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10 Things to Consider Before Investing in Forex

I tried a reputable dealer's demo account (not yours) and was continuously electronically nagged to get into the game for real - the butting in by the service provider was so bad I never did sign up. On my medium term time frame for trading, I'm happy enough with the CurrencyShares ETFs, and now ProShares is providing double-long and double-short ETFs for EUR and USD / JPY and USD pairs. The Forex platforms seem entirely oriented toward day traders to maximize their transaction spreads, a different stroke for a different folk.

Hedging a Weakening Dollar With Currency ETFs

I'd agree the dollar is sinking this year on concerns about economic slowdown and a possible cut in the Fed rate while other central banks are trending up, but would think there is a practical floor. Long term would guess the buck will only decline ver-r-ry slowly, and only if and when the Euro zone develops decent levels of domestic consumption. It's not obvious to me that China or anyplace else in the next 30 years will be able to make the cultural, political and economic transitions to create a consumer alternative to the US - witness even Japan's paralysis right at the point where big changes were needed to create a dynamic economic and political system. Premature moves out of the dollar and failure to underwrite the US consumer would risk killing the goose that is laying the golden eggs for these economies. Talk about global warming: watch the oceans rise from sweat pouring off the foreheads of foreign politicians, business folk and eventually central bankers when the floating Euro pushes $1.40, the A$ or C$ push $0.90, not to mention the obviously manipulated Yen and Yuan rates.