Pound, dollar, yen, ruppee...?

Question

When it comes to rates and whether the Dollar's strong against the Yen or the Pound weak against the dollar, I have very little idea what's going on.

I live in Japan and often send money home. I know the Yen is weak at the moment, so in a sense I'm 'losing' money when i send it back to the UK, but can anyone who's knowledgable about finances, exchange rates and so on give me some basic information about what I should be looking for (and where) when I monitor how strong the Yen is vs the Pound?

Many thanks.

Answer 1

Hi Phil

I am also in Japan living in Tokyo. I have sent money to the UK just once due to necessity. My old mate is a FX day trader and he reassures me the yen will strengthen against the poind at the end of the year. Then again he said that in June before all the crap that happened with the US housing loans and the impending burst of the housing bubble in the UK.
First let me explain what is meatn by strengthening and weakenign of curency.

When we say currency X weakens against currency Y it means you need more of the currency C to buy Currency Y. You can imagine currency X as being an army of people. More soldiers are needed in a weaker army to beat a stronger army.

When is the best time to send over momey to the UK ? If I knew that I would be rich. Some of the things to look out for are
a) trends
b) economic stability
c) time of the year
d) relationship between economies.
e) local and foregn political affairs
f) acts of god (typhoon, earthquake etc)

You can check trends on Yahoo finance. I just did this with the US dollar and the Yen. Seems the yen is quite strong against the dollar. 112 yen buys you a dollar. A while back it was 125 yen to the dollar.
Have a look at the chart and try to find what factors happened to make the yen stronger (hint US housing loans)

BTW I used lloyds remittance service before but financial partners are about to release an FX trading portal.

Answer 2

Basically, the US$ is weak against all major currencies at the moment due to the collapse of the prime-lend mortgage market. We see ramifications in the UK with Northern Rock collapsing.

The problem is, I feel this is just the tip of the ice-berg and that there's a lot more of this to surface. The problem with America is that because it owes so much money to other financial instututions around the globe (trillions in fact) the dollar will continue to remain weak for the forseeable future.

Now, combine that with this war in Iraq that is costing the American people about $750 billion a year, and you begin to get a fuller picture of why now many nations are opting to peg their currencies to the Euro or a basket of other currencies.

As for the Yen, it will continue to remain strong, like the British Pound, against the dollar for the reasons given above.

Answer 3

undecided if that's what you go with, yet right here is going the eastern Yen - that's the 0.33 maximum traded foreign places money interior the foreign places exhange marketplace and is a reserve foreign places money in the back of the dollar, the Pound and the Euro. South East Asia was flooded with Spanish dollar money interior the nineteenth century that have been introduced over on ships by way of Manila. the eastern desperate to mint a silver dollar coinage and spoke of because it the 'Yen' which wisely potential 'a around merchandise', it exchange into formally a miles off places money on could tenth 1871 and signed in via the Mejii government. of course like each and every foreign places money and money the denominations have replaced over the years, the layout has replaced over the years and the cost against different currencies has greater and decreased. however the foreign places money dates decrease back to the nineteenth century and potential a around merchandise. the U. S. dollar - i theory you meant the U. S. dollar, because of the fact the actual 'dollar' foreign places money is utilized in lots of countries around the globe like New zealand, australia, canada etc. as far decrease back because of the fact the 1500's count selection Shlick minted money he spoke of as Joachimsthaler, which exchange into shortened to thaler and translated into English as 'dollar'. in terms of the origins interior the USA, in April 1792 the U. S. secretary of treasure pronounced to congress the top volume of silver present in Spanish minted dollar money based on the money used interior the U. S.. in keeping with this checklist the U. S. dollar exchange into defined. The Pound - This originated in England as a 'pound' (LB weight) of silver. decrease back then £a million of silver money exchange into classed as a troy pound in weight. As of todays valuations which would be well worth approx £a hundred thirty.

Answer 4

I have a similar problem with the Au$

I generally check with http://www.xe.com for rates. If I take money back to Taz, I change it up here (UK) rather than in Oz