Hi everyone,

First of all, apologies for the delay in publishing July’s figures. You know that we in Europe enjoy long long vacations in Summer and I was not back to the office till this morning. So here you have them:

FXstreet websites performance in July 2009 was very much in line with the traffic numbers of the previous months as the summer break kept approaching.

Overall, sites reached 6,300,000 page views in July vs. 6,660,000 in June and 6,320,000 in May, and still far from March all-time high of 7,200,000.

Unique visitors and visits in July remained at 597,000 and 2,122,000 vs. 626,000 and 2,255,000 the previous month.

If we compare FXstreet.com English site July’s data with the same month the previous year, we can observe that the site keeps a healthy raise of 32% in unique visitors, 41% in visits and 41% in page views.

FXstreet.com English Site Traffic Numbers: July 2009 vs. July 2008
* 1,753,235 Visits; Previous: 1,240,108 (+41.38%)
* 455,494 Absolute Unique Visitors; Previous: 342,734 (+32.90%)
* 5,193,790 Pageviews; Previous: 3,682,792 (+41.03%)
* 2.96 Average Pageviews; Previous: 2.97 (-0.25%)
* 00:06:39 Time on Site; Previous: 00:04:38 (+43.36%)

Francesc

Go “Back To School” With The Kids This Year And Learn How To Avoid Falling For This Year’s Top 10 Investor Traps
By Washington State Department of Financial Institutions
OLYMPIA – With a new school year about to begin, the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions Securities Division reminds investors to take stock of their financial education and arm themselves with the knowledge to sidestep this year’s Top 10 Investor Traps.
DFI’s Director of Securities Michael Stevenson says investors under pressure from the struggling economy need to resist the lure of sales pitches to rebuild their savings.
“An educated investor should be alert at all times, but especially when money is tight,” Stevenson explained. “Falling into an investment trap makes it harder to get back on solid financial ground.”
The following traps were determined to be the top 10 for 2009 by the Enforcement Trends Project Group of the North American Securities Administrators Association, of which DFI’s Securities Division is a member. Many of the traps identified promise high returns to cash-strapped investors — but provide little, if any, disclosure of risks and offer high commissions to aggressive sales forces.
“When it comes to investing, verify everything and everyone before you part with your money,” Stevenson said. “Education and information are an investor’s best defense against investment fraud.”
Full Story

“Ethical” forex broker calls for currency levy by Reuters
LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - A new British foreign exchange broker on Thursday urged peers to help raise billions of pounds for charity as it vowed to donate part of each transaction to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Ethical Currency’s call comes as UK financial regulators raise the spectre of taxing financial transactions to help curb excessive banker pay, after the near collapse of the global financial industry last October, and G20 finance ministers prepare to meet in London next week.
Full Story

Arguments for ECB to hike in 2010 by Danske Bank
* The focus of the ECB now appears to be shifting from whether to implement more stimulus measures to when to begin withdrawing them.
* We believe that the euro area next summer will have recovered so much that the ECB will consider interest rates at historical lows as being inappropriate and will start hiking.
* When the ECB starts hiking it will probably deliver about 0.5 percentage points each quarter, which was the average hiking speed seen in the 2000-01 hiking cycle.
* The exit strategy is likely to begin with alterations of the conditions for the long-term refinancing operations.
Full Story

It is a 7 days old history but I thought I should add it here… better latter than never

I just found the history today

Francesc

Finra gives Michigan investment firm the boot over foreign currency abuses
By InvestmentNews.com
The regulatory agency expels Maximum Financial Investment Group and its CEO for ‘repeated’ violations

Finra has expelled an investment firm in Southfield, Mich., for inappropriate practices that occurred in its retail foreign-currency business and “repeated” violations of registration and related rules, according to a statement.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. of New York and Washington expelled Maximum Financial Investment Group Inc. and Christopher T. Paganes, the firm’s chief executive and chief compliance officer today. He is now barred from ever serving in any principal capacity at a securities firm and is also suspended from associating with a securities firm for the next nine months.
Full Story

Related News:
FINRA Expels Maximum Financial for Net Capital, AML, Other Violations While Engaging in Retail Foreign Currency Exchange Business

Hi everyone

Thursday last week I made a post here highlighting the good acceptance The Learning Center is having among Forex Traders.

Wit the release of the chapter 4th of the Unit B: JAPANESE CANDLESTICKS, The Learning Center touched a new all-time high the week of August 9th to 15th reaching 10,628 page views, more than a 1,000 over the previous high of 9,278 page views made the week of May 10th to 16th 2009.

Well, The Learning Center kept growing and the week from August 16th to 22nd it touched 13,594 page views, a new all-time high.

This excellent performance of The Learning Center drove the whole Education section to touch 28,775 page views the same week, a new high as well.

Fantastic!

Francesc

They lost big bucks indeed!…

Francesc

Guardian lost £24m in bungled currency trading by The Sunday Times

Foreign currency scammers to pay $4.2M
By South Florida Business Journal
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Friday that it obtained federal court orders for more than $4 million in civil monetary penalties against two Miami businessmen who ran a foreign currency options scam.
The enforcement action dates to June 2004, when the commission alleged that the defendants committed fraud in connection with the offer of illegal foreign currency contracts to retail customers, who were defrauded of more than $1.8 million.
Full Story

U.S. District Court Orders Five Defendants in CFTC Action to Pay More than $4 million in Civil Penalties for Engaging in Illegal Foreign Currency Options Scheme by CFTC

Hi everyone

Saxo Bank has just reported its financial numbers for the 1st half of the year.

I must highlight the big fall in net profit from 121DKK mio to 41DKK mio (-66%). It seems that operating costs - offices expansion and staff lay-off - had an important impact on profits.

The first 6 months of 2009 showed an increase in deposits of approximately DKK 3 billion to reach more than DKK 11 billion (+35%).

Although the increase in deposits had a positive impact on operating income the Bank saw an income reduction following lower trading volumes as well as lower volatility in the markets compared to the same period in 2008.

The net effect was operating income of 969DKK mio which was on level with the same period of 2008.

Half Year Report 2009

We will see how they manage the second half of the year…

Francesc

Another one….

Francesc

CFTC and the State of California Charge San Diego Forex Firm MAK 1 Enterprises Group, LLC and Its CEO Mohit A. Khanna in Multi Million Dollar Scam