Friday, April 12, 2013

Follow-Up on FXCM, Forex, and Japan Stimulus

Modesty is a nice quality but it's not generally rewarded in the financial world.  So, I'll give myself a short, gentle tap on the back for my prediction that the the forex broker FXCM would rise in the wake of the Japan stimulus announcement.  I made that call on April 4 and FXCM has risen 6% since then (the stock was trading at $13.10 when I posted but ended the day at $13.44).   

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Forex Trading in Wake of Japan Stimulus: FXCM

I've been thinking about a position in FXCM, a retail foreign exchange trading retail broker.  Now, I've jumped in after a recent pull back in the stock and today's announcement of a massive stimulus by the Bank of Japan, partly aimed at devaluing the Yen.  It would seem that this move could spur a wave of forex trading, as traders assess the effect of the Japan stimulus on currency markets.  We'll see.

Follow Up on My Post on Japanese Elections

In December 2012, I suggested you might want to think about some investments in Japan if Shinzo Abe was elected PM of Japan, because he could well push the country into a US-like central bank stimulus, in an effort to reduce the value of the Yen and boost Japanese exports.  This has now happened, as the Bank of Japan today announced a massive stimulus campaign:

http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=452506bc-5f54-43a3-b415-ab99a8de70b2

EWJ, an ETF I recommended at the time of my last post in December 2012, is up more than 10% since then and may now climb higher.

Can You Afford to Be on Facebook? Part II

Jon Evans at TechCrunch agrees with me on the possible dangers of being deeply involved in social media sites like Facebook.  Since he's a novelist, he paints an even scarier picture of your possible future than I did.  Here's a link to his article:


http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/30/big-data-could-cripple-facebook/