Forex: Japan PM Aso: To Resign As LDP President

Japan PM Aso: To Resign As LDP President
Sun, Aug 30 2009,


Japan PM Aso: To Resign As LDP President

TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Sunday conceded his party's defeat in Lower House elections and said he will resign as the party chief to take responsibility.

"I must accept responsibility" for the Liberal Democratic Party's expected major losses, Aso said during a televised interview with Japanese national broadcaster NHK.

Exit polls show that the Democratic Party of Japan is set to score a landslide victory, ousting the LDP from power for the first time since 1994.




August 30, 2009 by Dow Jones & Company, Inc

Forex news: Global Equity Slump Hits FX

Global Equity Slump Hits FX by Korman Tam


Fears over the sustainability of the global economic recovery hit the major equity indexes, with the Shanghai Composite index being pummeled by nearly 6% and Tokyo’s Nikkei index plunging by over 3%. Risk aversion was the key driver in the foreign exchange market on Monday, prompting a rally in both the dollar and yen. The greenback pushed the pound to its lowest level in one-month beneath the 1.63-level and the euro to a two-week low just beneath the 1.4050-handle. The US equity bourses tumbled at the start of the week, albeit faring better than their Asian counterparts. The Nasdaq led the declines, tumbling by over 2.5% while the Dow Jones was lower by 1.75% and the S&P 500 losing 2.15% by the afternoon session.

US economic reports released earlier today included the August NY Fed manufacturing survey, June TIC data, and the NAHB housing index. The NY Fed manufacturing survey improved by more than expected in August to 12.08, sharply beating forecasts for an improvement to 3.00 versus a reading of -0.55 from July. The June TIC report revealed net purchases of $71.3 billion versus revised net sales of $36.9 billion in the month prior. Meanwhile, the August NAHB housing index edged up in line with expectations to 18, versus 17 from July.

The calendar for Tuesday consists of July housing starts, building permits and the producer price index. Housing starts in July are expected to improve 600k units, up from 582k units in the previous month. Building permits are seen edging up to 580k units, versus 570k units in June. Meanwhile, headline PPI is estimated to decline by 0.3% from a 1.8% increase a month earlier and fall by 5.9% compared with a 4.6% drop in the previous year.

JPY Surges

Traders propped the Yen higher against the major currencies, dragging the euro lower to 132.53 and the pound to 153.52. Economic data from Japan revealed growth in the second quarter at 0.9% q/q and 3.7% y/y. Despite the upbeat figures, the Nikkei tumbled to its lowest level in 2-weeks, down by over 3% as traders questioned the sustainability of Japan’s economic rebound.

EURJPY hovers near the 133-figure and remains poised to further test the downside. Following last Tuesday’s break lower of the ascending trendline near the 138-level, the euro/yen pair has moved sharply lower, paving the way for additional losses to the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of the move from 126.98 to 138.70, located at 131.40

Forex news: USD Edges Up, Eyes FOMC

USD Edges Up, Eyes FOMC by Korman Tam


The dollar and yen were higher in Tuesday trading amid renewed declines in the equity bourses. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were lower by 1% and the Dow Jones softer by 0.75% in afternoon trading. Earlier US economic reports were mixed with Q2 labor costs falling by more than expected to -5.8%, compared with a negative revised Q1 figure at -2.7% and a sharply higher than forecast preliminary Q2 productivity reading, up by 6.4% versus a downwardly revised Q1 reading at 0.3%.

The FOMC kicked-off its two-day monetary policy meeting today and will be announcing its decision on Wednesday afternoon at 2.15 PM. The Fed is not seen changing interest rates from its current range of 0-0.25%. However, with the Treasury’s purchase plan set to expire in September, it will be interesting to see how the Fed will tackle the issue of extending the plan or permitting it to expire.

