Oil prices reach seven month-high

Oil prices jumped more than 3% on Monday to a nearly seven-month high above $68 a barrel.
US light sweet crude settled $2.27 higher at $68.58 while Brent crude rose by $2.45 to $67.97.
Gains in global stock markets and data showing modest growth in Chinese manufacturing appeared to be driving up prices, continuing a recent rally.
Oil prices climbed by 30% in May, which was the largest gain in a single month since 1999.
But oil is still trading well below the record high of $147 a barrel seen last July.

Warning

Some analysts fear that the oil market may be moving ahead of reality, and warn that prices could fall as investors face up to the reality of a glut of supplies and weak global demand.
"Most of the commodity markets, the base metals as well as oil, have moved to factor in economic recovery," said David Moore, commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
"There is a risk that if economic data does not continue to support this view of the world that markets become disappointed with the pace of economic recovery, leading to price setbacks."
Last week, ministers from the Opec group of oil-producing countries said that they would keep output unchanged, with the Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi predicting prices will reach $75 this year.

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Europe Roundup - Eurozone Jobless Rate Climbs To Near Decade High

Tuesday, official statistics showed that unemployment in the Eurozone rose to its highest level in nearly ten years in April as the global economic downturn left several Europeans without work.
In other important news from the region, the Swiss economy contracted the most since 1992 as sluggish global demand continued to hurt the country's exports.
Eurozone
The Luxembourg-based statistical office Eurostat said the seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 9.2% in April from 8.9% recorded in March. This is the highest rate since September 1999 and a touch higher than the 9.1% expected. The number of unemployed persons increased by 396,000 to 14.58 million in April from 14.18 million in March.
The jobless rate for the EU27 stood at 8.6% in April, the highest since January 2006 and up from 8.4% in March. The rate was 6.8% in April 2008.
Elsewhere, a report by Spain's labor ministry said the number of unemployed persons decreased by 24,741 to 3.6 million in May from the preceding month, representing the first decline in 14 months.
The French statistical office INSEE announced that industrial producer prices for the domestic market declined 6.4% year-over-year in April, compared with a 5.5% fall in the previous month. The April producer prices came in line with economists' expectations.
The Statistical Service of the Republic of Cyprus revealed that the general government deficit stood at 0.8% of GDP in the first quarter, compared to a surplus, which was 0.5% of GDP in the previous year.
Irish consumer confidence dropped in May to 45.5 from 46.8 in April, results of a survey conducted by KBC Bank Ireland and the Economic and Social Research Institute showed
Rest of Europe
U.K.'s Select Committee on Economic Affairs of the House of Lords urged the government to return the responsibility for macro-prudential supervision to the Bank of England as the current tripartite framework of regulation and supervision failed to mitigate the financial crisis.
On the data front, the Bank of England said the number of loans approved for house purchases in the U.K. increased to 43,201 in April from 40,038 in March. The April level was higher than the previous six months average of 33,845 and 41,000 expected by economists.
Further, the British central bank upwardly revised UK's M4 money supply growth for April to 0.2% from 0.1% reported initially. In March, money supply had grown 0.3%.
The Confederation of British Industry said shortage of trade credit insurance remains a worry. However, deterioration in credit conditions slowed further over the last three months and expects it to stabilize in the months ahead, a survey by the industry lobby found.
Data released by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs or SECO showed that the Swiss gross domestic product or GDP fell 0.8% sequentially in the first quarter following a downwardly revised 0.6% contraction in the fourth quarter. That was the worst performance since the final quarter of 1992. Meanwhile, economists had forecast the economy to shrink 1.5%. GDP declined for the third straight quarter, while two consecutive quarters of negative GDP defines a recession.
The Credit Suisse said the SVME purchasing managers' index for Switzerland rose to 39.8 in May from 34.7 in April, the strongest increase since September 2005. Economists had forecast a reading of 36.5.
The number of Norwegian business leaders expecting their companies' profitability to increase over the next 12 months increased in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, results of a quarterly survey carried out by the Perduco for the Norges Bank showed.
Norway's consumer confidence index rose to minus 3.7 in the second quarter from a revised minus 8.3 in the first quarter, the Saving Banks Association said. Economists had expected the index to rise to minus 5 from the initial first quarter reading of minus 11.1.
Statistics Norway said the twelve-month growth in the C2 credit indicator was 8% in April, down from 8.8% in March.
The Financial Stability Report from the Riksbank said the loan losses of major Swedish banks would increase over the coming years and the loan losses in 2009 and 2010 would total SEK 170 billion.
Statistics Denmark said the retail sales volume fell a seasonally adjusted 0.6% month-on-month in April, after a 0.1% rise in the previous month.
Romania's National Institute of Statistics said in a report that the producer price index or PPI rose 2.5% year-over-year in April, slower than the 3.9% increase in the previous month

