Exxon Mobil (XOM) announced that its profit for the fourth quarter increased by two percent, mainly due to higher prices for crude oil. The company reported earnings of $9.4 billion, or $1.97 per share, versus $9.25 billion, or $1.85 per share, in the same period last year.
London Gold Market Report
from Ben Traynor
BullionVault
Tuesday 31 January 2012, 09:00 EST
U.S. DOLLAR gold bullion prices looked set to record their largest calendar month gain this century by Tuesday lunchtime in London.
Gold prices hit $1745 per ounce – just less than 14% up on the Dollar gold bullion price set at the last London Fix of 2011.
By this measure, January 2012 looked set to record the fourth-largest calendar month gain in the last three decades, and the biggest since September 1999, the month that saw the signing of the Central Bank Gold Agreement, which limited the sales of gold bullion by signatory central banks.
Stocks and commodities also gained Tuesday, while government bond prices dipped.
“In overnight trade in Asia, we continued to see lackluster physical interest,” says Marc Ground, commodities strategist at Standard Bank.
“[There was] even some scrap gold and silver coming to market from Japanese recyclers…nevertheless, prices held steady.”
Physical volumes on the Shanghai Gold Exchange Tuesday were down 28% on the previous day.
The first day’s trading after Lunar New Year saw “strong physical demand” on Monday, according to one gold bullion dealer in Hong Kong.
Silver bullion prices meantime hovered around $33.80 per ounce – 21.2% up on the start of January.
Industrial manufacturers meantime are set to use over 15,000 tonnes of silver in 2012 – 2.5% more than last year – according to estimates by Barclays Capital. Morgan Stanley meantime reckons investors may invest in 2000 tonnes of silver bullion via exchange traded vehicles – following net selling by such investors of 1300 tonnes last year.
“Silver got hammered [following last April’s peak],” says Dan Smith, head of metals research at Standard Chartered.
“Now we’re into a phase where it will do quite well…Appeal comes from its widespread use in both industry and investment. I think it’s relatively cheap.”
“The short-term investment argument is not entirely convincing,” counters David Jollie, strategic analyst at Mitsui Precious Metals in London, citing “weak industrial demand” in places like China.
Chinese silver imports in December were 36% down on their average for the last two years, customs data cited by newswire Bloomberg show.
Here in the UK, seasonally adjusted M4, the broadest money supply measure, fell 1.4% in December – its largest one month drop since the Bank of England began recording the data in 1982. The year-on-year fall was 2.5%.
Net consumer credit in November meantime fell by £377 million – the first net drop since last January and the biggest monthly fall since the data series began in 1993.
“There is clearly a risk that credit constraints may hinder the reallocation of resources required to rebalance the economy,” Bank of England governor Mervyn King said in a speech last week, adding that “there is scope for interest rates to remain low, and, if necessary, for further asset purchases [to facilitate quantitative easing].”
Eurozone unemployment meantime hit a record high last month at 16.5 million people – with the unemployment rate at 10.4% – according to official figures published Tuesday by Eurostat.
“In many cases you find firms continuing to delay investment projects,” notes Citigroup economist Guillaume Menuet.
“For those that are still making profits, hiring is being frozen, and for those which are under pressure to hit results or losing money, job losses are becoming the only solution that they have.”
Elsewhere in Europe, banks are preparing to borrow at least €1 trillion when the European Central Bank holds its 3-Year longer term refinancing operation next month – more than twice the amount borrowed at December’s 3-Year LTRO.
Greece meantime is hoping to conclude a deal with its private sector creditors by the end of the week, Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos said Tuesday. There remained however no agreement among European leaders over what to do about the deterioration is Greece’s fiscal position.
“Greece’s debt sustainability is especially bad,” German chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday.
“You have to find a way through more action by the Greek government, more contributions by private creditors, for example, in order to close this gap.”
At yesterday’s summit leaders agreed to accelerate the implementation of the €500 billion European Stability Mechanism, the Eurozone’s permanent bailout fund.
There was also endorsement of proposed new deficit rules – although a German suggestion that the EU appoint a budget commissioner to oversee Greece’s finance appears not to be receiving wider support.
“Surveillance of Greece’s progress is normal,” French president Nicolas Sarkozy said, “but there was never any question of putting Greece under guardianship.”
Over in the US, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates gold futures and options trading on the New York Comex, has said it is considering new rules aimed at firms using automated and high-frequency trading systems as part of its efforts to implement the Dodd-Frank legislation on financial services.
Venezuela has completed the repatriation of 160 tonnes of gold bullion – around three quarters of its total reserves that were held in US, European and Canadian banks – newswire Dow Jones reports.