Sterling Remains under Pressure:

The British pound drifted lower against the dollar, remaining mired beneath the 1.65-level to a session low around 1.6434. The UK June trade deficit was slightly larger than expected, increasing to 6.451 billion pounds, versus a revised May deficit of 6.174 billion pounds. The non-EU trade deficit edged up to 3.648 billion pounds compared with a downwardly revised 6.174 billion pounds in the previous month.

In the session ahead, traders will digest several key UK reports including the labor report and the Bank of England’s quarterly inflation report. The June ILO unemployment rate is estimated to edge up to 7.7% from 7.6% in the previous month and the July claimant count is seen rising to 28.0k versus 23.8k in June. Also to be closely scrutinized will be the BoE’s quarterly inflation report. Sentiment on the report is seen to be bearish for the pound following last week’s unexpected BoE quantitative easing through a 50 billion pound increase in the Bank’s asset purchase plan.

Cable hovers near 1.6475 with resistance starting at 1.65, followed by 1.6520 and 1.6560. Additional gains will emerge at 1.66, followed by 1.6640 and 1.6675. On the downside, support is seen at 1.6435, backed by 1.64 and 1.6370. Subsequent floors are eyed at 1.6340, followed by 1.63 and 1.6250.

Forex: U.S.: Unemployment’s Rate is the Achilles Heel

As housing is giving some relief to household pockets, the Federal Reserve warns about a slow recovery. The Euro, in the mean time, is testing key resistance levels against the U.S. dollar.

U.S.: housing still supportive

Tangible signs of improvements are beginning to show up, albeit the recovery remains fragile in the United States. In July, the conference board index increased 0.6% month-on-month from + 0.8% in June. It was the fourth consecutive month of increase, giving further prove that the U.S. economy might have bottomed. In a speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium, Fed Chairman Bernanke confirmed that the worst might be over for global economies, thus indirectly anticipating a safe-haven demand’s decline for U.S. dollars and Treasuries in the coming months. Nonetheless, the Federal Reserve will keep rates low for the first part of 2010 with inflation so mild. In July, the producer price index (PPI) fell 0.9% versus the expected -0.4%. In reality, after two months of gains, 6.5% in June and 15% in May, housing starts slid by 1.0% in July to 581,000 annualized (+2.5% expected). Nevertheless, singles component (three-quarters of the market) rose 1.7%, while multiple houses declined 13.3%. Starts are still above the average of the first three months of the year, although away from the over 2 million produced in 2005.

Existing home sales increased at the contrary by 7.2% (+2.0% expected) to 5.24 million in July from 4.89 million in June. Inventories remained unchanged at 9.4 months of supply. However, both single homes and condos improved. The first climbed by 6.5% and the second by 12.5%. Clearly, the first-time homebuyers tax credit program, which allows first time buyers to receive a refundable credit of USD 8.000.-. (10% of the home value, if lower) until December 1st, have helped home sales. Nonetheless, the positive domino’s effect created by the activity in the housing sectors could continue in the future as well supported by low interest rates and affordable prices. Home ownership remains an American dream. Consequently, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators are requesting that the tax credit program to be renewed for an extensive period of time.

Is the German’s recovery sustainable?
The decrease of inventories and the rise of exports, the European trade balance registered a surplus of Euro 4.6 million in June from Euro 2.1 billion in May, are helping the European economy out of the recession. This is what stands out from the latest data, albeit the recovery might be slow and fragmented. In effect, after improving for six straight months since February, the Euro zone composite Purchasing Manager’s Index finally climbed to the critical level of 50 in August. The manufacturing sector printed 47.9 from 46.3, while the services PMI showed 49.5 from 45.7. In Germany, the composite index was 54.2 in August from 49.0 in July, the highest level in more than one year. In France, it rose instead to 50.9.

