General Chit-Chat

**peat** · 15-10-2009, 07:02 PM

Van tharps email and online newsletter talks about level playing fields and the forex market. He lists the advantages and disadvantages of trading forex...

http://www.iitm.com/Weekly_update/We...ct_14_2009.htm

and concludes

"The bottom line is that the retail forex market is still a bit like the Wild West when compared to other markets. This uneven playing field means that the edge provided by your trading strategy has to be even bigger than normal.
Until we’ve found forex firms that address the “uneven playing field” issues, we think it is more prudent to trade currencies on the futures exchanges such as the CME"

**peat** · 25-10-2009, 12:25 AM

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-billion-dollar-gram/

This is an amazing representation of the relative size of some historical expenditures and puts the US stimulus package in perspective for just how mind-blowingly massive it really is.

**peat** · 28-10-2009, 09:17 PM

Not at all related to trading but relevant to money matters. I just went to this lecture
How to stop the money men from taking over the world (or, when will we face another September 2008)?

(Lectures)
28 October 2009
6.30pm
Venue: Maidment Theatre, 8 Alfred Street

Political Studies Department and the Bruce Jesson Foundation 2009 Bruce Jesson Lecture by Robert Wade, Professor of Political Economy, London School of Economics.

Taking off from Bruce Jesson’s ‘Only Their Purpose is Mad: ‘The money men take over NZ’, Robert Wade discusses several reforms of the international monetary and financial system aimed at stabilising global financial markets and curbing the power of the financial sector. After considering the easy part - ‘what should be done’ - he goes on to discuss ‘what can be done’, nationally, regionally and globally.

Professor Robert Wade is one of the world’s most prominent independent thinkers about the contemporary challenges facing the global economy. As professor of political economy at the London School of Economics, Wade espouses a heterdox approach to economics in contrast to the prevailing neoliberal/neoclassical paradigm. As an expatriate New Zealander he has continued to contribute to discussions on New Zealand’s economic direction, including in the context of the global economic crisis.

The Maidment bar will open at 5.30pm.

Supported by The University of Auckland Award for Distinguished Visitors and the Bruce Jesson Foundation

_____________________

He demonstrated a history of increasing financialisation of the global economy since the early 80's and says the financiers have staged a quiet coup of politics and convinced them financial markets are self-regulating and that Wall St is vital to US interests.
He suggests the re-introduction of Glass Steagall type laws (repealed in 1999), and that without the separation of commercial and investment banking any other regulation is unlikely to succeed.

He offers the notion that "too big to fail = too big to exist"

He believes international capital flows need to be slimmed and lauded the recent Brazillian move to implement a capital inflow tax.

He sees a time of turbulence due to glaring income inequality which he showed reached a peak in 1929 and was reduced from then till 1980 but is now reaching the same levels if not higher. Then and now 1% of the population earns over 22% of the income. I didnt get the exact figure for what is was at the low but it somewhere between 5 and 10%. Needless to say I saw 3 waves down and 5 waves up in his graph ;+)

**peat** · 28-10-2009, 09:40 PM

I've now closed all my USD long positions in NZD AUD CHF and JPY with all good profits except for the JPY one. Thanks to arco and DA for the Aud posts , its been a good week. Tonight I will rest.

**arco** · 28-10-2009, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by peat

.......... Needless to say I saw 3 waves down and 5 waves up in his graph ;+)

Peat
Very interesting - thanks for the summary

Did you happen to notice how long the previous 3 waves took to play out?

arco

**peat** · 29-10-2009, 08:17 AM

the down component of the graph was from 1929 to 1980 - so 50 years near enough! i.e during this time the income of the top 1% of people reduced from 22.5% of all income down to high single figures. the c part of the wave was long and slow and grinding. I've searched for a graph on the web that is similar and found this - see how c wave was so protracted.

**Craig3215** · 29-10-2009, 02:55 PM

Arco,
Congrats on the blog, I haven't been on this site in a while because I'm no longer in the FX business or working from 11pm to 7am. I will say though I have worked for and currently work for some of the biggest investment banks around with plenty of technical analyst and you are the best chartists I've ever come across so you deserve it.
Good Luck
Craig

**arco** · 29-10-2009, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by peat

the down component of the graph was from 1929 to 1980 - so 50 years near enough! i.e during this time the income of the top 1% of people reduced from 22.5% of all income down to high single figures. the c part of the wave was long and slow and grinding. I've searched for a graph on the web that is similar and found this - see how c wave was so protracted.

Hi Peat
Perhaps a shorter time period this time. That looks like a cup, so all we need now is the handle