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Old 2010-05-07, 12:02   Link #7121
SaintessHeart
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xellos-_^ View Post
those trades will be cancel
Not if he/she is a freelance trader. Remember the Mizuho Securities fiasco in Japan 5 years ago? That guy gets to keep his winnings.

Besides, freelance traders have no obligation to give back the shares they have bought, neither do they have to get permission from the company to short it. So......


Funny that the trade was cancelled. Maybe because it was inside the S&P 100.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SeijiSensei View Post
The fall in the euro couldn't come at a better time for me personally, as I'm taking my daughter to Italy for a graduation present next month. I've been watching the euro/dollar exchange rate closely over the past couple of weeks. I think it's probably time to lock in the current low value, but since the EU financial crisis shows no real sign of resolution, I keep watching and waiting.
The currency market doesn't exactly run by just one crisis, though the GSP debts pretty much deflated it. If you are looking at the exchange rate, the EUR/USD pretty much broke most of the support and resistance lines, except for the last of the support lines based on data from the last 3 months :

Spoiler for big:


When it hits 1.2462, you should be able to start exchanging. Either way whether there's a retracement before or after the next support line breakout, I seriously doubt it would drop below 1.24 within the next month.

Btw, pass my congrats to your girl for her graduation.
__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2010-05-07, 14:46   Link #7122
Irenicus
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Age: 34
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jinto View Post
(btw. I consider Der Spiegel strongly biased. They often exaggerate to make their point - just to have a story...)
Yes, I do sense a kind of "those damn Americans/Asians" attitude from the article; moreover the article misses huge chunks of what might change the portrayal entirely. A question: how "respectable" is Der Spiegel in Germany itself? Is it at tabloid level, i.e. The Sun, or does it claim to a higher newspaper-of-record status like the New York Times? Or somewhere in-between?
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Old 2010-05-07, 14:59   Link #7123
SeijiSensei
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Age: 74
Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
Funny that the trade was cancelled. Maybe because it was inside the S&P 100.
No, the exchanges cancelled trades between 2:40 and 3:00 pm that deviated by more than 60%.

Quote:
The currency market doesn't exactly run by just one crisis, though the GSP debts pretty much deflated it.
The Euro has been in secular decline since last fall. When the EU failed to confront the Greek problem, the euro dropped again. I'm guessing there will be an uptick in the near-term if Ms. Merkel and company work out some sort of agreement.

Quote:
Btw, pass my congrats to your girl for her graduation.
Thanks!
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Old 2010-05-07, 15:23   Link #7124
Fahd
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Surrey, UK
Age: 39
Spoiler for Election Results conclusion:

I guess for the conservatives it will be: "so close, yet so far away." Definitely an interesting result, and one that will force some sort of compromise between the parties. I wonder how important to the Lib. Dem.'s their desire for electoral reform is, because I think that'll be the issue which makes them go to Labour or the Conservatives. The Conservative position will probably be: "We won the most seats, so we shouldn't have to negotiate on such an important issue with the party that came third."

Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
Thanks for the chart updates. Really cute mascot for the Tories, but I protest: Why Pikachu, a lead character, for the Liberal Democrats?
It was the first yellow coloured pokemon that came to mind .

Quote:
Mr Clegg maintained his pre-election position that the party with the highest number of seats should have the first say in trying to form a government.
Not quite. What he actually said was: "...the party with the highest number of seats should have the first say in trying to form a government."

I.e. if he doesn't like the deal they offer, he will turn to Labour next. I'm not sure how well the population would take, as Jeremy Paxman put it, 'a coalition of the losers.' It'll be an interesting few days as this shakes out .
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Old 2010-05-07, 20:23   Link #7125
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I don't get how a Lib-Lab coalition would work as it would still be a minority; would be less effective than a Conservative minority government in my mind. The Lib Dems are screwed no matter how you look at it. They can't threaten to prop up Labour because there's no majority there and keeping Brown in Number 10 would be political suicide. They have little to no bargaining power with the Tories so there's no hope for electoral reform in this parliament. And in the next election the Lib Dem vote is bound to go down as people return to Labour when it's led by someone other than Brown. Totally screwed.
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Old 2010-05-07, 20:26   Link #7126
Xellos-_^
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since there are 28 other seats held the infamous "other". what are tories chances of bring then in on a coalition.
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Old 2010-05-07, 22:38   Link #7127
SeijiSensei
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I've been considering that question all day now.

