Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Funding terror? The flip side of forex boom

About 90 per cent of the operators do not indicate the sources and purposes of foreign exchange. This could assist money laundering. / Courtesy: google pics


The huge amounts of money handled by private forex bureaus could be a threat to the country and the region if foreign exchange rules are disregarded, the Bank of Uganda has warned.

In a meeting held in Kampala by forex bureaus and money remittance operators on April 30, the executive director of bank supervision at the Bank of Uganda, Justine Bagyenda, raised the alarm on possible money laundering and financial terrorism.

She said the laid-down guidelines should be adhered to as the country awaits the enactment of the Anti Money Laundering Law.

A survey by the EastAfrican reveals that many operators are not complying with Know Your Customer requirements and procedures drafted by the central bank.

These procedures were issued to all forex bureaus and money remitters in August 2003 to assist in combating the vice in Uganda’s financial sector.

Said Ms Bagyenda: “For instance, some of you are not undertaking due diligence to ensure that customer identification details for large transactions are provided.”

She added: “We have noted that 90 per cent of the operators do not capture the sources of and the purposes of foreign exchange.

“This is very dangerous as it is a possible avenue for money laundering. You should comply with the law on declaring sources and purposes of foreign exchange, and the ‘know your customer’ measures that are crucial to turn down illegally-acquired funds and prevent possible financing terrorism.”

Foreign exchange regulations require dealers to report to the Bank of Uganda the details of any individual selling amounts in excess of $5,000.

Privately run foreign currency exchange bureaus and money remittance outlets handled 30 percent of the net foreign exchange transactions in Uganda in 2008, but the regulators are concerned by increased laxity.

The Bank of Uganda says the forex bureau and money remittance sector has remained largely buoyant, with a total of 122 forex bureaus and 75 money remittance outlets.

But a few were not following operational procedures regarding identification of clients, leaving the country open to money laundering.





Ms Bagyenda said an increase was reported in the inflows and outflows of licensed money remittances in the country that stood at the equivalent of $226.01 million in inflows and $104.20 million in outflows, at the close of December 2008.

This was a tremendous improvement compared with $99.44 million and $40.59 million recorded inflows and outflows during 2007.

Statistics from the bank show that total purchases in the forex bureaus market increased from $1.2 billion at the end of December 2007 to $1.5 billion at the end of December 2008, while total sales increased from $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion over the same period.

It is due to this performance that the Bank of Uganda continues to recognise the crucial role played by forex bureaus and money remitters as partners in deepening the financial sector and fostering macroeconomic stability and growth in the country, Ms Bagyenda said.

She added that increased risk aversion by investors and the effects of the global recession were presenting significant macroeconomic challenges to Uganda’s financial system.

If the global recession is prolonged, Uganda could face reduced export earnings, a decline in foreign direct investments and reduced remittances, which would significantly reduce the banking system liquidity and exert pressure on exchange rates and debt service capacity.

Uganda’s forex bureaus and money remitters operate under the Foreign Exchange Act of 2004 and the Foreign Exchange Remitters Act 2006.

The two Acts provide for exchange of foreign currencies in Uganda and making of international payments and transfer of foreign exchange; and for other related and incidental matters.

Ms Bagyenda promised more rigorous inspections to ensure compliance with laws through off-site and on-site surveillance of forex bureaus and money remittance sector.

In a related development, the bank’s assistant director of non-bank financial institutions, Benedict Ssekabira, said Uganda and Kenya had started harmonising the supervision of forex bureaus.

Two Bank of Uganda officials were to be in Kenya from May 4-8 for an insight into on-site and cash audit operations, he said.

Likewise, CBK officials have been in Uganda for lessons on risk-based supervision of commercial banks and financial institutions. The visits were arranged by a committee of the East African Monetary Community, which is handling the East African Monetary Union.

The East Community Monetary Committee Affairs — under the umbrella of the five governors of central banks of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi — is trying to beat the 2012 target of fast-tracking the East African Monetary Union.

FOREX vs. Futures Trading

Which to trade - Forex, Futures, Or Options on Futures?


Both futures and forex trading have their advantages and disadvantages.


Trading forex - or foreign currency pairs - gives greater leverage than outright futures trading, of up to 100:1.