The Euro zone Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined only an estimate of 0.1% in the second quarter from the 2.5%, while in Germany and France, the GDP increased 0.3%. The German’s economic sentiment index from the ZEW center of Economic Research climbed to 56.1 in August, way above the average of 26.5. However the current economic situation index, which rose only to -82.1 points, testifies how Germans remain prudent over the health of the economy. In fact, the European Central Bank is warning that the German rebound might have been exacerbated by the economic measures introduced this year and could not be sustainable over the short term. As a result, ECB will keep rates low for now, the Producer Price Index (PPI) fell almost 8.0% year-on-year in July, and might increase them again once the economic momentum will trend higher.

EUR/USD: Testing key resistance lines.
EUR/USD: The Euro is again at crucial technical levels. A move above 1.4560 would target 1.4620, 1.4740. A decline below 1.3750 is instead necessary for 1.3550.
GBP/USD: A move below 1.6125 would target 1.6020. A breakout above 1.6820 would take the price to 1.6880.
USD/JPY: The market is trading between 98.00 and 92.00. A move above 95.40 could target 96.00. A decline below 92.30 could instead take to price to 91.70.
USD/CAD: The US dollar finds support at 1.06. The resistance is instead at 1.1050.


by Angelo Airaghi [Guest Analyst]
8/26/2009

microsoft excel 2003:Printing

First, move to cell A1.

All of the Windows spreadsheets try to figure out what you want to print. Sometimes they're right,
sometimes they're wrong. So........

The most important thing with printing is to tell the printer what to print.

Unlike a word processor, you may need to highlight what you want to print. For the moment, we’ll assume that Excel 2003 will “guess” correctly, and that you have not “clicked” somewhere that will cause a problem. If you do have problem, which we’ll know in a second, we’ll show you how to take care of the problem a bit later.

It's usually a good idea to see what our printout will look like – before you print it. First, we’ll use a Print Preview to “see” what our spreadsheet looks like. To do this we’ll click-on the Print Preview Button in the Button Bar. Point to the Print Preview button and click on it.

A picture, of what our printout will look like, appears on the next page.


At the top of the Print Preview screen you will see the button bar above. We’ll use a number of the buttons on this bar to assist us with our printing.

Notice that the Next and Previous buttons at the left end of the bar are not highlighted with text – they are just gray. This means that the buttons are not “active.” This indicates that we are OK with our spreadsheet – it is all on one page. If we saw that the Next button was active, this would mean that there are other pages to our spreadsheet. If you’ll look at the lower left corner of the Print Preview screen you’ll see: Preview: Page 1 of 1. This confirms that our spreadsheet is on one page. If you do not see this “combination,” we’ll show you how to take care of it later.

If you do see this combination, click-on the Print button. Click-on OK in the Print menu screen that appears. Label this printout as: Default Spreadsheet Printout.


Next, notice that an “image” of your spreadsheet appears below the button bar (above).


If you move your cursor over the spreadsheet, you’ll notice that the cursor changes from an arrow to a tiny magnifying glass. If you click the left mouse button, your magnifying glass will “zoom-in” on the exact spot where the magnifying glass is located. If you click-again, it will zoom-out. Try this a couple of time. It is a really handy feature.


Now click-on Setup in the top button bar.




The Page Setup menu screen at the top of the next page will appear.


Notice that the Page Setup menu screen indicates that you are in Portrait view. Now we’ll enhance the spreadsheet to make it a bit more presentable. In the Orientation area click-in the small circle in front of Landscape (see arrow above). The spreadsheet will now print on the page as indicated. Next, in the Scaling area, click-in the box to the left of % normal size. Using either the “up/down” arrows, or by typing in the information, change the size to 125. Then click-on OK.

Your spreadsheet will now be larger and fill the paper more appropriately. Click-on Print and when this spreadsheet comes out of the printer label it: landscape – enlarged to 125 %.

