Forex rebates on every trade - win or lose!

Oh 'eck.
*Poof* and he's done one without so much as a cheerio :(

Er, less of the *Poof*, please, I'm not that kind of Fairy . . .

Ha



Looks like I'm back to washing my own pots again.

I am off on holiday to Tunisia for a week. Laptops are banned by a higher authority.

Happy trading everybody

Sterling work and much burning of midnight oil this week has restored the integrity of my pet theory, "It is not possible to make a profit on cable from a terminal in my vicinity"
I now believe I have a higher authority on board for this one, called the fall from the Friday rate spike correctly, tried to place the short and lost my connection, by the time I got it back cable was close to it's afternoon low....go figure..:-)

Little opportunity to trade next week, so should be a cheap week...lol

Very exciting at the w/e - checked my emails & had 4 margin calls fom CMC saying my account was 92,000 in the red! They had put in a cable price of 0.6!

The messages have all gone today! but it got the old heart racing!

From Saturday
Fed raises rates to 4%, signals more 'measured' hikes - UPDATE 5

Forex - Dollar stays well bid; euro, yen, Swiss franc depressed

Forex - U.S. rate bets, French riots push euro to two-year low - UPDATE 3

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England looks nearly certain to leave interest rates steady at 4.5 percent on Thursday and for the rest of the year, although debate is simmering over whether the next move is down or up.

All 44 economists in a Reuters poll last week predicted the Monetary Policy Committee would leave rates unchanged for a third month when it concludes its two-day meeting at noon.

That is a dramatic turnaround from only a few weeks ago when most analysts were convinced that the central bank would follow up August's quarter-point cut with another this month, timed to coincide with the MPC's latest growth and inflation forecasts.
But policymakers have quashed that idea over the last month, reiterating that the BoE's mandate was to target inflation, not high street sales or short-term growth.

This has led many analysts who were still forecasting a November easing to look to February at the earliest.

"The risks for the economy and rates remain to the downside but a base rate cut looks increasingly unlikely before the Inflation Report-after-next in February 2006," said Ross Walker, UK economist at RBS Financial Markets.

But financial markets aren't so convinced.

Interest rate futures are starting to price in rate rises next year as strategists argue that BoE policymakers will be more concerned about keeping inflationary pressures down just like their colleagues in the euro zone and the United States.

Inflation hit 2.5 percent in September, marking the third month above the BoE's 2 percent target.

"As the data continue to firm and upside risks to inflation build, we believe the MPC will adjust interest rates higher in the New Year," said Alan Clarke, UK economist at BNP Paribas.

HAWKISH TALK

The data have been mixed since the MPC's last meeting.

Manufacturing figures out this week suggested the sector was still not reaping the benefits of greater demand in the euro zone, the country's biggest trading partner, while trade is likely to drag on already below-trend growth in the third quarter.

Consumer demand, however, appears to be stabilising despite continued complaints from retailers ahead of the crucial Christmas season.

And there have been a number of signs suggesting the housing market may be set for revival after the BoE's August cut with prices and activity levels ticking up.

Rhetoric from BoE officials has been increasingly hawkish, led by Governor Mervyn King, who was outvoted in the close 5-4 split in August's decision to cut rates.

Even Richard Lambert, perceived as one of the most dovish MPC members, recently said his decision to cut rates in August was the toughest one he's had to make, which analysts took as a signal he's not about to vote for another cut any time soon.

Minutes to the October rate meeting showed that the MPC did not even discuss a rate cut but rather said that if second-round effects from higher energy prices took hold, "the committee would need to run a tighter monetary policy than would otherwise have been the case."

But a slim majority of economists are still convinced that downbeat data will prompt the BoE to cut rates again in the New Year.

"It will take weaker data than we have seen recently in order to generate another move down in rates. We expect this will be forthcoming early in the New Year on account of further disappointing economic growth numbers," said George Buckley, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank.

Edit: removed because of problems with the image.

Been a bit of an up and downer - made a fair few cable points yesterday but have been stubbornly holding on to some EUR/USD longs which have not been so good - currently well out of the money - need to get back above 1.1715 to break even ;(

I was beginning to feel as if I'd called it right earlier on but it's struck back down again ....... not at all confident - even though I'd got it bouncing off support around 1.1666 - late yesterday afternoon.

May cut my losses if it fails to stay above 1.1700

Thinking of doing a bit of FX trading - anybody use Finspreads for FX? How good are they? Any advise/recommendations gratefully accepted.

Lal

klal

If you are new to FX I suggest you get a CMC spreadbet account and start trading at a pound a point for a while. Technical analysis is vital with FX and for advice on that it is a case of DYOR. Earlier posts by hilary and other gurus will give good pointers.

Thanks Bobcolby. I already happen to have an a/c with Finspreads. Just didn't want to go thru the process of opening another a/c with another S/B company. But will have a look at CMC anyway...

mg,

I've got long term shorts on Euro everything atm except the Yen which I think is another accident waiting to happen. I don't think that there will even be a single European currency past another 4 years or so. Once Germany put the coffee on and take a whiff of the aroma, that'll be it.

Hils
I bottled out of EUR/USD earlier today - and glad I did - ended up down around net -120 points ;(( That wiped out yesterday's gains on cable - and some. But it could have been a great deal more !!!!

mg (ex-MoTU)

Whip saw alley at the moment. Have got a cable long running from an automatic entry at 1.7310 - which might make up for the crap EUR/USD long earlier on.

Had forgotten I'd got it to be honest - just came back to have a look and I've got a big smile on my face - it wasn't there earlier !!!!

mg (not totally ex-MoTU, by accident)

Hope you closed it for a good few, mg.

Forex - Sterling close to 2-yr lows vs dollar after BoE inflation report UPDATE

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices unexpectedly rose 0.2 percent in October despite a dip in energy prices as the cost of housing notched the largest increase in nearly five years, a government report showed on Wednesday.

Excluding food and energy costs, prices increased 0.2 percent, the Labor Department said, matching Wall Street expectations.

Economists had expected overall consumer prices to hold flat in October.

Over the past year, consumer prices have jumped 4.3 percent, but core inflation has remained relatively tame, up 2.1 percent over the same period.

After a surge in September following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, energy prices fell 0.2 percent in October. Gasoline prices, which hit an all-time high after Katrina, dropped 4.5 percent last month, the department said. But natural gas prices continued to climb, rising 14 percent.

Energy prices have climbed 29.5 percent over the past 12 months.

While energy costs edged back last month, the cost of housing surged and pushed overall consumer prices higher. Housing costs, which account for more than 40 percent of the consumer price index, rose 0.9 percent last month -- the largest gain since January 2001 when they climbed 1.3 percent, the department said.

Housing costs have jumped 3.9 percent over the past 12 months.

Other prices also rose in October. Food costs increased 0.3 percent while medical care prices rose 0.5 percent and the cost of services increased 0.7 percent, the Labor Department said.

In a separate report, the Labor Department said real average weekly earnings rose 0.4 percent in October, the first increase in four months and the largest one-month gain since July 2004.