31–40 of 55 posts
This quote makes me question the rest of the article: "Historically, currencies were always priced against US dollars." Foreign exchange precedes the _existence_ of the US Dollar, so wtf.
Is private forex trading as lucrative as it seems? People online seem to be making consistent, solid returns on relatively small investments (you can start out with < $100k)
The fact that there are so many 'get rich quick' schemes and 'guides' on forex makes me think that it's a fast way to lose your money.
Is private forex trading as lucrative as it seems? People online seem to be making consistent, solid returns on relatively small investments (you can start out with < $100k)
> People online seem to be making consistent, solid returns on relatively small investments I seriously doubt that. Realistically, Forex trading is gambling [1], and gamblers tend to be loud about their gains and silent about their losses. [1] Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that it's random chance – Poker is also gambling and depends partially on skill, not only luck.
Typical news stories:
1. Amateur currency traders in Japan, making a fortune until they don't.
> Most of these accounts involve margin trading, in which investors place a cash deposit with a brokerage that allows them to borrow up to 20 or even 100 times their holdings for trading.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/business/worldbusiness/16h...
2. A similar story in Europe, when the Swiss dropped their currency peg
> Europe has no caps in place, in contrast to other jurisdictions, such as the US, Hong Kong and Singapore. Clients deposit money with trading venues and use this as collateral to borrow a much larger amount and magnify their trading positions. In London it is usually 100-200 times the amount deposited into a retail account, but can be upwards of 500 times.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8676c6c6-9d97-11e4-8946-00144feabd...
Is private forex trading as lucrative as it seems? People online seem to be making consistent, solid returns on relatively small investments (you can start out with < $100k)
> People online seem to be making consistent, solid returns on relatively small investments I seriously doubt that. Realistically, Forex trading is gambling [1], and gamblers tend to be loud about their gains and silent about their losses. [1] Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that it's random chance – Poker is also gambling and depends partially on skill, not only luck.
I can not imagine it is that good of a deal as I get calls about people wanting to help me with my foreign exchange on a monthly basis for many years now. There is not topic that I get more cold calls on than this. This suggests to me, this means it must be fairly profitable for those companies offering it, and that profit likely would come out of my pockets, but I haven't done the analysis. That said, I know my bank…
I transferred some savings last year, because I emigrated. All the normal British banks offered very poor exchange rates. Traditional money exchange sites, which seemed to target people making large foreign purchases (houses etc) or people looking to invest in foreign currency were better, but as soon as I signed up on the website I received calls from their staff, which annoyed me. In any case, the rates were still…
Nationwide offer some of the best rates, before that I used to use Norwich Peterborough which actually allowed fee free withdrawals abroad at spot rate.
Since their blog is coming up, asking HN: Mondo is looking like an interesting bank. I've had my eyes on both them and Simple for a while; unfortunately, I'm not in the UK anymore nor in the US so I went with Number 26 instead. Anyone have any experience with either?
I have been using Number26 as my main spending account for a few months now but wouldn't use it as my main account. There are a few things that aren't implemented yet, such as crediting cheques (I still get one or two a year) or non-SEPA transfers (though to be fair it is very expensive at banks compared to e.g. Transferwise so I wouldn't use it either way). The support is overwhelmed at the moment and over Christmas…
I can not imagine it is that good of a deal as I get calls about people wanting to help me with my foreign exchange on a monthly basis for many years now. There is not topic that I get more cold calls on than this. This suggests to me, this means it must be fairly profitable for those companies offering it, and that profit likely would come out of my pockets, but I haven't done the analysis. That said, I know my bank…
While I use TransferWise for getting paid by clients in other countries, I rely on http://currencyfair.com for my own money movements. The typical "catch" in most FX services is a hidden 2.5% - 5% fee in the exchange rate itself. You might be offered free, better rates than your bank! and will still be paying 2%. The likes of CF or TW have got this fee down to well under 1%, although TF certainly give every impressio…
Sometimes this fee is larger than local banks. In Canada for example I can wire money for $13.50 CAD ($9.50 US) up to $2500 CAD to almost anywhere in the world. CurrencyFair wrongly estimates Canadian bank fees at $35.00 CAD.
They also only have bank accounts in certain jurisdictions. For example they ask customers in Canada to wire money to their bank in New York rather than say by Interac which would cost Canadian a lot customers nothing.
I also find it strange they ignore what I would have thought was the largest market for remittance. Namely India and the Philippines. They also don't support the US because of the state licensing mess that the US requires for money transfer services [1].
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I use TransferWise for getting paid by clients in other countries, I rely on http://currencyfair.com for my own money movements. The typical "catch" in most FX services is a hidden 2.5% - 5% fee in the exchange rate itself. You might be offered free, better rates than your bank! and will still be paying 2%. The likes of CF or TW have got this fee down to well under 1%, although TF certainly give every impressio…
The problem with CurrencyFair is that you are still left paying the wire fee in a lot of jurisdictions. Sometimes this fee is larger than local banks. In Canada for example I can wire money for $13.50 CAD ($9.50 US) up to $2500 CAD to almost anywhere in the world. CurrencyFair wrongly estimates Canadian bank fees at $35.00 CAD. They also only have bank accounts in certain jurisdictions. For example they ask customers…
It's been a while since I last accepted a payment from a US client - maybe a year? - into CF's US account, and I didn't have any issues then.
Do you know how recently this changed?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with CurrencyFair is that you are still left paying the wire fee in a lot of jurisdictions. Sometimes this fee is larger than local banks. In Canada for example I can wire money for $13.50 CAD ($9.50 US) up to $2500 CAD to almost anywhere in the world. CurrencyFair wrongly estimates Canadian bank fees at $35.00 CAD. They also only have bank accounts in certain jurisdictions. For example they ask customers…
>They also don't support the US because of the state licensing mess that the US requires for money transfer services. It's been a while since I last accepted a payment from a US client - maybe a year? - into CF's US account, and I didn't have any issues then. Do you know how recently this changed?
>I live in the US can I still use you?
>Unfortunately at this time we are not licensed to receive business from United States residents. We do hope this will change in the future but for now we are unable to provide a timeline as to when this might happen.
Is private forex trading as lucrative as it seems? People online seem to be making consistent, solid returns on relatively small investments (you can start out with < $100k)