Euro Currency Profile (Part II)

By Ahmad Hassam

It was necessary for many countries to hold large amounts of every individual European currency before the coming of Euro. As a result the currency reserves tended towards US Dollar. In 1990s, 65% of the global reserves were in US Dollar.

As EU becomes one of the major trading partners for most countries around the world, Euro will become more and more popular and this trend is expected to continue. With the introduction of Euro, foreign reserve assets are shifting in favor of Euro. Euro is in direct competition with the US Dollar as regards the market share is concerned.

The European Central Bank: Forex traders keenly watch the policy announcements of European Central Bank. The European Central Bank (ECB) comprises the Executive Board and a Governing Council. The Executive Board implements the policies made by the Governing Council. The Executive Board of ECB comprises the president, the vice president and four other members. These individuals along with the governors of the member national banks comprise the Governing Council. ECB is the governing body that determines the monetary policy for the EMU countries.

The policy meetings are biweekly. Although ECB meets biweekly and has the power to change the monetary policy in any of these meeting, it is only expected to do so where an official press conference is scheduled afterwards. New monetary policy decisions are usually taken by a majority vote. The president has the deciding vote in the event of a tie.

ECB heavily depends on the individual central banks in the implementation of its policies. ECB has a strict mandate based on inflation and deficit. ECB tries to keep the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) below 2% and M3 (money supply) annual growth below 4.5%. So, the EMUs primary objective is price stability and growth.

The ECB and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) are independent institutions from both national governments and other EU institutions. This operational independence is granted to them as per Article 108 of the Maastricht Treaty.

The primary tools the ECB uses to control monetary policy are the Open Market Operations. ECB has at is disposal four categories of open market operations that it can use to manage interest rates, control liquidity and signal monetary policy stance.

Main refinancing operations are regular liquidity providing reverse transactions conducted weekly with a maturity of two weeks. Bulk of refinancing for the financial sector is done through these operations.

Fine tuning operations are executed on an ad hoc basis with the aim of both managing the liquidity situation in the market and steering interest rates. Longer term refinancing operations are liquidity providing reverse transactions with a monthly frequency and a maturity of three months.

ECB uses structural operations to adjust the structural position of the Eurosystem vis--vis the financial sector. It involves the issuance of debt certificates, reverse transactions and outright transactions. The ECB minimum bid rate is the key policy target for the ECB. It is the level of borrowing that ECB offers to the central banks of its member states.

If it believes that inflation is of concern, ECB is not constrained from intervening in the forex markets. Therefore, ECB does not usually have the exchange rate target but can factor in exchange rates in its policy deliberations as exchange rate impacts price stability. - 23223

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try Strignano's Forex Signals free. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot Trading System!

What Is The Best Way To Buy Stocks ?

By Richard Moran

You can use someone else's money to leverage your capital for stock purchases. That is buying on margin and is the same as buying other things on credit. The difference comes to the control you have over your investment - with the stock market you are at the whims of the day-to-day market fluctuations. Many of the recent financial problems drove the market down and therefore lost money for those who held their stock on margin. These circumstances left many stocks at all time slows.

Just Pay For the Stock You Buy

When you initially open a brokerage account most stock firms will make you pay for your initial purchase. Most require a minimum equity of $2000 before they will even discuss any margin purchases. Remember unless you are paying cash there will be interest charges due on any stock you buy on margin. Therefore, in order to make a profit not only does the stock have to go up in value enough to cover your investment and the firms charges, but you will also have to cover the interest you have paid over the time you have owned the shares. Most times unless you are a market maven you will come out way ahead using cash to purchase your stock.

