Forex Street Weblog

Weekly FX Focus from Trading Central

Hi guys

As you already know, I recommed the reading of this report  the Weekly Forex Focus from Trading Central

Give it a look

Francesc

Download GURUFOREX2.pdf

Open letter to FXstreet's Swiss brokers - Crown Forex S.A response

Hi everyone

Here you have the response to our Open letter to FXstreet's Swiss brokers from Crown Forex S.A CEO Mr. Shadi Swais.

I want to thank Crown Forex S.A and its CEO for their full and positive collaboration.

Francesc

--------------

Hello Francesc,

The following are brief answers to your questions:

1. Is your company going to apply for a banking licence? Either yes or not, please explain why?
Due to the recent amendment in Swiss regulations, every Swiss Foreign Exchange broker must fall under the banking ordinance. Crown Forex has already started the process of obtaining a bank license with the Swiss Federal Banking Commission for the following reasons:

· Comply with the new regulations.
· Provide more security and higher standard services to our clients.
· To be able to expand our products to a wider selection of securities.

2. Are you keeping your clients reported? How will you inform about the new regulation and the impact on your business? Will you warn them in case that you don't get (or even ask for) the banking licence?
Crown Forex is one step ahead of the new amendment, as we have been working on the license for over a year now and we will our clients informed through newsletters regarding the status of the procedure. On the other hand, investors must be very careful when dealing with Swiss brokers that do not see the high importance of applying for a bank license. It is important to keep in mind that many small brokers will not be able to apply or even comply with the new regulations due to the huge financial requirements this type of license incurs. 

3- A Swiss banking licence implies to meet higher capital - Sfr10 million ($9 million)- and/or organisational requirements. The licence also calls for Bank management members to meet certain professional standards. Do you think these measures could affect your company's business in some way?
As mentioned above, we are one step ahead of the new laws. Moreover, we decided to put all chances on our side:

· Crown Board of Directors is made up of skilled lawyers specialised in corporate law, who are already members of other banks and securities dealers.
· We will be raising the company share capital up to CHF 11.5 Mil in the next six weeks, aiming to a 25Mil share capital target within the end of this year.
· Crown Forex management is assembled of highly experienced and motivated professionals.
· Additional specialized staff will be employed in order to support the private banking services that Crown will be providing in the beginning of 2009.

This change has already positively affected our business especially that all Crown VIP and institutional clients are already aware of our internal developments and have already entrusted even larger sums of investment with Crown Forex.

4 - Do you think SFBC taking over the regulatory control of Swiss FX brokers could be a breath of fresh air that may result in more investors joining the FX Market?
I personally think that it is high time the SFBC stepped into the picture in order to control the highly liquid and unregulated domain of Swiss Foreign Exchange brokers. With higher regulations such as a bank license, investors will be more confident to approach Swiss brokers than any other brokers. Needless to mention that at the same time, Swiss regulations became by far the most stringent and effective compared to other regulatory environments around the world.

5 - The U.S. has already started a similar process, what is your opinion on this? Is it affecting Swiss FX brokers business somehow?
The change in the US regulations consists mainly of higher capitalization requirements, while the Swiss regulations upgrade consists of the highest banking regulatory standards, accompanied of course by a much more significant capital requirement. You can add to that the unique Swiss bank secrecy Act that protects the investors’ interests, while in the US, the investors’ funds are always subject to the discretion of the US federal governing body.

6 - How do you see the M&A market in the FX industry? Do you expect important corporative movements in the next months? Would your company be on the bid side?
Well, there have been some mergers and acquisitions going on lately in the Forex industry.  Most of them took place towards the end of the year 2007, where the Expo season was at its peak. Nevertheless, Crown Forex is not interested in bidding on anything yet, neither in offering some of its own shares on the market in spite of how fast and powerful the industry is.

7 - Would you like to add something else?
As a result in the regulatory ordinances in Switzerland, very few Swiss brokers will remain in the game, if I may say so, by the end of 2009. Probably only 5 or 6 brokers will survive out of all the brokers, whether medium or small.

On the other hand, the quality of the services that the remaining brokers/Banks will have to offer will be of very high standards, such as the services that Crown will provide to its clients.

Best regards

SHADI SWAIS
CEO
CROWN FOREX SA

Toni Juste no longer working at FXstreet.com

Hi everyone

Today April 29th 2008, I sadly have to announce that I have decided to end any relationship with Mr. Toni Juste.

Even though Toni officially stopped working at FXstreet.com in March 2008, we had a spoken agreement to resume our relationship on April 28th 2008.

