U.S. Dollar Steadies versus Euro on Fed Meeting Outcome

In Tokyo trading, the U.S. Dollar approached a multi-month high versus the single currency Euro in advance of the Federal Reserve statement which will be issued at the conclusion of their policy meeting later today. Investors are hoping the statement will provide clues as to when the administration will start withdrawing its current loose monetary policy. Speculation abounds that the improved economic outlook for the United States will compel the Federal Reserve to make changes to their policy sooner rather than later. Recently, Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, in a response to a query made by Republic Senator Jim Cummings of Kentucky, stated that the U.S. economy was not operating to its fullest potential, thus the risk of inflation was unlikely.
As reported at 2:42 pm (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar traded at $1.4530, following a nearly 1% gain in yesterday’s trading session to touch on $1.4503, the highest trade in nearly 2½ months. The Euro was under pressure yesterday on continuing investor concerns over central bank policies in the Euro zone, and recent data suggests that regional growth remains weak. Later today, Norway and Sweden’s central banks will public announce any changes to their currency monetary policy.
This topic source: dailyforex.com

U.S. Dollar Gains on Aussie for 6th Straight Session

During the growing investor demand for the U.S. Dollar, the Australian Dollar slipped in Asian trading today, closing lower for the 6th straight trading session and striking a new 11-week low. As reported at 5:00 p.m. (AEDT) in Sydney, the Australian Dollar traded at $0.8759; on Tuesday, it closed at $0.8794. The greenback strengthened in advance of the release of key economic data from the United States, including consumer spending, new home sales and personal income. Although GDP figures released yesterday showed that the American economy’s growth was at a rate less than forecast by analysts, it was enough to give market players confidence about the overall prospect of the U.S. recovery.
Although the U.S. Dollar rises , specifically versus the Aussie currency, further gains will likely be harder to achieve. According to one currency strategist in Sydney, the gains in the U.S. currency are more likely attributed to unwinding of short U.S. Dollar positions than to investor confidence. Since the of mid-November, the Australian Dollar has lost nearly 7% versus the greenback; however, it should be noted that the Australian Dollar remains strong versus other major currencies. Analysts suggest that a reversal of the Aussie’s downtrend will likely emerge with the coming of the new year.
From : dailyforex.com

Technical Analysis of EUR USD

EURUSD positive trend remains for this pair, above this barrier buying options are better to look for. However in order to reach new highs for bulls side, 1.5120 barrier needs to be broken. At the moment, bulls have enough confident to extend their current move.

Good News gave the U.S.Dollar a slide

At Tuesday,The Dollar tumbled falling just south of 74.30 on the DXY. The Kiwi was the big winner advancing 1.38% followed by the Pound at 1.03%. Meanwhile the JPY was the only major to lose ground to the Greenback as an emergency meeting of finance minister in Japan was convened to discuss the JPY's continued strength.The Dollar slide was triggered by a wave of positive economic data releases. On the home front, contracts to purchased existing homes jumped 3.7% unexpectedly. ISM figures remained above the critical 50 level. Couple the data releases with positive Black Friday and weekend sales as well as Dubai shoring up its debt facility payments and we had the ingredients for a massive Global Equity Market rally. It will be a quiet Wednesday for economic releases.Oil finished the day up just over a dollar a barrel to 78.37. Gold closed at 1,196.60 up $20 from the day before. In intra-day trading Gold broke 1,200 before retracing, although futures are pointing up this morning so 1,200 should be no barrier today.

The Dubai Debt Worries Spur Investors to Safe-Haven Yen

As reported at 3:31 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Yen traded at 84.82 Yen, the highest point since 1995, before retreating to 86.05 Yen, a .6% rise on the day. The Japanese Yen continues to rise versus the U.S. Dollar, touching on its highest trade in 14 years. It was learned that early in the day on Friday, the Bank of Japan, in conjunction with officials from the government, were inquiring about Dollar/Yen rates with some commercial banks, thus prompting traders to cover their long positions in the Japanese currency.
The Yen also rose broadly against high-yielding currencies following the news of Dubai’s debt problems; specifically two of the country’s flagship corporations sought to delay repayment of their debt. Many investors, who previously looked to the Middle East region as a bastion of investment and capital sourcing, had their confidence shook, and raised concerns over the possibility of massive debt-related problems in the region. This led to investor unwinding of Japanese Yen-funded carry trades to the detriment of high-yielders, including the Australian Dollar, which slipped to 77.88 Yen, a loss of 1.6%, and the single-currency Euro, which fell to 126.95 Yen, a decline of 1.3%.