This means that for every $1000 put up in margin, you can trade with up to $100,000 in currency value. If you put up $10K, you could trade with $1 Million of currency. This means that if there is a 1% move in the value of the currency pair that day, it would give you a profit/loss of $10,000, or 100% change on your investment. This would be great if you were right, but disastrous if you were wrong as you would have lost your entire trading account.


Trading futures, you usually get leverage of around 2%, so you can do twice as much with your money trading forex (losing twice as much as well as winning twice as much. Money management is important!). If you are swayed to forex because of the increased leverage, hang on a minute because you may be able to get much more leverage using options on futures...


Deep out the money options will cost little but if you are right on your prediction, you could make a vast sum in a short period of time. For example, Feb Gold is trading at 455.00 on December 3rd 2004. You expect a sharp drop in prices to trend-line support at 435. You have $100,000 to trade with. 435 Feb gold puts are priced at $500 each - quite cheap as they are deep-out-the-money. You have enough to buy 200 puts $500 x 200 = $100,000.


On Dec 10th, the market has plummeted to 435 and you exit your position by selling your 200 puts. In effect, you sold the futures at 455 and bought futures at 435, giving a profit of $20 per contract. There are 100 troy ounces per contract so you make $2000 per contract. You bought 200 contracts so you have made $400,000 in a week, or 400% on your money while the market has dropped less that 5%.


If you had done an outright futures trade, you may have had to put up $2000/contract in margin, so you could only have traded 50 contracts as opposed to the 200 using options. If you had sold 200 futures at $455 and bought at $435, you'd have made $200,000 or 200% on your investment.


For more on the pros and cons of trading futures options, see here.


Trading forex has the advantage of being commission free. The forex broker is compensated for its services through the spread between the bid/ask prices.


Spot currency trading is a worldwide inter-bank market that allows buyers to be matched with sellers instantly. Although you do not pay a commission charge to a broker to match buyer up with seller, the spread is usually larger than trading futures.


For example, trading a Japanese Yen/US Dollar pair USDJPY forex trade would have a 3 point spread worth $30. Trading a JY futures trade would more likely have a spread of 1 point worth $10 but you would also be charged the broker's commission. This could be as low as $10 in-and-out for self-directed online trading, or as much as $50 for full-service trading that may include live assistance, help and advice from the broker. You need to compare both online forex and your particular futures commission charge to see which "commission" is greater. Chances are they actually work out about the same.


Forex trading is a 24-hour market, trading 5-days a week. Opening hours follow the sun around the world from one country to another e.g. New York, London, Tokyo, back to New York. This is good because you can get in/out of a trade at any time. If there is a major announcement or news story breaking that could effect the markets, you could log-in to your account and make a trade. That is, if you can stay awake 24-hours a day, 5-days a week!


In recent years, most futures markets also trade around the clock too, on the GLOBEX markets.


Charges on Your Account


Forex trades carry an interest charge of around 1% per year. This may sound small, but with the high leverage of forex trading, you can trade with a lot larger amount of forex than in your account.


For example, you have $50,000 to trade forex. There is 100:1 leverage allowing you to control $100,000 with $1000 margin. Therefore, with your $50,000 you can trade $5 million of currency. If you fully margined your $50K for a year and ended up breaking even on your trades, the 1% interest charge will cost you $50,000 - your entire account value!


Even trading smaller amounts, the interest charges can add up. For example, you have $100,000 in your trading account and use $30,000 in margin. Over a few weeks, some trades go your way and some do not, some positions are stopped out and a couple are left on the market. You have a profit of $3000 from all your trades, or 10% on your margin. But the interest charges could amount to perhaps $1000, or 30% of your profits.


With futures, there is no interest charged on your account or positions.


Exchange Rates


If you are located in a country other than the United States of America and need to transfer your local currency into US dollars to deposit into your trading account, you should also be aware of the currency exchange rate.


For example, you are British and want to open an account trading US futures markets. You convert £50,000 British Pounds Sterling into US Dollars at an exchange rate of 1.8000 USDGBP and get $90,000.


Six months later, the dollar has fallen in value against the Pound and you could now get 1.9500 USD for every GBP.


