An update of the Financial crisis we are all suffering

Financial crisis update by Danske Bank
• The financial crisis has changed its focus away from fears of systemic risk in the financial sector and toward the economic consequences of the crisis. 

• For a long time the main issue for banks has been constrained access to funding markets. After a series of central bank and government initiatives, banks largely now have access to (short-term) funding. As the negative impact of the financial crisis is now being felt on the real economy, the focus has turned to the capitalisation levels of the banks.

• US dollar money markets have improved, but show little progress in Europe. We doubt that BOR-OIS spreads will show much improvement in euro terms until next year.

• The Fed continues to take drastic measures to combat the credit crisis. The escalation of quantitative easing with purchasing direct obligations of GSEs and mortgage-backed securities has caused a steep drop in US mortgage yields. This will probably cause a wave of refinancing and the US housing affordability index is heading for an all-time high.

• Emerging markets have been severely hit recently and more may be in the pipeline. Unwinding of carry and dwindling risk appetite is hitting the most imbalanced markets the hardest.

• The economic fallout from the crisis is increasing and the economic outlook appears very dire. A global recession is on the cards. We have the bulk of real economic losses (rather than the marked-to-market losses that have dominated so far) ahead of us, as unemployment and delinquencies surge higher.
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IMM Positioning - Speculative investors increase JPY net longs

Francesc

We have just decided to run an International Traders Conference ITC in 2009. The success of the two previous events didn´t give us much choice than going for it again next year.  Those of you who attended the event this year know that ITC generated me a hell deal of vertigo so I was quite reluctant to organize it again. 

It will be again in October and in Barcelona, of course

So if you missed ITC 2007 or ITC 2008 or you attended them and would like to enjoy it next year, you can start booking your agenda.

One important difference from last year is that attendance will be limited to 60/65 in order to avoid Internet connections problems during the live trading sessions.

Francesc

Francesc

Relax yourself watching this video…. Very funny

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-4X4NeF9yZh4/ping_pong_3d_effect/

Francesc

After reaching a new high in October 2008 of 710,000 at all FXstreet.com’s web sites, in November numbers cooled falling to top 587,471 traders. Even though the 18% drop in unique visitors in November from the previous month, I must highlight that November’s numbers were the second best ever in our 9 years of history.

FXstreet.com in English reached 483,000 unique visitors, 1,541,000 visits and almost 4 mio page views, increasing time on site - 3:54 vs. 3:48 the previous month - and average page views to 2.58 vs. 2.57.

I can expect a further cooling of FXstreet’s numbers in December due the fact of the decrease in liquidity in the FX market as Christmas approaches and the smoothing of the financial turmoil that shacked the markets in October 2008.

Francesc

Major Losers:
News: -23.65%
Rates&Charts: -21.06%
Technical: -12.33%

Major Gainers:
Education: +20.93%
Forum: +10.02%

November 2008 compared with November 2007
1,541,265 Visits
Previous: 1,326,871 (+16.16%)

483,485 Absolute Unique Visitors
Previous: 370,762 (+30.40%)

3,982,915 Pageviews
Previous: 3,970,914 (+0.30%)

2.58 Average Pageviews
Previous: 2.99 (-13.65%)

00:03:54 Time on Site
Previous: 00:04:12 (-7.26%)

2008 Performance

November 2008
1,541,265 Visits
483,485 Absolute Unique Visitors
3,982,915 Pageviews
2.58 Average Pageviews
00:03:54 Time on Site

October 2008
1,878,986 Visits
591,567 Absolute Unique Visitors
4,826,708 Pageviews
2.57 Average Pageviews
00:03:48 Time on Site

September 2008
1,476,795 Visits
445,365 Absolute Unique Visitors
4,028,458 Pageviews
2.73 Average Pageviews
00:04:12 Time on Site

August 2008
1,229,050 Visits
338,961 Absolute Unique Visitors
3,610,326 Pageviews
2.94 Average Pageviews
00:04:35 Time on Site

July 2008
1,240,108 Visits
342,734 Absolute Unique Visitors
3,682,792 Pageviews
2.97 Average Pageviews
00:04:38 Time on Site

June 2008
1,226,647 Visits
355,189 Absolute Unique Visitors
3,611,568 Page views
2.94 Average Page views
00:04:27 Time on Site

May 2008
1,251,870 Visits
381,910 Absolute Unique Visitors
3,635,515 Pageviews
2.90 Average Pageviews
00:04:25 Time on Site

April 2008
1,307,354 Visits
390,102 Absolute Unique Visitors
3,909,374 Pageviews
2.99 Average Pageviews
00:04:31 Time on Site

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
1,456,401 Visits
455,489 Absolute Unique Visitors
4,178,521 Pageviews
2.87 Average Pageviews
00:04:01 Time on Site

An interesting read for a long Thanksgiving holiday.

Danske Bank - Global Scenarios: Depression Fears Running Rampant

Francesc

Phil Newton’s tricky post from Wednesday is getting steam with very interesting comments from readers.

I´m quite puzzled at this time for what the answer could be, so if you have any hint,  please do not hesitate to share.

http://blogs.fxstreet.com/tradesetups/2008/11/26/my-head-hurts

Looking forward for your thoughts

Francesc

Here you have FXstreet’s Forex Blogs Stats for the week of November 17th-23rd.

Wayne McDonell’s blog FXBootcamp is leading the way, closely followed by Valeria Bednarick’s FX Advisor blog.

I must highlight the great performance of Tim Salem’s - CVJ - Forex Trading Today blog. Tim’s blog is already the 4th most viewed blog at FXstreet.com.

Francesc