IRAQI FAIRS

Foreign Exchange (or FOREX) forms the major platform, where the currencies of different nations are exchanged for one another. Forex forms one of the world’s largest markets. The currencies are exchanged to encash the profits from the increase in the prices of one currency over another. Generally there is no fixed rate for the exchange for the world currencies, as they keep on fluctuating as the trading is done in the currency pairs such as Dollar/Yen, Euro/Dollar, and others.

Currency trading or the forex trading is always carried on in currency pairs. The rate of the currency is also often referred to as the “Forex rate” or even “rate”. But, in order to evaluate that if any investor makes some profitable investment, his investment option needs to be evaluated and compared against the alternative investments. Also, it is a common practice to compare the return on investment (ROI) is compared with the return on a “risk-free” investment. One example of a risk-free investment is long-term U.S. government bonds since there is practically no chance for a default, i.e. the U.S. government going bankrupt or being unable or unwilling to pay its debt obligation.

When you opt for the trading, you must trade for the currencies only when you expect the currency that you plan to buy will increase in value, as compared to the currency you are swelling. If the situation is that the currency you are buying does increase in value, you must sell back the other currency in order to lock in a profit. There can be an open trade position or situation too, when a trader has bought and sold some particular currency pair and has not sold that pair, to earn the amount that I equivalent or near to the amount spent.

The trading of the major currencies takes 85% of the daily trades. Many of the traders, who carry on with the trading just look forward to simply exchange some foreign currency for their own. But, a major part of the forex comprises of the people who simply speculate the movements of the exchange rates. The currency or the forex traders try to encash even the small benefits from the exchange rate fluctuations. The monetary flows along with the forecast about the macroeconomic conditions of the world result in the actual flow of money.

The forex trading works in three shifts; hence it is a 24 hours activity in the forex market. Two sources are primarily responsible for the daily turnover in the trading. The foreign trade is one of them and is accountable for 5% transaction. This forex trading is due to the fact that the foreign companies buy and sell the products in the foreign markets and the currency conversion helps them to earn profits. The second and the major source of turnover in the forex trading is the speculation part.

Usually, in forex trading, the traders are more focused on those currency pairs that are most liquid, such as Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, and Australian Dollar. The fact is that approximately 85% of the daily trading is in these major pairs of currency.

The major attraction of this trading, for the private investors, is that the volatility of the forex markets helps them earn significant profits. They utilize various standard equipments for regulating the exposure to risk. They can also easily book profits based on the rising and the falling markets. The trading offers them with various significant options for zero commission trading.

Forex trading can seem to be easy, but there are chances that your increased earnings in one day are converted to high losses the second day. It is much likely that the novice traders make the same mistakes time and again. But, they can make use of a various strategies to turn their losses into profits in forex trading.

Forex trading is increasingly becoming popular, with a daily average turnover of nearly US$3.2 trillion. Forex brokerage companies carry on the major forex transactions. The major aim of the investor in Forex trading is to ensure earning profits from the fluctuations in the foreign currency.

It looks like President Bush is going to announce a “temporary increase” in the number of American troops serving in Iraq. The President is adding complexity to a series of wrong decisions he has made since the beginning of the invasion. It is difficult to imagine how a surge in American troops can fix a self-created problem?

We have made the same mistake that five star General Douglas MacArthur warned about with regard to Asia, “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” Presidents Kennedy and Johnson didn’t heed the advice, and the rest is history. Now once again, we have a President who has involved us voluntarily (the US was never attacked directly or indirectly by the evil Saddam Hussein) in a land war in an Arab country where suicide bombers are as common as a cup of coffee.

The basis of General MacArthur’s advice was that life is cheap in Asia. Our country will tire, and the public will to continue the effort will wane before the opposition will tire of losing lives. The same advice applies to the Middle East as it did to Asia. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and the Mullah’s Iran lost several hundred thousand men in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980′s, and neither felt the loss. The United States openly backed Saddam Hussein during the war, and prevented an Iranian victory by stepping in with arms and intelligence information.

Our President on the other hand continues to get very bad advice from the same people that initiated this effort. Let’s look at history to understand what’s going on. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant just like all the other tyrants in that section of the world. Goggle “Hama Massacre”, and you will see how the Syrian leadership killed tens of thousands of their own people in 1982. When the Mullahs took over Iran and deposed the Shah, perhaps several hundred thousand people died as a result.

The history of the entire region is one of violence, instability, anarchy, and uncertainty. In that simple sentence you will understand why our President’s desire to install a democracy in Iraq cannot work. Every country in the Middle East has an unstable regime ruling a society whose members have low tolerance for one another, and are inherently volatile. Even if our President were successful in forcing our democratic principles on the people of Iraq, the whole system would of necessity fall apart in a matter of months to a year or two, as a new equilibrium would be formed among the warring factions.

This is not George Bush’s fault. He has simply allowed himself to be misguided as to the reality of the day to day situation in Iraq. His advisors have failed him miserably, and he has failed America in not changing his advisers quickly enough to understand what he is dealing with.

