Author Bio

Today is Social Media Day. There are no fireworks. No parade. No band. Maybe a couple extra @’s and RT’s, but as I see it, Social Media Day is a pretty big accomplishment for the social community.

I kind of equate Social Media Day to Earth Day. Every day should be about taking care of our planet. Recycling, being as green as we can, conserving our precious resources, but it’s just not that way. Most people don’t think about the Earth with every bottle of water they throw away or every gas-guzzler they drive. So, Earth Day becomes the event or reminder that it’s important.

Seeing as we are a Forex trading social network, every day here at Currensee is social media day. We spend much of our time talking with our fans on Facebook, retweeting our followers on Twitter, discussing hot topics with the members of our social network and participating in discussions on Linked In. The good news is that it’s ingrained in what we do. We don’t need a special day to remind us. It’s just how we do things around here.

So I ask you, on this Social Media Day, what are you doing to be social? How are you building your social network or your social brand? Would love to hear from you.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.

Author Bio

This past Monday a financial channel was discussing the currency markets. They were running a bearish story on the euro and highlighted how one particular fund manager was expecting EUR/USD to start heading towards parity. One manager alone doesn’t stand out in the largest market in the world, but the thrust of the report was focused on the challenges that the Euro Zone was going to face and had to be considered bearish.

On Tuesday, that same financial channel ran another story on the currency markets. This time they catered to the euro bulls, stating that most currency traders were expecting the US dollar to stem its gains and start to reverse course. Did this financial channel bother listening to their report on Monday? One of their reports has to be right, right?

This is no way to enter a trading day. Certainly markets will zigzag throughout a trading day, leading to counter-trend trades but understanding the underlying market trend should prove to be helpful as you enter each day. Conflicting information will often times lead to poor decision making.

Let’s return back to Tuesday morning: there was a story on the wires that the Confidence Board revised lowered their April economic reading for China. This is no small deal; in fact, didn’t China just come back from the G-20 meetings touting their strong growth strategies? The Shanghai Composite lost 4.3% on Tuesday and global equities all followed lower. It seems as if Tuesday had turned into thought-reversal day.

Wait though, because there was yet more to come on Tuesday. A meeting with the boss should be no big deal. A meeting with the boss who proclaims afterwards that things are OK is a worrying sign. Apparently President Obama receives a daily update from Ben Bernanke on the state of the US economy. But on Tuesday, after the meeting President Obama, found it necessary to state that things are OK in front of the microphones. Just making sure that we all heard him in case you missed the FOMC or G-20 meetings last week, where both individuals were telling us how good things are right now.

This also happened to be approximately 72 hours before the US NFP report is to be released. Expectations are still for a loss of 110k jobs. The last time the president spoke ahead of a NFP report, he stated how “strong” it would be and then we were all left with crumbs – the creation of forty one thousand private sector jobs to be precise. If I can read between the lines here, it seems as if the president received the jobs number on Tuesday (the BLS takes the surveys in the week of the 12th each month and tabulates the figures in the days that follow) and it was not good.

Americans do not agree that the US economy is OK right now. This was evident in the June Consumer Confidence reading that came out on Tuesday. The Present Index fell to a miserable 25.5 reading. Not good.

Nobody said that currency trading would be easy, especially when you hear flip-flopping information on economies of China and the US, not to mention that the financial channels delivering the news are anything but consistent as well. Understanding the underlying trend will help you become a more consistent currency trader. After all, we need someone to be consistent around here.

This report is for your information only and does not constitute investment or business advice or an offer to buy or sell securities.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

Author Bio

Last week I concentrated on the fact that Mr. Obama had far more to worry about than BP – namely poor fiscal policy and the impending debacle in housing. Last week’s shocking stats were a brutal reminder of what’s in store, and no one should be soothed by those who point to the small year on year rise in the median house prices. Both new home sales prices and the 4-week average of mortgage applications dropped sharply. It was also alluded to that Mr. Obama would continue to believe that fiscal stimulus was the answer, and this week he has politely castigated his European counterparts for doing the opposite. He forgets one key difference – the fact that the dollar remains the reserve currency of the world, which allows a buffer against the plague of worries that have hit Europe.

