US ($) Currency Thread 2

sabretoothtigger

Sterling Index At 1500 GMT

(JAN 2005=100) INDEX GBP/USD EUR/GBP
PREVIOUS CLOSE 78.8 1.5302 0.8800
OPEN 78.8 1.5316 0.8792
10 AM 79.1 1.5381 0.8773
NOON 79.1 1.5407 0.8769
2 PM 79.1 1.5372 0.8764
4 PM 79.0 1.5354 0.8766


April 20

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

(JAN 2005=100) INDEX GBP/USD EUR/GBP
PREVIOUS CLOSE 77.2 1.5190 0.9056
OPEN 77.4 1.5245 0.9049
10 AM 77.9 1.5341 0.8979
NOON 77.9 1.5333 0.8985
2 PM 77.9 1.5322 0.8977
4 PM 77.8 1.5295 0.8983


March 17





(JAN 2005=100) INDEX GBP/USD EUR/GBP
PREVIOUS CLOSE 77.9 1.5224 0.8965
OPEN 77.6 1.5136 0.9001
10 AM 77.5 1.5132 0.9014
NOON 76.5 1.4876 0.9104
2 PM 76.8 1.4926 0.9068
4 PM 77.1 1.4939 0.9023

March 01



(JAN 2005=100) INDEX GBP/USD EUR/GBP
PREVIOUS CLOSE 80.2 1.5642 0.8712
OPEN 79.7 1.5408 0.8746
10 AM 79.4 1.5364 0.8783
NOON 79.5 1.5384 0.8774
2 PM
4 PM



February 19

meryll83

Hi all,

I have the bulk of my US dollars on a Fairfx card, but want to get a small amount (approx £200 worth) in cash. Fairfx will charge me £6 delivery for this, and the rate is lower than the card - so can anyone tell me where I might find the best rate for this small amount?

Thanks in advance!

xgfx

Just had a look at the FairFX card, whats the deal with that? I understand it's a topup card, but do they take any commission when you withdraw money/pay for something over in the USA? And does their rate stay the same once you've initially topped up the card?

Their website isn't very revealing.

edit: Nevermind read Martin's guide on the topic.

whatusername

meryll83 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have the bulk of my US dollars on a Fairfx card, but want to get a small amount (approx £200 worth) in cash. Fairfx will charge me £6 delivery for this, and the rate is lower than the card - so can anyone tell me where I might find the best rate for this small amount?

Thanks in advance!

For the amount you are looking for your savings are very minimal. eg if ou pre ordered CCE at 1.54 you would get $308 for £200. High Street rates of around 1.49 will give you $298 for £200 so you would lose $10 and believe me $10 won't get you much, maybe a beer and a burger somewhere.

whatusername

Cable currently trading at 1.544 and offers still on with CCE 1.5425 for 31 days delivery or 1.5139 with ICEPLC for next day delivery which seems to be the best of lot.

whatusername

Cable dropped almost a cent to the £ today, currently trading at 1.5358.

neilbond007

whatusername wrote: »

For the amount you are looking for your savings are very minimal. eg if ou pre ordered CCE at 1.54 you would get $308 for £200. High Street rates of around 1.49 will give you $298 for £200 so you would lose $10 and believe me $10 won't get you much, maybe a beer and a burger somewhere.

It'll get you 10 burgers off the many $1 menus that the fast food joints have
well, 9 after you've added the tax on

As for beer, you're screwed!

whatusername

1.54517 trading this morning.

whatusername

CCE offer 1.5425 for 31 day delivery or 1.56 for 51 days which is a good deal for now.

The Change Group which seem to offer the best for immediate delivery offering 1.526

sabretoothtigger

Election Fears Fade For Pound; UBS Sees Trouble In Clear Result

By Katie Martin
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON (Dow Jones)--A clear-cut result in the May 6 U.K. election could be more damaging to sterling than a rare coalition government.

In the opening months of the year, the chance that the election might fail to produce a majority government for the first time since 1974 dogged sterling traders, with most market watchers assuming that a so-called hung parliament would be unable to fix the U.K.'s wobbly economy.

However, as the possibility that a coalition government could emerge from the election has risen over the past few weeks, sterling has climbed too, indicating that these fears are easing.

Now UBS AG--the second-biggest foreign-exchange bank in the world--has said that a coalition government might in fact be the best solution for the U.K. economy and the pound.

"Investors should be concerned if any party wins an outright majority and cuts the budget too quickly while the U.K. economy is fragile," said Mansoor Mohi-uddin, the bank's chief currencies analyst in Singapore, in a note to clients.

"This could induce the Bank of England to resume quantitative easing," Mohi-uddin said, adding that a similar policy mix in 1981 "resulted in sterling weakness for years."

U.K. elections are usually a straight fight between Labour--the current party in power--and the Conservatives. This year, however, the Liberal Democrats have surged in the opinion polls, reflecting well-received performances by the party's leader, Nick Clegg, in the country's first ever televised leaders' debates.

As a result, the Lib Dems are expected to snag enough votes, and seats, to force one of the other parties into an alliance to run the country after May 6.

The market's memory of hung parliaments hasn't been positive because the last one came shortly before a full-blown sterling crisis, with the U.K. eventually turning to the International Monetary Fund for support.

When election fever first started to leak into the financial markets at the start of this year, the risk that neither the Conservatives nor Labour might be able to hold power on their own therefore got investors fretting that the U.K. will struggle to fix its yawning budget deficit, raising the prospect of similar currency strife this time around. The rise of the Lib Dems increases the possibility that neither of the two biggest parties will get an outright majority.

The pound, however, is failing to drop as analysts had predicted. The currency is sliding Tuesday amid a broad-based bout of nerves, but still, it is now almost 4% stronger against the dollar than it was this time last month, trading at $1.5350. Similarly, it has swept more than 4% higher against the euro since the start of March, leaving the single currency at just under GBP0.87.

Now UBS clearly considers the risk of a hung parliament to be vastly overstated.

"The pound may fall initially if the U.K. election results in a hung parliament. But we think sterling weakness here would be short-lived. All three political parties are committed to cutting Britain's record budget deficit," the bank said.

To be sure, UBS's assertion that a single-party cost-cutting government would be bad for the pound isn't shared by everyone.

Indeed, analysts at U.S. bank Brown Brothers Harriman said Monday that "a Conservative majority outcome would be a major positive surprise for sterling."

Senior figures in the Conservative Party have also warned publicly of late that anything other than a majority Tory win would trigger sterling selling and cause wobbles in the U.K. bond market.

Still, investors' comfort levels with a hung parliament are clearly rising.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank also pointed out recently that sterling actually rallied strongly against the dollar in the immediate aftermath of the February 1974 election that produced a hung parliament. The pound's rally was bigger than after any other election since, the bank said.

1.5349 right now. My own view is some weakness or sideways price at best