First, let me introduce you all to the "size principle" put forward by William Riker in The Theory of Political Coalitions. He uses game theory to prove the mathematical proposition that, under reasonable assumptions, only "minimal winning" coalitions should form. Intuitively, imagine that Cameron in this case is trying to build a majority. He can offer "side payments" to the other parties to get them to join. Riker argues that a rational politician will only make the minimum number of deals necessary to build a majority, thus a "minimal winning" result.

Other political scientists challenged this theory on the grounds that it ignores ideological locations. Studies of actual coalition formation show that politicians generally follow a "minimal connected winning" strategy choosing partners closer to them ideologically than far away.

So now lets take a look at the results. First of all, there are five Sinn Fein MPs (Sinn Fein was the political arm of the IRA) who I heard today refuse to attend Parliament. That means a working majority is probably more like 323 or 324 seats rather than 326; at 306, the Tories would have to cut sufficient deals to gain another 17-18 seats. Frankly that doesn't seem too likely. The SDLP is the Irish version of Labour so they're off the table as is probably the Green MP. Cameron could try to cut deals with the regional parties, the Scottish Nationals or the Welsh Plaid Cymru, but they'll be asking for huge additional financial subsidies for their regions in return for their support. Given the Tories commitment to cutting government spending this year, Cameron would have a hard time getting this past his own party members. The only likely partner for the Conservatives are the Democratic Unionists in Northern Ireland with their eight seats, but if deals could be struck with the SNP and Plaid as well, you could see an uneasy multi-party coalition bound together with funds from Whitehall.*

A Lab/LibDem coalition would start from a base of 315, plus the three SDLP seats. Throwing money at the regionals and sweet-talking the Green could bring them on-board for a total of 328, two more than an absolute majority, and four or five more than the working majority required if Sinn Fein continues to abstain from Parliament. Riker's theory would suggest a Lab/Lib/SDP outcome with a total of 324 seats.

The problem with another Lib-Lab coalition is Gordon Brown. Any deal which doesn't include him resigning as PM would be disastrous for the LibDems in my mind, since Brown was the clearest loser last night. Replacing Brown and accepting some type of referendum on "electoral reform," as Brown offered today, seems the only path to a Lib-Lab pact.

_____
*I don't see the SNP making any deals with the Tories who've largely been ousted from Scotland.
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Old 2010-05-07, 22:42   Link #7128
Autumn Demon
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Join Date: Mar 2006
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The 28 other seats:

Northern Ireland
8 Democratic Unionist Party seats (allied with the Conservatives)
3 Social Democratic & Labour Party seats (allied with Labour)
1 independent seat (anti-Tory)
1 Alliance Party seat (allied with the Lib Dems)
5 Sinn Fein seats (nationalist, anti-everyone)

Scotland
6 Scottish National Party seats (nationalist, anti-Tory)

Wales
3 Plaid Cymru seats (nationalist, anti-Tory)

England
1 Green seat (don't know where she stands)

So the Conservatives can only rely on the 8 Democratic Unionist seats of the 28 other seats. The other 20 probably loathe the Tories.

Cameron will definitely be prime minister, but he'll need at least ad hoc Lib Dem support if he wants to pass legislation.
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Old 2010-05-07, 23:39   Link #7129
SaintessHeart
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SeijiSensei View Post
The Euro has been in secular decline since last fall. When the EU failed to confront the Greek problem, the euro dropped again. I'm guessing there will be an uptick in the near-term if Ms. Merkel and company work out some sort of agreement.
Being a huge believer in market stupidity psychology rather than news headlines, there's a hike in the Euro last year somewhere towards November, according to the chart I posted (peaked at 1.5xx somewhere in mid Nov).

