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Protect Your Wealth from the Crashing Dollar!
Between February 2006 and July 2008 (a mere 18 months), the US Dollar lost 33% of its value against the Euro. If that doesn't frighten you, then you should also know that from Jan 2005 to July 2008, the US Dollar lost 53% of its value against the Brazilian Real (the currency of a third-world country). In July of 2008, gasoline prices in the USA peaked out at over $4 per gallon. Most people don't realize this but the depreciation of the US Dollar was responsible for over 40% of that rise in oil & fuel prices. The other 60% was caused by investors and speculators rushing to oil commodities to hedge against the crashing dollar, further pushing the price of oil and other commodities even higher.
Since then (now Dec 2008), the dollar has gained back a lot of strength, but not because of any strengthening of the US economy. On the contrary, the credit meltdown in the USA and UK created a worldwide panick. This, in turn, caused hundreds of billions (perhaps trillions) in hedge fund and institutional dollars invested overseas to be withdrawn from emerging markets such as China, Brazil and other countries back into the safety of the US dollar, where most of it originated from. This massive flee to so-called safety, caused the stock markets in most other countries to crash along with our own and even moreso. Since this involved selling the foreign currencies that the stocks were held in and buying back the US dollars the funds originated from, this caused a quick and significant strengthening of the US dollar. More buyers than sellers causes the price (or exchange rate) to go up. Had the credit meltdown not effected other countries but the USA, the US dollar would have crashed to levels unimaginable, forcing the cost of gasoline well over $10 per gallon, which would have been the nail in the coffin for the USA as it forced the complete collapse of the US economy.
For now, the more uncertainty that remains in the US markets, the stronger the dollar will get (just the opposite of normal market behavior). When things begin to settle down in the markets, the dollar will then resume it's long-term weakening as the large investment firms begin to hedge their dollars with foreign investments as they were before the credit meltdown. When it comes down to it, there really isn't any reason why the dollar should continue to gain strength. On the contrary, the national debt is growing by billions per day as bailout follows bailout, all while the interest alone on these massive loans can never be paid back, let alone the loans themselves. The dreary fact is that the US dollar is eventually doomed but as long as the rest of the world is effected by our deep seeded problems (mainly the credit crisis), there is temporary hope for the dollar. But only temporary. It is just a matter of time before the dollar takes another dive and gasoline prices once-again go screaming well beyond $4 per gallon. But there is hope...
A simple way YOU can protect yourself against the crashing dollar is to simply invest in other country's currencies. Trading or Exchanging currencies as an investment or hedge is often called Forex Trading (short for Foreign Exchange trading). Thanks to the internet, forex trading can now easily be done from the comfort of your own home. The most powerful part about online foreign currency trading is that you can leverage or trade up to 200 times your cash balance. This means you can purchase up to $10,000 of currency with just $100 on deposit. To put this into perspective, if you had purchased $10,000 worth of Euros in Feb 2006, you would have made approximately $3300 profit in USD as of July 17th, 2008 and you could have done this with a small investment of just $100 USD. While I personally don't recommend leveraging to this extreme, you can quickly see the potential in foreign currency trading.
Continued Below and on my website about Foriegn Currency Trading.
Additional Topic Related to Forex Trading:
Automated Forex Trading
FREE Forex Trading Training Course
Forex Brokerage Firms & Forex Trading Platforms
Forex Charts
Forex Fundamental Analysis & Economic News Releases
Technical Analysis
Technical Indicators
Fibonacci Analysis
Elliot Wave Theory
Candlestick Chart Analysis
Money Management
Trading Psychology
Lasik Eye Surgery
Investment Real Estate
Protect Your Wealth from the Crashing Dollar!
Between February 2006 and July 2008 (a mere 18 months), the US Dollar lost 33% of its value against the Euro. If that doesn't frighten you, then you should also know that from Jan 2005 to July 2008, the US Dollar lost 53% of its value against the Brazilian Real (the currency of a third-world country). In July of 2008, gasoline prices in the USA peaked out at over $4 per gallon. Most people don't realize this but the depreciation of the US Dollar was responsible for over 40% of that rise in oil & fuel prices. The other 60% was caused by investors and speculators rushing to oil commodities to hedge against the crashing dollar, further pushing the price of oil and other commodities even higher.
