Jeff Explaining Reverse and Regular Divers — from Woodies CCI Club Discussion From January 15,16 2004.

NickTrader on No Price CCI Divergence Trading — by Nicktrader.

Are Supply and Demand Driving Stock Prices? — by Carl Hopman.

The Sharpe Ratio — by William F. Sharpe.

The Interaction Between the Frequency of Market Quotes, Spread and Volatility in Forex — by Antonis A. Demos and Charles A. E. Goodhart, a scientific article from the Applied Economics.

Trend Determination — by John Hayden, a quick, accurate and effective methodology for trend determination on the financial markets.

Trend vs. No Trend — by Brian Dolan an article from TRADERS' Magazine July 2005 issue, which deals with the trend/no trend paradox encountered by many traders who think that "the trend is your friend".

A Six-Part Study Guide to Market Profile — by CBOT professionals — it describes the concept of the market profile in the smallest details.

Forex Strategy Books downloads

Forex strategy e-books that are listed here provide information on the specific trading strategies as well as the use of particular Forex trading instruments. Basic knowledge of Forex trading is required to correctly understand and use these strategies.

Almost all Forex e-books are in .pdf format. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these e-books. Some of the e-books (those that are in parts) are zipped.

If you are the copyright owner of any of these e-books and don't want me to share them, please, comment on this and I will gladly remove them.

1-2-3 System — A simple pattern trading system by Mark Crisp.

Bollinger Bandit Trading Strategy — A trading system based on Bollinger bands indicator by unknown author.

Value Area — from The Likos Letter.

The Dynamic Breakout II Strategy — by unknown author.

Ghost Trader Trading Strategy — by unknown author.

King Keltner Trading Strategy — by unknown author.

Scalp Trading Methods — by Kevin Ho.

LSS - An Introduction to the 3-Day Cycle Method — by George Angell.

Market Turns And Continuation Moves With The Tick Index — by Tim Ord.

The Money Manager Trading Strategy — by unknown author.

Picking Tops And Bottoms With The Tick Index — by Tim Ord.

The Super Combo Day Trading Strategy — by unknown author.

The Eleven Elliott Wave Patterns — by unknown author.

The Thermostat Trading Strategy — by unknown author.

Intraday trading with the TICK — by Christopher Terry.

Traders Trick Entry — by Traders Educators of Traders University.

Fibonacci Trader Journal — a journal covering different trading techniques based on Fibonacci indicators, by Robert Krausz. 12 issues.

Rapid Forex — a set of aggressive Forex trading strategies (Rapid Forex) by Robert Borowski and Stephen A. Pierce.

Microtrading the 1 Minute Chart — a small e-book aimed on Forex newbies to teach them the basics of M1 scalping.

BunnyGirl Forex Trading Strategy Rules and FAQ — set of rules for a BunnyGirl trading strategy based on WMA crossing.

The Daily Fozzy Method — by Michael Dunbar.

Forex Trader's Cheat Sheet — real Forex cheat sheet for position entry times/conditions by Quantum Research Management Group.

Offset Trading — a basic Forex news trading range breakout system by Dana Martin.

How to Trade Both Trend and Range Markets by Single Strategy? — by S.A. Ghafari.

A Practical Guide to Technical Indicators; Moving Averages — by S.A. Ghafari.

FX Wizard — essential Forex trading rules by Rob Walton.

FX Destroyer — a description of a rather simple Forex trading strategy, invloving moving averages, parabolic SAR and ADX indicators, by Izu Franks.

A Practical Guide to Swing Trading — a simple and practical guide to the swing trading strategy, by Larry Swing.

Happy Earnings..!!!

Major Correction Wave Detected on EUR/USD

Dollar lost its gaining pace yesterday, but today a real correction came to the Forex market. Whether it’s a pure technical retracement or this movement has some fundamental basement, dollar has gained enough during the last month and can now retreat without leaving the long-term upward trend. EUR/USD is currently trading near 1.4101 level.

Producer price index declined by 0.9% compared to the previous month in August. This declined followed 1.2% gain in July and exceed the average estimate of -0.5%.

Advance retail sales for August lost 0.3% after 0.5% decline in June (revised down from 0.1% decline) and estimated gain of 0.2%.

U.S. business inventories rose by 1.1% in July — above the 0.8% gain in June and 0.5% forecasted growth.

Bad News for the UK, EU

The bad news is piling up in the US: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in such dire shape that they will require the assistance of the US government merely to stay afloat. Meanwhile, Lehman Brothers, a large investment bank, is quickly crumbling a la Bear Stearns and could require a similar bailout. Fortunately for the US, the news across the Atlantic is just as bad, and getting worse. The median estimate for Eurozone GDP growth has been revised downward to an anemic 1.4% in 2008 and 1.2% in 2009. Analysts are speculating that the ECB will finally have to lower rates in order to prime the EU economy, and perhaps the Bank of UK will have to lower rates for a second time. It looks like this Dollar rally still has legs. Reuters reports:

Euro zone economic uncertainty was "particularly high," the European Central Bank president, Jean-Claude Trichet, said after the ECB left its interest rates at 4.25 percent on Thursday.