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Career In The Forex

Market Traders Institute specializes in developing partnerships with international individuals and institutions. We have the technological expertise, around-the-clock facilities, administrative back-up, materials, intellectual property and flexible attitude that enables us to provide and grant authority to Investor partners to market proprietary technical analysis and foreign currency exchange course material, including all study-at-home material, introductory course and class room based instructional material. Of course we provide a very thorough business and intellectual property orientation and training program . In other words, we provide you with all the necessary tools.

Market traders offers two great licensee plans:

Join the MTI winning team. Income generating activities for the Licensee include Forex education, web based Forex subscription services, Forex product sales and Forex trading revenue.
We expect a strong commitment to provide our combined services to the client base and to position the services geographically in your marketing approach.

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Forex VS Stocks Market

Foreign currency exchange (Forex) market and stocks market work quite differently. Neither Forex market or stock market is greater than each other but the investing concept in them differs quite a lot.
However, by comparing their differences, we wish to give you a clearer picture on these two markets thus help you to select the market type that suits you the best. Fact is you might want to get involved in both market to diversify your on hand capital.

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The Explosion of the Euromarket

A major catalyst to the acceleration of Forex trading was the rapid development of the eurodollar market; where US dollars are deposited in banks outside the US. Similarly, Euromarkets are those where assets are deposited outside the currency of origin. The Eurodollar market first came into being in the 1950s when Russia’s oil revenue-- all in dollars -- was deposited outside the US in fear of being frozen by US regulators. That gave rise to a vast offshore pool of dollars outside the control of US authorities.
The US government imposed laws to restrict dollar lending to foreigners. Euromarkets were particularly attractive because they had far less regulations and offered higher yields.
From the late 1980s onwards, US companies began to borrow offshore, finding Euromarkets a beneficial center for holding excess liquidity, providing short-term loans and financing imports and exports.London was, and remains the principal offshore market.
In the 1980s, it became the key center in the Eurodollar market when British banks began lending dollars as an alternative to pounds in order to maintain their leading position in global finance. London’s convenient geographical location (operating during Asian and American markets) is also instrumental in preserving its dominance in the Euromarket.

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Learn Forex

How do I begin? Please give it to me SIMPLY.
1. The best advice on how to learn to trade profitably is to learn from experts with proven track records. Many learning styles are available to beginners at all levels: books, CDs, online courses, group seminars, even one-on-one mentors who will come right your home for a few days. We outline our Forex-Trader picks in Learning Forex Trading. Learning to trade from experts is worth every penny and has saved us untold thousands in mistakes.We would not recommend starting forex trading without any training. It is not hard to learn, nor difficult to trade successfully, but you must first provide yourself with a basic functioning knowledge of ’the game you’re in’.

2. While you are learning you will need charting software to practice reading the Market. Charting is an indispensable tool that shows you in real-time data what the market is doing moment by moment and also what the market has done in the past. As you learn to analyze these charts you can determine what trades to enter and exit, where to set your stop losses, limits etc. There are several good charting software services that you can subscribe to online monthly. See our Forex-Trader tested Charting Software picks in Tools of The Trade.

3. Then, to perform your actual trades online you need a real-time ’trading platform’ to execute your ’buys’ and ’sells’ directly in the Foreign Currency Market. You obtain a trading platform from a Forex Clearinghouse that is connected real-time to the interbank market. There are many good Clearinghouses (also confusingly called Brokerage Firms, Market Makers, etc.) that provide you with the trading platform to trade the funds in the account you have opened with them. Before you begin trading your ’real’ money, while you are learning, you will practice on your own ’demo account’ with play-money in it, which will be provided to you by the clearinghouse you plan to trade through. The contractual relationship you enter into with your Clearinghouse is a very important one because the Clearinghouse you choose determines many trading features and financial advantages to you both as a trader and as an investor. Forex-Trader tested Clearinghouses are reviewed in Tools of The Trade.

