Thought it about time we had a separate thread for currency plays.

Charts Currently Removed - New Ones To Follow Soon

Good Reading If You Like FX
http://www.mizuhobank.com/fin_info/exchange.html

GBP/USD (short)and GBP/EUR (long) would have been a nice pairs trade this morning.

Yep.

Euro in the doldrums

I reckon more downside is on the cards.

Sure is, BOE and ECB are currently at poles on policy.

TOKYO, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stressed his resolve to maintain massive stimulus for a prolonged period but shrugged off the need to expand it soon, remaining upbeat on the outlook despite signs the economy may be in a mild recession. Kuroda also stuck to his view that a weak yen is positive for Japan's economy. But he slightly modified his tone by nodding to concerns from the business community that further yen declines will hurt small firms and households by boosting import costs. "If the currency moves reflect economic and financial fundamentals, they should be positive, not negative, for the economy. But fundamentals themselves fluctuate, so it's important to take this into account," he said on Tuesday. As widely expected, the BOJ maintained its pledge of increasing base money, or cash and deposits at the central bank, at an annual pace of 60-70 trillion yen ($547-$638 billion) via purchases of government bonds and risky assets. The central bank maintained its view the world's third largest economy continues to recover moderately as a trend. But it offered a bleaker view on factory output, saying it was "weakening" as a slump in demand after a sales tax hike in April left auto and electronic makers with a huge pile of inventory. A government index gauging current economic conditions worsened in August, data showed on Tuesday, a sign the economy may be in recession as it suffers from the tax-hike hit. Kuroda acknowledged that the tax-hike pain and bad summer weather had weighed on consumption longer than expected. But he stressed that after a temporary soft patch, growth will pick up enough to accelerate inflation toward the BOJ's price target. "Job and income conditions are steadily improving, and the effect of the sales tax hike is easing as a whole. Both for companies and households, a positive cycle of income and expenditure remains firmly in place," he said. "Our policy is exerting intended effects," Kuroda added, signalling that he saw no need to expand monetary stimulus any time soon despite a slew of recent weak data. But Kuroda also stressed that the BOJ's quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) won't be automatically terminated when the two-year deadline for meeting its price target approaches. "Rather, it's an outcome-based programme," which means the BOJ will maintain QQE for as long as necessary to ensure inflation stays at, not just temporarily hits, 2 percent, he said. An intense burst of monetary and fiscal stimulus, which were the first two "arrows" of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's strategy to end 15 years of deflation, has helped boost business sentiment by lifting share prices and weakening the yen. But measures to enhance corporate governance and deregulate highly-protected medical and farm sectors, which are part of his "third arrow" growth strategy, have failed to impress markets. With the tax-hike pain weighing on household spending, any further worsening of sentiment would complicate Abe's crucial decision by year-end on whether to proceed with a scheduled second sales tax hike to 10 percent in October next year. WEAK YEN DE-MERITS Abe's cabinet has also come under fire in parliament over the pain that the weak yen, generated in part from the BOJ's massive stimulus, inflicts on households via rising import costs. Kuroda himself was grilled in parliament from an opposition lawmaker on the yen when he was summoned to speak on Tuesday, a rare event that forced the BOJ to briefly interrupt its rate review for the first time in 16 years. Abe and his cabinet ministers have recently started to comment on the disadvantages of the weak yen, largely on the need as politicians to pay heed to their local constituencies. Kuroda, by contrast, has said a weak yen did not pose any big problem as it helps boost exporters' revenues, which would trickle down to households through higher wages and jobs growth. Given growing public attention, however, he shifted closer to the government's line by talking not just about the merits, but the demerits, of yen declines. "In general, a weak yen has some positive effect on exports and capital expenditure by pushing up revenues at companies with operations overseas. On the other hand, it's true a weak yen weighs on non-manufacturers' revenues by pushing up import costs," he told parliament. The central bank has stood pat on monetary policy since deploying an intense burst of stimulus in April last year, when it pledged to achieve its 2 percent inflation in roughly two years via aggressive asset purchases. Still, the central bank may come under renewed pressure to expand stimulus if the economic weakness persists, analysts say. After a surprise slump in August factory output, the BOJ cut its assessment on production, saying output has been weak due partly to inventory adjustments. It said last month that the trend in output was for a continued rise, albeit with some weaknesses. ID:nL3N0RW3GS Debate at Tuesday's meeting lays the groundwork for a more crucial policy meeting on Oct. 31, when the nine board members issue new quarterly long-term economic and price projections. Given signs of a delay in the recovery, they are likely to roughly halve their economic growth forecast for the current fiscal year from the present projection of 1.0 percent, the sources familiar with BOJ thinking said.

