Important week of data for the Pound - expect volatility for GBP against EUR USD SEK CHF CAD NZD AUD ZAR

Good morning all and I hope you had a great weekend.

Important week ahead on the data front for the U.K with a couple of key data releases that could set the tone for the month.

Today is generally looking rather quiet however in the first seconds of tommorow at 00:01pm with a double release starting with the BRC (British Retail Consortium) releases retail sales figures of which I personally think may be pretty badly hampered due to the weather conditions in January.

At exactly the same time we also have the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) announce house price data.

Both of theses releases have the potential to cause major market movements overnight so make sure you have limit or stop orders in place should you have a trade to carry out.

U.K GDP estimate is next on Wednesday released by the NIESR (National Institute of Economic and Social research). Following last months figures annoucing we are out of a recession officially all eyes will be on this estimate and just how much the poor weather is believed to have knocked us back.

Also on Wednesday BOE governor Mervyn King speaks at 10:30am alongside presenting his BOE inflation letter - this could cause high volatility depending on what is mention for the U.K's economic plans going forward.

If you have the need to send money overseas or bring money into the U.K and want the best exchange rates and a great service just click on the links below to go straight to our main site and click on the register now button to open a free no obligation trading facility quoting DANIEL WRIGHT as your point of contact.

I assist thousands of clients to send money overseas or receive money from overseas involving the following currencies - Please note I do not deal with cash it is bank to bank only!! AED AUD BHD CAD CHF CZK DKK EUR GBP HKD HUF INR ILS JPY KES KWD MAD MUR MXN NOK NZD OMR PLN SAR SEK SGD THB TRY USD ZAR

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

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[09:07:23] Chris Knights:

Interest rate decision day for U.K and Euro Zone - Expect Sterling - Euro Volatility GBP EUR USD AUD NZD CHF CAD

A busy day ahead is expected on the currency markets for a basket of major currencies with two key interest rate decisions for both the U.K and the Euro Zone, alongside unemployment data for the U.S and a few releases of note for Canada.

The Bank Of England are first to step forward and release their interest rate decision at 12:00pm and although no change in rates are expected all eyes will be on whether or not the plan to draw a line under the Quantitative Easing plan which currently stands at £200Billion. There are a lot of major analysts and investors that believe that the plan has not worked so far so should the BOE not rule out continuing it we may see Sterling weakness.

Next is the European Central Bank at 12:45pm and once again no change in rates is expected however generally after the announcement president Jean Claude Trichet speaks about future economic policy so any mention of future rate hikes could still lead to volatility for the Euro.

Should you have a Pound to Euro transaction in either direction to make it may be prudent to get in touch with your account manager here at FCD this morning to discuss the many options available to you inclusive of forward contracts, limits and stop orders. If you do not already have an account open click here to open one right now – it’s free and carries no obligation to trade.

Following this decision at 13:30pm we see a flurry of U.S unemployment data which can cause a lot of volatility for the Dollar which has now been notably tipped to gain against the Pound in the coming months.

"Superior U.S. versus UK GDP growth differentials, UK election uncertainty and the risk of a UK ratings downgrade cast a dark cloud over the GBP/USD outlook for the next few weeks and months," said Kenneth Broux at Lloyds TSB.

With potential movements like this anyone with an upcoming USD or AED (pegged directly to the Dollar at a rate of 3.6725) transaction may want to seriously consider their options and by calling us on 0800 328 5884 you are one step ahead.
15:00pm brings PMI data for Canada which measures the general business conditions for the economy any change to what is expected could lead to medium market movements.

If you would like to discuss any of the information in this report and how it may affect your transfer do feel free to email me

This is a brief summary of todays report for further information on the currency markets or if you have an upcoming transfer to make and want to discuss the options available to you call Daniel Wright on 01494 787462 or email me djw@currencies.co.uk

I assist thousands of clients to send money overseas or receive money from overseas involving the following currencies - Please note I do not deal with cash it is bank to bank only!! AED AUD BHD CAD CHF CZK DKK EUR GBP HKD HUF INR ILS JPY KES KWD MAD MUR MXN NOK NZD OMR PLN SAR SEK SGD THB TRY USD ZAR

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

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[09:07:23] Chris Knights:

Pound Sterling strength - Gains for GBP against EUR SEK AUD NZD CAD CZK ZAR

The pound has started off the morning making gains against most major currencies and staying pretty much stable against the Dollar.

It appears confidence is slowly rising in the U.K and investors are once again willing to invest in the perceived 'Risky Pound'.

today is actually the final installment of Quantitative easing in the U.K and at present no further QE has been pencilied in - however be aware that following confirmation that the U.K is still well and truely in a recession there may be further QE announcements at next Thusday's Bank of England interest rate decision at 12:00.

