Buying the Yen

wmb194

Mark2016 said:

On a few occasions I have heard a well-known investor and businessman, when offering share recommendations, suggest buying gold and buying the yen. I know how to buy gold, but I'm unsure what he means when he says 'buy the yen'. Does he mean place a forex trade, or buy yen in cash like one would do if going on holiday to Japan. Any clarity would be most appreciated. Many thanks.

You can hold yen with Wise.

Albermarle

mebu60 said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

Mark2016 said:

I'm not sure. He seems to say that buying the yen is with the intention of getting a return.

So if I said I had a hot tip in the 3.30 at Sandown tomorrow, you would bet on that?

No, because there's no racing there tomorrow, next meeting 25 April and there's no 3:30 race either (fifth race is 3:35). 

OK then in the 15.32 at Wetherby tomorrow .
'Crazier than Daisy' is a cert at 7/2 !

Ah, but I can get 80/1 in that race by backing Butler's Brief, surely that's the one to put my yen on? 

Despite Butler's Brief moving out to 100/1 I have placed a whole two English pounds on Crazierthandaisy at 4/1 just for the craic 

Bet 365 are offering it at 5/1 

akm2018

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

Mark2016 said:

I'm not sure. He seems to say that buying the yen is with the intention of getting a return.

So if I said I had a hot tip in the 3.30 at Sandown tomorrow, you would bet on that?

No, because there's no racing there tomorrow, next meeting 25 April and there's no 3:30 race either (fifth race is 3:35). 

OK then in the 15.32 at Wetherby tomorrow .
'Crazier than Daisy' is a cert at 7/2 !

Ah, but I can get 80/1 in that race by backing Butler's Brief, surely that's the one to put my yen on? 

Despite Butler's Brief moving out to 100/1 I have placed a whole two English pounds on Crazierthandaisy at 4/1 just for the craic 

Bet 365 are offering it at 5/1 

6 on the exchanges at the time of writing. Get on!

Albermarle

akm2018 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

Mark2016 said:

I'm not sure. He seems to say that buying the yen is with the intention of getting a return.

So if I said I had a hot tip in the 3.30 at Sandown tomorrow, you would bet on that?

No, because there's no racing there tomorrow, next meeting 25 April and there's no 3:30 race either (fifth race is 3:35). 

OK then in the 15.32 at Wetherby tomorrow .
'Crazier than Daisy' is a cert at 7/2 !

Ah, but I can get 80/1 in that race by backing Butler's Brief, surely that's the one to put my yen on? 

Despite Butler's Brief moving out to 100/1 I have placed a whole two English pounds on Crazierthandaisy at 4/1 just for the craic 

Bet 365 are offering it at 5/1 

6 on the exchanges at the time of writing. Get on!

It came third 

akm2018

Was in with a very decent shout coming to the last, but then stumbled and couldn't recover in time

mebu60

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

Mark2016 said:

I'm not sure. He seems to say that buying the yen is with the intention of getting a return.

So if I said I had a hot tip in the 3.30 at Sandown tomorrow, you would bet on that?

No, because there's no racing there tomorrow, next meeting 25 April and there's no 3:30 race either (fifth race is 3:35). 

OK then in the 15.32 at Wetherby tomorrow .
'Crazier than Daisy' is a cert at 7/2 !

Ah, but I can get 80/1 in that race by backing Butler's Brief, surely that's the one to put my yen on? 

Despite Butler's Brief moving out to 100/1 I have placed a whole two English pounds on Crazierthandaisy at 4/1 just for the craic 

Bet 365 are offering it at 5/1 

Only have an account with Sky and had to be out by 9am but noticed it was 9/2 with someone else at that time, not home again until nearly 4pm. The SP was 6/1. Third place, close but no cigar. If I'd gone e/w would've got my stake back! Butler's Brief romped in 9th out of 13 with the favourite finishing 12th! 

Will need to pick a donkey next week for the Grand National. 

Albermarle

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

Mark2016 said:

I'm not sure. He seems to say that buying the yen is with the intention of getting a return.