Were you to not make any trades at all during this period, or your trades had broken even, and you then decided to convert your dollars back in Sterling, you would only get £46,154 less the spread and commission fees. You would also have received no interest on your money while it was sat in your trading account, whereas you may have got - perhaps - 5% had you left it in a UK bank account. This has devalued your money in the 6-month period.

Forex Trading - Who participate in Forex Trading?

In the last years, the foreign exchange market has expanded from one where banks would execute transactions between themselves to one in which many other kinds of financial institutions like brokers and market-makers participate including non-financial corporations, investment firms, pension funds and hedge funds.


Its' focus has broadened from servicing importers and exporters to handling the vast amounts of overseas investment and other capital flows that currently take place. Lately foreign exchange day trading has become increasingly popular and various firms offer trading facilities to the small investor.


Foreign exchange is an 'over the counter' (OTC) market, that means that there is no central exchange and clearing house where orders are matched. Geographic trading 'centers' exist around the world however and are: (in order of importance) London, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Frankfurt, Geneva & Zurich, Paris and Hong Kong. Essentially foreign exchange deals are made between participants on the basis of trust and reputation to deliver on an agreement. In the case of banks trading with one another, they do so solely on that basis. In the retail market, customers demand a written legally accepted contract between themselves and their broker in exchange of a deposit of funds on which basis the customer may trade.

Some market participants may be involved in the 'goods' market, conducting international transactions for the purchase or sale of merchandise. Some may be engaged in 'direct investment' in plant and equipment, or may be in the 'money market,' trading short-term debt instruments internationally. The various investors, hedgers, and speculators may be focused on any time period, from a few minutes to several years. But, whether official or private, and whether their motive be investing, hedging, speculating, arbitraging, paying for imports, or seeking to influence the rate, they are all part of the aggregate demand for and supply of the currencies involved, and they all play a role in determining the exchange rate at that moment.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

"BREAKING NEWS"

Energy and Asset Technology, Inc. (EGTY) owns a global license to market
the genetically enhanced Global Cedar growth trees, with plans to
REVOLUTIONIZE the forest-timber industry.

These newly enhanced Global Cedar trees require only 9-12 years of growth before they can
be harvested for lumber, whereas worldwide growth time for lumber is 30-50 years.

Other than growing at an astonishing rate, the Global Cedar has a number of other benefits.
Its natural elements make it resistant to termites, and the lack of oils and sap found in the wood
make it resistant to forest fire, ensuring higher returns on investments.

the wood is very lightweight and strong, lighter than Poplar and over twice
as strong as Balsa, which makes it great for construction. It also has
the unique ability to regrow itself from the stump, minimizing the land and
time to replant and develop new root systems.

Based on current resources and agreements, EGTY projects revenues of $140 Million
with an approximate profit margin of 40% for each 9-year cycle. With anticipated
growth, EGTY is expected to challenge Deltic Timber Corp. during its initial 9-year cycle.

Deltic Timber Corp. currently trades at over $38.00 a share with about $153 Million in revenues.
As the reputation and demand for the Global Cedar tree continues to grow around the world
EGTY believes additional multi-million dollar agreements will be forthcoming. The Global Cedar nursery has produced
about 100,000 infant plants and is developing a production growth target of 250,000 infant plants per month.

Energy and Asset Technology is currently in negotiations with land and business owners in New Zealand,
Greece and Malaysia regarding the purchase of their popular and profitable fast growing infant tree plants.
Inquiries from the governments of Brazil and Ecuador are also being evaluated.

Conclusion:

The examples above show the Awesome, Earning Potential of little
known Companies That Explode onto Investor�s Radar Screens.
This stock will not be a Secret for long. Then You May Feel the Desire to Act Right
Now! And Please Watch This One Trade!!

