Archive for March, 2008
Acts of Desperation Calm Financial Markets
Last weeks acts of desperation calm financial markets but for how long?
The Federal Reserve Bank under Ben Bernanke has been hyperactive over the past few weeks. To some financial analysts the Fed’s acts were justified and will help to restore liquidity to the markets. To others the acts look like acts of desperation that have calmed the markets for now but for how long. In fact as investors begin to realize just how close the US system was to a complete meltdown even greater fear and panic may develop.
I tend to side with those who think that having the government become the dumping ground for billions of dollars of toxic waste CDO’s and other near worthless paper is a very bad idea.
24Mar2008 | taipan | 0 comments | Continued
Forex? What is Trading Forex All About?
Forex? What is it, anyway?
The forex market
The currency trading (FOREX) market is the biggest and the fastest growing market on earth. Its daily turnover is more than 2.5 trillion dollars, which is 100 times greater than the NASDAQ daily turnover. (click here to read full market background by Easy-Forex™).
Markets are places to trade goods. The same goes with FOREX. The Forex goods (or merchandise) are the currencies of various countries. You buy Euro, paying with US dollars, or you sell Japanese Yens for Canadian dollars. That’s all.
How does one profit in Forex?
Very simple and obvious: buy cheap and sell for more! The profit is generated from the fluctuations (changes) in the currency exchange market.
19Mar2008 | taipan | 0 comments | Continued
Return of the Mean Market Mr Bear
The return of the mean market Mr Bear is certainly exciting but I expect for most investors and traders the excitement will be mixed with a lot of pain.
After cheering up investors yesterday the return of the mean market Mr Bear didn’t take very long. Only one day after making a 420 point one day gain on the Dow averages, the best one day moon shot in over five years, the market gave back about 70% of the gain, closing down about 293 points on the day.
What can you say about such market volatility?
19Mar2008 | taipan | 0 comments | Continued
What Crisis After Bear Stearns?
What Crisis After Bear Stearns?
After 85 years of being one of the leading financial institutions on Wall Street the Bear is dead.
Well, perhaps not completely, not yet. But to the employees of Bear Sterns who watched in horror as the stock fell from a high of over $160 a share last year to all of a $2 a share buyout price by JP Morgan death must seem like a reality.
The big question is what now and who may be next?
There are those who believe that the failure of a major firm like Bear Stearns may signal the low point of this down cycle. Others believe that with the huge uncertainly of toxic debt instruments in the trillions of dollars over hanging the market that the worse by far is yet to come.
19Mar2008 | taipan | 0 comments | ContinuedUS Federal Reserve Bank Sacrifices Dollar
The US Federal Reserve Bank has made it clear to currency traders that the US dollar will be sacrificed in a desperate effort to prop up the US economy.
In testimony before congress last Tuesday and Wednesday, The Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, spoke primarily of further downside risks to the economy while stating that he thought that inflation, while obviously increasing, could be controlled. I wonder if our Ben the helicopter man has taken a look at how the sinking dollar is affecting commodity prices.
Neither Ben Bernanke nor President Bush seem capable of speaking about a recession that is probably already underway. They both state that a recession will be avoided.
19Mar2008 | taipan | 0 comments | Continued
US Dollar Panic Selling Underway
For those of you who have been long US dollars this year it must seem like US dollar panic selling is not only underway but has been around for awhile. But now I’m talking about the rout in the dollar going hyperbolic. That’s quite a difference from merely being in a long term downtrend.
The dollar’s quick move to below 100 Yen and to the north side of 158 against the Euro has been painful for dollar bulls and for many others, like oil exporters, who price their products in dollars.
However, the move has not quite gone hyperbolic into a full scale panic - yet. With the moves that the US Federal Reserve Bank has been making we are probably very close to a complete collapse of the dollar which will bring on the hyperbolic stage.
19Mar2008 | taipan | 0 comments | Continued