“Venezuela’s gold is now in the hands of Venezuelans, secured by Venezuelans and at the service of all Venezuelans,” said Venezuela’s central bank head Nelson Merentes.
Gold bullion makes up 71% of Venezuela’s total foreign reserves, according to figures from the World Gold Council.
Gold value calculator | Buy gold online at live prices
Editor of Gold News, the analysis and investment research site from world-leading gold ownership service BullionVault, Ben Traynor was formerly editor of the Fleet Street Letter, the UK’s longest-running investment letter. A Cambridge economics graduate, he is a professional writer and editor with a specialist interest in monetary economics.
(c) BullionVault 2011
Please Note: This article is to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it.
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Sean Darby, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies Group Inc., talks about U.S. and emerging market stocks. He also discusses Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and the U.S. economy. He speaks with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television’s “Asia Edge.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Paul Bloxham, chief economist for HSBC Holdings Plc in Sydney and a former Reserve Bank of Australia official, talks about the nation’s economy and central bank monetary policy. Australian business confidence rose in December to the highest level in seven months after the central bank made the second of two consecutive rate cuts, a private survey showed. Bloxham speaks with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television’s “First Up.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Forex is a $4.2trillion daily business. No financial trading hub can boast of the kind of money that circulates in the Forex market. Given that a few years ago, the daily Forex turnover was just about 30% of today’s values, it is safe to say that in the next five years, we may see the daily turnover reach almost $10 trillion. With so much money floating around in one financial hub, it is not surprising that the Forex market will naturally draw out the human element of greed in some of its participants.
Of all the participants in the Forex market, the brokers are in a better position to profit financially. They make money from spreads and commissions generated by traders, irrespective of the market conditions. In a situation where there is a quest and accompanying pressure by humanity to live well and have the best that life can offer, it is not surprising that some brokers engage in practices that short-change clients and scam money off them.
Many market players do not fully understand the business of Forex trading from the broker’s side before they delve into it. Let’s face it. A trader can only participate in Forex trading through a broker, and most of the time, the trader has to use a firm located far away from his location; possibly in another country. In these circumstances, a trader cannot afford to give his money to just anybody. The situation is not made any easier when you consider that many traders come across brokers through search engines on the internet. Usually it is the glamorous sales pages or the lucrative incentives such as bonuses that attract traders, and there is no room for a physical assessment of the broker’s assets to determine if they are worth what they claim they are.
Forex brokerage business is a bit like banking business. A brokerage needs to have segregated funds to be able to handle settlement of client orders. There has to be lots of liquid cash, distinct from whatever money traders have in the market or what the firm uses for its operations. After clients are settled, the Forex brokerage firm can then harmonize its accounts, know which trader has lost or which trader has made money and work it all out. Harmonizing up to 50,000 trading accounts daily is not an easy job, and deposits will not always cover withdrawals, and that is why a regulatory requirement (where brokers are well regulated) is that a Forex broker must have liquid cash, lodged in a segregated escrow account in a major bank for client settlement. Anything else will be equivalent to running a Ponzi scheme where money from one client is used to pay another client’s settlement.
So if your broker is having problems satisfying withdrawal requests, or out rightly refuses to payout large sums of money that have been accrued by traders as a result of trading profits, then it is almost assured that your broker is a scam broker. Non-payment of profits is the major complaint of scam brokers.
There have been cases where Forex brokerages which eventually folded and ran off with traders’ funds turned out to be businesses run from a kitchen by two or three individuals. No one would like a situation where you work hard and hand over your money to such an arranged brokerage, only for the operators to disappear to some remote island and live anonymously well with your money. One way to avoid this is to use online Forex trading forums to gather as much information about a broker before you commit.
Author: Alexander Collins. Stay safe, use your head and re-evaluate your broker now before it is too late. And last but not least visit my Forex trading blog. As I have many years trading experience, I know almost every unethical trick scam brokers use. On my blog, you can read about their 5 scam methods and identify your Forex broker scam.
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A trader whom we shall call Mr Dee sees a web page advertising a chance to make money from trading Forex. But this web page is one with a difference. He is taken in by the glamorous video of a pretty brunette detailing all the benefits of trading with the broker whose sales page he is looking at. Just then, something she says catches his attention. The broker is offering him a 100% bonus. He cannot believe his ears, but when he decides to pitch his tent with this broker and wires in $10,000. To his surprise, he is credited with an extra $10,000. But that is when he is told by his broker that he has to trade a certain number of times before he can withdraw any profits. He keeps trading, and when he then decides to make his first withdrawal after fulfilling the terms of the bonus, he gets an email saying he has allowed third party trading on his account, and his account is suspended and all funds seized. The broker cuts off all communications with him, and he is left bemused. Further investigation reveals that the broker is in a location which is completely unregulated.
