Forex rebates on every trade - win or lose!

Greenspan certainly jerking the pound up at the moment!

The mind boggles over that comment, hodgins.

:o)

WASHINGTON (AFX) -- The U.S. economy has regained its footing after slipping into a soft patch in June, Fed chief Alan Greenspan said.

'The most recent data suggest that, on the whole, the expansion has regained some traction,' Greenspan said in prepared remarks to the House Budget Committee.

Greenspan said consumer spending rebounded in July and job growth picked up in August.

The positive comments from the Fed chairman on the economic outlook match the expectation of Fed watchers. They said that upbeat comments on the economic outlook would cement expectations of a third consecutive quarter-point rate hike when the FOMC meeting on Sept. 21.

The Fed chief had soothing words on inflation, saying that rising non-oil import prices 'have lessened,' helping to lower core consumer price inflation.

'Despite the rise in oil prices through mid-August, inflation and inflation expectations have eased in recent months,' Greenspan said.

Greenspan said economists disagree about the impact of rising oil prices on the economy.

He said the outlook for oil prices 'remains uncertain' due to a wide range of factors, including potential heavy demand from the rapidly growing economies of China and India.

what just happened to cable ? it dropped from 1.7876 to 1.7846 in 3 minutes, having hovered around 1.7875 for the last hour or more. Was there some news or data ? Not complaining (am short), just can't find the reason.

July Visible Trade Balance at 9:30, Hotei.

No position in Cable ahead of MPC .... I figure it could whipsaw a bit ahead of the news. Instead, I'm currently long EUR/USD and long USD/CHF. They're both going the right way, atm. Weird, huh?

thanks hilary - 10 points a minute - I like that rate (when I'm on the right side of it !)

??? Has everyone given up on Forex - cable?

I have managed to recoup my small loss & am now flat but can't decide next move - any ideas????

You should be long greenback atm imo, Sue. I am.

Sue: Always heed the advice of a *professional* ;-)

Afternoon, Hil :)

long - so you mean buy?

As it is usually quoted /$ you would actually be short but yes you are long the dollar. Euro/$ quoted that way also.

$/Swiss and $/Yen most commonly quoted the other way around so on these instruments your trade would be long.

So effectively you are long or short the first quoted.

Well long would (no position here) have been successful today coming off a couple of hourly support levels which is the timescale that those who really move the market use.
No position here yet but getting back on short looking at 20 day hourly, horizontal support levels ( very much looked at in FX)and from the contrarian trade angle starting to look attractive.
Downward channel continuation supported by probable fundamentals. Much more upside-breakout?-probably unlikely?

Still not short but 1.7950 looking a good area to go short
Not really sure our interest rates are suddenly likely to go up at a faster rate than US!

If it's going up in Asia it should be going up already so went short and try to add tomorrow

I'm not sure that's what hilary meant - she usually means buy /$ so go long ie expect the /$ to rise above the 1.79 its at (at least that's what I think she meant) so $ would be weakening

post 1913, I believe, suggested long the greenback. However, the actual trade is /$ so you are long or short the pound (but obviously relatively the opposite way on the dollar). So you would short the pound to be effectively long the greenback.

hodgins has got it right, albeit that things have changed since I posted. I'm short Dec Cable and have been for some time and probably will be for a bit longer. When I posted yesterday, I was short Cable, short /$ and long $/CHF on daytrades. They were closed an hour or two after I posted and this morning I'm short greenback.

Oh dear - I am utterly confused!

If I have (CMC S/B) a cable of 1.790 say, would you buy or sell to go long? and similarly to short?

Sue,

Short greenback (USD) = Long Cable or EUR/USD (ie BUY) or short USD/CHF (ie SELL)

Long greenback = Short Cable or EUR/USD or long USD/CHF

Forex trades are always one currency relative to another while share trades just go up or down.
Convention has it that cable (historical term from days of cable under the sea between here and North America) is quoted as /$ (in that order!)Similarly for
Euro/$ but $/Swiss and $/Yen are traditionally the other way around.
So if you had 1.7899-1.7901 or whatever spread is on /$ (Cable) you would buy/go long cable at 1.7901 or sell/go short at 1.7899
You have to go long or short the pound but are effectively doing the opposite for the dollar.
So if you wanted to go long the dollar/greenback against those four other currencies you would need to sell/short the pound and the euro against the dollar but buy the dollar against the Yen or Swissie.
It is possible to find the trades in reverse order on some platforms and you may get more leverage or less risk but that is too confusing

closed short for most of the way between 1.7950 and just above 1.7900 (sb so approximate). Time for run on after school activities.