I suppose any news will lift the market confidence about the Euro, but ultimately it is still the supply and demand issue of economics - people tend to feel emotionally about the value of their property rather than really evaluating the price logically across the board, thus the sales and buyouts are influenced by random decisions rather than a cohesive groupthink (market panic).

Can't wait for Merkel's solution though. It would be a perfect opportunity to do scalping.
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When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2010-05-08, 00:25   Link #7130
Zu Ra
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Mortuary : D
Question Guilty or Innocent ?

Quote:

Lynched Chikan Commits Suicide






A man has committed suicide after police tried to pressure him into confessing to groping a drunk woman even after she withdrew her accusation, completely ignoring the beating the man received at the hands of the woman’s companions . The incident began one night with a common enough occurrence – a 25-year-old man, an employee of Japan’s space agency JAXA, was accused by a drunk student of touching her abdomen on the platform at Shinjuku station . Her two friends proceeded to attack him, pushing him down a flight of stairs and beating him . After this police arrived and promptly took him into custody as a suspected chikan, ignoring his pleas of innocence and his accusations of assault .The man was finally released by police at 5:45AM the next morning, after signing a written promise to return for more grilling later . Rather than heading home, he headed to Waseda station, familiar to him from his university commutes. At 6:40AM, he threw himself under an oncoming train . Services were delayed for 40 minutes, affecting some 24,000 people .

Quote:
“Police dropped the charges against him as he is dead. But my son would never have done such a thing in the first place.

His friends and teachers from university and his co-workers at JAXA all tearfully denied that he was capable of such a thing.

The police never even questioned his accusers, and they never told him the court had dropped charges.

His mother was distraught at this course of events, regarding it as a grotesque miscarriage of justice . In fact, the man had been wearing a recorder he used in his English studies, and much of his questioning and pleas of innocence were recorded, including him asking police “will my life be ruined by false charges like the people on the news?” . Even more damning were the circumstances surrounding his questioning, which was recorded completely and subsequently made public by the mother in her campaign for redress :

Quote:
“The victim’s confirming all of this.”

“They’re saying you are the one who assaulted them.”

“Today is about the chikan case. If you want to bring charges for assault, do it yourself.”

As if this were not enough, the accuser is said to have actually withdrawn the charges, saying “I may have been mistaken,” but police did not tell him and instead continued trying to pressure him into confessing . Technically he was not even arrested, instead having just been taken in for questioning . The mother is said to be looking to bring a case against the police, but reports no lawyers are willing to take up the case, saying it is too difficult to sue the police . Many claim Japan’s extremely high conviction rate is in significant part due to police interrogation techniques bordering on torture, resulting in confessions of questionable legitimacy . Add to this fact chikan charges are more often than not based solely on testimony from victims in packed carriages, and it seems apparent a miscarriage of justice is underway on a grand scale on the nation’s trains, with often tragic consequences for those falsely accused.



Credits : Sankaku.C

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Old 2010-05-08, 02:04   Link #7131
killer3000ad
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Australia
Age: 41
Evidence that neanderthals interbred with early humans
Quote:
CNN) -- An international team of scientists that spent more than a decade studying remains of Neanderthals has drafted the first genome sequence of humans' closest extinct biological relative.

Scientists involved in the project say the findings, to be released Friday in the journal Science, yield important insights into the evolution of modern humans.

"Having a first version of the Neanderthal genome fulfills a longstanding dream," said lead researcher Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

"For the first time we can now identify genetic features that set us apart from all other organisms, including our closest evolutionary relative," Paabo said.

The findings are based on bone samples of three female Neanderthals excavated from Croatia's Vindija Cave. Scientists have estimated the specimens to be 38,000 years old.

Scientists say they have mapped 60 percent of the genome. They will continue working toward a complete sequence, a project expected to take years.

Scientists compared the Neanderthal genome with the genomes of five present-day humans from different parts of the world: France, China, Papua New Guinea and southern and western Africa.