Go ahead and adjust the “size” of your spreadsheet so that it becomes too large to fit on a single page. Set the Scaling to 200 and click-on OK. When you return to the Preview screen, the Next and Previous buttons at the top will now be active, and you’ll see 1 of 3 or 4 pages in the lower left corner of the screen. Go ahead and click-on the Next and Previous buttons to get a “feel” of the “size” of your spreadsheet. If you click-on Print (please don’t do it), you’ll get these 3 or 4 pages. If you made a mistake when you created the spreadsheet, you might see that you have 58 pages in your spreadsheet!

Now, click-in the small circle to the left of Fit 1 page(s) wide by 1 tall in the Scaling area and make sure that 1 page is set. Excel 2003 will now return your spreadsheet to one page. Try other things here. Work with the Margins, Header/ Footer, and Sheet tabs at the top of the Page Setup menu screen. Any time you desire to print, go ahead and do so. This will give you a feel for how the spreadsheets will print. When you are finished, simply click-on Close and you will return to your spreadsheet.
Many folks ask how to center a spreadsheet on the page. This feature is located in Margins at the bottom of the Margins screen. Simply click-on Margins at the top of the Preview screen or on the Margins tab when you are in the Page Setup screen.

Many folks also ask about how to place gridlines and show the row and column headings (A, B, C and 1, 2, 3) in their spreadsheet printouts. This feature is located on the Sheet tab in the Setup screen menu.

result

Microsoft Excel 2003: Absoluting (and multiplication)

There are times, when we are working with a spreadsheet, that we do not want a cell to "roll" to the next column when we use the copy feature of the spreadsheet – like it did in our last copying exercise. To stop the cells from “rolling” we utilize something called absoluting. The following is an illustration of absoluting.

Go to cell A23 and type-in Number. Go to cell A25 and type-in Result.

Go to cell C23 and type in a 2 – and tap the Enter key.

We'll now create a formula to multiply our number times Net Income. You may use either the Type-in or Point method. Go to cell C25, and type-in a formula to multiply cell C23 times cell C19.
The formula should look like: =C23*C19

The result in C25 should be two times the net income in cell C19.

Now copy the formula in cell C25 to cells D25, E25, F25 and G25. Your row 25 should look similar to the one below.


Uh Oh!!! Where did all of those "0's" come from?

Point to each of the cells D25, E25, F25 and G25. Notice, as you click on each cell and look at the screen, how C23 (the cell with the 2) "rolled" and became D23, E23, F23 and G23 (which are blank - this caused the "0's"). A blank times a number is a “0.”We want the 2 to be in each formula and not to "roll".

To do this we utilize something called Absoluting or Anchoring.

Go back to cell C25. Now we'll enter the formula again, but a little differently (to anchor the 2).

Type-in a =C23 (or you could type = and point to C23). NOW, tap the F4 key. Notice, in the Edit bar at the top of the screen, that the =C23 changes to: $C$23. (This tells you that cell C23 is absoluted or anchored. The "$'s" indicate the absoluting.) Now finish the formula by typing in or pointing *C17 as before. Tap Enter.


The formula should look like: =$C$23*C19


Now copy the formula in cell C25 to cells D25, E25, F25 and G25 again. Your row 25 should look similar to the image below.



The numbers should now be correct. Point to cells D25, E25, F25 and G25 (like you did before). You will notice the "$'s" have copied the =$C$23 to each cell (absoluting) and the Net Income figures have rolled as they should. Absoluting is something you should know and understand.

Pause and reflect Look at all you have accomplished. If you want go in and change some more numbers or change the income and expense titles to something you feel is more fun or appropriate, please do so.

This would be a great time to Save again.

Microsoft Excel 2003: Copying Percentage Formula

Notice that we didn’t copy the percentage formula when we started this last copying effort. If we had copied a SUM formula, it would have added the four percentages. We don’t want the sum of the percentages. We want a percentage of just the Monthly Totals. So, we need to copy this percentage separately. Now, copy the percentage formula in cell F21 to cell G21. Now put a $ in cells G6 through G19 if you need to, and a % in G21. Your spreadsheet column G should look something like the image on the right

This would be a great time to Save again.

