First develop a skill, and then add knowledge December 1, 2010 FOUNDER OF LUXURY SHOE BRAND LODGER REMAIN open to opportunities. Some of the best things that have happened to me have come from oblique angles. Opportunities come out of nowhere and you have to be prepared to open yourself up to them and investigate. Explore potential leads quickly and ruthlessly and shut down anything that [...]
A disappointing bonus should be a call to action December 1, 2010 HOW did you feel when Santa failed to come for the first time? Of course, you know that Father Christmas is a fiction; you are even warned that he isn’t coming this year. But the reality that he has gone forever only really hits home when you wake up on Christmas morning and find there’s [...]
BOOK OF THE MONTH December 1, 2010 The Wisdom of Bees By Michael O’Malley £9.99 Portfolio Penguin Did you know that Sherlock Holmes retired to keep bees? Apparently he said that a hive “provides as much incident as can be found on the streets of London.” And did you know that bees are the only invertebrates with symbolic language? Or that they [...]
Oils and financials weigh on FTSE offsetting miners’ rally November 30, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index retreated yesterday with a rally by miners more than offset by falls in oils and financials as investors fretted over Eurozone debt problems during a choppy session. The FTSE 100 closed down 22.68 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,528.27, a level not seen since the middle of September. The blue [...]
Wall St tumbles as Eurozone fears hit November 30, 2010 US stocks fell in a choppy session yesterday but showed resilience in the face of Europe’s debt crisis, recovering some of their losses on more encouraging signs from the US economy. The Eurozone’s troubles showed no signs of abating as news that Portugal could be downgraded reignited selling in a high-volume flurry at the close. [...]
Scandinavian successes are tempting to traders November 30, 2010 FOR weeks now traders have described the choice of safe haven currencies as an “ugly contest.” The dollar, yen and euro all have their flaws, so traders have begun to stray. As unlikely as it seems, some have begun to suggest that Sweden could be the answer. Despite the recent slight dollar rebound (see chart) [...]
IMPROVING US PROSPECTS MAY AID EURO November 30, 2010 AT THE start of this week’s trading the FX market was gripped by fears of sovereign debt default contagion as traders continued to worry about the prospect of another financial bailout of the Iberian peninsula. Despite an €85bn rescue of Ireland, investor confidence remained shattered as euro-dollar slid towards the 1.3000 level on fears that [...]
Crisis limits Eastern European FX’s upside November 30, 2010 FOR more than a decade, eastern European countries enviously looked west, chasing the desirable single currency membership that would signal that they had shaken off their Soviet-era shackles and were at a critical stage in their economic and political development. After more than 10 years of trying to achieve acceptance to the exclusive club that [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS November 30, 2010 FOREX STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Long euro-Aussie dollar at AU$1.3700 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 month-12 months We are already long sterling-kiwi from the previous week (long at NZ$2.0500), and we have just established a fresh long on this correlated cross which trades near multi-year lows. The monthly relative strength [...]
THE TIPSTER November 30, 2010 THE bullish tone of the Australian dollar against the greenback during September and October has waned and the dizzy heights of $1.0160-70 at the start of this month now seem a long way away. The Aussie dollar is likely to be influenced by risk sentiment and month-end flows, both of which should be negative over [...]