We have outlined a Getting Started path with uncomplicated steps. This is the path that we would take if we were beginning trading over again today with ’what we know now’. The products and services we mention in these steps are all ones that we have personally used for some time with consistent success. As always you are free to forge your own path, and if you do, happy hiking. There is a mountain of products and services try out, and if you find ones you like better we would love to compare notes with you.

Explain More About Charting Services
To trade successfully you also must have good charting software and instantaneous data feeds critical to helping you analysis and interpret the movement of currencies moment to moment so you know when/why to buy or sell — this you subscribe to monthly. You can get a 2 week or more demo to familiarize yourself with one that has the features you like. The costs also vary, and some companies require a year commitment. There are some free charting services offered through the clearinghouses, but they tend to lack the tools to be truly useful. There are also some costly proprietary Specialty Software charting ’hybrids’ which are market forecasters tools that look more like video games than charts.

Explain More About How Clearinghouses Work
A good clearinghouse (i.e.. your computer access/link to the live Forex Exchange Market) is the partner with which you trade the money you have deposited with them in your trading account. After trying and demo-ing many we have found a small handful that are truly excellent for the beginner (and continue to be excellent as you grow) — meaning user friendly, legally accountable to regulatory bodies, and offering fair costs (spreads) for their services/trading software platforms. There still are many worrisome ones practicing in this closing era of unregulated forex trading (new Commodities laws are imminent).

The topic of matching the right clearinghouse for your needs is discussed more in Tools of the Trade, because it depends on a number of factors — how much you can open an account with, how much the clearinghouse profit spread, what your liquidity needs are, your minimum/maximum stop loss and margin requirements, even where you live and how much time you have to give to trading in a 24 hr. day.

How Much Does it Cost to Begin to Trade?
Learning to trade will entail the cost of books and whatever traiining method you choose. It will also include a reliable computer with a minimum 128 Mb of memory to run the charting software and trading platform. Ongoing ’costs of operation’ include the monthly costs of high-speed internet, charting software, the email forecasting subscriptions — plan on spending $150./mo. up for ongoing costs.

What about Pooled Clearinghouse Accounts to Trade with More Leverage?
We strongly do not recommend pooled accounts in any circumstance. Perhaps you are considering self-trading a pooled- together family account because it would give you a perceived advantage of more leveraged funds to trade (50:1 up to 100:1 leverage) — any risks of loss represent a potential risk to family relationships, and for this reason alone we do not recommend aggregating with family or friends.
However much worse are the too-numerous negative experiences of people allowing their investment funds to leave their control to become part of a ’managed’ pooled account. Not only is it a very risky investment idea, it is illegal for anyone to ’pool’ accounts without compliance with SEC (a USA Securities Exchange Commission) or international equivalent license. Never relinquish direct control over your money/trading account to anyone (i.e.. the ability to make withdrawals, deposits etc. directly by your own authority into your own account).
A good fund manager, if you do choose to go the (legitimate) Managed Account route rather than the Self-Trader route, will make certain you have your own ’segregated account’ in your own name in a bank or brokerage firm. These individual segregated accounts can still be traded together as though they were in a single account by a designated trader as long as the clearing house uses a trading platform that allows it. You, as the investor/account holder, have direct access online to your account activity at all times, and direct control over your own account in your own name (just like a bank account). The importance of this, for the safety of your funds, cannot be over emphasized.