Forex: Forex Trading Tips - Understanding Forex Spreads Part 2

Spreads should always be considered in conjunction with depth of book. Oddly enough, when it comes to economies of scale, forex doesn't even act like most other markets. On the inter-bank market, for example; the larger the ticket size, the larger the spread is. So when you see a 1-pip spread on an ECN platform, you have to wonder if that spread valid for a $2M, $5M or $10M trade, which it probably isn’t. In many cases, the tight spread that is offered applies only to a capped trade sizes that are very inadequate for most of the common trading strategies. Spread policies change a great deal from broker to broker, and the policies are often difficult to see through. This certainly makes comparing brokers much more difficult. Some brokers actually offer fixed spreads that are guaranteed to remain the same regardless of market liquidity. But since fixed spreads are traditionally higher than average variable spreads, you are paying an insurance premium during most of the trading day so that you can get protection from short-term volatility.
Other brokers offer traders variable spreads depending on market liquidity. Spreads are tighter when there is good market liquidity but they will widen as liquidity dries up. When it comes to choosing between fixed and variable rates, the choice depends on your individual trading pattern. If you trade primarily on news announcements that you hear, you may be better off with fixed spreads. But only if quality of execution is good.
Some brokers have different spreads for different clients based on their accounts. For example; those clients that have larger accounts or those who make larger trades may receive tighter spreads, while the clients that are referred by an introducing broker might receive wider spreads in order to cover the costs of the referral. Some offer the same spreads to everyone.
Problems can come up when you are trying to learn about a company's spread policy because this information, along with information on trade execution and order-book depth is rather difficult to get. Because of this, many traders get caught up in all of the promises they hear, and take a broker's words at face value. This can be dangerous. The only real way to find out is to try out various brokers or talk to those who have.

Microsoft Excel 2003: Entering formulas in the Monthly Totals Column

Move to cell G6 under the title Monthly Totals. Choose one of the formulas you learned earlier to add each of the amounts in Parents for the four months. Use any of the four methods you desire. Your spreadsheet should look like the one to right, just before you copy the formulas.



After you have completed your formula copy it to cells G7 through G19. You will see some "stuff (zeroes)" in cells G10, 11, 12, and 18. This is because there was "nothing there" to add. So, go in and clean-up these cells by deleting the zeros in these cells.

Next, go to cells G9 and G17 and underline like you did before.

Microsoft Excel 2003: Copying

We could repeat what we did to this point and fill in the Income and Expenses for each of the remaining columns. There is a simpler way to do this. Assuming our income and expense amounts are about the same, throughout the months, we want to copy the amounts in Column C to Columns D, E and F. This will require two “steps.”

Move your cursor to cell C6. First, we'll highlight what we want to copy; next we'll tell the spreadsheet where we want to place what we've copied. So, point to C6, hold down the left mouse button and drag down the column until cells C6 through C21 are high-lighted. Your highlighted area should look like the one on the left.



Now, point to Edit in the Menu bar. Click the left button. Point to Copy in the menu that appears. Click the left button. The menu disappears.


You will notice that once again, when you highlight an area, a marquee of running lights moves around the copy area. So, you’ll know you highlighted the correct area (image on right).


Now we'll tell the program where to copy the information. Point to cell D6, click and hold down the left mouse button and drag down and to the right to cell F21 (This will highlight three columns OCT, NOV, DEC to copy to.). When you have finished your highlighting, your screen should look like the one at the top of the next page



Now point to Edit in the Menu Bar again and click the left button. Point to Paste. Click left button. Wow !' All those numbers and dollar signs and formulas - EVERYTHING - was copied in a flash!! That sure saved us a lot of time.



Click on a cell away from the area where the numbers are located. This will “turn-off” the highlight. Tap the Esc key and the marquee will also disappear.


Note: You can also utilize the copy and paste buttons in the button bar to do this if you desire.