However, starting today, we consider that Mr. Toni Juste is no longer a member of FXstreet´s staff.

Toni has been a very important member of our staff for the last 4 years, and I’m very thankful for the great work done during all this time.

Unfortunately, Mr. Toni Juste was not really honest when explaining to FXstreet.com’s board his reasons to move with his family to Switzerland. Toni is starting a new project in Switzerland that is absolutely incompatible with his work at FXstreet.com as director and head of trading of our Managed Account Program (MAP).

FXstreet is going to take actions to protect the quality of its services. Our management board has taken the following decisions:

1. Canceling FXstreet.com's MAP program.
I will personally contact involved brokers and clients to let them know our decision

2. Canceling Trendex as a paid service.
At this time we are not able to guarantee the quality of the Trendex service. As a result Trendex will no longer be a paid service from May 1st 2008.
I will personally contact Trendex contributors to let them know about this and propose them new ideas that could be of their interest.

3. Looking for a new author to run the blog http://advisor.fxstreet.com  previously conducted by Mr. Juste.
FXstreet.com will start searching for FX traders that could be interested in becoming part of our content department running market blogs, providing market calls and exclusive contents for FXstreet.com.

I wish Mr. Toni Juste the best of luck, from today onwards our paths go in different directions.

Thanks

Francesc

Open letter to FXstreet's Swiss brokers - GFX Group S.A (Forex.ch) response

Hi everyone

As you already know, on Friday we sent the Open Letter to FXstreet's Swiss Brokers in order to get the feedback from top Swiss firms management about all the goings with the regulatory process opened by the SFBC.

I already got the response from Peter Furrer, CEO at GFX Group S.A (www.forex.ch).

I was expecting to get my questionnaire filled-up but Mr. Furrer preferred to send me a short reply.

I respect his choice of opting for this type of reply and I want to thank Peter and GFX Group for their full and positive collaboration.

Francesc

Good morning Francesc

Thank you for your mail.

As you know, GFX Group SA underwent a thorough audit by the SFBC during the course of 2007. As a result of this review we learned early that the SFBC will be requesting FX brokers in Switzerland to apply for a banking license as from April 1st, 2008 and we had started to prepare our company by increasing our share capital to CHF 10 Mio. (fully paid in). We also changed our external auditor to KPMG, who just completed our 2007 financial & MLA review.

We are in the process of applying for a banking license and as soon as we have the formal response from the SFBC we will let our clients and of course you know immediately.

With kind regards

Peter FURRER
Tel: +41-22-799-4105
Fax: +41-22-799-4109

Winds of Change in Switzerland - Open letter to FXstreet's Swiss brokers Sent

Hi everyone

A quick e-mail before going for the weekend to let you all know that the Open letter to FXstreet's Swiss brokers has been sent to Forex.ch, ACM Advanced Currency Markets SA, MIG Investments S.A and Crown Forex S.A.

I´m looking forward their responses that will be published here

Enjoy your weekend

Francesc

Economic Calendar to trust?

Hi everyone,

A couple of days ago we received an e-mail from one of our visitors, claiming a bad trading decision because of our Economic Calendar.

The e-mail was as follows:

Name: XXX

Message:
I use your economic calendar for making all my trading decisions, and today i was in for a rude shock your economic calendar showed the IFO Business Climate as 108 based on which i went long on the eur and when the market started falling i came back to check your calendar again and found to my horror it has been revised to 102. I always held fx street as a very reliable resource. I lost considerably on my trading account, can someone respond to this mail and tell me what went wrong, why was the news misquoted.
Thanks XXX

I wouldn't like this to happen ever again, so I thought it would be a good idea to publish here my response to XXX

From: "Francesc Riverola"
To: "XXX"

Dear XXX

I would like to apologize in behalf of my company FXstreet.com

I’m deeply sorry that the mistake we made with the release of the IFO indicator you incurred in looses in your trading.

FXstreet's goal is to help traders, for this reason we offer news, quotes, webinars, newsletters... and the economic calendar. We do our best to be the most accurate source on the net, but unfortunately we commit mistakes from time to time.

We will keep working to be the best source of FX information, but we always recommend our visitors to use us as a help source for decision making, and never ever use our services eyes blinded to trade. Always double check the data before taking a decision, double check FXstreet, Forex Factory, Dow Jones or Thomson... does not really matter the source... please double check.

Thanks

Francesc

Help! An Angry Bear is Destroying my Account! the latest Rob Booker's ebook

Hi everyone

As weekend is coming along, it´s reading time.