So if I said I had a hot tip in the 3.30 at Sandown tomorrow, you would bet on that?

No, because there's no racing there tomorrow, next meeting 25 April and there's no 3:30 race either (fifth race is 3:35). 

OK then in the 15.32 at Wetherby tomorrow .
'Crazier than Daisy' is a cert at 7/2 !

Ah, but I can get 80/1 in that race by backing Butler's Brief, surely that's the one to put my yen on? 

Despite Butler's Brief moving out to 100/1 I have placed a whole two English pounds on Crazierthandaisy at 4/1 just for the craic 

Bet 365 are offering it at 5/1 

Only have an account with Sky and had to be out by 9am but noticed it was 9/2 with someone else at that time, not home again until nearly 4pm. The SP was 6/1. Third place, close but no cigar. If I'd gone e/w would've got my stake back! Butler's Brief romped in 9th out of 13 with the favourite finishing 12th! 

Will need to pick a donkey next week for the Grand National. 

Digressing a  bit here, but Skybet are the only bookmaker to ever restrict me betting with them.
Something like I had bet £150 in 3 months and was £100 up. 
No Best Odds guaranteed. Strict limit on winnings, no participation in special offers.
Just ridiculous for such a small punter. 
The ironic thing was that the winnings came from a bet on I put on for my better half, so I had actually lost over those 3 months !
Anyway I keep £2 in the account so I can have a free go at the ITV7 .

masonic

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

mebu60 said:

Albermarle said:

Mark2016 said:

I'm not sure. He seems to say that buying the yen is with the intention of getting a return.

So if I said I had a hot tip in the 3.30 at Sandown tomorrow, you would bet on that?

No, because there's no racing there tomorrow, next meeting 25 April and there's no 3:30 race either (fifth race is 3:35). 

OK then in the 15.32 at Wetherby tomorrow .
'Crazier than Daisy' is a cert at 7/2 !

Ah, but I can get 80/1 in that race by backing Butler's Brief, surely that's the one to put my yen on? 

Despite Butler's Brief moving out to 100/1 I have placed a whole two English pounds on Crazierthandaisy at 4/1 just for the craic 

Bet 365 are offering it at 5/1 

Only have an account with Sky and had to be out by 9am but noticed it was 9/2 with someone else at that time, not home again until nearly 4pm. The SP was 6/1. Third place, close but no cigar. If I'd gone e/w would've got my stake back! Butler's Brief romped in 9th out of 13 with the favourite finishing 12th! 

Will need to pick a donkey next week for the Grand National. 

Digressing a  bit here...

Here?   

cwep2

Serious comment - if you want to bet on the Yen appreciating then these are the obvious ways to do so:

Use an account like Wise or Revolut to convert Gbp to Yen, then hold it and wait for FX rate to move, it could do so in either direction.
Use a spread betting account with firms like IG Index to "short" Gbp/Jpy. 
Buy some kind of ETF that invests in low risk Japanese securities, eg Japanese Govt Bonds and does not hedge the FX risk.

There are various pros and cons of each method which could take half an hour to fully explain, but the first option, most of these companies have specific T+Cs that you don't use them to speculate on FX, so you may be in breach. Also Yen doesn't pay any interest and you are effectively giving up interest on GBP that you could hold instead. You also may pay capital gains tax on this. Holding Yen in a normal account in Revolut doesn't have any FSCS guarantee, only their savings pots do and they don't offer this for Yen, not sure about Wise FSCS just holding Yen on your account. The second option, they will charge you "pips" to roll the position each day to factor in the interest rate differential of borrowing Gbp (which has 4-5% interest rates) and lending Yen (which has 0-1% interest rates). Because this roll is calculated daily and has a spread built in, you end up paying way more than just the interest rate differential so if you hold for a year it could cost you 8-10% (this is how these firms make money), on the plus side spread bets don't pay any tax on "winnings". The third option exposes you to Bond price changes, which could be negative if it was holding 5yr+ duration bonds and the yen appreciated. 

Loads more factors, but some food for thought if you wish to speculate on this. Having said that, any investment is to some extent speculation, and can lose money, even equity index trackers.