In another scenario, another trader notices that he keeps getting stopped out in one of his Forex accounts even when the price quotes on other trading accounts indicate that the price action still had a few pips to go. He is at a loss as to why this is the case, and all emails to his broker are met with unconvincing responses.
In yet another scenario, trader notices that any time he trades high-impact news items, and his trade is in a profit, his trading platform freezes up, and he cannot close his trades, until when the market has probably reversed against him. When he tries to withdraw any profits, he has made, his broker finds one reason or the other not to honor the withdrawal request.
If your broker or any other broker you know has engaged in one or all the practices mentioned above, then that broker is a scam broker. The sad thing is that many cases like this occur, and they are not rare; they are commonplace. For any genuine broker out there, there are 10 scam brokers in operation. The wide geographical location and the absence of a specific global legal framework has made it difficult to pursue and prosecute such scam brokers, and traders have to rely on personal due diligence and a bit of luck or prayers to ensure that they pitch tents with the right brokers.
Here is a list of identified scam brokers, who have closed shop and disappeared with traders’ funds.
There are a whole lot of others out there. All you need to do is to check on Forex forums, and you will get so much information that it will almost be criminal for you as a trader to fall into the hands of these scam brokers.
Article was written by Alexander Collins. As a general rule, always choose brokers that are regulated and have a good track record when it comes to trading conditions and withdrawals. Stays the question: “How to choose a Forex broker?” Visit my Forex blog to learn how to choose a broker wisely, and what unethical tricks Forex scam brokers use to rip of retail traders.
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With the increasing popularity of Forex trading, a new trend of FX Auto traders is evolving fast. There are many people, especially in today’s unstable economy, who see the Forex market as a safe-investment place. However, all of these new investors are united with the same issues – they don’t have any experience and have no willing to spend days and weeks to study it. So, these guys turn to Forex trading robots then.
Anyway, I am not going to tell you which strategy to choose, but all the written below is based on our choice of a “solid” trading strategy of trading (minimal risks to be taken). Further on, I’ll show you the consecutive steps which an auto-trading beginner should take on my own back. It will handle.
The first thing that I need to do before getting started with a trading robot is decided which kind of trader I am. Actually, I have already chosen – not interested in huge profits and risks, but smaller profits and smaller risks.
Therefore, I am choosing the trading strategy to accompany my trades. As I “fell in love” with a “solid” technique my system defined would not lose more than a certain number of pips in one trade.
As I am trading with an advanced Forex expert, surely I understand that it does the trading for me. I just do the adjustments according to my trading needs. The certain system that I choose also means the currency pairs for trading. So here I see one of the criteria for “loving” or “hating” a certain system – whether it offers needed pairs or not.
After doing all the above, I can actually get down to trading. Then my first step is choosing a system. The indicators of my “natural selection” would be basic parameters and applying a definite filter to the whole list of systems available. So I set:
These are basic filters that I use, but better results demand more complex filters. To make it clear for myself. I should now compare the results for previous and current filter. I just check the bullet point – the percentage of profitable positions. If a system brings me 32% of them and 68% are losses, I’d better change it for the better ones.
Ok, let’s carry on. Now I am going to see how many positions the system can open at the same time. For instance, mine carries four, which means four times of the exposure of a system which opens only one position.
Now I am ready to examine my systems one by one. Firstly, I will carefully study the system’s chart. Certain periods of time give me the certain chart direction. That makes utmost importance to me! If I am playing “solid” strategy I don’t need so the system’s chart displayed extreme movements. I need it going upward and in small proportions.
Now I am looking at the screen which presents the detailed information about every position opened with this current system. Like an FBI agent working with the suspects’ thorough database, I can see all the details about past and present transactions: activity time, the date of position’s opening/closure, and other useful stuff on this system trade.
Once I went through all the selection “jungles” (and choose a suitable system) I should remember two things. I chose a system after handling all of those steps above, so I will stick to it whatever my emotions tell me. Point two is telling me to set a period of time after which I will adjust the filters again.
The Forex market is like a woman’s mood – has a phenomenal ability to change. Basically, it means my system could not match the chosen criteria next week or month. Alternatively, it could not match this actual period, but become suitable in a month.
As some bachelors wash their socks once in a week or month (oh, dear God!), I would perform this filter with the same “bachelor” periodicity according to my own configuration.