I would like you to take some time to read the latest ebook from my colleague and friend Rob Booker

http://www.robbooker.com/books/help_bear.pdf

Let me know your opinion about it

Francesc

Trading Central's FX View - EUR/USD: LONG @ 1.555 with 1.627 & 1.64 in sight

Hi everyone

Right after uploading my previous post, I just got by e-mail the last Weekly Forex Focus from Trading Central.

I strongly recommend you the reading of this weekly publication.

Worth to read it indeed

Francesc

Download GURUFOREX1.pdf

David Solin's view - Eur/yen, potentially important top near ?

Hi everyone

If you are interested in the EUR/JPY, this article should be a must for you

A new piece of research from my friend David Solin, partner at Foreign Exchange Analytics

Francesc

Download euryen-daily-apr22.doc

EURUSD Medium and Long-Term Outlook by BBVA

Hi everyone

Here you have a nice report about EURUSD medium and long-term outlook from BBVA.

Interesting job from the BBVA's technical analysis team indeed

Francesc

Download bbva.pdf

Forex and Futures Videos in exclusivity for FXstreet.com users

Hi everyone

We have reached a exclusive deal with Markus Heitkoetter,  CEO at Rockwell Trading Inc, to offer some of his great videos on FXstreet.com.

Forex and Futures Conservative and Aggressive Trading strategies videos for traders willing to improve their day trading results.

Markus Heitkoetter shares his Trading Plan knowledge in exclusivity for FXstreet.com users.

Thanks Markus!

Francesc

1. Forex Conservative Trading Strategy

2. Forex Agressive Trading Strategy

3. Futures Conservative Trading Strategy

4. Futures Medium-aggressive Trading strategy

5. Futures Aggressive trading Trading strategy

FX Trader of the Year 2008 Contest - Top 20 for the week of April 21st

Hi everyone

Here you have the ranking of the FX Trader of the Year 2008 contest for the week of April 21st

Ranking April 21st
Top20       
1 See Yew Teck 988,21%
2 Stephen Adil    512,09%
3 Adrian Teixeira 489,67%
4 yohanes 501419 351,33%
5 SL Ezekiel Tan 243,02%
6 Mr i.dial 501691 219,64%
7 Maulana Bachtiar 213,70%
8 Byn 501641 201,70%
9 Ionela Yeo 201,26%
10 Achmad Zainuchron 197,07%
11 Ruslander Peru 194,36%
12 victor manuel reyna 187,50%
13 MACIEJ KRAJEWSKI 183,19%
14 Ryan Dixon    172,92%
15 Mr Rajesh P. Puranik    167,31%
16 Douce 501360    164,38%
17 james brown    163,18%
18 fachry loebis 161,44%
19 Leonaard Charles Taka 149,90%
20 AYODEJI AJIBODUN 144,02%

View top80 and bottom20 ranking:
Download Ranking04_21.xls

Feedback ITC2007

Hi everyone,

Maud just sent me a very nice e-mail she got from an ITC2007 attendee Mr. Pittas. Maud got this e-mail from Mr. Pittas because she contacted him to get his authorization to use an ITC2007's picture where Mr. Pittas was appearing.

We were so happy with his feed-back that I asked Maud to get his authorization to publish it.

So here you have what Mr. Pittas told Maud:

Hi Maud!

I hope  you are fine. please use the photo as you wish, i have not any objection. Nice photo indeed, I took permission to correct it a little bit (noise, blacks etc), if you don't mind.

The ITC '07 was  important to me and let me say why: In these 3 days I was really motivated to take forex trading seriously and not lose money foolishly anymore. Since then, and after six months of labour and research, I have my little personnal success story, narrated in this http://forexbird.blogspot.com/, where I record the good and the bad every day.

Hope that this could help you or any friend in fxstreet!

Constantino Pittas
Professional Photography
www.wine-photos.org

Visit the ITC website to know more about this year's event (October 29th-31st):  www.traders-conference.com

Francesc

Winds of Change in Switzerland - Open letter to FXstreet's Swiss brokers

Hi everyone

As you are already aware off, the SFBC took action in November 2007 by proposing that Forex dealers will be required to apply for a banking status under the Swiss Banking Act of 1934, as amended.

A banking status requires a minimum paid-in share capital of Sfr10 million ($9 million) and further equity requirements to appropriately cover credit, operational and other risks.
Bank management members in Switzerland must also meet certain professional standards. A Swiss bank must also meet organisational standards, providing for separate corporate bodies for supervision, management and control.