The Yen Struggles while U.S. Dollar Steadies in the Asian Trading

Lately, Yen struggled while the U.S. Dollar held steady in Asian trading today against high-yielding currencies such as the A.D.( Australian Dollar) and the single currency Euro. Investors’ risk appetite was also boosted by the recent rises in the commodity and stock markets. As reported at 3:09 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Japanese Yen slipped .4% against the U.S. Dollar, trading at 87.00 Yen. The U.S. Dollar Index held at 74.411 .DXY, hovering just above 74.17 .DXY, established last week as a new 16-month low. The high-yielding Australian dollar gained .3% on the U.S. Dollar, to trade at $0.9278 following yesterday’s nearly 1% gain. The Euro also saw gains on the U.S. Dollar and Japanese Yen, trading at $1.5094 and 131.28 Yen, adding on to yesterday’s gains of .5% and 1%, respectively.

Markets will continue to closely follow news from Japan about that government’s efforts to tackle deflationary pressure and avert a recession. Yesterday,the surprise announcement of a new operation aimed at minimizing short term interest rates fell far short of investor expectations. It is expected that the Japanese Government will present a new stimulus package later this week, and Bank of Japan officials said that no policy actions are being ruled out, though they remain cognizant of inflationary risks to their fragile economy if the Yen is allowed to continue its rise.