The mere mention of more QE may lead to these gains dropping away, but then and again they may hold out for another month to see how things pan out with the current programme.

THIS IS A BRIEF SUMMARY OF TODAY'S REPORT - SHOULD YOU REQUIRE FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME EITHER BY EMAILING HERE Email Me - OR CLICKING ON THE BANNER BELOW TO SEE TODAY'S FULL REPORT I will ensure I get back to you as soon as possible to discuss the options available to you. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you have the need to send money overseas or bring money into the U.K and want the best exchange rates and a great service just click on the links below to go straight to our main site and click on the register now button to open a free no obligation trading facility quoting DANIEL WRIGHT as your point of contact.

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

Sterling weakness v eur, usd, aud, nzd, zar, dkk, sek, cad in early morning trading

Upon walking into the office this morning it is red screens accross the board for Sterling meaning the Pound has weakened against pretty much every major currency in early morning trading.

There is no major data releases of note that I can put this weakness down to at present, although German PPI (Producer Price Index) data came out a lot better than expected which may have led to Euro strength.

At the time of writing this post GBP - USD hit 1.6299 and GBP - EUR dropped to 1.1114 which is a huge drop from yesterday.

I will provide further updates once I have found out the reasons behind these losses, however should you have an upcoming transfer it may be prudent to get in touch sooner rather than later.

This is a brief summary of todays report, should you wish to make a currency enquiry Email Me
I will ensure I get back to you as soon as possible to discuss the options available to you. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me




Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

GBP EUR GBP USD GBP AUD GBP ZAR Sterling to make small recovery this week as confidence among business professionals grows???

Overnight has seen a release from the Institute of Chartered Accountants confirming that business confidence had risen to 4.8 for the end of June, compared to -28.2 at the end of March... A marked improvement to say the least and potentialy siogns that the U.K is creeping out and may indeed already be out of the recession - although not officially.

Although this news may be seen as extremely positive to the naked eye Chief Executive Michael Izza warned against "underestimating" the challenges ahead for businesses.

Still, overall I personally believe this is yet again a better release for the Pound and further proof that we are slightly undervalued at present, although it may be the case that we get a little worse before we get better, it's just a case of when the turnaround begins.

This is a brief summary of todays report. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me




Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

Sterling forecast gbp eur aud nzd usd and many more

Following a brief trip to Holland I am pleased to say the blog will now be updated on a daily basis again.

Yesterday Sterling took a bit of a hit against most major currencies following the release of the Bank Of England minutes yesterday morning. Following the release it was confirmed that 3 of the members of the MPC actually wanted to pump evebn more money into the economy, a release that was taken badly by the markets.

Markets move on rumour as well as fact and the fact that Mervyn King was one of the people in favour of more quantitative easing could suggest there is more to come and every time more money is pumped into the economy it is generally seen as negative for the currency concerned.

Today has seen the release of retail sales data for the U.K which actually once again came out better than expected however at the time of writing this post there are red screens in the office and Sterling has lost ground against most major currencies including 0.27% against the Euro and 0.30% against the Dollar.

This is a brief summary of todays report. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me




Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

GBP AUD NZD Weakness continues

Sterling is still continuing to slide against the Australian Dollar and New Zealand Dollar this week hitting the lowest levels seen in a very long time.

At the time of writing this GBP - AUD was hovering above the 1.97 level and GBP - NZD just below 2.44.

It appears that Australia seem to have handled the global recession a lot better than many other economies alongside many investors continuing to partake in carry trading which always affects these currencies.

Carry trading is where an investor borrows money from an economy with a lower interest rate (USD, GBP, JPY) and invests it in an economy with a much higher interest rate (ZAR,AUD,NZD.

This is a brief summary of todays report. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me




Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

GBP - USD, GBP -EUR, GBP - ZAR, GBP - NZD, GBP - AUD

Sterling has continued to gain ground against a basket of major currencies throughout Wednesdays trading, great news for those of you with upcoming currency transfers from the Pound to another currency.

At the point of writing this mini report Sterling had gained 0.27% against the USD, 0.40% against the Euro, 0.83% against the Australian Dollar, 0.28% against the New Zealand Dollar and the highest mover of the day again - 1.46% against the South African Rand.

All eyes will now be on the interest rate decisions due out tommorow for the U.K and the Eurozone at 12:00pm and 12:45pm respecively. Although there aren't any major surprises expeceted with interest rates there is the possibility of a release regarding further Quantitative easing for the U.K.

This has happened over the past few months and on each occasion has had a negative impact on the value if the Pound, however after having brighter data released over the past week or so it is unclear as to what stance the Bank Of England will take on this.