Read More: Dollar soars to highest level this year vs euro

Asian Central Banks Defend Currencies

The foreign exchange reserves of Central Banks throughout Asia have been dwindling. The most plausible explanation is that they are using their reserves to intervene in forex markets on behalf of their respective currencies, many of which have fallen dramatically in 2008. The Korean Won, Thai Baht, and Filipino Peso, to name but a few, have each dropped around 15%. While it may seem futile for Central Banks to continue intervening, it is important to remember that the goal may be to slow -not halt- the decline of the currency. In fact, given the current economic climate, most of them will tolerate currency weakness, in order to boost the competitiveness of their export sectors. Reuters reports:

"When the world slows, the policy focus in Asia would very quickly shift from inflation to growth. This means that monetary and credit policies will ease, and weaker currencies will be welcomed."

Read More: Asia's forex intervention may be a losing game

Sep 11, 2008

USD’s Bullish Move returns

Last week, the USD went through a bullish trend against most of its currency counterparts. The greenback gained around 400 pips versus the EUR, trading at under 1.43 on Friday. The USD also saw big gains against the GBP and CHF. The USD did experience some bearishness against the JPY towards the end of the week, due worse than-forecasted economic data from the US against the JPY’s positive momentum. The USD took advantage of its currency rivals’ bearishness last week, as the EUR couldn’t catch a break with a batch of bad economic releases. The USD also gained momentum from Hurricane Gustav’s-less-than expected effect on the US and the oil companies, which drove down the crude oil prices. There were also a few American economic releases that supported the USD, as the Factory Orders, ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI and Total Vehicle Sales all beat forecasts. Traders should notice that towards the end of the trading week, the USD started to slightly lose value as worse than forecasted results from the Non-Farm Employment Change and Unemployment Rate caught up with the greenback.

This week could end the USD’s bullishness as the American stock markets’ values have been dropping and the financial crisis seems to continue. Over the weekend, it was announced that the US Government seized control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This will take a toll on the USD as the Treasury Department said it was prepared to put up as much as $100 billion over time in each of the companies if needed to keep them from going broke. In terms of economic data releases this week, the very important Pending Home Sales will be announced on Tuesday and are expected to fall to a negative rate, the Trade Balance, PPI and Core Retails Sales are expected to decrease as well. Traders should pay attention to Fed Chairman, Bernake’s speech which is due on Tuesday at the White House Initiative on Historic Black Colleges and Universities, in Washington DC. Overall it seems like the greenback could lose its recent gains against its major counterparts this week.

Traders should expect a fairly volatile opening of the market today as traders are still grasping the effects of the US Government’s control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the data that was released towards the end of last week that had shockwaves slowly hit the USD. Later today should be more stable for the greenback as there will only be one release of economic data, the Consumer Credit, which is expected to be lower than last month. Some volatility might be seen after Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher’s speech in Austin with questions expected from the audience.


Gold-Dollar Link could Break Down

While the factors affecting gold are no doubt nuanced, its popularity is primarily vested in the belief that it represents a stable alternative to the Dollar. Accordingly, as the Dollar fell over the last five years, gold prices soared. Likewise, the ongoing Dollar rally has been matched by a proportional decline in gold prices. However, at least one analyst believes this link could soon break down. While gold is traditionally viewed as a specific protection against US inflation (and the concomitant Dollar depreciation), perhaps its role could expand to offer protection against worldwide inflation.

For example, analysts largely agree that the Dollar rally is as much a product of global economic weakness as of US economic recovery. In fact, the monetary and economic situation in the US continues to deteriorate. But, the global economic situation is deteriorating even faster. By this standard, it is conceivable that the Dollar could continue to outperform its rivals. Meanwhile, it is also conceivable that gold would continue to rise, since the long-term economic picture of the US remains bleak.

Read More: Will gold now move separately from the US dollar and euro?

Dollar Rises on Speculation

The dollar rose to a one-year high against the euro on speculation that growth in Europe will slow more than in the U.S., prompting the region's central bank to cut interest rates.

The U.S. currency climbed for a second day as traders increased bets on a European Central Bank rate reduction before a government report tomorrow that economists say will show industrial production in the euro area shrank. New Zealand's dollar dropped to its lowest level since October 2006 after Alan Bollard, governor of the nation's central bank, lowered borrowing costs by more than economists expected.

``The overall drivers of the foreign-exchange markets are positive for the U.S. dollar,'' said Sue Trinh, a currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Sydney. ``Markets have been driven by a narrowing in the expectations of the growth differential between the U.S. and the rest of the world.''

The U.S. currency climbed to $1.3933 per euro, the strongest since Sept. 18, 2007, before trading at $1.3965 as of 7:25 a.m. in London from $1.3998 late yesterday in New York. The dollar will strengthen to $1.3830 per euro in coming weeks, Trinh said. Japan's currency advanced to 149.87 per euro, the highest since Aug. 17, 2007, and was last at 150.07 from 150.75. It also gained to 107.45 per dollar from 107.70.