Change a few numbers in each of the months in both the income and expense areas to see how the spreadsheet works. (This will make the graphs we’ll create more realistic when we create them later in the tutorial.)

This would be a great time to Save again.

Microsoft Excel 2003: Division and Percent

Now move to cell A21 and type in the word Percent. We're going to calculate a fun percentage to show you how division works and give you some more practice with numbers.

Now move to cell C21. Using either the Type-In Method or the Point Method, divide ( / ) the amount for Income in cell C9 by the amount for Expenses in cell C17.

[The formula should look like =C9/C17]

This will give you a horrid number so why not put a percent symbol with it. Now we’ll repeat what we did above to format our $$$$.

Point to cell C21 and click the RIGHT mouse button. Point to Format Cells, then click the Number tab, then click-on Percentage. Select zero ( O ) Decimal Places. Click OK. Ta Da !!! a %.

Microsoft Excel 2003: Division and Percent

Now move to cell A21 and type in the word Percent. We're going to calculate a fun percentage to show you how division works and give you some more practice with numbers.

Now move to cell C21. Using either the Type-In Method or the Point Method, divide ( / ) the amount for Income in cell C9 by the amount for Expenses in cell C17.

[The formula should look like =C9/C17]

This will give you a horrid number so why not put a percent symbol with it. Now we’ll repeat what we did above to format our $$$$.

Point to cell C21 and click the RIGHT mouse button. Point to Format Cells, then click the Number tab, then click-on Percentage. Select zero ( O ) Decimal Places. Click OK. Ta Da !!! a %.

Forex: Forex Trading Tips - Understanding Forex Spreads Part 1

Forex is always priced in pairs between two different types of currencies. When you make a trade, you have to buy one currency and sell another at the same time. If you want to exit the trade, you must buy/sell the opposite position. For example, when you think the price of the Euro is going to rise against the US Dollar. In order for you to enter a trade, you will have to buy Euros and sell US Dollars. If you want to leave the trade, you will have to sell Euros and buy back US Dollars. You will be hoping that you were right in your guess and that the exchange rate for EU/USD has actually risen, which means that you will get more Euros back than when you bought them, which is how you will make a profit.

These days just about every forex broker is claiming to have the tightest spreads in the industry. But marketing does have the ability to be deceiving. The topic of spreads in the forex spot market is very complicated and often not easy to understand. However, nothing affects your trading profitability more.

First of all in order to understand the spread, you need to know what it is. A spread is the difference between the ask price (the price you buy at) and the bid price (the price you sell at) that is quoted in the pips. If the quote between EUR/USD at a given moment is 1.2222/4, then the spread equals 2 pips. If the quote is 1.22225/40, then the spread is going to equal 1.5 pips.

The spread is how brokers make their money. Wider spreads will result in a higher asking price and a lower bid price. The consequence to this is that you have to pay more when you buy and get less when you sell, which makes it more difficult to realize a profit
Brokers generally don’t earn the full spread, especially when they hedge client positions. The spread helps to compensate for the market maker for taking on risk from the time it starts a client trade to when the broker's net exposure is hedged (which could possibly be at a different price).
Spreads are important because they affect the return on your trading strategy in a big way. As a trader, your sole interest is buying low and selling high (like futures and commodities trading). Wider spreads means buying higher and having to sell lower. A half-pip lower spread doesn't necessarily sound like much, but it can easily mean the difference between a profitable trading strategy and one that isn’t profitable.
The tighter the spread is the better things are going to be for you. However tight spreads are only meaningful when they are paired up with good execution. Quality of execution will decide whether you actually receive tight spreads. A good example of this is when your screen shows a tight spread, but your trade is filled a few pips to your disadvantage or is mysteriously rejected.


When this occurs repeatedly, it means that your broker is showing tight spreads but is effectively delivering wider spreads. Rejected trades, delayed execution, slipping, and stop-hunting are strategies that some brokers use to get rid of the promise of tight spreads.

(continued)