The findings suggest that modern humans, after migrating from Africa 45,000 to 80,000 years ago, bred with Neanderthals then in the Middle East before spreading into Eurasia.

The authors estimated that 1 to 4 percent of the modern human genome of non-Africans can be traced back to the Neanderthal.

"The main finding is that there was gene flow from Neanderthals into the ancestors of modern non-Africans," David Reich, a geneticist and associate professor at the Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics, said Wednesday.

Neanderthals first appear in the European fossil record about 400,000 years ago. Roughly 30,000 years ago, the cave-dwelling hominids in Europe and Asia went extinct.

Extracting DNA from the ancient bone samples was a daunting feat.

"Six or seven years ago, I thought it would be impossible, at least my lifetime, to sequence the entire nuclear genome of Neanderthals," Paabo said on the call.

Using a delicate dental drill, researchers collected 500 milligrams of bone powder, roughly the size of a pill, from which to analyze and isolate DNA samples.

The bone samples contained very little preserved Neanderthal DNA. According to researchers, 95 to 97 percent of the DNA extracted was bacterial or from other organisms that had colonized the bone. The DNA fragments that were recovered were extremely small and contained chemical modifications that could have yielded false data.

Researchers also had to take special measures to extract the Neanderthal DNA without contaminating it with human DNA.

They employed new computer technologies to map the 4 billion-nucleotide Neanderthal genome.

"With this paper, we are just scratching the surface," said Richard Green, assistant professor of biomolecular engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the lead author of the paper describing the new research.

"The Neanderthal genome is a gold mine of information about recent human evolution, and it will be put to use for years to come," he said.
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Last edited by killer3000ad; 2010-05-08 at 05:25.
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Old 2010-05-08, 02:31   Link #7132
SaintessHeart
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
Sorry, but I couldn't find the exact news headlines over at the US or more prominent papers, so I used my local's.

Let's play the blame game! *sarcastic*

Alarm over algo trading

Quote:
NEW YORK - A SPINE-CHILLING slide of nearly 1,000 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, its biggest intra-day points drop ever, led to heightened calls for a crackdown on computer-driven high-frequency trading.

The slide, which in one 10-minute stretch knocked the index down nearly 700 points, may have been triggered by a trading error. Major stock indexes eventually recovered from their 9 per cent drops to close down a little more than 3 percent.

But the follow-through selling that pushed stocks of some highly regarded companies into tailspins exacerbated concerns that regulators can quickly lose control of the markets in a world of algorithmic trading.

'The potential for giant high-speed computers to generate false trades and create market chaos reared its head again today,' Senator Edward Kaufman said in a statement. 'The battle of the algorithms - not understood by nor even remotely transparent to the Securities and Exchange Commission - simply must be carefully reviewed and placed within a meaningful regulatory framework soon.'

Kaufman and Senator Mark Warner - both Democrats - said Congress needs to investigate the causes of the market plunge, which at its deepest point wiped nearly US$1 trillion (S$1.39 trillion) off equity values.

Citigroup Inc said it was investigating a rumour that one of its traders entered the trade, a spokesman for the bank said on Thursday. Citigroup, the third-largest US bank, currently has no evidence that an erroneous trade has been made, the spokesman said. -- REUTERS
Pretty genius that people actually blamed the systems they use when they lose money. Please don't tell me that they never read the "Use at your own risk" section before doing automated trading.
__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2010-05-08, 13:27   Link #7133
TinyRedLeaf
Moving in circles
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
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Age: 49
New-school feel awaits rookie MPs
Quote:
London (May 7): Think first day at Hogwarts meets Freshers' Fair and you begin to get an idea of the sort of the culture shock that's about to hit new British MPs.

Over the next few days they will have to get to grips with parliamentary procedure and a confusing maze of corridors and staircases.

Until recently rookie lawmakers were left to sink or swim. That all changed after the last election. Officials were on hand to help MPs find their feet — and the loos.