From April 1 2008, existing forex traders in Switzerland are required to register with the SFBC. The registration process ends on June 30 2008. One year later, that is, on March 31 2009, forex traders must meet the above requirements and must have applied for a banking licence.

I´m contacting through this open letter the CEO's of all the Swiss brokers that are listed @ FXstreet's leading brokers & FDMs list in order to know from top management the situation of the firm and its plans for the next future.

I hope with this open letter we would help somehow traders to have a clearer picture about the new developments going on in Switzerland.

If you miss something or would you like to add/change proposed questionnaire, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Francesc

Proposed Questionnaire

1. Is your company going to apply for a banking licence? either yes or not, please explain why?

2. Are you keeping your clients reported? How will you inform about the new regulation and the impact on your business? Will you warn them in case that you don't get (or even ask for) the banking licence?

  3- A Swiss banking licence implies to meet higher capital - Sfr10 million ($9 million)- and/or organisational requirements. The licence also calls for Bank management members to meet certain professional standards. Do you think this measures could affect your company's business in some way?

4 - Do you think SFBC taking over the regulatory control of Swiss FX brokers could be a breath of fresh air that may result in more investors joining the FX Market?

5 - The U.S. has already started a similar process, what is your opinion on this? Is it affecting Swiss FX brokers business somehow?

6 - How do you see the M&A market in the FX industry? Do you expect important corporative movements in the next months? Would your company be on the bid side?

7 - Would you like to add something else?

From financial crisis to real crisis? - la Caixa

Hi everyone

As I´m sure you´ll have plenty of time to read this weekend - your kids will be out all day leaving you plenty of free time :) - here you have along a nice reading:

April 2008 Monthly Report from la Caixa, one of the most important bank in Spain along Santander and BBVA.

Also, la Caixa is FXstreet's bank so I do not dare to say bad things about them.... who does not love his bank? :)

Enjoy it!

Francesc

Download 200804_eng.pdf

Weekly FX Focus from Trading Central

Hi everyone

Just a quick post to share with you this interesting weekly read from Trading Central

Enjoy it

Francesc

Download GURUFOREX.pdf

Rob Booker, Derek Frey and Sunil Mangwani: first ITC speakers confirmed

Hi everyone,

I'm glad to announce we already have 3 speakers confirmed for the ITC 2008, the FXstreet.com International Traders Conference which will be held in Barcelona on October 29th-31st.

Rob Booker, Derek Frey and Sunil Mangwani will be key speakers and team leaders of the Live Trading sessions.

Rob Booker was with us last year for the first ITC did a very appreciated performance. He will join us again this year, with his friend and collaborator Dave Murphy.

Rob is a foreign currency trader. He is the author of Adventures of a Currency Trader and the Currency Trader's Handbook, and was featured in Millionaire Traders, the best-selling book about every day traders who are beating the market. Rob maintains a foreign currency advisory practice.

He's been collaborating with FXstreet.com for several years now. He holds successful webinars at and also broadcast his daily radio show, TraderRaddio.net, through our website. Rob Booker is from Virgina, USA. See his contributor profile here.

Derek Frey is also an old friend of FXstreet.com and well-known by our regular users and Premium members!

Derek Frey has been a futures trader since 1989 and is Head Trader and partner at Odom & Frey Futures & Options, a firm that specializes in high probability, defined risk option spread trades for the futures markets.

He is contributing to FXstreet.com since 2006 presenting market analysis webinars (now 4 per week) and publishing reports. Derek Frey is from Florida, USA. See his contributor profile here.

Sunil Mangwani is a more recent collaborator of FXstreet.com. He is CEO of FibForex123, an Forex advisory and education website.

Sunil Mangwani is a Physics graduate with a Diploma in Financial Management. He has been trading the forex market since the last 6 years and devises simple trading strategies based on his vast knowledge and in-depth study in the field of technical analysis.

He holds two webinars per week at FXstreet.com and was before holding the Live Trading Room of FX Instructor. He also publishes weekly reports on our website. Sunil Mangwani is from India. See his contributor profile here.

We are in contact with other speakers for the ITC. We'll keep you updated!

Visit the ITC website: www.traders-conference.com

Francesc

CNMV alerts about www.finanzasforex.com

Hi everyone

Just got a notification that Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores in Spain is warning investors and traders against www.finanzasforex.com.

The documents attached are in Spanish but please be very alert of a Panama's company named Evolution Market Group and its commercial web site www.finanzasforex.com

They are not reliable!