The History of Japanese Candlesticks

Throughout Candlestick Analysis you are going to find many war-like references. Between 1500 and 1600 the territories of today's Japan were at constant war. Each daimyo (feudal lord) was in constant contention to take over their neighbor. This one hundred year period is known as Sengoku Jidai or the "Age of Country at War". This was a definite period of turmoil. It slowly came to order in the early 1600's through three dynamic generals - Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and Leyasu Tokugawa. Their combined leadership prowess has become legendary folklore in Japan's history. Their achievements are described as: "Nobunaga piled the rice, Hideyoshi kneaded the dough, and Tokugawa ate the cake." All the contributions from these great generals unified Japan into one nation. Tokugawa's family ruled the country from 1615 to 1867. This become known as the Tokugawa Shogunate Era. While the Candlestick methodology was being developed, a military environment persisted in Japan. Understandably, the Candlestick technique employs extensive military terminology for its explanations. Investing is correlated to battle. It requires the same tactical abilities to win. The investor has to prepare for winning trades as a general prepares for battle. A strategy is required, the psychology of coming events have to be thought through. Competition comes into play. Aggressive maneuvers and strategic withdrawals are required to eventually win the war - to achieve financial success. As stability settled over the Japanese culture during the early 17th centuy, new opportunities became apparent also. The centralized government lead by Tokugawa diminished the feudal system. Local markets began to expand to a national scale. The demise of local markets created the growth of technical analysis in Japan. Osaka became regarded as Japan's capital during the Toyotomi reign. Its location near the sea made it a commercial center. Land travel was slow and dangerous, not to mention costly. It became a natural location for the development of the national depot system, assembling and disbursing supplies and market products. It rapidly evolved into Japan's largest city of finance and commerce. Osaka, the "Kitchen of Japan" with its vast system of warehouses, eventually established an atmosphere of price stability by reducing regional imbalances of supply. Osaka became the profit center of all Japan, completely altering the normal social standards. In all other cities the quest for profits was despised. Japan was composed of four classes, the Soldier, the Farmer, the Artisan, and the Merchant. It was not until the 1700's that the merchants broke down the social barrier. "Mokarimakka" which means " are you making a profit?" is still the common greeting in Osaka today. Under Hideyoshi's reign, a man named Yodoya Keian become a successful war merchant. He had exceptional abilities to transport, distribute and set the price of rice. His reputation become so well known, his front yard become the first rice exchange. Unfortunately, he became very wealthy. Unfortunate because the Bakufu (the military government lead by the Shogun) relieved him of all his fortune. This was done based upon the charge that he was living a life of luxury beyond his social rank. This was during a period in the mid 1600's when the Bakufu was becoming very leary of the merchant class. A number of merchants tried to corner the rice market. They were punished by having their children executed. They were exiled and their wealth was confiscated. The Dojima Rice Exchange, the institutionalized market that developed in Yodoya's front yard, was established in the late 1600's. Merchants were now capable of grading the rice, and negotiated setting the market price. After 1710, actual rice trading expanding into issuance and negotiating for rice warehouse receipts. These become known as rice coupons, and were the first forms of futures. The Osaka rice brokerage became the foundation for the city's wealth. 1,300 rice dealers occupied the Exchange. Due to the debasing of coinage, rice became the medium of exchange. A daimyo in need of money could send his surplus rice to Osaka and get a receipt from a warehouse. This receipt (coupon) could then be sold. As with many daimyo, cashflow problems could be eliminated through this method. Sometimes many future years of crops were mortgaged to take care of current expenses. With the rice coupon becoming an actively traded entity, the Dojima Rice exchange became the world's first futures exchange. Rice coupons were also called "empty rice" coupons, rice that was not in physical possession. Rice futures trading became so established in the Japanese marketplace, that in 1749, 110,000 bales (rice traded in bales) were freely traded while there were only 30,000 bales in existence throughout Japan. It was during this time period that Candlestick trading became more refined. Candlestick analysis had been developed over the years simply due to the tracking of rice price movements. However, in the mid 1700's they were really fully utilized. "The god of the markets" Homna came into the picture. Munehisa Homna, the youngest son of the Homna family, inherited the family's business due to his extraordinary trading savvy. This at a time when the Japanese culture, as well as many other cultures, thought it common that the eldest son should inherit the family business. The trading firm was moved from their city, Sakata, to Edo (Tokyo). Homna's research into historic price moves and weather conditions established more concrete interpretations into what became known as Candlesticks. His research and findings, known as "Sakata Rules" became the framework for Japanese investment philosophy. After dominating the Osaka rice markets, Homna eventually went on to amass greater fortunes in the Tokyo exchanges. It was said that he had over one hundred winning trades in a row. His abilities became legendary and were the basis of Candlestick analysis. Japanese Candlestick analysis was never a hidden or secretive trading system. In was successfully used in Japan for hundreds of years. It has been only recently, about 25 years ago, that it first made its way into the U.S. trading community. Until then, there just wasn't any interest from Western cultures to investigate the Candlestick Technique. Even then, it was not noticed all that much. The perception has been that it was difficult to learn and very time consuming. That may have been true until recently. The first books introducing it into the U.S. trading arena would describe how to make wooden boxes that were backlit. Then the chart graphs could be better viewed. Fortunately, the advent of computers and computer programming has taken Candlestick analysis ahead by leaps and bounds. Until recently, the investment community knew about Candlesticks, they just didn't know how to use them effectively. Interest has been increasing dramatically now that the roaring markets have collapsed. Investors, new and old, are now trying to investigate methods that protect them from the severe losses that occurred from March 2000 until now. Hundreds of years of analysis and interpretation can be much more easily extracted through computer programming. Huge fortunes were amassed with simple charting techniques. The same will be true with all the benefits that computer software provides the investor today. The interest in candlestick signal analysis in the United States has to be credited to Steve Nison. Over three years of extensive research produced Steve Nison's initial publication "Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques", published in 1991. Much of the background and historical information about candlesticks, found in this site and many other sites, was probably the results of Steve Nison's excellent research...... with the help of the web search engine...

The Effect of Good Planning at Forex

You have been made aware of the opportunities that exist to make money by buying and selling currencies on the Forex markets. You are also aware that these markets are highly volatile and high risk and that you need to make split second decisions in order to capitalize on these opportunities. You are wondering why so many people seem to lose money. And what you can do to avoid following in their footsteps.To start with, you'll need to approach the market with the right attitude. If you are looking to get rich quick or make a lot of money overnight, you can forget about the Forex markets. Only a long term approach, and the willingness to tolerate prolonged periods of drawdown, as well as the ability to set yourself realistic targets for returns will count. Moreover, like any other business activity, you need to have a business plan and a business strategy and to follow these consistently without discarding them at the first sign of any setback.