The primary goal of all American Presidents and not the Congress is to determine for our country what our interests should be. The President then must create policy to advance our interests. It is not a coincidence that the first invasion of Iraq in 1990 took place shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Our Middle East policy up until that point was to prevent Soviet penetration, and domination of the OIL RICH Middle East.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, our policy became to PREVENT any one country in the region from creating hegemony over the region (the reason being OIL). This was Saddam’s SIN. He attempted to control the oil wealth of the region by invading Kuwait, and therefore neutralizing Saudi Arabia. This had to be prevented at all costs. In 1990, the cost was a US led coalition to remove Saddam as a threat to the oil stability of the region, and that is why the first President Bush never marched to Baghdad. Saddam’s removal from Kuwait was enough to insure that hegemony would not be created.

Somehow the current President Bush got it into his mind Saddam still represented a threat to the stability of the region, and therefore invaded again. In doing so, he has opened Pandora’s Box. Once that box was opened, no one can predict with any accuracy how this is going to play out. We have certainly done a number of things, none of which play to our favor:

1) We have strengthened and emboldened Iran. We are no longer in a position to threaten Iran with invasion for continuing its nuclear program. We do not have the force structure to back up our threats.

2) We have strengthened Syria in the same way as Iran.

3) We have aggravated the Arab-Israeli situation by weakening our own image as an honest third party to the conflict.

4) We have destabilized Iraq as a country, and as a functioning state, with no endgame in mind.

5) We have placed our prestige on the line, and are at the lowest level of respect in our allies’ eyes since World War II.

6) Our position as the moral guiding force of this planet is in jeopardy.

7) We have started a war that we do not know how to finish.

What the President must do RIGHT NOW is recognize where we are at. This is why he lost the Congress in the last election. Americans are never sitting stay, or watch idly. We are an active nation. If the President isn’t moving fast enough, the people will elect others who will?

Our current troops should be used only to train Iraqi forces, both police and military, and not act as combatants in a country whose government we already defeated. If the President finds it mandatory to deploy additional troops, again these additional forces should only be used to train Iraqi forces, not to intervene. This is no CIVIL WAR, with Moslem pitted against Moslem, and sect against sect. This is not about Catholic versus Protestant, or Jew versus Arab. This is all taking place within the context of the same religion. It is even taking place within the same sects. Sunni is also killing Sunni, and Shia is killing Shia. We could never hope to be able to intervene against such wanton killing.

We are after all a democracy, the beacon of light in world where there is much darkness. Our continued efforts in Iraq may weaken this country so much more that it could result in potentially nuclear Iran creating the regional hegemony that we tried to prevent Iraq from creating. Wouldn’t that be a sad state of affairs? We replace one monster with another.

Goodbye and Good Luck

Introduction
Currency exchange trading involves trading two currencies when the market conditions are right. Since not everybody has the expertise to conduct the trade, investors need to consult with certified brokers or qualified traders.

Trading currencies
It is impossible to trade more or less than two currencies. This is because the trading involves buying and selling of two different currencies. Some of the word currencies traded in the forex exchange include Euros, Dollars, Yen and the Arabian Dinar. For a person to trade successfully, they ought to have an idea of how the market works. Each currency traded in the forex market has a different trend from all the rest. This requires investors to select two currencies that are likely to perform very well when traded. Basic knowledge demands that investors should select a pair of currencies that are similar in terms of the market trends.

One may study their trends via charts or graphs, which they can obtain from their local trading centers. The charts normally display the currencies performance in the forex trading market. Traders have to be very careful when trading as they should always ensure that they trade above the support levels of the market. This may not guarantee instant profits but it guides them to selecting the best investment opportunities available. Trading on the resistance levels is dangerous as you could end up incurring very heavy losses especially if you are a long-term investor. The chances of making profits are quite slim if all the investment options have negative leads. In such a case, a person should avoid closing trades unless they expect a miracle to take place.

Familiarizing yourself with the latest trends in the market is necessary as it would guide a person to utilizing the best options available in the market. The media is a good source of forex information, though it would be a good idea to refer to other sources. Market sentiments may create a false trend thus causing some investors to make the wrong decisions. Sentiments are emotions that brokers, investors or traders may have concerning the market trends at a particular moment. These sentiments could be at times misleading and people ought to be aware. The best thing to do would be to research on your own and then try to establish whether the sentiments aired are real or they are misleading. Relying on sentiments alone may prove disastrous and this is why people should be cautious of the market conditions.

Summary
The liquidity of the forex market is what makes it a suitable option for long and short-term investors. Liquidity is the rate at which people can convert commodities into money. It is possible to make profits in a span of twenty-four hours and this is why many people now opt to invest in the currency exchange market. Forex exchange is an international investment option that involves the trading of different world currencies. Selecting the right currencies to trade and doing it at the right time could end up being profitable to an investor.