 

Francesc

Download advertencias_comision_nacional_del_mercado_de_valores.pdf
Download finanzas_forex_no_tiene_licencia.pdf

David Solin's view - Cable, sharp move coming ?

Hi everyone

A new intersting article from my friend David Solin, partner at Foreign Exchange Analytics

Enjoy it

Francesc

Download cable-daily-apr15.pdf

FX Trader of the Year 2008 Contest - Top80 for the week of April 14th

Hi everyone

Here you have the top80 and bottom20 of FXstreet's FX Trader of the Year Contest 2008

    Ranking 14th April       

    Top       

1    Adrian Teixeira 565,02%
2    yohanes 501419 435,29%
3    See Yew Teck 422,21%
4    SL Ezekiel Tan 239,62%
5    KrutojTrader DEMO 235,40%
6    Leonaard Charles Taka 231,40%
7    Maulana Bachtiar 221,50%
8    AYODEJI AJIBODUN 203,57%
9    Byn 501641 201,70%
10    MACIEJ KRAJEWSKI 186,94%
11    Stephen Adil    185,35%
12    David Jones    181,19%
13    Ruslander Peru    180,68%
14    Ryan Dixon    177,28%
15    alfie willoughby 170,77%
16    AMIT MISRA    150,47%
17    Nick Samaroo    144,71%
18    Mr Rajesh P. Puranik 138,97%
19    Mr i.dial 501691 130,12%
20    Yakov Ramsden    128,14%

View Full List Here:
Download Ranking_april14.xls

Francesc

Winds of change in Switzerland now in place

Hi everyone,

My friend Arnaud Jeulin, owner at Mataf.net sent me this interesting article that confirms the winds of change in Switzerland we were talking about last June 2007 are now in place.

Switzerland: Foreign exchange traders
Thouvenin Rechtsanwälte, Zurich
By Dr Thomas Rihm

The Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SFBC) estimates that about 150 foreign exchange (forex) traders are registered as financial intermediaries in Switzerland, who have not been subject to regulation under Swiss banking and finance legislation. In particular forex traders managing accounts for more than 20 individual clients did not fall under SFBC supervision in the past, as long as those accounts were not interest-bearing and were only used to execute customer orders.

In recent years, the SFBC has seen a growing number of complaints, especially from smaller investors, regarding transparency, liquidity and risk disclosure, let alone the substantial losses sometimes suffered by these investors.
Read Full Story

Enjoy it!

Francesc

Not admiting EU brokers a bad call?

Hi everyone,

On April 7th I published a post here titled "FXstreet.com must admit EU passport brokers in its leading brokers list?"

There I was giving you my position to not admit EU passport brokers in our leading brokers & FDMs. The main reason behind my position was my lack of trust in the capability and experience of many EU countries regulators to supervise well their FX companies.

I must thank you all for the great feed-back I’ve received so far. I’ve got not only e-mails but also some phone calls to talk about it.

Some of you shared my point of view and backed my current position.

The interesting thing is that most of you were not agree with me and told me I was making a mistake.

The argument against my position can be summarized as follows:

1. Our current conditions are wrong, as FX in Switzerland is currently unregulated and the country where the biggest scams have occurred is the US, ruled by the experienced and trusted NFA.

2. Any EU passport company has to be extremely careful in anything they do, because they can get their licence easily suspended or denied. For instance, if a UK client presents a claim before the FSA against a Spanish based brokerage firm, the FSA will write a letter to the Spanish regulator and the broker's licence will get automatically suspended till the claim will be reviewed.
So, the point is that we are banning EU firms to be in our list when they are under bigger surveillance and restrictions than a Swiss or a US firm. The consequences of a misbehaviour as so important that they must excel in all they do.

Someone even told me that that my position was simple discrimination.

Well, I’m going to think it over during the weekend, try to digest all the feed-back and correct my decision if I can see that I was being unfair.

Again, thanks for your feed-back and do not hesitate to share with me any further comment you may have about this issue.

Enjoy your weekend.

On Monday I’ll be already 41 years old as Sunday April 13th is my birthday :)

Bufffff!!!!!!... I rather not to comment this one :)

Francesc

Ulysses' Gaze... A Soundtrack for traders

Hi everyone

Today I want to recommend you a perfect music to relax after a stressful trading day.

My recommendation is the original soundtrack of the movie Ulysses' Glaze composed by Eleni Karaindrou.

