Getting the latest important news is a vital requirement for every Forex, stocks or options trader. The Internet is full of various sites, but not all them feature financial news or provide such news in a timely manner. This list consists of top ten sources for the trader’s news that are updated often and are not mixed up with irrelevant news.
1.Bloomberg — the ultimate news source about everything that is in any way related to the financial markets. Categorization by the regions helps in finding important international news.
2.Forbes.com Breaking News — a great site to get the recent financial information, it also provides free news from several paid news sources (i.e. Associated Press). Stock market traders will like the coverage of almost all kinds of companies.
3.Reuters Business & Finance — Reuters is one of the most professional informational companies in the world and they offer news as a free service to everyone.
4.BusinessWeek — they may be too old-fashioned, but BusinessWeek still features some exclusive news content and the very professional analysis.
5.Financial Times — I like FT for they are not as US-centered as some other financial news sites, they offer a pretty good world news outlook. Can be recommended as a source of Forex related news if you prefer trading exotic currency pairs.
6.CNNMoney — opposite to FT, CNN prefers news from United States, but it’s still good because the majority of world stocks are concentrated on the Wall Street. It will also be useful to the Forex dollar traders.
7.CNBC — a "must have" bookmark for every currency trader; news on foreign currency markets are delivered at the top quality level.
Top 7 News Sources for Financial Trader
Top 10 Myths about Forex
Forex is a market where exchange of one currency with another currency takes place. It’s the market which provides accessibility and liquidity to the traders to buy and sell one foreign currency in exchange of another.
Forex traders seek profit in buying currencies low and selling them high. This kind of trading became more popular with the widespread of the on-line Forex brokers. There is a lot of information available about Forex on the web. However there also many myths surrounding the foreign exchange market:
1.Forex trading is easy. Many people that want to dive into the world of the foreign exchange market believe that the Forex trading is easy — you just read a book or two and then you will be able to earn daily profits with just 2-3 hours trading daily. Others think that they can buy a profitable strategy and it will make them rich in Forex. In reality that’s just a myth. Succeeding in Forex isn’t easier than mastering any other profession — it takes time, money and a lot of practice.
2."I will make money in Forex, if I can trade stocks successfully." Success in stock market doesn’t imply that you will get success in Forex market — there are many differences between trading stocks and the spot currencies. First of all, Forex market requires a lot of hard work and dedication as this market is open for 24 hours a day. You cannot just sit in front of your computer for the whole day and night, so the best way is that you should find the most suitable time periods for trading. Second, “buy&hold„ strategy simply won’t work in Forex market. Third, you don’t have that much information about currencies as you can get from the companies’ reports and statistics.
3."I can make profit whenever I want if Forex market is open 24 hours a day." Once again, you won’t be sitting in front of your PC for the whole day to be able to trade 24 hours. You’ll have to develop automated trading software to get the advantage of 24 hours a day working schedule.
4."I can be a successful Forex trader just following someone else’s signals." Many beginning traders get burned by the blind signal-following. That’s like putting away the whole responsibility for your actions to someone else. That may sound cool, but in reality you end up with the huge losses. Learn to rely on your own knowledge and skills. Remember that there were no great signal-followers in any financial market.
5.No commission is to be paid in Forex market. You only have to pay the spread, but you don’t have to pay the commission. And what’s spread? It is the difference between the buy and sell price of the currency pair at the same moment. You may end up with the major part of your profits in the broker’s hands if you plan to rely on the short-term trading.
6.Forex is a scam. Some skeptics and disappointed traders think that Forex is just some new fad to scam people for their hard earned money. Although there are many scams that are hiding behind the "brand" of Forex, that doesn’t mean that the Forex itself is a scam. There are many institutional Forex brokers, regulated Forex account managers and other solid companies in the market to whom you can trust.
7."I need to exactly predict the market outcome to be profitable in Forex." There is no scientific method to know something in advance in the market with a 100% certainty. There would be no Forex market if you could know the exact currency rates beforehand. Trading is not the game of certainties; it’s a game of odds. One of the first things that new traders learn is to think in the terms of probabilities and risk-to-reward ratios.
8."I need to use a very complex strategy to be successful in Forex." It’s a popular myth, in which many on-line sellers would want you to believe. The main requirement to be successful in Forex is a self-discipline and money management. There are many traders that make consistent profits with rather simple and old strategies.
9."I need to have a lot of starting capital to get profit in Forex." Big capital investment won’t help you in Forex. You don’t need a lot of money to diversify in currencies and you can’t move the currency rates with your trading orders (you’d need billions of dollars to do that). Actually you can trade with a very a little capital, because Forex trading is almost always leveraged with the broker’s money.
10.Forex is gambling because it’s completely random. Although there is no certainty in Forex (as in any financial market) it doesn’t mean that it’s completely random. And it’s certainly not a gambling, since your success in this market depends mostly on your skills and experience, not on your luck.
Knowledge is power — so it’s better for you to learn distinguishing some stereotypical myths from the real thing. Don’t fall for the promises of getting some easy profits in Forex, but don’t be afraid of the market just because some people think it’s not possible to earn there. Be rational — this quality will help you either if you are going to trade in Forex or not.
Canadian Dollar Climbs on Employment Data
After being traded in the lowest rate in almost two months, the Canadian dollar rallied sharply today on a report that indicated an increase in job numbers in the country, surprising analysts and traders positively.