I have long been bullish on the pound, especially once the election was out of the way. It is clear to me that those countries which have both political will and mandate from the population to do what is necessary to cut deficits will benefit. The question now is whether the markets will finally shift their focus further to those that propose no intention to. This last week, during which I have been away on business, I took a step back from the day-to-day hurly burly, and it is clear now that in this last week’s price action – for the first time in many months – equity weakness has not equaled dollar strength. I find FX the hardest asset class to trade, as I am a directional trader and every FX trade is a spread. It is about working out where the relative movement will come. However, what is clear is that the risk is that focus will turn on America’s huge deficits and begin to exact a toll on the dollar. Carry trades can quickly unravel and any further equity weakness and a lack of positive dollar reaction to it, or equity strength, which should see the risk currencies over perform. These highlight how a shift in the dollar’s dynamic over the coming months could just be beginning.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

Author Bio

As we enter the 2nd half of the trading year, expectations in the G7 economies are low, very low.  I’m not just talking about the World Cup either, but expectations for job creation and economic growth in the world’s largest industrialized countries.  The G-20 meeting this weekend, if it did anything, reinforced those expectations. Europe and the US could not fully agree on how to stimulate their economies, while China went home knowing that they outwitted their Western peers.

It’s not just me stating this; it’s the markets’ interpretation as well.  On Friday the US 2-year yield closed at 0.65%.  The US 10-year yield happened to close above 3%, but it has been knocking on that 3% door for some time now and one has to wonder if a poor NFP report this Friday will be the catalyst for a move below 3%.  If you consider a general rule that yields should reflect economic growth and inflation, then there is little to rejoice about ahead.  Interestingly enough, AAA-rated 10-year municipal bonds have an average yield of 3.13%, only slightly higher than the 3.11% Treasury yield. The worries over municipalities have been spelled out quite clearly ever since Warren Buffet’s testimony on Capitol Hill a few weeks back.

Click on the chart below of the US 2-year yield, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal: 

The time frame covers the last year and you can see that the current yield is matching the lows that it set in late November of last year.  By the way, the MACD did a nice job of calling that bottom – as it did again this past March – although it failed in late May a few weeks ago.

I am not suggesting that you start trading the 2-yead bond, nor am I trying to offer investment advice.  As a currency trader I am pointing out the amount of volatility that remains ahead.  How would you characterize the month of June so far in Forex – choppy?  I just pointed out that the MACD in the 2-year failed for the past month. Any coincidence?

How about Forex trade this past April and May, when EUR/USD traded down from 1.35 to 1.22, which was an optimal market for trend followers.  Back to the chart above, the MACD also shows a trending market as the MACD line crosses the signal line. Thus the correlation between the two markets was high.

Although you may not trade other markets, you should be aware of developments that will impact the currency markets.  Of course it would be best to pay attention to interest rate differentials and not just the change in nominal yields, but this is one place to start. 

Now for the volatility ahead, do you think that the 2-year yield will remain at 0.65% for long?  Expectations are low for Friday’s NFP report. In fact, at the time of writing the consensus is calling for a loss of 110k jobs.  Given the standard error in NFP forecasts, look for fireworks to return to currency trading in the not too distant future.

This report is for your information only and does not constitute investment or business advice or an offer to buy or sell securities.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

Author Bio

There’s been discussion around trading for a living going on in the Currensee forum area. It’s not the first, of course, and it certainly won’t be the last. A recent informal pool on BabyPips indicated that more than half the folks there have it in mind to replace their jobs with trading (it also indicates that something like 75% plan on making at least 50% per year on average, so take it however you like). I’ve written on this subject before in my own blog in the post Trading for a Living vs. Trading for Wealth Building, and others as well.

The question “Should I quit my job and trade full-time?” is one that was answered by several experienced traders and market pros in the recently published New Trader FAQs book. A common thought from those answers is that trading for a living requires two things:

1. Having enough capital to produce returns large enough to pay our expenses, plus pay for your outgoings for some period of time without having to rely on income generated from your trading;
2. Having the proven ability to make money consistently from the markets.