As you already know, I´ve been suffering vertigo since November 2007. I´m now almost cured thanks to the reflexology treatment I started a month ago. My therapist usually plays Ulysses' Glaze during my sessions and it definitely helps to create a perfect atmosphere to relax your body and mind.

Listen a piece of this great soundtrack at YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAz9Vc2lVVA

Enjoy it

Francesc

Here is the Amazon's Editorial Review of that soundtrack:
"This is a compilation of the music from the soundtrack of Theo Angelopoulos's film Ulysses' Gaze, the story of a photographer's quest for the beginnings of the art of filmmaking on its 100th anniversary. It's also the story of his search for his own self and his home in the ruins of war-torn Europe, and his experiences along the way. But do not expect to find this, or any other information about the record, in the booklet: all it gives you are pictures from the film, most of them bleak, dark, and gloomy. The music underlines this atmosphere: uniformly slow except for a few lively moments of dance, it is mournful and lamentatious. Two very similar modal themes encompassing nine notes are repeated more than a dozen times, varied mostly in range and instrumental color. They are supported by a constant, unchanging drone in a melancholy minor mode, creating a sense not only of stasis but of all cessation of time and motion. The most arresting element is the playing, which is splendid on all hands. Kim Kashkashian stands out because of her prominent part and the extraordinary purity, warmth, and expressiveness of her tone. The interplay between the instruments is remarkable; sometimes it's hard to tell when a takeover occurs." --Edith Eisler

Regulating Off-Exchange FX Broker Dealers

Hi everyone

My friend Samuel Araki , VP, Marketing Communications at Trading Post Financial Services Inc. sent me a nice article about new NFA requirements.

The article is titled "Regulating Off-Exchange FX Broker Dealers", authored by Russell Wasendorf Sr., publisher at SFO Magazine and president and CEO at PFGBEST.com.

It does not add anything we have not discussed already here, but it is well written and easy to read.

Thanks Samuel!

Francesc

The Loonie facing cyclical headwinds - National Bank Financial

Hi everyone

Here you have a nice monthly report from my Canadian friends of the National Bank Financial.

Enjoy it

Francesc

Download forex_apr08_anglais.pdf

What’s next for YTL/$ rate?

Hi everyone

Interested in YTL/USD future?

Then give a look to this occasional report from my friends from YapiKredi

Francesc

Download occasional_macro_note_20080407.pdf

FXstreet.com must admit EU passport brokers in its leading brokers list?

Hi everyone

Today, I’d like to have your opinion on an important matter.

As you probably already know, the leading brokers list is a key element to explain FXstreet’s performance since it was created at the end of 1999.

The list’s goal has always been to offer a wide range of top FX firms and present as many top options as possible to our visitors.

Of course the leading list is a paid service, but it has not been open to anyone willing to pay, as listed firms had to meet several conditions, the two most important being:

1. To be regulated in the US, UK, Australia, Japan or Nordic Countries. We added Switzerland a few years ago because Switzerland is one of the most important financial plazas in the world, even though the market is not regulated there. Also, if we were excluding Switzerland, we would be excluding a big part of the industry as many FX brokers are based in this country, so for good or for bad, we decided to include them.

2. To have an overall positive review in FX forums. We know that we can’t trust all what we read in Forums, but to have a positive balance between good comments and bad comments is critical to be in the list.

Now, we are receiving many requests from EU based brokerage firms to enter the list. They all meet the Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) approved recently by the European Parliament, so they have authorization to take clients from the EU. However the main responsible of the company’s good behaviour is a regulator with no experience/credibility in the FX arena.

My position is not to accept those firms unless they are regulated by a trusted and known regulator body such as FSA in the UK or NFA in the US… but, what do you think?

Any feedback would be much appreciated

As always, you can answer here or directly to my personal e-mail at francescATfxstreet.com

Thanks

Francesc

FX Trader of the Year 2008 Contest - Top80 for the week of April 7th

Hi everyone

Here you have the top80 and bottom20 list of FXstreet's FX Trader of the Year 2008 Contest

Ranking April 7th
Participants: 764
Disqualified Participants: 27 (disqualified due to total loss of equity)                     

