Souvenir

Jeeezus!!!!!

On that basis, my salary just fell by $550 a month.

cneldred

Alan, believe me i know all about the markets and the spreads. I am a futures trader and have been for 13 years. I actually trade direct to the exchanges and therefore am making markets in there. I trade bond, stir, fx, commodity and index futures in Europe, UK and US.

Chris

scousemartin

Yes but everything you are buying just got cheaper as well!

Aviator

How'd you figure that one?

scousemartin

Well your CAD salary in GBP goes down if the FX rate changes.
But you CAD shopping in GBP also goes down.

The only time your really exposed to FX changes is when you arec transfering money between CAD and GBP.

I hope to sell my house and move to Canada in the New year. 1c change in FX makes a big difference to the amount of CAD I'll get. The falling pound and falling UK house prices could make a move financially impossible. I'm hoping for $2+ by the time we transfer our money. Fingers crossed.

Souvenir

I wish I could.

G586

Er, Souv is paid in GBP and lives in Canada so it matters! (Correct me if I'm wrong, Souv.)

Souvenir

You are correct. On an annualised basis, the exchange rate movement over the last few days has cost me about $7k. I am bringing in less now that I did several years ago, despite pay rises.

To make matters worse, most of my cash is in the UK. I will very soon have to bring lots over to pay my December tax bill. That is going to hurt.

scousemartin

Really! Then yes FX really does matter.
I assumed Souv was converting his CAD salary in to pounds for comparision sake only.

Alan2005

I was agreeing with you - not teaching you to suck eggs . I'm not a trader but I work with FX traders in the OTC and Futures markets.

FX trading is a risky business and exposure to exchange risk is not a good thing. I know enough about it to know that I wouldn't gamble my money on it - you might think you know where it's going, but the volatility will bite you on the arse eventually.

Then again, maybe it's just my nervous disposition - right now it's bad enough having to worry about counterparty risk (i.e. which banks aren't going to go bust taking your cash with them).

Alan

Edit: To clarify that's a general "you" in the above; not specifically aimed at anyone in particular

cneldred

Alan, agree entirely in 13 yrs of trading never seen anything like this. Graft your arse off for weeks nicking a bit everyday then 1 frigging mistake in one nasty move ends up costing you everything you made in the last 8 weeks. One moment the markets will be tight as a knats chuff, then everything will blow out with extreme volatility on the back of absolutely nothing. It is unreadable.

I know so many guys getting taken to the cleaners at the moment. And leverage has disappeared, even in the transparent futures market where the clearing house takes away the counterparty risk. I am now being offered 2-1 leverage on my money, whereas at the start of the year i could get 20-1.

Who do you work for?

Chris

Alan2005

I'd rather not say - not cos it's some big secret, or i'll get sacked or anything - I just don't want to be identifiable on a web forum. I adopted this policy a couple of years ago (subsequent to creating my account here). In fact this is the only forum that I use my real name on.

Cheers
Alan

DAVIE_MAC

Bank of England cut rates by:

1.5% WOW

How will this affect the exchange rate do yo all think....

aid1970

OMG

ThemeOne

The base rate cut seems to have made no difference as yet.

I guess I'm one of a long queue waiting for a return to £1=$2 or thereabouts.