Dollar and Pound at Parity With UK Zero Interest Rate

What a difference a year makes. A year ago we were happily skipping over to the US, buying up whatever we could to take advantage of a 2:1 exchange rate on the dollar. Then.. Armaggedon..

The pound has slumped to (as of writing) 1.47 Pounds to the Dollar and by all accounts it is not going to get better any time soon with the possibility of zero interest rates in the UK.

Former UK policy maker Willem Buiter said that the only thing stopping the Bank of England from cutting interest rates to zero on Thursday is a fear that it will turn sterling's recent weakness into a "rout".

Professor Buiter, a founding member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, told the Daily Telegraph: "I expect rates to be cut to zero before long, the reason why this will not be done in one go but in two to three is because they'll be worried about what it would do to the pound."

Last month he called on the MPC's to slash interest rates by 1.5 percentage points to 3pc, a day before it made the shock decision to do so.

He is predicting another 1.5 point cut on Thursday to 1.5pc, arguing that the pound's current level against the dollar would not yet be considered a sterling crisis.

"When you get to $1.30, you are no longer talking about a welcome adjustment and competitive advantage, it's a rout," he said after giving a speech at the Council of Mortgage Lenders annual conference in London earlier in the day.

He expects further interest rate cut will bring the bank rate down to zero - a first for the UK - in January or February.

The pound has fallen by 25pc against the dollar this year, and continued its decline today. Yesterday the pound dropped by the most in one day since Black Wednesday, when measured against a basket of major currencies.

Charles Bean, the Bank's Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy, has stated previously that the depreciation of the pound should provide a welcome boost to exports, giving the UK a competitive advantage.

My father is visting with us at the moment. He used to work in the oil sector and was paid in Dollars. He remembers a time when the pound was close to parity and was very happy about it, problem was the UK was racked with massive unemployment... Doesn't bode well..

Trading the currencies is a franetic pursuit these days but there must have been a lot of money made over the last year with the wild swings we have seen. The prospect of zero interest rates will be a relief for homeowners, but will these rates get passed on... unlikley.

Also, low interest rates are what got us into this mess in the first place, low cost of leverage fueled the boom and is now being looked at as a solution to the problem. The problem that is being forseen, however, is an economic downturn of Japanese proportions. After their crisis, low interest rates and loose fiscal policy caused what has become known as 'the lost decade' in Japan, where fiscal policy caused a decade long downturn for the country. Lets hope the slide of the Pound re-ignites exports and does some good, rather than plunging us into the abyss.

Source: HF Markets - Online Trading

Online Trading -

Online Trading - Making Sense For You?

Kipling said "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too; . .If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same . . Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it."

I saw this quote in one of those free online trading courses that you often see in your inbox. Well you do if, like me, you subscribe to any newsletter you see on the web. I do this becuase I love to read others opinions on what is going on and there have been some cracking calls and some really very lousy advice.

The above quote was accompanied by an 'online trading manual' that was primarily involved in forex. I don't particularly get involved in FX but it is a trade like all others. However, the writer must have cobbled together many different manuals to create his 'free online trading course' because it made very little sense all the way through. It is also easy to tell that some of the manual was written by the author and other parts not because the 'voice' was different, if you know what I mean. One minute it was all efficient and straight to the point, the next minute it was jibberish.

A great line from it which had me rolling about the floor was 'the price may go down when there are more buyers than sellers'.

When I was a broker, this was a standard line bandied aound the dealing floor as a joke and a put down to newbies. "Excuse me Boss, why has XYZ Plc gone down today" - "More buyers than sellers, mate" came the reply followed by wicked laughter as the newbie passed this on to his client.

The funny thing (or maybe not funny) is the web has opened up the market for clients to trade online, but at the same time has spawned an industry of 'professionals' teaching investors 'how' to trade. Put "online trading courses" into Google and there are 27,200 pages. I wonder what percentage of those are suspect?

Trading online is a a fabulous past time, a job even, when you have the skills to play the markets successfully. In my opinion there is no better training than actually doing it and learning from those who are doing the same.

One great site that I found is an trade trigger system for a certain instrument, I am not going to tell you and I will tell you why.... It is great and I want to keep it to myself as long as I can....

Basically it is a system that tells you which way to trade based on actual broker involvement crossed with an algorithmic system. It may sound like an oxymoron but thats is how it works. These volatile times were a big test for it, but it has come through with flying colours...and nice profits.

The point is that if you are an online trader or you are thinking about online trading, there are some real dross 'online trading manuals' out there which should be avoided at all costs, but do not fear as there are some fantastic resources to help you also.

HF Markets advertises on this site. We like them basically because they have done a lot of the hard work for experienced and new traders.

One of the things I find a pain is to reserach individual shares. I much prefer to play indices. Looking for individual trading opportunities is a real time consumer.

Each day, however, I receive several emails on trading ideas, with target profit, target stop loss and the research behind these. It gives me an opportunity to concentrate on those individual trades and decide on yes or no.

It is not just stocks (which generally are CFD recos) but FX, ETFs etc. They give updates as well, if trades have changed, which I find useful. Inputting a stop and limit on a trade and the forgetting about it is a danger if you are trading many instruments.

The chat facility in the online trading system at HF Markets is also excellent. A quick chat in the morning to see what is what, reminders of emails sent because trades have changed and general dicussions on the traders opinions are very useful.

The advice I would give to anyone looking to up their game in online trading, or those who are just starting in the online trading space is to download a demo system and see if it is one you can get on with. Find out if it has all the necessary knobs, bells and whistles that you require and then jump in.

It is amazing how quickly you learn when your own money is on the line....