Recent content by bjohn

I have been too busy this week to watch the majors as closely as I'd like. I'm long the Oil ETF (USO), and that's doing what I want it to so far. One thing about the commodity ETFs (like GLD, SLV, USO) is that they lag the price of the actual commodity kind of badly. It's actually better to be...

They trade just like stocks. Sometimes they lag a little behind the price that they're supposed to be tracking - especially the commodity ETFs - but I trade them because I don't have time to research the individual companies. So I trade the entire market - the Dow ETF, or the China ETFs, the...

Besides currency, I also trade stocks and ETFs to some extent. As for currencies, I trade the EUR/USD mostly, but I also watch - and sometimes trade - the GBP/USD, the USD/CHF, the USD/CAD, and AUD/USD.

I use IB. I've heard good and bad things about IB, but I like them. The fx spreads are reasonable and the commissions in general are low. I've heard that the spreads on FXCM are too wide. What's your opinion of FXCM? (I do like their software, by the way, and I use the free trial version for the...

Quick question: what fx broker are you using?

Good point; I've actually already begun a gold-buying campaign. Oil is another thing - no idea where I would store that, but I wouldn't mind owning it. I think that owning a combination of precious metals and currencies would make me feel secure.

Of course it would - but you're going to have to store your money in some form, and it wouldn't be good to make a lot of currency X by trading, and then one day currency X becomes worthless like the German mark after WWI. It's better to make your money trading - or however you make your money -...

The point is that, unless Ganndude is right - and I hope he is - and the dollar's going to enjoy a longer rally, we're all going to have to protect our money from severe depreciation. Otherwise, trading will be like trying to fill up a bucket with a leak in it.

Right, right, but first I'd have to acquire it, then store it for no interest - but then again that is always a last resort option.

Very good; thank you very much.

While everyone is assembled here at once, I have a general question: does anyone know how I can store physical currency - non-USD currency - somewhere? Being a US citizen, I'm finding this difficult. US banks won't do it. HSBC will allow me to open an account at a branch in a foreign country...

Another question for you, by the way: if you feel that the EUR/USD has turned around, then you must also feel that the US dollar (in general) is going to continue to rally for a while - yes?

Well, it's really no different than trading a stock, in a practical sense. You can trade it exactly as you would a stock. If we're talking about stock-index ETFs, the advantage is that you can trade a specific industry or sector - or entire market - without having to buy each individual stock...

I got short USD/CAD when it broke 1.1 - that's been a good trade; wish I was in it sooner. I'm also long some US stock ETFs ... don't have time to watch 2 markets closely, but it would be a shame to miss out on what's happening now in stocks - with a tight stop of course.

Understood.