Forex rebates on every trade - win or lose!

Made some decent long points these last couple of days - makes up for some crap trading last week - overall just better than breakeven.

And you ask yourself, in these markets, it should be relatively straightforward. But then, if it was that easy everyone would be a winner :))

If you are lurking choccie - hope your feeling a bit better.

Thanks gofe and meggers :)
Still loafing, marooned and morphed :S

Glad to see you're keeping your hand in, meggers ;)

choccie
That sounds like a great name for a bar in Wilmslow - get it trademarked - you'll be swamped with footballer's wives wanting some at a massive mark-uo.

Take it easy - I am :)

Have you been poorly, Chocopops? Every thread I read seems to say welcome back or get well soon. I must have missed something. Anyway, hope you're better now.

I'm not so sure that I like the new calendar - it seems quite unwieldy, imo. It's the best we've got though I'm afraid. I'll be away again from later this week. I may be around w/c 13th August, otherwise not back till early September. Delboy will need to adjust the URL of the inline frame in the header. The weekly calendar appears to start from a Sunday, and I'm guessing that the URL of next week's calendar will be:

http://www.dailyfx.com/calendar/index-print.html?currentWeek=/events-calendar/2007/0805/&direction=none&collector=allInFolderDateDesc&view=week&timezone=GMT&currencyFilter=AUD|NZD|&importanceFilter=|

Unfortunately I can't be sure that will actually be the case.

yen is tanking on that American homes news...

dumping

SM,

I'm not sure that I understand what you're saying there. Surely the Yen has been gaining steadily since yesterday afternoon (125 pips vs USD, 250 pips vs EUR, 375 pips vs GBP). It's nothing to do with a flakey mortgage lender going t!ts up.

It's carry trade liquidation - plain and simple. If the world, his wife and their pet poodle are all short the Yen, there comes a point in time that there's nobody left to short it. That's when it rises, shafting all the mug punters along the way. That's what happening now.

DailyFX New Dynamic Calendar FAQ
Tuesday, 31 July 2007 16:35:40 GMT
Printer Friendly | Email Article | RSS | Previous articles
Written by Kathy Lien, Chief Strategist
We have just launched a new dynamically updated economic calendar. Take a minute to read our Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions to make sure you know how to get the most value out of the product. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at research@dailyfx.com



Calendar Top 10 Questions

1) I only see the Briefing Calendar, What happened?
You are bookmarking an old page, please change your bookmark to http://www.dailyfx.com/calendar/

2) How Can I get Eastern Time?
If you click on the words "EDT" next to Current Time on top, the entire calendar will switch to Eastern Time. Click back on GMT and it will switch back

3) Where Can I find the Excel File?
If you click on Printer Friendly Version, you can now get an unformatted version of the excel file, if you want Eastern Time, click on the EDT button on top, then click on the Printer Friendly Version > that will output an eastern time calendar

4) How Can I print the Calendar?
Right now, you can print it directly from the excel file, by the end of the week, we should have a formatted printer friendly version

5) How Can I get the Previous Calendar with the Actual Figures?
To the right of the Current Time, there is the "Previous Week" button. Click on that and you will get the previous week with all of the actual numbers

6) How Quickly is the Economic Data Updated?
It is updated seconds after the number is released, on a 24 hour basis. You may need to do a hard refresh to get the number (CTRL+F5). Revisions to prior data are denoted as (R). Detailed comments on key releases written by DailyFX staff come no more than 10 min after the data. Not long afterwards we will post articles that contain more details.

7) When is the Next Week's Calendar Published?
Next Week's Calendar is created by 3pm ET on Friday, but does not roll into the main calendar page until midnight Sunday morning (the Sat/Sun switchoff) > Traders can get the Next Week calendar before that by clicking on "Next Week" in the upper left.

8) What Happened to Bolding the Important Releases?
We now have 3 levels of importance for economic releases. Even though they are no longer bolded, you can filter by importance and by currency pair.

9) There are so Many Releases, I have to Scroll Down Very Far to Get What I Want.
If you just want today's releases, click on "Today" on the top and you will get a much shorter version of the calendar.

10) Will you be Bringing Back the PDF Version?
We are looking into creating a pdf version, in the meantime, please use the excel file to print.

Additional Calendar Features:

1) If you click on Central Bank Calendar >> We have all of the Central Bank meeting dates and times for the remainder of the year
2) Definitions are provided for nearly all of the economic data as well as links to original sources

As further evidence of the carry trade unwinding, look at the Swissie where interest rates are also very low.

With cable and fiber both falling since yesterday, it would be a fair assumption that USD/CHF would be a reasonable gainer because of the favourable carry. Somehow though it managed to fall which suggests an unwinding of the carry trade.

been watching the 1.2000 area on the swissie, doesnt seem to be able to close below there on the dailys.............yet

hilary... a slip of the keyboard!! 'course its $ going down... not yen! made my account go up nicely overnight..
pls be a bit patient with my excitement!

SM

Cheers Hils - I ought to be getting better but it's hard to tell cos I'm still potty with the pills.

Bloody Hell, hope someone can help me here.

I have spent most of the last four months trading currencies via IG Markets CFDs. I have just discovered that although I have no positions currently open and nor have I since the 24th July I am apparently generating an increasing loss through Ledger Transactions in Sterling, Swiss Francs, US Dollars, Canadian Dollars and the Yen.

IG have been on my back to settle the debt, problem is I don't understand how it is being generated. I know these ledger positions are reflected on my daily statement, but I erroneously thought that they were some sort of summary of the positions I have opened and closed.