GO EGTY! FOREX

All statements made are our express opinion only and should be treated as such.
We may own, take position and sell any securities mentioned at any time. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect
to predictions, goals, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are
not statements of historical fact and may be "forward, looking
statements." forward, looking statements are based on expectations, estimates
and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results
or events to differ materially from those presently anticipated. This newsletter was paid $3,000 from third party (IR Marketing).
Forward,|ooking statements in this action may be identified through the use of words such as: "projects", "foresee", "expects". in compliance with Se'ction 17. {b), we disclose the holding of EGTY shares prior to the publication of this report. Be aware of an inherent conflict of interest resulting from such holdings due to our intent to profit from the liquidation of these shares. Shares may be sold at any time, even after positive statements have been made regarding the above company. Since we own shares, there is an inherent conflict of interest in our statements and opinions. Readers of this publication are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward,looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and expectations involving various risks and uncertainties that could cause results to
differ materially from those set forth in the forward- looking statements. This is not solicitation to buy or sell stocks, this text is
or informational purpose only and you should seek professional advice from registered financial advisor before you do anything related with buying or selling stocks, penny stocks are very high risk and you can lose your entire investment.

Fundamental review of the week from 01.06.year to 05.06.2009

The week begins with retail sales in Australia in April. The sector enjoyed solid sales in recent months as the combination of fiscal and monetary incentives "otduha 'consumer portfolios. Over the past months, signs of improving the overall consumer confidence also support retail. By continuing incentives (in the form of fiscal variations) during April, and total disappearance of the speculator market during this period we expect a new sound-percent increase in sales for the month. Later PM I index of European countries and the euro will show whether improvements in the Old Continent and may lead to new "bi chi movement in favor of the euro. The main index of U.S. consumer spending for April will also be removed - the capacity and extend the recession reduced price to a point of deterioration and inflation pressure down during the next 12 months. But it is proven that this will show a little more slowly in the data, based on inflation, which has stabilized recently. Manufacturing index recovered from 28-year bottomed in 32.9 in 40.1 Dkemvri it for April, which was the lowest for the past 18 years, if the last 6 months were never happen.

On Tuesday the Swiss GDP may help to "rally" in the franc and the pair dollar / Frank down to below 1.0400, if any improvement in the Swiss economy. Mortgage loans approved in the UK 11:30 will give us a clearer picture of England and if there is resurgence in the credit sector. Pounds are expected to be extremely volatile on its main krosove. Unemployment rate of the euro is expected to increase compared to the previous period, which may slow down upward movement of the euro against the dollar, but we assume that this will be only short-term correction in favor of the state currency. Unsold U.S. homes go 17:00 on Tuesday and will reveal whether there is a chance the U.S. construction sector to show any effect.

On Wednesday morning PMI index released by the European countries and we suggest that management's confidence in the sector has improved, and if so, to support the euro in the news. Then the UK also exports its PMI index, and decrease it may weaken pounds short. U.S. ISM index afternoon - the decline in services is no longer so sharp, even refund is quite sharp. Shows continued improvement for profits, but we see that the ISM is less important for obrashtaemostta inventory and probably more frustrating than production data.

Thursday, we expect highly volatile session for the main doubles as removal of the decisions of the Central Bank interest rates in the euro area, UK and Canada then. ECB will not surprise us, and levels are expected to remain unchanged to 1.00 percent, but there is little chance for reduction of 25 basis points to 0.75 percent and if this happens will quickly lead over euro 1.5000 against the dollar. Predictability studies show that the interest of England will also remain unchanged since the British economy shows signs of improvement and the government prefers to maintain a 0.5%. Canada to suggest that because the strong Canadian dollar against major opponents.

On Friday will be removed from the CPI and the Swiss can support Frank during the morning session. Later that day Zaetostta in non-agricultural sector for the month of May and the unemployment rate (9.2 percent expected) are expected to be exported. Like most recent statistics, wages seem to be prepared to show improvement. Weekly initial jobless claims to step back slightly from recent peaks and indicators of labor market improve. But levels continue to grow and the level of unemployment nearing 10 percent. We believe that these figures reflect more on the demand in the economy and will be too slow to improve it will continue to be key challenges for households and politicians.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Blog.com signups are online again

by Blog.com Team

The signpost page is enabled again. Yesterday we had to disable it, because we stopped being able to connect to recapture servers. recapture provides us with the anti-spam verification on new account signpost and on anonymous comment submission. Without it, we’d be flooded with spammers.

The problem is solved. It was a network routing problem, not recapture fault. It was not our fault either. We’ll just chalk the blame for this event to computers on the other side of the ocean. I’m sure they are not sentient (yet) and won’t care (yet).