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Friday, March 5, 2010

Dubai Central Bank to Provide Liquidity to Banks

The United Arab Emirates' central bank set up new additional liquidity facility for commercial banks, it said on Sunday.
"Central Bank has issued a notice to UAE banks and branches of foreign banks operating in the UAE, making available to them a special additional liquidity facility linked to their current accounts at the central bank, at the rate of 50 basis points above the 3 months EIBOR (Emirates interbank offered rate)," it said in a statement.

The central bank also said it stood behind UAE banks and branches of foreign banks, adding the Gulf Arab country's banking system was more sound and liquid than a year ago.

Meanwhile, banks who lent over $30 billion to Dubai World, the debt-laden state investment group, plan to appoint auditors KPMG to represent them in talks over recovering their money, the Independent on Sunday newspaper reported.

Start Trading Forex For Free!

Yes, it's true, you can trade the forex markets for free and using the same state-of-the-art software packages that professional Forex traders, around the world, are currently using to make real-time, live currency trades.
And you can also experience the same dynamic market action and go through the same process of making decisions based on breaking news, reacting to charting patterns, and tracking ones performance the same way professional Forex traders do.

And all this can be done even if you don't put any real money into your account, you won't see any difference in how the market behaves and how you react to the market. In short, at some point, every new forex trader needs to start Demo-trading.

Once you start placing demo trades, you will learn a lot about how Forex transactions are placed. I can't emphasize you enough, that this is a very important step for you in order to be able to learn how to become a trader. A demo account allows one to become familiar with trading procedures, such as placing Market, Limit, Stop, OCO Orders without any risk. All dollar losses or gains on a demo account are imaginary but, as mentioned above, the trading experience you acquire is not.

You should notice that making big gains in a demo-account does not guarantee profits in live trading; however, those who are not successful trading on paper rarely are successful when money is on the line. So, yes, just playing around and getting familiar with a demo account can be a great learning experience; however, you will not learn how to become a trader this way. You need to have a trading strategy.

Once you sign up for a mini-demo account, you will need to try one of the trial charting packages from the broker you choose. Any demo software you choose will do because they all have the necessary indicator tools you need. Once you have downloaded the software you can then set up your demo account and start drawing trendlines, marking support & resistance levels, monitoring moving averages, etc. This is also a very good way to get used to how orders are placed. Once you have a real trading system, you will already know how to place orders properly.

And remember, everyone makes mistakes placing orders. So you need to experiment before in a demo account so you can make your mistakes without losing any real money.

Standard foreign currency option features:

The option contract gives the option purchaser the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a given amount of foreign exchange in the underlying currency at a fixed price per unit (strike or exercise price) within a specified period of time (set by the maturity or expiration date).

A call option gives the investor the right to buy the foreign currency; a put option gives the investor the right to sell a foreign currency.

An American option gives the buyer the right to exercise at any time up to the exercise date; a European option can be exercised only on the expiration date.

The cost of the option is usually referred to as the option premium.

Options on futures contracts give the buyer the option to purchase currency futures contracts instead of the underlying currency itself.

The intrinsic value of an option depends on the relationship between the strike price and the exchange rate of the underlying currency, A call option has an intrinsic value equal to the maximum of zero or the difference between the underlying exchange rate and the exercise price. A put option has an intrinsic value equal to the maximum of zero or the difference between the strike price and underlying exchange rate.

An option with a positive intrinsic value is said to be 'in the money'. Options with no intrinsic value are said to be 'out of the money'. An 'at the money' option is one whose strike price is equal to the underlying exchange rate.

Foreign exchange market

The foreign exchange market (currency, forex, or FX) is where currency trading takes place. It is where banks and other official institutions facilitate the buying and selling of foreign currencies. [1]FX transactions typically involve one party purchasing a quantity of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another. The foreign exchange market that we see today started evolving during the 1970s when worldover countries gradually switched to floating exchange rate from their erstwhile exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system until 1971.

Presently, the FX market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other financial institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Traditional daily turnover was reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements.[2] Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.[3]

The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as the US Dollars, Euro, Japanese yen, Pound Sterling, etc..., and the need for trading in such currencies.

Non-bank Foreign Exchange Companies


Non-bank foreign exchange companies offer currency exchange and international payments to private individuals and companies. These are also known as foreign exchange brokers but are distinct in that they do not offer speculative trading but currency exchange with payments. I.e., there is usually a physical delivery of currency to a bank account.

It is estimated that in the UK, 14% of currency transfers/payments[10] are made via Foreign Exchange Companies.[11] These companies' selling point is usually that they will offer better exchange rates or cheaper payments than the customer's bank. These companies differ from Money Transfer/Remittance Companies in that they generally offer higher-value services.