The New Zealand dollar declined to as low as 64.95 U.S. cents before trading at 65.11 cents, down 2.5 percent from late Asian trading yesterday. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to 7.5 percent, saying the economy is in a recession.

Risk Aversion

The ICE's Dollar Index touched 80.25 today, the highest since September 2007, when the U.S. central bank began cutting the target rate for overnight lending between banks from 5.25 percent to 2 percent to avoid a recession. The index, a gauge measuring the dollar against the currencies of six U.S. trading partners, reached a low of 70.698 on March 17.

The European Commission said yesterday the euro region's economy will probably stagnate this quarter after shrinking the previous three months for the first time since the currency's debut in 1999. It cut its 2008 growth forecast to 1.3 percent, from 1.7 percent. By contrast, the median in a Bloomberg News survey of 84 economists was for U.S. growth of 1.7 percent.

Volatility Rises and more..

Sep 8, 2008

Committee to Save the Dollar

A (deliberately) leaked report has revealed what investors and analysts have suspected all along: the "Committee to Save the Dollar" is real. Evidently, back in March, when the credit crisis was threatening to spiral out of control, the world's leading bankers were busying themselves preparing a plan to prop up the ailing the Dollar. Their rationale is/was that a more valuable Dollar would do more to relieve inflation (via lower food and commodity prices) and ultimately be easier to implement than a worldwide hike in interest rates. Under the plan, the Central Banks of Europe and Japan would join the Federal Reserve Board to coordinate the large-scale sale of Yen and Euro assets, in exchange for Dollars. While the Dollar's impressive rally has thus far eliminated the need for intervention, the long-term prognosis remains questionable. Regardless of economic fundamentals, however, currency traders may be reluctant to bet too heavily against the Dollar, lest the Central banks move forward with their plan. Bloomberg News reports:
None of this means the dollar won't plunge anew if the global credit crunch worsens. For the moment, though, the need for some kind of Plaza Accord-like currency deal has been reduced.
Read More: `Committee to Save the Dollar' May Not Be Needed

Gold-Dollar Link could Break Down

While the factors affecting gold are no doubt nuanced, its popularity is primarily vested in the belief that it represents a stable alternative to the Dollar. Accordingly, as the Dollar fell over the last five years, gold prices soared. Likewise, the ongoing Dollar rally has been matched by a proportional decline in gold prices. However, at least one analyst believes this link could soon break down. While gold is traditionally viewed as a specific protection against US inflation (and the concomitant Dollar depreciation), perhaps its role could expand to offer protection against worldwide inflation.
For example, analysts largely agree that the Dollar rally is as much a product of global economic weakness as of US economic recovery. In fact, the monetary and economic situation in the US continues to deteriorate. But, the global economic situation is deteriorating even faster. By this standard, it is conceivable that the Dollar could continue to outperform its rivals. Meanwhile, it is also conceivable that gold would continue to rise, since the long-term economic picture of the US remains bleak.
Read More: Will gold now move separately from the US dollar and euro?

Sep 3, 2008

Volatility in FX Markets is Increasing

John Taylor is head of the world's largest currency hedge fund, International Foreign Exchange Concepts. Accordingly, when he speaks about currencies, people tend to listen. In an extended interview with Bloomberg News, Taylor noted that volatility has surged in the forex markets. On average, the Dollar is fluctuating 46% more against so-called major currencies and 23% more than emerging currencies, compared to 2007. However, this volatility is largely random- perhaps as a result of increased liquidity- which means inefficiencies in the markets are becoming harder to exploit and profit from. One of the fund's largest bets is against the US Dollar, specifically against the Euro. Taylor's rationale for this bet is nuanced, and is more fundamental than technical, which is surprising given his fund's primary trading strategy. Bloomberg News reports:
The prediction is partly based on his charts of the U.S. real estate cycle, which he says has a major impact on the dollar and will continue to point south for the next couple of years, dragging down the currency with it. He also says the price of a barrel of crude oil might reach $250 in 2011, further eroding the strength of the U.S. economy and the dollar.
Read More: Taylor Rules Currencies, Not to Be Confused With the Other Guy

Korean Won Gets Hammered

Even given the Dollar's universally strong performance over the last month, the slide in the value of the Korean Won has been an anomaly, falling over 10% over the same time period and reaching a 4-year low. Analysts attribute the decline to a widening of the country's current account imbalance brought about by a collapse in confidence in Korean securities, namely stocks and bonds. Foreign investors are rushing for the exits in masse, and some are speculating that bonds worth $7 Billion that mature this week will lead to a further outflow of capital. Earlier this year, the Central Bank of Korea spent over $30 Billion propping up the Won, but it has thus far refrained from intervening in the midst of the current slide. At $250 Billion, the Bank's foreign exchange reserves are massive, and it could easily attempt to back up its stern warnings to bearish investors with a large-scale intervention. Thomson Financial News reports:
The government did not intend to intervene in currency markets, the MoneyToday, the online news service, quoted an unnamed official as saying on Sunday. Markets are mystified at the reluctance of Korean authorities to back their words with dollar sales.
Read More: Korea warns currency bears, but shrinks from action