Over the next few days the new parliamentarians will be given the information they need right now. The details will follow later. Old hands — MPs and staff — will teach the newbies about the traditions and procedure that govern life in the debating chamber.

Every new member will be given a laptop and an e-mail account. Getting an office could take a little longer. Officials have already given a warning that it could some time before everyone has permanent accommodation.

In the meantime, MPs will be "hot desking" in committee rooms.

What about the losers? Politics is a rough business. It moves on with barely a thought for democracy's casualties. For the next few days the House of Commons will offer "a dedicated service for defeated members to help them conclude their affairs at Westminster".

In other words, they've got a week to clear their desks.

- BBC NEWS
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Old 2010-05-08, 16:00   Link #7134
Xellos-_^
Not Enough Sleep
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
New-school feel awaits rookie MPs
What about the losers? Politics is a rough business. It moves on with barely a thought for democracy's casualties. For the next few days the House of Commons will offer "a dedicated service for defeated members to help them conclude their affairs at Westminster".

In other words, they've got a week to clear their desks.
closer to they got a week to hide the loot.
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Old 2010-05-09, 01:19   Link #7135
LynnieS
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Join Date: Mar 2003
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
Not if he/she is a freelance trader. Remember the Mizuho Securities fiasco in Japan 5 years ago? That guy gets to keep his winnings.

Besides, freelance traders have no obligation to give back the shares they have bought, neither do they have to get permission from the company to short it. So......


Funny that the trade was cancelled. Maybe because it was inside the S&P 100.
If I remember correctly, it's up to the exchange to okay the trade cancellations. Mizuho Securities, when it realized the problem (which it did very quickly), tried to cancel the trade a couple of times, but it failed. At that point, it's up to the counterparties to say yes, and there is no incentive, esp. for the foreigners, to do that.

It's hard to say which choice is better. On one side, the exchange is supposed to maintain an orderly flow and make sure that the right reactions get followed, but on the other side and when there is collateral damage, it has to protect those more... innocent. If it was just one bank (the one that caused the problem) hurt, then let it suffer the consequences. If everyone got hit when it's not their fault, a do over is better - so long as the culprit gets penalized, that is.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
The currency market doesn't exactly run by just one crisis, though the GSP debts pretty much deflated it. If you are looking at the exchange rate, the EUR/USD pretty much broke most of the support and resistance lines, except for the last of the support lines based on data from the last 3 months :

When it hits 1.2462, you should be able to start exchanging. Either way whether there's a retracement before or after the next support line breakout, I seriously doubt it would drop below 1.24 within the next month.
At the moment, the EU situation is virtually all political, IMHO. I am not certain that Greece will accept the austerity plan, or the rest of the EU will pay out if not; however, it could be very hard for Greece to either (1) leave the EU on its own or (2) the EU to let Greece default. I think the IMF funds are also not going to help Greece to deal with its structural problems, but to help it repay the debt owed as well?

Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
Btw, pass my congrats to your girl for her graduation.
Ditto.

Deep-sea ice crystals stymie Gulf of Mexico fix
Quote:
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – Icelike crystals encrusting a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box meant to contain oil gushing from a broken well deep in the Gulf of Mexico forced crews Saturday to back off a long-shot plan to contain the leak.
Hmm, if the oil gets into the Atlantic, it'll be an even bigger problem for more people. Right now, fishing, aquaculture, tourism and so on in the area are pretty much gone in the near future already, and there is no telling how much damage has been done underwater where people can't see easily.
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Old 2010-05-09, 01:42   Link #7136
SaintessHeart
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
Quote:
Originally Posted by LynnieS View Post
At the moment, the EU situation is virtually all political, IMHO. I am not certain that Greece will accept the austerity plan, or the rest of the EU will pay out if not; however, it could be very hard for Greece to either (1) leave the EU on its own or (2) the EU to let Greece default. I think the IMF funds are also not going to help Greece to deal with its structural problems, but to help it repay the debt owed as well?
Though I have only started playing the Forex market at the start of this year, I do realise one thing : and it is that currency trends do not exactly follow news events. It follows market psychology of irrational fear and greed.