You must then find yourself a good Forex broker so that you can open a forex account and begin trading. It is possible to find your self a broker who can offer you a Metatrader 4 trading platform as this will be in your best interest. Be warned that many brokers see you as an adversary, and will manipulate prices and spreads in order to make money from you. They also dislike moneymaking forex robots or automated software trading packages that trade for you on autopilot since they feel that they are being cheated. To be sure, there are many honest brokers out there. So use all your resources and referrals to find yourself one.

Technical Analysis

From site:

trade-ideas.com

Technical analysis is the study of a stock, or the market as a whole, strictly by using the price and volume history of a stock. Technical analysis uses little or no information about the actual business behind the stock. The common belief is that a stock price represents all known information about a stock. Technical analysis is an alternative to fundamental analysis.

Our service provides a very specialized type of technical analysis, performing real-time statistical analysis on all relevant market data. Like many people we believe that changes in the fundamentals will be visible through technical analysis.

Alert Types

We offer the following alert types which are related to this topic. Click on the icon for a detailed description of the alert, or click on the "more" link for additional examples of each type of alert.

Type	Recent Examples			More Examples
	Time (NY)	Symbol	Message
	Nov 27th, 3:56:15 PM	CTL.CAT	Broadening bottom. Prices: 0.281, 0.288, 0.275, 0.29, 0.27. Started 1 day 3 hours ago. Last turn 31 minutes 54 seconds ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 3:51:54 PM	STG.CAV	Broadening top. Prices: 0.25, 0.228, 0.259, 0.22, 0.26. Started 7 days 1 hour ago. Last turn 2 hours 16 minutes ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 3:59:01 PM	SIO.CAV	Triangle bottom. Prices: 2.81, 3.05, 2.86, 3.00, 2.91. Started 5 hours 58 minutes ago. Last turn 31 minutes 47 seconds ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 4:10:01 PM	IFC.CAT	Triangle top. Prices: 37.59, 37.14, 37.52, 37.39, 37.47. Started 3 hours 18 minutes ago. Last turn 14 minutes 27 seconds ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 4:10:01 PM	POT.CAT	Rectangle bottom. Prices: 117.98, 119.05, 118.00, 119.04, 117.95. Started 6 hours 32 minutes ago. Last turn 1 hour 47 minutes ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 3:19:22 PM	DYA.CAV	Rectangle top. Prices: 0.03, 0.035, 0.03, 0.035, 0.03, 0.035. Started 7 days 1 hour ago. Last turn 2 hours 39 minutes ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 3:55:24 PM	KXL.CAV	Double bottom. Prices: 0.57, 0.57. Started 59 minutes 36 seconds ago. Last turn 60 seconds ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 3:58:02 PM	BPO.CAT	Double top. Prices: 12.01, 12.02. Started 6 hours ago. Last turn 25 minutes 7 seconds ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 4:45:26 PM	TRP.CAT	Inverted head and shoulders. Prices: 33.94, 34.01, 33.79, 33.99, 33.93. Started 6 hours 7 minutes ago. Last turn 55 minutes 4 seconds ago.	more
	Nov 27th, 3:13:50 PM	KRI.CAT	Head and shoulders. Prices: 0.61, 0.60, 0.62, 0.60, 0.61. Started 4 hours 48 minutes ago. Last turn 2 minutes 56 seconds ago.	more

The dollar settled in a period in its history

Comments underscore American politicians always support for a strong dollar, as stressed by Lawrence Smoz head the National Economic Council in the Obama administration or Tim Jitnz Minister of Finance but it seems that the political does not mean in any case what he says. Since Tim Jitnz confirmed to reporters in Istanbul during a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the important role of the dollar in the global economic system and the United States will do whatever is necessary to restore confidence in the dollar fell to its lowest level in 14 Shahravi the second week of October which high raised cries from politicians in the euro area to everywhere else.

What is Forex?

All the definitions of this word....
Forex is:

The simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another.

An over the counter market where buyers and sellers conduct foreign exchange transactions.

the international exchange market, the market for conversion exchange operations of specified amounts of one country’s currency into the currency of another country according to an agreed rate for a given date.

AND.....