Using A Brokers' Margin System

When you borrow money to buy a car you pay back what you borrowed, plus an interest charge. This is the same with marginal stock. You are borrowing part (usually around 80%) of the stock price from the broker. For this service the broker will charge you interest. If you buy a $100 stock you give the broker $20 and borrow $80. You then pay interest on that $80 until you sell. So theoretically, If the stock goes up to $150 you must give the broker back their $80 plus the interest for the time you held the stock. The great part in using margin (if the stock goes up) is making a $20 investment you have gotten your $20 back plus a $50 profit minus whatever interest is due. Many day traders use this method to make a lot of money by buying and selling stocks quickly - sometimes buying in the morning and selling in the afternoon - hence day trading.

The Real Magic Is Knowing What Stock To Buy

One way of ensuring you can pay back the loan on your investments is to know your stocks. You should study your stocks before making a purchase. It is important to know how they have been effected by other aspects of the market, how often they drop, how long they remain on a rise and what the average rise for them is. By studying the stocks you want to invest in, you may find that you dont need to borrow money in order to invest.

On Margin or Outright

Basically, buy with cash if you can. When a special situation arises where you are sure of the stock health and "know" it will rise buying on margin can net you some super profits without a big cash outlay. You will of course still be limited by the equity you have in your brokerage account. Unless you are wealthy, or have great credit at a bank they won't lend you money to buy a stock so the broker is normally the only avenue available. Another "trick" used by savvy investors is to use the 7 day payment period used by most brokers. You can buy the stock today and wait a few days to pay, or just sell it before the payment is due. Then any profit is yours without interest - that is if the stock goes up. If the price falls the purchase price is still due, so be sure you have a backup if you are using this plan. - 23223

About the Author:

Richard Moran is a Financial Consultant and writer for Money Helpers. The Blog contains 100's of articles, charts, and calculators to assist you in your financial health. All the parts of the Blog are free and it is updated on an almost daily basis. If you are searching for any financial aids or products they can be found on Money Helpers.

Forex Trading Tips 5 Success Tips

By Mark Green

Forex trading tips today can be hard to decipher with all the information on the internet. You should know by now that good information is hard to find. This is why I have taken it upon myself to arrange 5 tips to success that are a great starting point for any trader.

The first of the forex trading tips is that you must dedicate time to forex. How else are you going to make progress if you don't spend any time on research and learning to better your trading skills? Your success is dependent on how much time and dedication you put into your work, like most things.

Second in the forex trading tips is a traders persistence. Don't give up before you give it some time and a chance to produce results. A trader going into forex with an over night success mind frame is a sure way to get them self in trouble. Thinking short term may drive a trader to rush trades and loose more often. Put yourself in the mindset of long term income.

Third forex trading tips, finding a method of trading that works for you. Long term testing of the different strategies is important to achieving accurate results. These results will help determine if the method is for you or not. Calculate your profits on a rolling average, it constantly fluctuates. Win more trades then you lose. and you will be fine.

The fourth of forex trading tips is to have proper money management. Traders must manage money properly to achieve a long term success. Sinking entire trading accounts into a trade is a high risk bad move. There is no such thing as a "sure thing" so don't ever put all your eggs in one basket. Using small margins to your advantage and being strict will keep you in control.

The fifth of forex trading tips is researching and managing your trades. It is always a good idea to do some research on the market and its conditions, and world news before you even consider making a trade. Doing the scalping method is the best way for new traders. Scalping with forex can be a quick way to filling up your trading account and getting yourself to larger trades. Thinking long term is the best mindset for forex. Take action today on the best managed, easiest way to forex and your success. Discover what the big money makers do, and take action today on your success! - 23223

About the Author:

If you seriously want to get out of the ditch and make cash, check out the "Big Wigs" Forex Trading Tips. If your fed up with the BS and you want to make real profits for your self, stop letting the "Big Wigs" spoon feed you BS, find out their secret Forex Trading Tips.

How to Make Money Through Using A Stop Loss in Stock Investing

By Sam McNeill

A stop loss is a price that we use as the trigger price to sell out of a losing trade. We need to have a stop loss price because not all trades succeed - some fail. Even the best trading techniques struggle to deliver a success rate of more than 70%. Therefore even using some of the best trading techniques we will still end up with two or three losing trades out of every ten. For these losing trades we must keep our losses really really small.