The Euro crisis already have their news on ForexFactory last year fall, but it still trended upward until mid November, probably due to anticipation that the price will dip to the bottom for cheap buys, thus influencing a buyout and increasing the price (S&D). When people are proven wrong by buying at the top, they quickly sell off to recoup losses, thus the drop.

This year's fall in Euro is fuelled by market pessimism, and I already took a screenshot of the EUR/USD chart on MT4 for further reference.
__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2010-05-09, 02:27   Link #7137
TinyRedLeaf
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
Though I have only started playing the Forex market at the start of this year, I do realise one thing : and it is that currency trends do not exactly follow news events. It follows market psychology of irrational fear and greed.
Yes indeed, which is why forex trading is popular with day traders and chartists. Astute technical analysis will work more in your favour than fundamental analysis in this case.

That, and a fat margin account.
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Old 2010-05-09, 15:54   Link #7138
SaintessHeart
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
Yes indeed, which is why forex trading is popular with day traders and chartists. Astute technical analysis will work more in your favour than fundamental analysis in this case.

That, and a fat margin account.
Well here is another laugh.....not sure if it belongs here or Silly/Odd thread. Since it concerns money, I shall put it here.

Why the Dow Plunged 1000 Points in 8 Minutes

Quote:
According to one article I found (link here) there are at least 8 different possible explanations for yesterday’s mayhem. They are:

1. A Bad Trade
2. A Computer Glitch
3. Cascading Stop Losses
4. Hackers
5. Cyberterrorism
6. Fear of the European Debt Crisis Spreading
7. Stop Hunting in the Forex
8. A Real Panic

In reality, of the eight 8 scenarios given above, more than likely it was a combination of two or more. For example, we all know that there is a real panic over the European Debt Crisis, which makes the markets vulnerable and highly reactive to any number of things. That statement alone sums up all 8 in one broad stroke. However, you may notice, among the scenarios floated above 5 of them have to do with computers. That is no major insight considering that our entire modern society is built upon, and interwoven together, through an electronic infrastructure allowing for the transfer of information at lightning speeds. And, in terms of milliseconds (or, more specifically, 480 seconds or 8 minutes) this painfully translates into the Dow losing 125 points a minute.

“We have a market that responds in milliseconds, but the humans monitoring respond in minutes, and unfortunately billions of dollars of damage can occur in the meantime,” said James Angel, a professor of finance at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. (link here)

So, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts. Our current exchanges have evolved to a point where they are highly dependent upon electronic trading. Due to this fact and the most recent drop, a debate has developed between the operators of NYSE and NASDAQ (i.e. old-style trading vs. super-fast electronic trading) as to which system is better able to prevent such problems from occurring in the future. This morning on CNBC, charges were made by the CEO of NASDAQ, Bob Greifeld, regarding the operations at NYSE in precipitating yesterday’s drop. Here’s a portion of his comments as they appear here:

WAPNER: YOU ARE SAYING DEFINITIVELY THAT IT WAS NOT A PROBLEM WITH THE NASDAQ ELECTRONICS SYSTEM?

GREIFELD: NO IT DEFINITELY WAS NOT, OUR SYSTEM FUNCTIONED FLAWLESSLY. WE LOOKED AT OUR CUSTOMER ACTIVITY AND IT WAS IN THE NORMAL RANGE. WHAT WE SAW HAPPEN IN THAT NERVOUS PERIOD OF TIME WAS FUTURES ACTIVITY WAS CRESTING --

WAPNER: IN 16 MINUTES OF TIME WE SAW A TREMENDOUS SWING IN THIS MARKET.

GREIFELD: IT REALLY WAS SHOCKING WHAT HAPPENED. IN THIS NERVOUS PERIOD OF TIME WE SAW THAT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE AND STOCKS THEY LISTED, THEY DID NOT CALL A HALT BUT THEY BASICALLY WALKED AWAY FROM THE STOCK. THAT LACK OF LIQUIDITY IN THE TRADING OF THEIR STOCKS IN SUCH AS P&G AND ACCENTURE THAT NERVOUS PERIOD OF TIME HAD A DISPROPORTIONATE AFFECT ON WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STOCK.

