Seasons Greetings – from the High Seas

1^st on Forex took a long overdue getaway. (Attending and presenting at Traders Expos does not count as a vacation or getaway.)  So when an opportunity to jump on a seven day cruise came along, I jumped on board the NCL Jewel – with my laptop! This quickly became a working vacation.

I wanted to see just how feasible trading FX from a cruise ship at sea and from ports of call at internet café’s on tropical

Islands

could be. What follows here is a detailed report on what I found to be quite a valuable learning experience as trading and the internet continues to become accessible from almost anywhere.

The main questions I needed to answer were: the cost, the speed, and the availability of the ships satellite internet connection. Then I needed to investigate the conference rooms on board. Did I say this was a vacation?

The Cost for internet access on board cruise ships is quite high. The NCL Jewel featured three plans available: 100 minutes for $55 USD, 200 Minutes for $100, and Pay as you go at .75 cents per minute.

Cost at Ports of Call: The cost at an internet café in

Puerto Rico

: 15 minutes for $2, at

St. Thomas

.10 per minute. This is obviously more reasonable and faster speed.

The Availability: There were three ways you could access the internet - Wireless is available throughout the ship if you bring your own laptop, an Internet Café with about eight computers are available at no extra fee, and the best option was via CAT-5 cable in each state room. Connections did drop occasionally as the ship might momentarily lose the satellite connection – but this was only for a brief moment or two.

The Connection Speed: Wireless speed test was rather depressing with a download speed at the internet café of only 300k – I am spoiled with over 6,000 Kbps via my cable modem at the IEN home office. I tried to test Hotcomm so that I could Webcast my Monday Morning “1^st on Forex Week Ahead “on

.

The Show Must Go On!

I received errors connecting to Hotcomm and the ships IT staff informed me that they block all VOIP communications such as Skype and that Hotcomm and Webinar software would probably not work. So I took my laptop back to my stateroom, looked out over the ocean from my balcony and observed several shooting stars from a meteor shower. I didn’t make any wishes (at least not in regards to doing my webcast), but  I awoke early Monday morning, and decided to try the CAT-5 cable connection.

To my amazement, I had a great connection and Hotcomm came right up! I quickly set up my web cam, and proceeded to deliver my broadcast from the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. I was able to show attendees a live web cam shot of the

Caribbean

, side by side with a chart of the GBP-USD.

The bottom line from a FX trading perspective – You can easily monitor and trade based on a Weekly chart. Daily Time frames are possible if you have proper and wide enough stops in place. Trying to trade below a daily time frame would be foolish and quite risky to your personal and financial health!

It was a lot of fun to do that Web Broadcast for 1^st on Forex . One attendee form

London

indicated he was quite envious. Based on what I found out, Investors Education Network is now planning a seminar at sea for March or April of 2007 this coming spring. Email me directly if you have interest in a spring 2007 cruise that will feature a seminar at sea on Technical Analysis focused on Forex.   

Wishing You and Yours the best in Good Health and Success for 2007

Jerry Furst, Sr Analyst IEN-FX - 1st on Forex

Contact:  JerryB1st@ienweb.com

Rates Hold Steady for The Holiday’s and Then Up We Go?

By Jerry Furst - Sr. Analyst and Training Mentor - IEN-FX 
- Posted 12/12/2006 1pm EST

It appears as if the consensus is building that Bernanke will not spoil the holiday season as a Scrooge. So we see a "Pause for Santa Clause" Although the media pundits are calling loudly for rate cuts in the US. Time will tell if next year the Fed resumes raising rates.  Bernanke seems to be settling into Alan Greenspans shoes a bit morer comfortably now. He appears to be taking a "Do No Harm" and "Let’s Not Rush" approach.  dare I call him "Gentle Ben" as he takes a more passive- conservative approach. He appears to be a quick learner as to what he shoudl and should not say (after his infamous conversation with Maria Bartiromo) this  versus Greenspans aggressive overshoots and "If you think you understand what i said - you need to re-read my prepared text"

No Crystal Balls - But I’ll Make a Bet!

Rates are still quite reasonable and historically low. There are several valid reasons for rate increases, and the Feds job is not to be kind hearted to speculators. Years ago Greenspan was warning of too much enthusiasm in the housing markets! Speculators should beware and have an exit strategy if your property is not cash flow positive.

Fed Using Fundamentals to Create Technical Indicators?

In the January issue of  “Bloomberg Markets”  there is an article entitled “Bernanke’s New Brain” It appears the Fed Chairman has brought his Princeton University computer program to crunch as many as 150 fundamental reports to create a few weighted moving averages.  (Does that qualify as an oxymoron?)

The report goes on to state that when Bernanke ran this model against a larger group of data (from 1987-1991), the results were not quite so accurate and fluctuated by larger amounts than what really happened. There is a saying, to err is human…

Automation to cause downsizing at the Fed?

The last bastion of job security in the US is a government job. But that may be in jeopardy as Mr. Bernanke’s  experiments at Princeton  “were about as accurate as those produced by some 200 economists at the Fed”  Is this the beginning of the end of job security for government bean counters?

You can start to see how the housing bubble is continuing to deflate. As always, especially these days - be prepared for any scenario!

You can email Jerry Furst at info@ienweb.com, Jerry is the Sr Technical Analyst for Investors Education Network-FX.  His posts and charts are available on http://forex.typepad.com/1st_on_forex. Be sure to tune into the Free live Webinar on FX Street.com every Monday at 7am EST for his live market commentary.