Since then (now Dec 2008), the dollar has gained back a lot of strength, but not because of any strengthening of the US economy. On the contrary, the credit meltdown in the USA and UK created a worldwide panick. This, in turn, caused hundreds of billions (perhaps trillions) in hedge fund and institutional dollars invested overseas to be withdrawn from emerging markets such as China, Brazil and other countries back into the safety of the US dollar, where most of it originated from. This massive flee to so-called safety, caused the stock markets in most other countries to crash along with our own and even moreso. Since this involved selling the foreign currencies that the stocks were held in and buying back the US dollars the funds originated from, this caused a quick and significant strengthening of the US dollar. More buyers than sellers causes the price (or exchange rate) to go up. Had the credit meltdown not effected other countries but the USA, the US dollar would have crashed to levels unimaginable, forcing the cost of gasoline well over $10 per gallon, which would have been the nail in the coffin for the USA as it forced the complete collapse of the US economy.
For now, the more uncertainty that remains in the US markets, the stronger the dollar will get (just the opposite of normal market behavior). When things begin to settle down in the markets, the dollar will then resume it's long-term weakening as the large investment firms begin to hedge their dollars with foreign investments as they were before the credit meltdown. When it comes down to it, there really isn't any reason why the dollar should continue to gain strength. On the contrary, the national debt is growing by billions per day as bailout follows bailout, all while the interest alone on these massive loans can never be paid back, let alone the loans themselves. The dreary fact is that the US dollar is eventually doomed but as long as the rest of the world is effected by our deep seeded problems (mainly the credit crisis), there is temporary hope for the dollar. But only temporary. It is just a matter of time before the dollar takes another dive and gasoline prices once-again go screaming well beyond $4 per gallon. But there is hope...
A simple way YOU can protect yourself against the crashing dollar is to simply invest in other country's currencies. Trading or Exchanging currencies as an investment or hedge is often called Forex Trading (short for Foreign Exchange trading). Thanks to the internet, forex trading can now easily be done from the comfort of your own home. The most powerful part about online foreign currency trading is that you can leverage or trade up to 200 times your cash balance. This means you can purchase up to $10,000 of currency with just $100 on deposit. To put this into perspective, if you had purchased $10,000 worth of Euros in Feb 2006, you would have made approximately $3300 profit in USD as of July 17th, 2008 and you could have done this with a small investment of just $100 USD. While I personally don't recommend leveraging to this extreme, you can quickly see the potential in foreign currency trading.
Continued Below and on my website about Foriegn Currency Trading.
Additional Topic Related to Forex Trading:
Automated Forex Trading
FREE Forex Trading Training Course
Forex Brokerage Firms & Forex Trading Platforms
Forex Charts
Forex Fundamental Analysis & Economic News Releases
Technical Analysis
Technical Indicators
Fibonacci Analysis
Elliot Wave Theory
Candlestick Chart Analysis
Money Management
Trading Psychology
Lasik Eye Surgery
Investment Real Estate
Currency Converter
Forex Trading
Forex Trading Continued...Online Forex Trading can be done through a multitude of forex brokers, such as FXCM, Oanda, Gain Capital, and FX Solutions but you should read this entire page before choosing which broker you want to trade with. As explained above, the benefit of forex trading through a forex brokerage firm is that you can trade much more money than you actually have on deposit, up to 200 times and up to 400 times in some cases! This is done by opening a margin account with the forex broker. Margin is what they call your funds on deposit, which the broker holds as collateral for your trades. The broker then loans you up to 200 times your deposit to trade foreign currency, which is done 100% electronically from the comfort of your home over the internet or by placing a quick phone call to your forex broker. There are many forex brokers to choose from and you should choose one carefully, which we will go over in the paragraphs below. The best part is that you can practice currency trading without risking a dime of your own money through a Demo trading account, which looks and feels just like a real currency trading account, except you're trading play currency instead of real currency.