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Fibonacci Trading Techniques

Introduction to Fibonacci trading techniques.
First, a few words about Fibonacci himself…
Leonardo Pisano (nickname Fibonacci) was a mathematician, born in 1170, in Pisa (now Italy). His father was Guilielmo, of the Bonacci family. His father was a diplomat, as a result Fibonacci was educated in North Africa, where he learned "accounting" and "mathematics".
Fibonacci also contributed to the science of numbers, and introduced the "Fibonacci sequence"
The Fibonacci sequence is the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, introduced in his work "Liber abaci" in a problem involving the growth of a population of rabbits.
Aside from this sequence of number where every next number is the sum of the proceeding two, 0, 1 (0+1), 2 (1+1), 3 (2+1), 5 (3+2), 8 (5+3), 13 (8+5), etc.
There are the "Fibonacci ratios".. By comparing the relationship between each number, and each alternate number, and even each number to the one four places to the right, we arrive at some fairly consistent ratios.. The important ones are .236, 50, .382, .618, .764, 1.382, 1.618, 2.618, 4.236, and for good measure we include 1.00 ..
It turns out that the ratios are mathematical principles prevalent in nature around us, and is also in man-made objects. There are many interesting, entertaining, and poetic observations about Fibonacci numbers and ratios in the universe (see the reference section below). Fibonacci numbers appear in ancient buildings, in plants, planets, molecules, the dimensions of human bodies, and of course snails… But of what use is all that to the lowly trader?

What really interests you, the application of Fibonacci techniques in the trading environment.. Traders usually study charts! Fibonacci ratios may be applied to the Price scale, and also to the time scale of charts. I study the price scale. My focus here will be on the price scale for now, perhaps in the future I’ll add some time-scale studies.
Prices never move in a straight line. Look at any chart, you will see many wiggles, as price advances and retraces.. Stocks, Futures, Forex, all instruments which are liquid, will often retrace in Fibonacci proportions, and advance in Fibonacci proportions. Not always, and not precisely to the penny. But very often, and reasonably close! This happens often enough that profitable trades can result. I will show you some examples below.
I used Fibonacci ratios with a few simple indicators to help determine probable price turning points, optimum entry, exit and stop-loss levels. My complete techniques are available in on-line video seminars, in-person seminars, and via my real-time on-line chat facility. For more details, see the this web page
The application of Fibonacci to trading can be very complex, and take much time and experience to perfect. Many traders enjoy making the process as difficult and as complex as they can tolerate.. I do the opposite, I try to simplify, try to bring clarity.

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Interest Rates Table

Central bank interest rate is the rate at which country's central banking institutions lend short-term money to the country's commercial banks. Interest rates also play an important role in Forex market. Because the currencies bought via broker are not delivered to the buyer, broker should pay trader an interest based on the difference between "short" currency interest rate and "long" currency interest rate.

In the interest rates table you can not only find the current interest rates of 20 different countries, but also scroll back in time and see how and when interest rates were changed by the central banks.

Interest rates of the following countries are covered in this interest rates table: United States of America, United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Chile, South Africa, Sweden, Brazil, South Korea, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Hungary and Czech Republic.

Click the small green arrows above and below the table to see the past rates decisions.

Federal Reserve System 1.25% on 2009-04-02 by 0.25%
European Central Bank 0.50% on 2009-04-09 by 0%
Bank of England 0.10% on 2009-04-07 by 0%
Bank of Japan 0.25% on 2009-04-21 by 0.25%
Bank of Canada 3.00% on 2009-04-07 by 0.25%
Reserve Bank of Australia 3.00% on 2009-03-12 by 0.50%
Reserve Bank of New Zealand 0.375% on 2009-03-12 by 0.125%
Swiss National Bank 9.50% on 2009-03-25 by 1.00%
South African Reserve Bank 1.75% on 2009-04-09 by 0.50%
Central Bank of Chile 2.00% on 2009-04-03 by 0.25%
Danmarks Nationalbank 2.00% on 2009-03-26 by 0.50%
Norges Bank 0.50% on 2009-04-22 by 0.50%
Riksbank 11.25% on 2009-03-19 by 1.50%
Banco Central do Brasil 1.75% on 2009-02-06 by 0.50%
Czech National Bank 9.50% on 2009-01-20 by 0.50%
Magyar Nemzeti Bank 5.00% on 2009-03-24 by 1.00%
Bank of Latvia 3.75% on 2009-03-26 by 0.25%
National Bank of Poland 12.50% on 2009-04-24 by 0.50%
Bank of Russia 2.00% on 2009-04-09 by 0%

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