WAPNER: IT SOUNDS TO ME LIKE YOU ARE BLAMING THE NYSE AND THE SPECIALISTS DOWN THERE

GREIFELD: NO

Although Greifeld is reluctant to say that the NYSE is fully to blame, he does, however, make it clear that he holds NYSE responsible for having a “disproportionate affect”. On the surface, his words might appear mild but, behind the scenes, both the NASDAQ and NYSE have been in a fierce battle for some time over which system will win out. Literally, it comes down to who has the best technology in providing the most liquidity to the market. For some, this is really a difference between one millisecond or two and how much of a human element is needed to mediate the process. With NASDAQ, it is almost entirely electronic. In the case of NYSE, you still have human “specialists” on the floor directing orders, which is why Greifeld says in another interview on ABC that aside from panic over Greece, market fear, “the main listed market [i.e. NYSE] basically stepped away and [did] not answer the electronic phone calls.”

So, on the whole, what can we learn from all this? Situations like a possible debt meltdown, a collapsing currency, or any number of factors that lead to a large degree of fear in the markets will always be with us going forward; what’s important is how the various exchanges respond to the resulting volatility in such a way where billions of dollars aren’t wiped out in a matter of minutes. To do this—as the CEO of NASDAQ clearly believes—the level of human involvement needs to be minimized. Furthermore, relying upon human regulators (such as the SEC) to respond in real-time to events that may unfold within a space of seconds or minutes is also just as hopeless. In the end, given the inevitability of achieving greater rates of speed and, thus, greater interconnectedness across the globe, a fully automated electronic regulator that can work unrestrained across all markets and exchanges will provide the only solution to adequately managing liquidity flows. Maybe just for fun they’ll call it SkyNet?
NASDAQ and NYSE are pointing fingers at each other while hospitals are rushing to save panicking traders from heart attacks.

Come to think of it, I was seriously laughing my ass off at the bolded line. At the millisecond level, the market reacts to something known as market noise, so even if there is a buy/sell trade, it would only be worth like...$0.0001 profit/loss per stock?

Regarding the liquidity flow problems, I believe that it is a communications issue rather than automation issue. Data sent should be executed precisely rather than automatically, because the trades should be made by sound human judgment and analysis, not computers running on a limited set of algorithms. Using the computers to increase the speed is fine, but having traders shouting orders isn't that bad if there are installed high-grade speech-detection software. Besides, having human traders isn't a bad thing, it can slow down panic short/buy-outs for people to reconsider their decisions.

If that is used an excuse that computer traders are better than human traders due to their technical superiority, I am guessing that makes up one of the dumb ideas that contributed to unemployment and bad financial management amongst the citizens. Modern day trading should be a fine balance between human judgment and computing superiority to reduce errors, not a sole domination of just one of them.
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Old 2010-05-09, 18:16   Link #7139
Tiberium Wolf
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Next step to stop oil: Throw garbage at it

Woah! Ingenious solution! Throw garbage to cover up a mess. If this is the best BP can come up they should just admit they can't handle it.
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Old 2010-05-09, 23:43   Link #7140
SaintessHeart
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf View Post
Next step to stop oil: Throw garbage at it

Woah! Ingenious solution! Throw garbage to cover up a mess. If this is the best BP can come up they should just admit they can't handle it.
Not all components of oil float on water. Tar and bitumen, for example, sink due to their higher-than-water density.

Besides nobody can really handle that kind of spill because oil rigs store 6-7 times more oil than a ULCC. I laughed when a kid here suggested using liquid nitrogen to freeze it......I wonder how the judges at the science competition hand out prizes because the surface area exposure is too damn bloody big for the freezing to be effective (Entropy effect). Might as well suggest that we set the oil on fire.
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When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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