Written by Collins Alexander, founder of ForexEASystems and a blogger. Company that provides automated Forex trading systems and semi-automated Forex strategy. By the way, every Forex trader can find there some Forex freebies as MT4 indicator FX Pulse, Fibonacci and Pivot Point calculators. You can grab these free Forex trading tools at Pipburner – Forex blog.
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Source: http://alansforexblog.com/2011/12/09/auto-forex-trading-the-fundamentals-of-successful-trading/
The reason why I chose this kind of a headline and decided to write this article is NOT putting people off Forex trading. The major point is to keep the awareness of those aspiring traders who are willing to enter the Forex industry. Think of any job for which two people apply, for instance. Then one of them might be more suitable for it, than the other. Alternatively, even both are not. My point is that you CAN build up a great financial career with Forex and make the profits you want from home.
Well, this article is my receipt and if you want so, my-own-experience-born warning for you as well. Last years I managed to sufficiently increase my income, but I want to show you – the way to consistent profits is thorny. Ok, so here are my truths and my “story.”
1. Forex Trading is not a Lottery
Do not be mistaken to think that the riches will shortly fall on your head with Forex, like those with multimillion national lotteries. Furthermore, trading is far from a casino gambling. Las Vegas scheme of “50%-win chance vs. 50%-lose” should not suit a person who is willing to earn stable profits and do that for living. Of course, you may have heard of a high leverage and its use (you can trade hundreds of thousands of dollars with small capital). However, be more realistic do not hasten to get fortune in a day, but build it point by point.
2. Forex Robots are not 100% Way to Riches
Just Google “Forex robots.” Saw the offers..? “Star Wars” robotic world does not already seem to be so broad, does it? The fact is that Forex robots are everywhere nowadays. They offer you the non-worries trading strategy with constant profits whatever the market conditions are. The truth is that these virtual “cannikins” are mostly not reliable. They may boast with impressive back-testing results, but give you cardinally different ones when you actually start trading them.
3. Most Online Forex Products are Useless
That is more than right for those people who often see any Forex web-stuff, which is offered on a costly basis. Don’t get too disappointed – it’s generally useless. This is why now I am very careful with promoting different products because of the doubtful decency. Here, I want to paraphrase the famous proverb – verify and only then trust (and promote). Having “Business” with unworthy stuff steals your time and your money.
4. 95% of Currency Traders Fail in the Long Run.
Yes, successful Forex traders are rare species, and you must do everything in your powers to get into those 5% who actually make money. No matter, the exact success-failure figures brokers present, most Forex traders fail in the long run. However,… don’t be discouraged! The total number of traders across the globe is huge, and you may be the one to become a part of the “profitable .”
5. Lack of Discipline to Succeed
As not every football-player is sure to become next Pele, not every Forex trader will be profitable. Here success comes as a reward for great deal of discipline. And some claimants for financial happiness just don’t have the level of discipline needed.
6. Working Hard Does Not Mean Success
Yeah, succeeding in Forex and, for instance, getting your body trained with power lifting are two different things. Working hard in trading (“lifting” the charts) gives no guarantee of success. Oh, it may be frustrating. Imagine: your friend reaches profitability in a week or so, and your monthly chart-digging turns useless. That happens.
7. The Intelligence is Not an Advantage
You should not be Marylin Vos Savant with unbeatable IQ of 228 (world Guinness record) to succeed in Forex. Trading currency requires normal person abilities and not immense brain power. Of course, little math knowledge will be of use when you place a trade. However, a “standard” human mind has all the chances to be successful in trading currencies.
8. Forex Trader is a Loner
Not like Sting’s “Englishman in New-York” (he sang “an alien,” I think), but you will be alone when trading. Sitting at home and staring into your computer all day is not a super-agents life. Sometimes loneliness becomes your faithful friend. If your social life is poor, then you are on the right way to closing madness. Although it is fair to admit – working home will never make you late at work because of traffic-jams or snowstorm.
9. There is no Forever Profitable System
Forex is a constantly fluctuating market. And if you think that you finally developed the best system to make profits you should remember: there are no 100% ideal and beneficial systems in Forex. As market conditions have a stubborn ability to drastically change, your system may not be profiting in the following weeks or months. Be adaptable and prepare to adjust your systems according to changes.
10. Hard Times Even For Good Traders
Even a successful trader’s life reminds of a zebra. Its coat-pattern white and black stripes are very symbolic for trading in the currency. The main difference between a pro and newbie is that a successful trader is be able to limit the quantity of black stripes (losses) to minimum, but still he can’t postpone them at all. Therefore, you don’t have to worry if your system is still making money for you.