IG of course charge or pay interest on open positions and there is also a daily adjustment to open positions which I thought was an adjustment to take into account currency fluctuations.

I have used IG markets for over a year and was under the impression I clearly understood what I was doing. This ledger transaction has me totally baffled and folowing three telephone calls to IG who seem unable to explain wtf is going on, I am no closer to an understanding.

I am also unable to find any mention of this ledger transaction business on their web site.

Grateful for any quick advice that a muppet can understand.

pth

pth cant help, dont trade cfds. Probably a good idea to ring them again(record conversation) and ask them to explain it to you and if they dont to your satisfaction, probably a good idea to contact FSA

I don't use IG but it works like this I believe.

It's easier for me to explain with indices so :

if you go long say the dow you bet in dollars cos the instrument is priced in dollars.

say you make $15,000. This will shown on your statement as a profit in dollars and is a dollar balance on your account

Well a year ago at say $1.50 to the you made 10,000 but remember it's still a dollar balance on your account.

now at say $2.00 to the you've only made 7,500 cos remember it's still a dollar balance on your account.

Effectively every day as the dollar has been rising it's been costing you money to the tune of 2,500 in my example which is why IG are now persuing you.


Sorry

CC

I think I understand what you are saying, but now I am aware of the situation I have been watching the effect a weakening dollar (against Cable) is having on my balance, which is decreasing (debt reducing). ?? I also imagine that the mixture of currencies is also making this quite complicated. The really annoying thing at the moment is I can find no mention of ledger transactions in their documentation, so being a muppet how am I supposed to know that this transaction exists?

pth

I can't remember -do IG send you monthly statments by email?

I forget as I withdraw all my money from them after they made my account untradeable about 3 years ago.

If so I would expect it to show the detail of each currency balance and it's translation into gdp each month

pth,

I don't know for sure what a "ledger transaction" is, but it sounds a little bit like the carry trade charges which are being charged to your account monthly or quarterly rather than on a daily basis.

They should apply when you hold a position overnight, not when you close out within the same day.

Take the example of a GBP/JPY trade. If you are long, you are effectively borrowing money in JPY at 0.5% interest plus say an extra 0.5% for your broker's Xmas lunch fund (ie at 1%). You are then depositing that money in GBP at 5.75% interest less 0.5% for the same lunch fund (ie 5.25%). The net result is that you earn interest at a rate of 5.25% - 1% = 4.25% per annum. As GBP/JPY is currently trading at around 241.00, a small 1 per pip position is worth around 24,100, so your 4.25% interest will equate to 1,024 per annum or 2.80 each day.

If, on the other hand, you hold a short GBP/JPY position overnight, you will effectively be borrowing sterling at 5.75% + 0.5% (ie 6.25%) and depositing it into JPY at 0.5% - 0.5% (ie zero!!!). This equates to a debit from your account of around 4.13 for each night that you hold the GBP/JPY 1 per pip short.

It can soon add up!!!

You will notice that the CME quarterly contracts for high yielding carries are priced quite a way off spot at the start of the quarter and the price then converges towards spot as the contract moves toward expiry. Quarterly contracts are not subject to nightly carry charges, so they make the carry costs up in a different way.

Hope that explains things.

Glad the pills are working and you're feeling better, Chocopops.

Some of the "plants" in my greenhouse have been struggling this wet summer, so I might be interested in taking any surplus pills off your hands if they're as good as you say.

:o)

Hils. Goforit and CC many thanks for taking the time to respond, here is the explanation from IG Markets. I understand what they are saying (I think), but I cannot find any 'warnings' of what are effectively underlying positions on their web site. This ledger business seems to be a secret. I did point out in my email to IG that I was not aware of the whole ledger business and the lack of available information, this observation has not been addressed in their reply.

"However, it is important to note that your account is multi-currency and has a ledger for each currency in which you transact.

For example, your USD/JPY trades have a base currency of JPY and thus profits and losses are realised in JPY, and similarly trading in Cable produces P&L in USD. This is shown on the statements you receive.

I note that you have funded your account in GBP and have chosen GBP as your base currency. Your account is therefore summarised in base currency at the top of the statement in GBP equivalent, but at no time are the individual currency balances physically converted without your express instructions. This is evident from the individual currency ledger balances on the statements we send to you.

I understand that you removed funds from your account based on the GBP equivalent sum of the underlying currencies but that the account went into negative territory due to the fact that you still had balances in other currencies which caused the account value to fall. I can see that you have now cleared this with a transfer yesterday, but please do note that you still have currency exposure to USD, CAD, CHF and JPY. If you would like us to convert the balances in these currencies then please let us know."

Any thoughts or views?

pth

2 things.

Get all that foreign currency exposure converted to gbp right now to stop any more losses (or profits) occurring.

I'd have a bit of a go at them if they let you remove all the funds from your account but didn't ask you at the time whether you wanted the currencies converted. You can't be the first person this has happenned to and I think a respectable broker would have asked you if you wanted this done when you withdrew the money.

Of course you have weakened your case now you have sent them the money to cover the debt and if the statement shows the ledger for each currency and you didn't notice over a period of nearly a year that your gbp balance was reducing that doesn't help.

I'd offer to split the loss in half with them but I don't expect you'll get very far. IG are legally right and and any reduction of the loss would be purely a gesture of goodwill on their part.

Of course if you starting putting some trades through again they might be more acccommodating.

Hope that helps