To the first point, think on this: consider the scenario where you need to make $5000 per month to cover all your expenses and provide for some savings. If you can consistently make 10% per month (no mean feat!), then using 5% gives you a very good safety cushion in case of an off month or whatever. In order to make your monthly expenses on a 5% rate of return you would need $100,000 in base capital. And that doesn’t account for the cushion suggested in case of a string of tough months.

As for the second point, one of the FAQ contributors has this to say:

To become a full time trader is at least a 3 year apprenticeship, and you must be prepared for some serious tests of character along the way. You will place trades and have some wins, some losses and some break evens, finding the difference between these three outcomes is what makes or breaks a wannabe trader. Some traders will discover the difference and then go on to prepare a solid foundation of rules and requirements to ultimately become a consistent winner. Others will desperately try to devise a plan and will fail, while the final and most common outcome will be to simply give up after losing too much money and being unable to determine why.

If this sounds like I’m suggesting you shelf your dreams of trading for a living, I wouldn’t go quite so far. I would, however, caution you to really think through things before making that kind of move. It’s not just about the money. It’s not just about getting out of having to work for The Man. There are other issues like quality of life to be considered. I have told people on many occasions how I’ve long known that trading full-time for a living is not for me. I trade to grow my assets and do so on a part-time basis because there are so many other things in my life I enjoy doing, and my salary suits my needs and comes with a minimum of stress (usually).

Just some food for thought. Feel free to discuss!

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.

Author Bio

So it all started when some of our traders requested we provide an easy way for them to publish their trades directly to Twitter and also comply with the StockTwits’s format so their real trades could be published on both.

So being a responsible company, we’ve implemented the feature exactly how our traders requested it, and we now have a few hundred traders that automatically post their real trades directly from their real broker account into Twitter in real time.

Surprisingly enough, StockTwits has decided to block all the traders that post real trades from Currensee. These trades are flagged as spam, even though this can only be real people posting real trades directly from their real accounts. These traders are not even trying to advertise themselves, as there is not advertisement planted in the feed.

It seems that when the entire world is demanding more transparency from the financial world, StockTwits has decided to block the reality and engrave fake and fraudulent activities on their flag. FAIL.

So if you want to shake off the imaginary world of StockTwits and see what real trades do with real money you can follow our trades on Twitter.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.

Author Bio

There is nothing like a steamy, sticky, rainy night in Beantown to run 3.5 miles with your colleagues and another 12,000 people who all signed up to run this year’s J.P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. The Corporate Challenge is the largest road race held entirely within Boston’s  city limits. It’s a fun run through the city and a great way to do something healthy for your body, and good for the community to boot.

We were excited to participate in this year’s race for a few reasons. First off, healthy Pips are the best Pips in town. We love encouraging exercise and healthy living. You know, out there in the fresh air and doing something good for your body. Second, we love doing something good for the community. This year’s race proceeds fund Camp Harbor View, a summer camp located on Long Island in Boston Harbor that provides an opportunity for children from Boston’s at-risk neighborhoods to spend time at summer day camp in the city. At the camp, kids get a chance to learn about life options that they may have never considered while receiving exceptional support from a caring staff. Now that’s a great cause. Third, we are all about team building and love a good team competition. (Personally, I like my competition a bit better in the air conditioning but, hey, it’s only once a year.)

We had the best t-shirt design, by far, thanks to our super-talented designer, Elliot, and we ran that last tenth of a mile extra hard at the thought of a nice cold beer with friends. I am already beginning to plan our t-shirts for next year’s race.

Check out the Pips at their finest in our team album!

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.

Author Bio

The CFTC has brought charges against a Northern California Forex money manager for committing fraud against his clients. The money manager claims he had never had a losing year, when his actual trading records revealed consistent losses year over year.  He also seems to have mysteriously misplaced a majority of customers’ deposits, taking a page out of the Bernie Madoff method of creative money management. You can read about it on Forex Magnates.

I hate to be self-serving here, but I must. If his clients required him to register on Currensee (as a free service, I might add), these customers would have seen his real results, including win/loss P&L, trade-by-trade recaps, etc. on a daily basis, along with a detailed comparison of his business against the other traders on the Currensee platform.