There are only five possible outcomes from any trade:

A large profit.

A small profit.

A small loss.

A large loss.

A large loss.

That's it. Five possible outcomes, no more, no less. Every single trade will result in one of these five outcomes. Now if we could eliminate one of these five outcomes, which one would we choose? That's right - the large loss. If we eliminate the large loss we are only left with the other four possible outcomes. If our small losses, breakeven trades and small profits even out over a period of time we will only be left with the rather pleasing occasional large profit.

By now you should be in no doubt about the wisdom of eliminating large losses. The Stop Loss is what we use in every trade in order to eliminate any large losses.

Our Stop Loss Rule has three parts:

1. You must have a Stop Loss in place for every single trade that you do.

2. Set the Stop Loss price at a level where your loss will be 2% of your trading capital.

3. When your Stop Loss price is hit then you sell.

The most difficult part of this rule is part 3, selling when your stop loss price is hit. It's the most difficult part of the rule because most of us hate admitting that we are wrong about anything! Despite this huge emotional drag not to sell - sell we must. When your stop loss price is hit you sell. Sticking to this simple and straight forward rule will protect your hard earned cash when you trade. - 23223

About the Author:

Want to find out more about sharetrading, then visit the Just Shares site on how to choose the best share trading course for your needs.

Option Trading Adjustments Based on Volatility

By Donald Scott

Within this article we'd like to discuss management tactics which can be beneficial in the organization of an options account. This important concept can be functional to each type of option spread such as the Condors, Calendars, Butterflies, Diagonals, and the rest.

At the time that this article is being presented (the latter part of 2008), the VIX is presently in its higher range of the previous couple years, making options inflated in value. So while making adjustments nowadays, each trader must make it his duty to know where volatility is and forecast where it is leading to. Should we acquire expensive, inflated options or do we persuade somebody else to buy them? What is the latest volatility forecast on the major markets?

A very common mistake that option traders make is buying or selling options at the wrong time. If we buy options when the volatility is at a high, we are entering a trade with odds against us. Option traders that do this don't realize why their options lose value so fast. Every option trading adjustment should be made by thinking of the option Greeks and volatility. We really need to understand these fundamentals to succeed in the options market.

A TYPICAL OPTION POSITION THAT MIGHT NEED AN ADJUSTMENT

For instance, let's say we are in an Iron Condor and the stock market is trending up near the short strike, and we are getting to the instant where we need to formulate an adjustment to supervise our possible danger. If this is the instance, subsequently the IV may possibly have dropped a small amount. We pull up the chart on volatility of the underlying, and we investigate the IV and see it is oversold and will soon rise again.

Options have endless possibilities. Many traders have no idea what adjustment to make when they see their portfolio in danger. If we learn and deeply understand the fundamentals, then adjustments are much easier. They just make sense. So in this case we may see the VIX is about to rise. We could place a long debit spread on the VIX itself as insurance. We could also use a Calendar spread to the downside. We could also use a Broken Wing Butterfly to the downside. Each of these mentioned strategies can take advantage of a rise in IV since they are positive Vega. Also, if your current portfolio is negative Vega, adding positive Vega can help you hedge any loss that you might incur from a rise in IV. Remember, with option trading we are trading direction, volatility and time.

There are many positive Vega option strategies, but some of the most common ones are Debit Spreads, Broken Wing Butterflies, Short Condors, Short Butterflies and Calendars. In our options mentoring course we cover them in great detail.

To conclude, if the stock market moves against you when you are in an option spread, then always study the IV of your underlying asset. Knowing what is going on with volatility can really help you make better decisions on managing your portfolio. This will definitely reduce your exposure to risk while increase your chances of being a profitable trader. - 23223

About the Author:

Learn more about Option Trading and Volatility. Stop by San Jose Options Mentoring and receive a FREE 45 MINUTE VIDEO on Option Greeks and see what this new knowledge can do for you.