Top80                                                                                 
1    Adrian Teixeira    905,52%       
2    See Yew Teck    459,21%      
3    Stephen Adil    391,54%         
4    yohanes 501419    345,14%    
5    David Jones    218,80%            
6    SL Ezekiel Tan    203,29%      
7    Leonaard Charles Taka 197,90%   
8    Ruslander Peru    181,30%      
9    Ryan Dixon    176,70%       
10    Mr i.dial 501691 160,88%   
11    Nick Samaroo    160,68%       
12    Byn 501641    159,70%       
13    Mr Rajesh P. Puranik 148,33%   
14    Douce 501360    146,41%       
15    AYODEJI AJIBODUN 143,16%   
16    Maulana Bachtiar 138,30%   
17    Yakov Ramsden    132,62%      
18    Michael Booth    129,79%      
19    Ionela Yeo    123,37%      
20    Thomas A. Waller 120,86%   
21    Ivan DEMO    120,55%               
22    MACIEJ KRAJEWSKI 111,76%               
23    KrutojTrader DEMO 109,51%               
24    james brown    108,43%               
25    Agus Supriatna    106,02%               
26    fund-vantage 501667 103,36%               
27    tamaji 501573    97,32%               
28    victor manuel reyna 91,60%               
29    Jeffrey White    90,84%               
30    Pedro Carreira    88,86%               
31    Padraig McEnerney 80,08%               
32    Denny Christian    76,82%               
33    Gianni 501603    76,54%               
34    Dubois 501243    75,44%               
35    Shahzeb Raees    74,75%               
36    Mikulas Molnar    69,68%               
37    FXTrader 5018    63,73%               
38    Tommy Garcia    63,72%               
39    Hugh McKinley    63,26%               
40    Raghavendra 502047 61,88%               
41    Radim Frycka    61,30%               
42    Carlton J. Tischler 60,04%               
43    Eduardo Plazuelo 56,84%               
44    Carl Shaw    53,58%               
45    Shahzeb 501675    53,25%               
46    Terrell Carey    52,54%               
47    Deki Sunardi    50,65%               
48    budhi al muddaris 50,58%               
49    Alex Melman    45,11%               
50    Reza Ajorloei    43,60%               
51    William Pearson    42,91%               
52    Farhad Asrar    42,65%               
53    chris 501    42,33%               
54    Ismael Velez    41,89%               
55    J Heath    39,68%               
56    fachry loebis    39,64%               
57    Asad Ullah    39,10%               
58    serasi bangun    37,36%               
59    Donatas Jasiunas 37,35%               
60    Olga Lyakh    36,81%               
61    Diana 501275    36,03%               
62    Ismail Gaibie    35,96%               
63    Franklin Muzyka    35,87%               
64    Savitri Endrosiwi 35,43%               
65    Mr Ahmad Mahat    35,08%               
66    Mr John Bussey    34,98%               
67    Pristiwa Endrosiwi 33,12%               
68    Linda Lin    32,19%               
69    Stephen Nefdt    32,15%               
70    Hitender 501456    30,80%               
71    Bernardo Martinez 28,08%               
72    Binti Nuriyah    26,88%               
73    Ahmed G. Hashim    26,74%               
74    Lance Yeo    26,06%               
75    Mr Mohammad Zubir Abd Rahman 25,22%               
76    s muthh    24,46%               
77    YANGYE 501480    24,40%               
78    AMIT MISRA    23,95%               
79    garcia 501542    21,69%               
80    James Wagner    21,44%

Bottom20       
1    Agung Novian Lunarto -99,63%
2    Akram Obeidat T    -99,43%
3    Sinan Karademir    -99,20%
4    Justin Mahwikizi -98,69%
5    Victor Salazar    -98,54%
6    Gary Ku-Sebestyen -97,37%
7    Gustavo Aguirre Ch. -96,09%
8    Mateo Garcia Gonzalez -94,72%
9    Kenny Ng    -94,35%
10    MingPing Neo    -94,13%
11    sandra barragan    -93,55%
12    Slavisa Dosenovic    -93,40%
13    susan kiwanuka    -90,19%
14    antonio DEMO    -89,50%
15    Hiten Pandya    -89,43%
16    Mohd Zakimi B. Mohd Yaacob -88,74%
17    johnie tan wee liang -88,60%
18    elia romba    -88,40%
19    Arief Prasono    -88,06%
20    Krishna Aditya Rachman -88,02%

Francesc

ITC 2008 - Barcelona October 29th to 31st... Book the dates in your agenda!

Hi everyone

It is official, FXstreet's ITC 2008 will be held in Barcelona (Spain) from Wednesday October 29th to Friday October 31st.

One of the big differences with ITC 2007 is that this year we are going for a 3 working days event instead of a 2 working days plus a Saturday. The reasons to justify this change are:

1. To make more live trading. Live trading was key last year so with that move we will have 3 days of live trading. Live trading sessions will be on Wednesday afternoon and on Thursday and Friday morning, in order to take advantage of higher volatility in morning Europe.

