Markets tend to react to the outside events. Markets react to the seasons. Markets react to holidays. Markets react to political crisis. Markets are what the people are thinking. The day before the Presidents day is the worst day and the day after the Easter is the worst day after. However, you should keep in mind that a lot of other factors also come into play and you have a lot of room for error. The next best holiday bets are the Labor Day and the Memorial Day because they fall before the first day of trading in September and June respectively.  Read more... (604 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

A professional currency trader may be confident that the US Dollar is indicating overall weakness and the Euro is indicating overall strength for the coming six months after performing the fundamental analysis on both economies.

The next step for the position trader would be to open a long position in EUR/USD pair. This simultaneously provides the position trader with long Euro position and a short US Dollar position.

Going long on Euro and at the same time short on US Dollar, this combined trading position fulfills your fundamental outlook as the position trader on both the currencies. The long term directional bias has been formed by you as the position trader on the basis of fundamental analysis.  Read more... (620 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Think it’s too early for you to start planning your retirement? Think again. It’s never too early to start saving, and oftentimes people can wait too long to have a healthy nest egg. Although there are several different ways to being saving, there are a few easy investment strategies for everyone to follow.

Contribute to your work’s 401K. Chances are your company has a 401K that can be taken out of your paycheck before tax. A lot of workplaces will even match portions of your savings. That means you are getting free money. Everyone should save in their 401K up to the maximum that their workplace matches. This will allow you to take full advantage of the benefit.  Read more... (427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Have you ever received the dreaded forex margin call? But contrary to the popular opinion that a margin call represents that worst case scenario for the currency trader, this is far from the truth. The risk that is assumed when trading aggressively the currency markets often results in receiving a margin call. The worst case could be far worse.

A margin call is in fact a safeguard to protect a trader from losing 100% or even more of the money in the trading account. To owe additional funds to the broker is actually the worse case scenario. This uncomfortable position is largely avoided because of the existence of the margin call.  Read more... (536 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Before the coming of Euro, it was necessary to hold large amounts of every individual European currency. As a result the currency reserves tended towards US Dollar. In 1990s, 65% of the global reserves were in US Dollar.

However, with the introduction of Euro, foreign reserve assets are shifting in favor of Euro. As EU becomes one of the major trading partners for most countries around the world, this trend is expected to continue.  Read more... (621 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

A tax free money market fund is a good mode to balance your portfolio particularly if it is equity heavy. In existing economic situation, there is a lot of uncertainty. So, it makes sense to put some money in debt funds like government securities and money market funds.

A money market fund is usually a mutual fund which invests its assets in short term debt instruments like cash or cash equivalent securities. These funds are usually used as short term investments until the time you have found a suitable option to invest your money. This is particularly good option in recent times when the investors are waiting for the markets to bounce back. Once the Bull Run starts, investors can take out this money from money market funds and invest them in equity funds or other high yielding avenues.  Read more... (374 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

The first step is to identify the type of trade into which we will enter. It all depends on your trading strategies. What matters most to a trader or an investor is how to create a positive cash flow.

Is it a day trade? Is it a swing trade or is it a long term positions trade? Once we acknowledge what our goals and objective are than we can narrow our expectations.  Read more... (599 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Currency trading volumes in the Asia Pacific session account for about 21% of the total daily global volume. The financial centers active during the Asia Pacific session are Wellington, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. The currency pairs traded are USD/JPY, EUR/JPY and AUD/JPY.

In terms of the most actively traded currency pairs during the Asia Pacific trading session that means news and data reports from Australia, New Zealand and Japan are going to be hitting the market during the session.  Read more... (669 words, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)

EUR/USD is the most liquid and the most popular currency pair among the forex traders. Trading currencies can be exciting and lucrative. Its a great market because of the way politics affect the trends. Elections, strikes, and sudden developments, both good and bad, can lead to significant trading profits if you stand ready to trade the euro is a convenient currency because it encompasses the policies and the economic activity and political environment of a volatile but predictable part of the world: Europe. EUR/USD is the most heavily traded currency pair in the global currency markets at the moment.  Read more... (782 words, estimated 3:08 mins reading time)