Before Opening a Forex Demo Account....
Before you open a Forex Demo account for currency exchange trading, you should first do some market research and decide which forex broker you would like to do your live currency trading through. Even though you won't be trading any real currency through a forex demo trading account, you don't want to spend the time and energy getting comfortable trading on a paticular broker's forex trading platform unless that's the forex broker you will be trading real currency through. For this reason, you must first decide which forex broker you would like to trade currency through and there are quite a few forex brokers to choose from, but hopefully the information on this page will narrow it down a bit. Later on we will go over some forex brokers you should avoid but for now, we will focus on what you should be looking for.
When choosing the best forex broker for you, many forex traders merely look at the dealer's spread fees, the price difference between the Bid and Ask price (or the Buy and Sell price). Since most forex brokers don't charge any trade commissions, most of their income is generated through the spread, which usually varies from 2-5 pips. This translates to approximately $2 to $5 per $10,000 in trade volume. However, while most novice forex traders will merely look at the spread fees that a particular forex broker will charge, they neglect the more important things like "is the Forex Broker regulated?", "What is the Forex Broker's financial strength?" "How many lawsuits has the broker been involved in?" and so on. Perhaps one of the least important things is the broker's actual fees, unless you have a trading style that makes many forex trades per day.
Whether you're shopping for a forex broker or just looking to open a free forex demo account, here are some very important things you should be looking for in your research. I have listed them below in the order of importance (based on my personal opinion and experience)...
1. Forex Broker's Financial Strength
2. Forex Broker's Lawsuits (most settle out of court to keep their CFTC/NFA record clean)
3. Is the Broker a registered member of the NFA and regulated by the CFTC?
4. Forex Broker's Ethics
5. Forex Trading Spreads, Fees, and Commissions
6. User-Friendliness of their Forex Trading Platform (or Forex Demo Account)
7. Forex Broker Financial Strength
While these are all important, the forex broker's financial strength is definitely the most important as the ultimate risk is the broker's failure as a company, which can result in a total loss of your funds. You see, forex brokerage firms are not banks. They are merely companies that hold other people's money combined into a single company bank account. While investors' funds are not co-mingled with the broker's own money and operating capital, it is mixed with every other traders' funds. Since forex brokers can be holding many millions in investor capital, and a single bank account is only FDIC insured up to $100,000, this means the remaining funds beyond $100,000 are not insured and are technically at the mercy of the broker holding the funds. While being CFTC/NFA regulated adds some protection and indirectly enforces proper business ethics, it does not guarantee that the broker will not go bankrupt. For this reason, I have put Financial Strength at the top of the list and this is also why FXCM (Forex Capital Markets) is my recommended forex broker of choice.
Continued on my website about Forex Trading
Great Stuff on Amazon
Books on Forex Trading
The following books are recommended if you are interested in learning how to trade forex.
The FX Bootcamp Guide to Strategic and Tactical Forex Trading (Wiley Trading)
Amazon Price: $44.10 (as of 01/04/2010) 
Thirty Days of FOREX Trading: Trades, Tactics, and Techniques (Wiley Trading)
Amazon Price: $55.89 (as of 01/04/2010)
Essentials of Foreign Exchange Trading (Essentials Series)
Amazon Price: $26.37 (as of 01/04/2010)
Survive And Prosper In The Great Depression Of 2009-2012: A Step-By-Step Guide To Amassing A Fortune Trading Foreign Currencies
Amazon Price: $30.81 (as of 01/04/2010)
The Forex Trading Course: A Self-Study Guide To Becoming a Successful Currency Trader (Wiley Trading)
Amazon Price: $37.80 (as of 01/04/2010)
Currency Trading
Forex Trading
Videos about Forex Trading
Fibonacci Forex Trading
www.leveragefx.com | How to make money in Foreign Currencies using Fibonacci Retracements and Fibonacci Profit Targets.
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