A very positive day in the end of this week was witnessed in Canada as employers added more jobs than expectations for the month of August, an important sign of economic improvement for the North American nation since even economic regions that are recovering from the global slump still are facing its worse complications in the employment sector. After last week, when Bank of Canada informed that it does not rule out measures to stop the loonie to grow stronger and that the current levels may affect negatively the Canadian economic revocery, the loonie entered a severe downtrend losing more than 3 percent in one week.
Today’s data coincided with a rather good opportunity for traders to purchase the loonie, since the losing streak was intense and long, leaving the employment report to provide support for a corrective movement, as traders may consider the rates before the report as too low. The Canadian dollar may grow further in the short term if more favorable reports start to appear, but if the rates appreciate strongly, the national central bank is likely to take measures to stop it.
USD/CAD traded at 1.0932 as of 11:51 GMT from a previous rate of 1.0998 in the intraday comparison.
Euro Declines On ECB President Comment
After yesterday’s ECB President comments suggesting that the economic recovery in the region will be a hard process, the euro fell versus a number of main traded currencies, and headed to complete the second week of losses versus the dollar.
The euro suffered the influence of European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet’s declaration yesterday affirming that interest rates are not set for hikes in the short-mid-term and that the recovery in the countries using the European common currency will be, using his words, “bumpy”, decreasing attractiveness for the euro which is losing for a fourth week in a row against the Swiss franc. Trichet as long as other members of the ECB commission board are due to speak today in Frankfurt, increasing speculations that yesterday’s dovish tone may be reconfirmed today, decreasing attractiveness for the euro which lost today also versus the pound, after several weeks of gains against the British currency.
Yesterday’s statements were more negative than what traders expected, according to analysts. Some improved economic data was expected to be interpreted with significant optimism by the ECB board, but a rather cautious position affirming that interest rates won’t be raised so soon decreased attractiveness for the European common currency today.
Brazilian Real Rebounds Further on Economic Growth Speculations
After slashing most of its previous 2 months gains this week, the Brazilian continued further a rally that started yesterday, today fueled by forecasts that indicate a less significant contraction for seven of the most important world economies.
After today’s positive perform in Chinese stocks and forecasts indicating that the world economy recovery may happen faster, the Brazilian real climbed further from yesterday, paring most of its losses from the past week, when it reached the lowest level in almost a month.
USD/BRL traded at 1.8734 as of 10:41 GMT from an opening rate of 1.8885.
If you want to comment on the Brazilian real’s recent action or have any questions regarding this currency, please, feel free to reply below.
USD: Breakout or Failure?
The U.S. dollar is at key support lines against major currencies and the short/medium/long term trend remains bearish. However, a breakout failure from current levels could signal a short (medium term) rebound for the green back.
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U.S: Recession is over or not?
During his testimony in front of the house panel last week, president Bernanke confirmed a tentative stabilization for the U.S. economy at these levels, although rates should remain low for the next months as well. In reality, the huge consumer and business debit will require years to be repaid. Private sector spending has fallen to record lows and savings have increased. The average duration of the unemployment rate in the United States is at a record high, while tax incomes have declined sharply for the government agencies. The decrease of spending by the private sector has been only marginally substituted by the various government interventions and the trend should continue in the years to come. Unemployment remains the weakest spot, as jobless claims rose to 554,000 in the week of July 18th from 524,000 the previous week. The housing market is at the contrary designing an interesting bottom, albeit prices are still declining. For the third consecutive month, home sales rose 3.6% in June (+1.3% expected) to 4.84 million. The increase was broad-based with condos rising 14% and single-family homes moving up 2.4%. Unsold home inventories declined instead to 9.4 months from the all-time high of 11.3 months registered in March of 2008. In effect, the worst might be over for the real estate market, if history repeats itself. Since1963 important bottoms occurred every 8/9 years: 1967, 1975, 1983, 1991, 2000, 2008/9 (?).
Angelo Airaghi is a Commodity Trading Advisor, registered with the National Futures Association and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He has been an active professional since 1990 working for major international financial companies. In the past 10 years, Angelo Airaghi has been an analyst and commentator for national and international media.
U.S dollar: Looking For The Line of Least Resistance
As housing continues to improve, unemployment could rise again in the coming months. In Germany, confidence is growing, while the economy might take advantage of global growth.
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U.S.: housing is back?
Unemployment remains the biggest challenge for the U.S. economy, despite losses declining to 220,000 from 247,000 in July. In reality, we are experiencing the lowest job contraction in more than a year, but the unemployment rate could again rise due to the slow recovery in the last part of 2009. At the contrary, the real estate market is confirming the good trend and it is expected to positively contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers, along with inventory growth for various goods. In July, new home sales moved up 9.6% year-on-year to 433,000 units from June’s 395,000. It has been the fourth consecutive monthly increase and the largest gain since February of 2005. With three regions out of four posting good results, inventories are now 7.5 months supply from 8.5 months in June, far away from the peak of 12.4 months reached in January.
Angelo Airaghi is a Commodity Trading Advisor, registered with the National Futures Association and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He has been an active professional since 1990 working for major international financial companies. In the past 10 years, Angelo Airaghi has been an analyst and commentator for national and international media.