Dollar strengthens

LONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Sterling fell while gilt futures
edged higher on Wednesday after Bank of England minutes showed
policymakers were firmly against raising interest rates when
they met earlier this month.
While two members voted to raise interest rates, most of the
MPC's nine members saw "few signs" of inflation pressures
building. ID:nL9N09F05F
Sterling fell to the day's low of $1.6012 GBP=D4 , from
around $1.6066 beforehand.
The euro was up 0.25 percent at 79.265 EURGBP=D4 , having
traded at 78.99 beforehand.
British government bond futures jumped to a session high of
116.25 FLGc1 after the BoE minutes, adding more than 10 ticks
and pushing 10-year gilt yields down to 2.14 percent, 3.8 basis
points lower on the day.

(Reporting by London Markets Team, editing by Nigel Stephenson)

I think the Euro may be ready to start rising v Sterling gradually,
and also it did not slide to 78 minus which may be in its favour, though
still early days. What do you think, Shortie?

1.24 to 1.26 I think will be the next range, not planning on trading it just yet though.

Well the Yen is about the only currency that has my attention right now....

Currency ETFs

£ v $ 14-month low

Forex Investors May Face $1 Billion Loss as Trade Site Vanishes

What happened and how they were screwed

Exec - I note the husband and wife are youngish GPs in the UK
at the same practice (google info) and put about £40K between them
into this scheme or scam, Tidy sum! Also, the guy mentioned at the top is/was a
Florida doctor. Hmm. A sad and bad way to lose big sums.
The whole thing reminds me of the old saying: an ounce of foresight
is worth more than a ton of hindsight. But most people, even serious
investors, don't have that sort of money at that age to put into such schemes or scams.
anyway. The story is really a warning to everyone not to rely on websites only if they
are thinking of putting money into something they don't understand unless they
are prepared to lose it all.

Dollar bandwagon

Dollar at 5-year high

Regarding the Secure website article above it just goes to show how naive people can be. There is no such thing as a company that will take your money and invest it for you and offer returns as they described. The old ponzi scheme pretty much worked in much the same way.

The only way to make money in currency is to pretty much follow what central banks and government are doing that make up the pair, check economic figures and keep studying until you have an understanding of what's happening, learn to chart and follow trends, then when your comfortable that you can ride a trend against suspected monetary policy and economic backdrop try making a trade.

There is no sure system, everybody I've ever spoken to has traded slightly differently, no one (business or person) will make you huge returns. If I was capable of making 250% a year I'd keep quiet about it (wouldn't reveal my system) and certainly wouldn't be posting here..!

If ever it sounds too good to be true and you have to part with your cash or personal information remember that you ARE being conned..

I've just had an email from a very nice Nigerian Prince who wants to get his money out of his country and split it 50/50 with me .
I told him to wire me 50K so that i can open an account with Coutts who will be handling the transaction ,i'm still waiting for him to get back to me .

Shortie. what I find weird is that the three docs mentioned did this without doing any reseasrch.
Would they approve of their patients going to quacks...!
And I hope their patients get more attention than their money.
If they had 'invested' 40k in GSK (being medics) they would have got at least £2000
in divis every year plus capital growth if they left it untouched, being so young.
Or is it easier to become a doc than to acquire simple investment knowhow.
What happened to common sense!

Carrot donkey springs to mind... I've always been very sceptical of anyone that has promised a return on the financial markets... The sad thing is every year greed will get the better of someone and it has become a fraudsters business to cast his net far and wide to fish for that greedy someone...

Just remember folks, you don't earn anything if you don't work for it... Reading the claims of someone willing to put your money to work for you will only result in you losing your money... If your into the investing business then do just that and invest, don't give your money to someone who spends all their time in the media business trying to convince you their an investor, if they were, they'd be busy investing, not writing articles and boasting about their elaborated returns!