Posts Tagged ‘resistance’

(As written for My Paper on 11 October 2011. Click here to enlarge)

Risk currencies are having a brief rally this week due to three reasons:

1. United States employment situation beat expectations
2. Bank of England increased its asset-purchases ceiling
3. European leaders pledged to recapitalise banks

US non-farm payrolls (NFP) rose by 103,000 last month with private sector payrolls rising by 137,000. This was higher than the 50,000 estimate by industry experts. Additionally, the August NFP report was also revised up from zero to 57,000.

At the start of the week, EUR/USD edged up nearly 100 pips to reflect the cheer of the jobs report. Read more…

(As written for My Paper on 4 October 2011. Click here to enlarge)

Finance chiefs meet in Luxembourg this week.

The good news for the markets is that finance chiefs are meeting and discussing global issues more frequently. The bad news is that no concrete solution has been hammered out yet.

In the process, markets are continuing their free-fall.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 2.2% yesterday, extending a 9.5% slump last quarter that was the biggest since 2008. Not to be outdone, the Markit iTraxx Asia index of default risk headed for its highest close since May 2009.

Major Asian currencies were not spared as well. Read more…

(As written for My Paper on 6 September 2011. Click here to enlarge)

The Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) report on Friday was ugly and totally unexpected.

The median forecast of 86 economists called for an addition of 68,000 jobs. However, after the announcement by the US Labour Department, everyone was caught off-guard when the result showed a big fat zero.

This was the weakest reading since September 2010, and meant that that the US economy failed to add any jobs in the month of August. The unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 percent.

To make matters worse, July payrolls were revised down from 117K to 85K, which meant that the hiring was smaller than initially reported.

As I read more into the report, I came across another interesting point. Read more…

(As featured in The Sun, Malaysia’s national newspaper, on 26 Aug 2011. Click here to enlarge)

Education alone won’t ensure a successful venture into online Forex trading

It is hard not to be in awe in the presence of Mario Singh, a Forex trading guru and founder of FX1 Academy Pte Ltd. Decisive in his words and pragmatic in his views, Mario has created a set of philosophies that is said to have been successful in guiding 20,000 people financially. Or so he says.

“FX1 is currently providing education on online Forex trading to approximately 20,000 people the world over,” says Mario.

“The largest transfer to wealth is happening now. Over the last year, nine Asian countries have raised interest rates. The list included Malaysia, Singapore, India, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Indonesia,” he says, adding that he hopes to help some one million people become millionaires through Forex trading over the next 10 years. Read more…

Over the weekend, Singapore voted in its next President, with Dr Tony Tan pipping Dr Tan Cheng Bock to the finish line by a mere 0.35% of the popular vote.

In the Forex Market, a different election of sorts was happening, with the primary candidate being the current Federal Reserve Chariman, Ben Bernanke.

Many traders were betting on the fact that Bernanke would announce more easing, or QE3 during his meeting with other central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The US dollar initially nose-dived against several majors in anticipation of the announcement, but recovered quickly as Bernanke stopped short of revealing any concrete measures.

However, in a dramatic turn, the US dollar weakened again as the markets came to a close when traders realised that QE3 was probably going to happen. Not now, just later.

The clue came from Bernanke’s surprise announcement that the next Fed meeting on 20 Sept will be for two days instead of one. Read more…