Top Forex Reviews

ISM or Institute for Supply Management is releasing its PMI (Purchasing Manager Index) today. As a leading indicator, traders generally pay attention to this report for hints of economic trend. Here’s the forecast:

10:00am NY Time US ISM Manufacturing PMI Forecast 61.0 Previous 60.8
ACTION: 63.5 BUY USDJPY / 58.5 BUY EURUSD

The Trade Plan
We’ll be looking for around 2.5 points of deviation for this trade. If a 63.5 or better number is released, we could see some USD strength and JPY weakness, thererefore a BUY on the USD/JPY. If Full post…

The last few weeks have witnessed a number of major developments in the retail forex world: more mainstream firms  entering the fold, and existing firms are moving to beef up their forex operations. Not only will this permanently alter the competitive landscape, but it should also benefit traders in the form of more choice, lower prices, and increased transparency.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Charles Schwab is in the early stages of introducing forex to the array of financial products available to its customer base: “Schwab, the largest online broker, disclosed in a slide presented at its recent winter business update that it was ‘analyzing the forex opportunity’ in 2011.” Unbeknownst to me, TD Ameritrade made a stealthy entry into forex in 2009, though its purchase of ThinkorSwim. Ameritra

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The U.S. government has frozen $30 billion in Libyan government assets so they cannot be accessed by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his family, said David Cohen, Treasury acting undersecretary for terrorism on Monday. In a briefing, Cohen said this was the largest amount of assets ever blocked under any sanctions regime. President Barack Obama froze the Libyan assets on Friday in response to Gadahfi’s violent crackdown on protestors seeking democratic reforms.

Relatively speaking, the Chinese Yuan has been on a tear, appreciating ~1% in a little more than a month. One has to wonder whether this is a concession by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) that its exchange rate regime is not viable or whether its instead a political sop. The question on everyone’s minds, of course, is, will it continue?

Countries around the world have continued to criticize China for its unwillingness to allow the Yuan to appreciate. At Full post…

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Treasury Department sold $35 billion in 2-year notes on Tuesday at a yield of 0.745%, the highest level since May 2010. Bidders offered to buy 3.03 times the amount of debt sold, compared to an average of 3.58 times at the last four monthly auctions of 2-year notes, which were all for the same amount. Indirect bidders, a group that includes foreign central banks, purchased 31.3%, compared to 32% of recent sales, on average. Direct bidders, a group that includes domestic money managers, bought another 6.8%, versus an average of 16.3%.

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The Cross has revisited the top of 1.6274 ( there is another high slightly higher at 1.6296) and reacted to the downside.  If this the top then we can expect a move back to the .382 fibo and the S2 around the 1.6164 area.  We could get a bounce there back to the top and then the target would be the 1.6296.  A break of the trend wall targets the .500 fibo and then the 1.6054 area.

Last week, the Obama Administration released its fiscal 2012 budget to much fanfare. Unfortunately, the budget makes only a token effort to address the rising National debt, and forecasts a budget deficit of $1.1 Trillion. While the release of the budget failed to make a splash in currency markets, traders would be wise to understand its implications for the future.

The budget proposes spending of $3.7 Trillion in 2012, and forecasts receipts of only $2.6 Trillion.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices pared gains and the dollar cut its losses on Thursday after the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s report on manufacturing conditions in the region this month improved much than expected. The dollar index /quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0 (DXY 77.95, -0.27, -0.35%) , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six currencies, traded at 78.088, up from 78.015 before the data but still lower from around 78.240 in late North American trade on Wednesday. The euro /quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd (EURUSD 1.3612, +0.0045, +0.3317%) traded at $1.3589, from $1.3605 earlier and $1.3566 late Wednesday.

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More of the same yesterday with little data and a lack of unexpected news releases. The old favourites are coming to the fore again, global political unrest (currently Egypt), a widening in Eurozone bonds spreads (between Germany and the rest of the Eurozone) and an ongoing reassessment of risk appetite (Global Central Bank desire for monetary tightening). Even following yesterday’s decision by the MPC to leave rates and asset purchase size unchanged, some of the market still expect the committee to push for a rate rise by the May meeting, making the UK the first of the Big 4 to start pushing official rates higher. T

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Based on his recent public comments, Fed Chairman Bernanke seems determined to give the U.S. dollar the reputation of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak: an unwanted relic of the past that everyone agrees must go, but stubbornly clings to a privileged position. The dollar is currently the world’s ruling currency, but, as with Mubarak, I believe that growing public discontent will spur regime change quicker than most pundits expect.

Clearly, the most significant problem facing central bankers around the world is the recent eruption of inflation, which is sparking unrest in Asia and the Middle East. Full post…