Article has been created by Alexander Collins, who likes auto Forex trading and makes it profitable for many Forex traders. Also please visit new Alexander Collins’ Forex trading blog, there you definitely find really great articles about Forex trading.
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Source: http://alansforexblog.com/2011/12/09/10-home-truths-about-forex-trading/
The Average True Range (or ATR) indicator is one of the widely spread Forex tools, which has the role of a specific “pulsometer” helping a trader to instantly find out the market’s volatility. For instance, a low ATR reading shows that the market is relatively calm and flat – trading ranges are narrow. You can meet this while trading the overnight session. Then a high volatility is reflected to be a high reading of ATR.
If you are using ATR, you should mark that this kind of indicator does not tell you on the direction of the move, it only shows volatility. So once you see the rocketing increase, you should turn your eyes to other technical indicators and consider if a position is worth trading.
So in this article I would like to tell about the three specific ways you can benefit using ATR.
1. Volatility Breakouts
One of the best ways to make a profit with Forex trading is, firstly, wait for a quiet consolidation period and, secondly, wait for the ensuing breakout. Lots of options are available for you here. However, one of the certain ways is to wait for the ATR indicator to begin rising sharply from a low base (volatility increases), and then check the other indicators if it’s the breakout indeed.
2. Exit Points
The ATR indicator is quite useful for us, the traders, as it helps us to stick to trading plans that we develop. By using this “smarty” you can determine where to actually put your Stop Loss and Take Profit. One of the top world’s traders Bill Poulos is advocating the ATR as this indicator is often a part of his trading strategy. So, you can a) close the position the price moved 1x the current ATR reading, b) exit when the price has 2xATR or, c) follow Bill’s common practice and close half the position after 1xATR and another half after 2xATR.
3. Finding Intraday Breakout Opportunities
Every single morning I check the ATR indicator on my daily chart to determine the average trading range for GBP/USD pair. In this way, I can find possible breakouts: if the overnight trading range (12.00 to 8.00 GMT) is small compared with the current ATR, the price is likely to change quite a bit if a breakout takes place.
So now you know the three ways you the ATR can be helpful. However, the list of its usage is much longer to make the ATR indicator one of the most useful.
Brought you by Alexander Collins, founder of Forexeasystems where you can find another one useful MT4 custom indicator called FX Pulse. It shows actual Forex news on your chart in a second after its release. FX Pulse is very helpful for traders, who are trading during the News. Also it has built-in trend detection for every time frame. Try now – it’s totally free. Read more about benefits of Forex News Reader and Trend Detection custom indicator at http://www.forexeasystems.com/. Click on Forex trading ndicators if you need even more
Source: http://forexnewsnow.com/top-stories/3-ways-to-use-the-average-true-range-atr-indicator/
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In this sequel, we shall use the same chart we used in the first part of this article to examine how pivot points can be used as entry and exit points, but this time, for short entry trades.
Let us pay attention to the right hand side of the 1hr chart for the EURCHF. We can see clearly that the multiple rejections of further upward moves at R3 indicate that a full reversal of the initial bullish run is about to take place at that level, providing a very strong sell signal. A short entry at R3 is definitely not out of place.
A short entry at R3 should have R2 (acting as a support) as a first target. In this example, the price action got to R2, stalled a bit, confirming it as a first exit target, good for 130 pips. After downward rejection at R2, a very strong bearish candle ensued which tore through R1 and closed above it (an indication that a further downward move was very possible). The next few candles attempted to retrace back to R1, but any further upward retracements were stalled at that point. R1 could serve as a second exit target, or indeed, another short re-entry for those who took profits at R2. The downward momentum continued beyond the central pivot point before dying out at S1.
There are some things that are obvious here. When you have your pivot points plotted on the chart, they immediately show you key levels of support and resistance, and because many traders are watching these levels and respect them when placing orders and exiting positions, they tend to hold.
Furthermore, the behaviour of candlesticks at these key points give a good hint of what the price action is likely to do next. If the momentum of a candle takes it beyond a key level (e.g. strong bearish candle closing below a resistance point), a further move in the candle’s momentum is very likely. If there is any retracement at all, it will usually be to the key level that was surpassed before the price action resumes the momentum in the trend of the strongly trending candle. We saw this very clearly when a bearish candle ripped through R1 and closed below it.
If you know how to use pivot points in the way we have described, they will make easy pickings for you in the Forex market.
Written by Alexander Collins, who is an owner of Forex blog where you can download free Forex trading tools. Do you know Pivot Point calculation formula? Want to find out? Read article about Pivot Point calculation.
Source: http://fxmadness.com/2011/12/06/general/using-pivot-points-to-determine-entries-and-exits-in-forex/
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