This is a brief summary of todays report. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me




Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

GBP - EUR GBP - USD GBP - AUD GBP - ZAR GBP - NZD forecast and update

Following Sterlings solid day on the markets yesterday we have seen early morning positive movements again against a basket of major currenices.

Sterling pushed through the 1.70 mark against the USD, bringing a new year high and potentially a smile on the face of those of you needing to send funds to the U.S or to buy AED, as the two are both directly pegged.

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept interest rates on hold overnight, and after minimal talk of interest rate hikes over there recently we have gained a little bit of ground off the back of that and started moving onwards and upwards from the 2 mark - lets hope it lasts this time!

This is a brief summary of todays report. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me




Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

Sterling strength GBP - USD GBP - EUR GBP - AUD GBP - ZAR

Good morning to my regular readers, I hope you had a great weekend.

If you have an upcoming transaction to send money overseas then it is also a great start to the week for you as well, as Sterling has strengthened significantly in Monday mornings trading.

This is all off the back of some much better than expected growth for manufacturing in the U.K with the release of the Purchasing Managers Index. This data captures business conditions in the manufacturing sector and any figure above 50 is seen as bullish for the U.K economy.

The figure actually came out at 50.8 which is extremely promising news as this data also make up a large part of the GDP figures so it indicates that we are making headway towards coming out of the recession.

This is a brief summary of todays report. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me




Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright

Sterling weakness - Report on trading GBP - USD GBP - AUD GBP - ZAR and more

Sterling report – Yesterdays trading

Sterling had a relatively quiet day against the Euro yesterday staying pretty stable throughout the day on a thin day for data. Below I have outlined the major movers and potential reasons as to why the currencies moved as they did.

GBP – USD

The U.S released weaker than expected Consumer Confidence data during yesterday afternoon which would usually mean a weakened U.S Dollar, however by market close Sterling had lost 0.39% against the Greenback, possibly due to the worry of the Bank of England potentially introducing further Quantitative easing and banking stocks continuing to stay low.

GBP – AUD

Sterling had a mixed day yesterday, with movement against the Australian Dollar being a loss of 0.66% . This was following comments by the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia suggesting that the interest rates may be hiked in the near future over there. As regular readers may know an interest hike usually brings strength to the currency concerned, as investors look to shift funds over to that particular currency in order to receive a better return.

GBP – ZAR
Sterling started off the day losing ground against the South African Rand being approximately 0.6% down in early morning trading, only to do a complete turnaround by market close ending the day up by 0.85% which may be down to carry trading as no major data releases were due from South Africa.

As I’m sure you can imagine this would make a huge difference on the cost of sending money to South Africa. A purchase of ZAR1,000,000 would cost over £1000 less had you caught the rate at the right time yesterday.

This is where we come in – Upon opening an account with Foreign Currency Direct you are allocated a dedicated account manager who will happily tailor their assistance to your needs. If you either require daily updates on market movements or to be made aware of any upcoming data that may affect your transfer then you account manager will keep in touch regularly.
House prices rise for first time since Jan 2008



Yesterday saw one positive release from the land registry confirming that house prices had officially risen month on month for the first time since January 2008. Although the 0.1% increase is obviously better news than we have seen on the housing price side of things for a while, it merely shows that prices seem to be flattening out at present and a recovery appears to still be quite far away.

Prices are now sat at 14% less than records show for the same month last year and the survey generally compares the prices of homes sold now compared with the price paid for properties last year.

Although in general the release is still better news for the U.K and indeed the Pound, Sterling still struggled to make any major gains throughout the course of the trading day – a similar pattern to that of last week where although we saw very positive retail sales and mortgage approval releases Sterling still failed to make major gains.

This is slightly worrying for anyone needing to send money overseas in the near future, as if the Pound can’t make gains off the back of positive data then just what will happen next time we see a negative release??

During this mixed period for Sterling it is imperative you are in a position to act fast and be able to book a rate off the back of one phone call. In order to find yourself in this position click here to open a trading facility which is completely free and carries no obligation to trade. Upon doing this you will be allocated a personal and friendly account manager who can keep you up to date with market movements alongside making you aware of any excellent buying opportunities throughout the day.

Today’s Data

Today is extremely thin on the ground data wise, with a few U.S releases at 13:30pm, which aren’t expected to have much influence on the markets. On days such as today smaller announcements tend to have larger effects on the value of a currency so it may be prudent to contact your account manager first thing this morning and make them aware should you be looking to transfer funds in the near future.


This is a brief summary of todays report. Click here to read the full report on our main website

If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me




Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Daniel Wright