This charlatan would have been exposed and some of the $4.3 million might not have been lost.  It is time to demand transparency in Forex from all people that offer to manage your money!!

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.

Author Bio

One of the lighthearted discussions that have been going on at Currensee alludes to what traders listen to when they are trading.  Some obviously prefer music, while others have financial channels on in the background.  Still some prefer having the financial channels on but fully utilizing the mute button, which is one way to avoid outside opinions from influencing your trading.

Obviously, right now many of us have the World Cup matches on in the background.  You can’t help it. How many times do you need to hear either, “We think there is value in the markets right now” or, “Gold, the US Dollar and the Yen are gaining because markets are risk averse!”

The one thing that you will notice about a World Cup striker is when they have a chance to score a goal, they will try without fear.  Meaning that when the ball leaves their foot, it is headed towards the keeper as hard and as fast as it can possibly get it there.  Sometimes the ball is shot errantly, but still, everyone knows what the objective was for the striker.

Traders learn that when an opportunity knocks, you have to be as quick to enter that trade as you possibly can.  Waiting for confirmation that your idea was correct will often times cost you valuable pips, and potentially have you caught in a squeeze play.  Sometimes traders will enter a trade and it will turn out to be a loser, yet still everyone knows what the objective was for the trader.

Those are two straightforward examples of having an objective and believing in it.  Can we say the same about the FOMC right now?  Have a look back at the FOMC statement from Wednesday:  “Financial conditions have become less supportive of economic growth on balance, largely reflecting developments abroad.”  Come on, blaming Greece and others for the lack of economic growth in the US? You can’t be serious.  Isn’t China’s economy bigger than Greece’s? And didn’t they just revalue the CNY because their economy is growing at a solid clip?

Unlike its peers that solely focus on inflation, the Fed’s job is to also maximize employment.  How many more jobs would have been created in the US if the markets had just left Greece alone?  I dare say that more jobs have been impacted by China of late than by Greece.  If anything, yields are lower, which should make it attractive for those that can access credit to borrow money right now.

Traders don’t go around blaming others for their losing trades.  They blame themselves, they recoup and start over.  Why is the Fed blaming “developments abroad” for their inability to restart the economy and create jobs?

Many of us still point to the Fed’s reluctance to withdrawal policy from 2004 to 2006 as the catalyst that started the current recession.  As outgoing Fed member Donald Kohn said recently “I don’t think we know enough at this point to answer with any confidence the question of whether monetary policy should include financial stability along with price stability and high employment in its objectives”.  That is the complete opposite of trading without fear, right now it sounds as if the Fed needs an objective to believe in again.

This report is for your information only and does not constitute investment or business advice or an offer to buy or sell securities.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

Author Bio

Are you looking to earn a quick buck? No need to trip over small children or fellow pip chasers, because all Currensee members are getting an extra 10 Bonus Bucks to spend in the Currensee Marketplace as part of our Bucksapalooza extravaganza. The Pips of Currensee are fans of free Bucks and tacky names, and thought there was no better way to kick off this [sticky] summer than to give back to the traders that give us a reason to come to work every day.

To the skeptics and party poopers, here’s the not-so-fine print you’re all waiting for:

• You get 10 Bonus Bucks. Really, they’re free. You don’t owe us your firstborn, but we do enjoy homemade soufflés.
• Spend your Bonus Bucks and other Bucks you’ve earned by participating on Currensee.com towards purchases in the Currensee Marketplace.
• Your 10 Bonus Bucks and this offer will self-destruct on Wednesday, June 30, 2010. On Thursday you will wake up a refreshed individual minus those 10 Bonus Bucks if you haven’t spent them.

Why are we doing this? Well, the obvious answer is because we’re awesome. But the real reason is because we’re always riding our high-horse about real traders, real trades, real time, and it’s time to give back with real rewards. We’ve really pulled out all the stops so you can get your Buck’s worth. Choose from live trade planning webinars, daily newsletters from our Chief Market Analyst, a Thomson Reuters trading widget, and more. In fact, if you’re reading this your Currensee Bonus Bucks are waiting. Quit reading about it and go spend your free money!

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.