rate was 2.45 a minute ago, not been there for a while.

lets hope it keeps going up and up

We got our PR visas through last week and if everything goes OK when we visit over Easter (Schools,Houses,Work) we intend to move over at the end of 2004. We wont have any serious money to change into A$ untill we sell our house in the UK, but we have been following the exchange rate closely. When I saw 2.45 today I decided to buy the A$ on the futures market using a financial spread company. Although you never actually buy the currency in physical form, you will benefit from any strengthening of the A$ in the FX mkt. Then when I do have funds I can buy A$ and reverse my position with the spread company. Has anybody else got experience of doing it this way?

..explain that for us simpletons would you?

Could be comparing apples with pears here...Oanda still shows much the same rate as the past few days, if anything AUD is strengthening slightly. No move by Reserve Bank in March was widely anticipated, the analysts expect a move up again in April, though.

Wednesday, March 3, 2004
1 British Pound = 2.41051 Australian Dollar
1 Australian Dollar (AUD) = 0.41485 British Pound (GBP)

OK
Current Aussie $ to £ FX rate is 2.4419/44 if you have access to this rate (only normally available to investment banks, not individuals like you or me) I like the rate (2.4419 to buy A$) but - I dont have the funds yet ready to invest (need to sell house). So what I do is buy the A$ on the futures market with a financial spread betting house to replicate the exposure I would have if I had bought say A$250,000 through a high street bank. To do this you need an account with around £3000 in it for margin. This way if the rate goes down to say 2.43 I make money, if it goes to 2.46 I lose. When I do realise the funds from the UK, I buy at the best rate available and sell my A$ on the spread bet. Basically the main advantage is that if you like the current rate, you can lock it in. It sounds complicated and is probably not worthwhile for many - but I have time on my hands and will be here for at least another 6 months so I hope to trade the 2.41-2.44 range a bit and get a good average rate.

Amazulu
What site are you looking at to see $2.45 to the £
Currency converter Im looking at is showing 2.41??

you are looking at tourist rates. try www.hifx.co.uk to see interbank rates - you wont get those but you will do better than tourist.

Lets hope it continues to climb as we are hoping to complete soon. Knowing my luck the rate will go to an all time low

Hi Maxpaxx
We were looking at Oanda. They update there currency charts at midnight each day.
We will have about 300K to change over. How much do you need to get the advertised interbank rates?? Any idea?

I know it's over £500,000 uk pounds to get a 'better' rate - still don't know if thats the interbank rate though.

I was looking at oanda rates yesterday, and they did seem to be behind the others. But they are back to normal today.

Todays rates at 10.20am QLD time are:

Oanda.com 2.43697 interbank
HIFX.co.uk 2.4407

When I moved £300k I did get the oanda quoted internbank rate from HSBC, but I had to talk to the manager personnaly to get it.