2. To have a big closing party on Friday night and then let you all enjoy Barcelona's fiesta in late hours :)

3. To let you have Saturday (or the whole weekend) free to enjoy around before taking your plane back.

I hope this important change will be for good :)

The venue will be at Barceló Atenea Mar, a new 4 stars hotel located in front of Barcelona's Mar Bella beach.

The hotel gathers all our requests of high speed internet connection (an important point), wide rooms with natural light and space. Also, the hotel's rooms are more affordable than other hotels downtown, so we thought that this could be good news for attendees too.

The Barceló Atenea Mar has a subway stop nearby so the downtown is only at 5 stops. For the size of the city of Barcelona, this is not more than 10/15 minutes!

The place is beautiful .... Definitely, a great venue :)

Book the dates in your agenda and wait to hear from confirmed speakers before committing to attend.

ITC website: www.traders-conference.com

Francesc

Non-farm payrolls, ECB and BoE covered live @ FXstreet.com

Good morning everyone

Just a quick post to let you know that we plan to cover live Non-Farm Payrolls release tomorrow Friday  April 3rd 2008.  The event will start 10 minutes before the release of the indicator, expected at 12:30 GMT/8:30 EDT and can be followed at FXstreet's home page.

Also, a reminder that at the same time you´ll have Wayne McDonell's  NFP live webinar.

Wayne's NFP webinar already reaches its 23rd edition and has become the crowdest webinar at FXstreet.com with an average audience of 250 attendees.The webinar starts at 11:30 GMT/7:30 EDT.

The next event covered live at FXstreet's home page will be BoE and ECB interest rates decision on April 10th. The live coverage will start 10 minutes before the release of the decision expected at 12:00 GMT/8:00 EDT and 12:45 GMT/8:45 EDT.

Again, as any live coverage on FXstreet.com, the event will take place on FXstreet's home page.

Francesc

David Solin's view - Nasdaq, end or beginning ?

Hi everyone

For those of you who enjoy David Solin's work, here you have his latest view this time about Nasdaq

Enjoy it

Francesc

Download qqqq-daily-apr02.pdf

United States increases dominance @ FXstreet.com

Hi all,

The United States kept being the main source of visitors at FXstreet.com in March 2008.It also increased its market share of almost 1% comparing with the previous year, reaching 23.4%.

The second most important country in terms of users is United Kingdom with a 7.5% share, followed by Singapore, Canada and India.

Overall the site increased from 1,075,513 to 1,347,180 visits in March 2008, which represents a rise of 25.26%.

This data was severly affected by the Easter Break, as last year it took place in April and not in March as it's been the case in 2008.

Francesc

Individual Country/Territory performance:

1. United States
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     241,909 22.49%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     315,407 23.41%

2. United Kingdom
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     81,316     7.56%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     101,343 7.52%

3. Singapore
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     55,527     5.16%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     81,746     6.07%

4. Canada
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     62,281     5.79%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     77,569     5.76%

5. India
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     38,932     3.62%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     60,106     4.46%

6. Hong Kong
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     45,571     4.24%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     48,866     3.63%

7. Australia   
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     30,931     2.88%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     38,733     2.88%

8. Indonesia
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     29,064     2.70%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     36,092     2.68%

9. Malaysia
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     35,734     3.32%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     33,625     2.50%

10. Spain
Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007     28,060     2.61%
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008     24,520     1.82%

No new traffic highs in March either

Hi all,

Here you have Google analytics stats for FXstreet's web site in March 2008.

March didn't bring along new highs as I was expecting in February. The main reason of my wrong expectations was that I did not take in consideration eastern break heavy impact in the week of March 24th.

Eastern break reduced unique visitors by around 30k and page views by 100k, so if that week would had been a regular week, I would probably have met my expectations.

Well, I´m expecting a very good April... Let´s see if I´m right this time :)

March 2008
1,347,180 Visits
432,795 Absolute Unique Visitors
4,108,593 Pageviews
3.05 Average Pageviews
00:04:26 Time on Site

February 2008
1,261,205 Visits
390,714 Absolute Unique Visitors
4,013,485 Pageviews
3.21 Average Pageviews
00:04:37 Time on Site

January 2008 (All-time highs)
1,456,401 Visits
455,489 Absolute Unique Visitors
4,178,521 Pageviews
2.87 Average Pageviews
00:04:01 Time on Site

Francesc