The foreign exchange market (currency, forex, or FX) trades currencies. It lets banks and other institutions easily buy and sell currencie

The purpose of the foreign exchange market is to help international trade and investment. A foreign exchange market helps businesses convert one currency to another. For example, it permits a U.S. business to import European goods and pay Euros, even though the business's income is in U.S. dollars.

In a typical foreign exchange transaction a party purchases a quantity of one currency by paying a quantity of another currency. The modern foreign exchange market started forming during the 1970s when countries gradually switched to floating exchange rates from the previous exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system.

The foreign exchange market is unique because of

• its trading volumes,
• the extreme liquidity of the market,
• its geographical dispersion,
• its long trading hours: 24 hours a day except on weekends (from 22:00 UTC on Sunday until 22:00 UTC Friday),
• the variety of factors that affect exchange rates.
• the low margins of profit compared with other markets of fixed income (but profits can be high due to very large trading volumes)
• the use of leverage

As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal perfect competition, notwithstanding market manipulation by central banks. According to the Bank for International Settlements,^[2] average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion. Trading in the world's main financial markets accounted for $3.21 trillion of this. This approximately $3.21 trillion in main foreign exchange market turnover was broken down as follows:

• $1.005 trillion in spot transactions
• $362 billion in outright forwards
• $1.714 trillion in foreign exchange swaps
• $129 billion estimated gaps in reporting

Market size and liquidity

Main foreign exchange market turnover, 1988 - 2007, measured in billions of USD.

The foreign exchange market is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world. Traders include large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other financial institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Daily turnover was reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements. ^[2] Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.^[3]

Of the $3.98 trillion daily global turnover, trading in London accounted for around $1.36 trillion, or 34.1% of the total, making London by far the global center for foreign exchange. In second and third places respectively, trading in New York accounted for 16.6%, and Tokyo accounted for 6.0%.^[4] In addition to "traditional" turnover, $2.1 trillion was traded in derivatives.

Exchange-traded FX futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts.

Several other developed countries also permit the trading of FX derivative products (like currency futures and options on currency futures) on their exchanges. All these developed countries already have fully convertible capital accounts. Most emerging countries do not permit FX derivative products on their exchanges in view of prevalent controls on the capital accounts. However, a few select emerging countries (e.g., Korea, South Africa, India—[1]; [2]) have already successfully experimented with the currency futures exchanges, despite having some controls on the capital account.

FX futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, and accounts for about 7% of the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe (5/5/06, p. 20).

Top 10 currency traders ^[5]
% of overall volume, May 2009

Rank	Name	Market Share
1	Deutsche Bank	20.96%
2	UBS AG	14.58%
3	Barclays Capital	10.45%
4	Royal Bank of Scotland	8.19%
5	Citi	7.32%
6	JPMorgan	5.43%
7	HSBC	4.09%
8	Goldman Sachs	3.35%
9	Credit Suisse	3.05%
10	BNP Paribas	2.26%

Foreign exchange trading increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001. This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The diverse selection of execution venues have made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. In 2006, retail traders constituted over 2% of the whole FX market volumes with an average daily trade volume of over US$50-60 billion (see retail trading platforms).^[6] Because foreign exchange is an OTC market where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading centre is the UK, primarily London, which according to IFSL estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 31.3% in April 2004 to 34.1% in April 2007. The ten most active traders account for almost 80% of trading volume, according to the 2008 Euromoney FX survey.^[3] These large international banks continually provide the market with both bid (buy) and ask (sell) prices. The bid/ask spread is the difference between the price at which a bank or market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") and the price at which a market taker will buy ("bid") from a wholesale or retail customer. The customer will buy from the market-maker at the higher "ask" price, and will sell at the lower "bid" price, thus giving up the "spread" as the cost of completing the trade. This spread is minimal for actively traded pairs of currencies, usually 0–3 pips. For example, the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.2200/1.2203 on a retail broker. Minimum trading size for most deals is usually 100,000 units of base currency, which is a standard "lot".

These spreads might not apply to retail customers at banks, which will routinely mark up the difference to say 1.2100/1.2300 for transfers, or say 1.2000/1.2400 for banknotes or travelers' checks. Spot prices at market makers vary, but on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (i.e., 0.0003). Competition is greatly increased with larger transactions, and pip spreads shrink on the major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.

From the great encyclopedia: wikipedia.com