Investor Relations » Fund Managers

USD Information And Accurate Currency Information For Investors – All Available At Allamericandollar

Admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:17:22 +0000

As more and more information on investing becomes available online, a growing number of regular people are beginning to invest their own money and savings. Exactly what does it mean to invest? This means that you purchase financial instruments such as the stocks and bonds of various companies, or you choose to allow fund managers at banks and other investment organizations to purchase such instruments for you. Â Financial investors, however, often need real-time access to up-to-date USD information and accurate currency information. USD information, for example, is extremely useful for anyone who owns stocks and bonds and is trying to work out their value. An investor in this situation would need information on how well the US dollar is doing and whether it would be worth it to buy or sell stocks and bonds that are traded in US dollars. Â On the other hand, financial investors who have invested in financial instruments outside of the United States would find accurate currency information extremely useful, as their investments would not be traded in US dollars but in other currencies. They therefore need accurate and precise information on how much other currencies are worth in relation to the US dollar. The USD information and accurate currency information found on the Allamericandollar website is extremely useful for these investors. Â A growing number of investors are also choosing to invest in the forex market. This deals in the buying and selling of foreign currencies on a global market. Most people know that the exchange rate determines exactly how much of another currency you can buy with a certain amount of US dollars, for example. The question, then, is what is the exchange rate at any given time? Investors need to have access to real-time updated USD information and accurate currency information so that they can make decisions on what to invest in. Â Investors who make the mistake of not securing access to updated USD information and accurate currency information find themselves basing their investing decisions on numbers and information that is old and outdated, thus increasing the risk that they make the wrong choices and lose money on their investments. Every investor is out to make a profit, and it therefore pays to have a sure source of USD information and accurate currency information. Â Another use that investors may have for the Allamericandollar website is as an indicator of how well the economy is doing. Generally, how well the American economy is doing is reflected in the strength of the American dollar. The better the state of the economy, the stronger the US dollar. And the stronger the US dollar, the more of foreign currencies you are able to buy with the same amount of US dollars. This means that investors can use the exchange rates as a good indicator of how well the economy is doing and whether they should buy or sell investments.

Investor Relations Lessons on Month-End Trading – Technical Corrections

Admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:19:02 +0000

With Thanksgiving leftovers gone (hopefully) and the holiday season upon us, let’s pick up a couple investor relations tips to help us finish out the year the best we can.

But first, we’ll answer that question smoldering like a $10 bill in the pocket of a twelve-year-old: “Did order flow last week indicate that real money was back fueling stocks?”

The short answer is no. The long answer is also no. Liquidity providers, who furnish shares to market centers instead of taking them away were almost unchanged in the ranks. The exception was the 29th and 30th, when retail and time-slice and alternative platforms were way up. This indicated that month-end activity trumped any wish to pick up bargains. In English, this means that a frantic search for liquidity to protect against downside risks reasserted itself on 11/29-30. Buying was selective and specific.

Stay with me here…this is important stuff, IROs. Two IR lessons for technical market corrections and the ends of months in algorithmically driven markets:

#1. Avoid events and news on the last day or two of trading in a month, unless you’re announcing catalyst news, like highly accretive M&A or a major contract. Why? Because you are contending with adjustments to risk-management, transition-management in portfolios, incomplete tweaks to forward buyside and sellside strategies and the possibility that any economic or geopolitical news will seriously throw all the above out of kilter. Why risk that? Wait a few days whenever you can.

#2. If technical corrections coincide with catalysts, reach out aggressively to the buyside. The silver lining of situations like last week’s where the Dow crossed the 10% down threshold and came back up on what the technicians call a “double bottom” (also a description for the result of too much food at Thanksgiving) is that ups and downs are mostly algorithmic. So, say you have big catalyst-style news. Fund managers look good capitalizing on opportunities, but look bad if they go against the tape. So make your self a “special situation” by standing out when the tape goes south. But don’t try this if you have no basis for it. You’ll waste your time on the road.

IROs, I hear you: “Tim, we don’t want to worry about this stuff. We just want to run our investor relations programs.” Well, this Friday, December 7 marks a crucial milestone in modern American history when Americans were saying the same thing about geopolitics. No, we are absolutely not saying market structure is like Pearl Harbor! But we’re suggesting that sometimes you’ve just got to deal with it.

Big Global Investors Seem to be a Bit More Confident

Admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:42:04 +0000

Amid gloom and then rebounding on financial markets, the worries about banks and the optimism about the new Obama Administration in the US, the first of this year’s surveys of big global investor sentiment by Merrill Lynch, has shown some relative optimism.

The December survey saw a hint of this change when it reported that investor sentiment had stepped back from the brink of despair, but more than a third of investors wanted to see greater fiscal stimulus, according to Merrill Lynch’s Survey of Fund Managers for December.

“While 88 percent of the panel believes that the world economy is in recession, December’s survey contains evidence that the rate of deterioration is slowing.

“The net balance of investors who expect the global economy to worsen in the coming year has fallen to 36 percent, down from 60 percent in October.

“More than a quarter of respondents believe the economy will strengthen in 2009. Cash levels average 5.5 percent, up from 5.1 percent in November, the highest level since 2001. Furthermore, a widespread perception exists that stocks are cheap, both in absolute terms and relative to bonds.”

They seem to have got their wishes with the German government upping its support for the faltering economy to some 50 billion euros, the US pushing its stimulus package to some $US825 billion and more rate cuts by central banks, especially the European Central Bank at the start of January and more to start this week in New Zealand.

But there have been more bank bailouts in the US, UK, Ireland, Denmark, France and Germany, while we in Australia are in the processing of filling a gap in funding caused by the flight of foreign banks, such as Bank of America, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland.

“Now for January ML reports that global investor gloom has started to lift, with hopes of improving growth and inflation rather than deflation.”

“There is a lot of hope in China’s bounce back as well.

“Broad economic sentiment has improved sharply from the lows of late 2008.

“The Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Composite Indicator for Growth Expectations has climbed to 30 this month from 25 in December and a low of 17 in October. The proportion of fund managers who predict lower inflation has fallen to a net 64 percent from a net 82 percent in December.

“Accordingly, there is a growing conviction that interest rates will rise, with 35 percent of respondents who forecast long term rates to increase in the next 12 months, up from 10 percent in December. At the same time the average cash balance remains high at 5.3 percent, only marginally lower than December’s level of 5.5 percent.

“Investors are talking a more positive story, especially with regards to the U.S., but the fear factor remains,” said Gary Baker, Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch head of EMEA equity strategy.

“They have firepower to act, but are unconvinced by the modest recent equity rally, suggesting it is a bear market rally in both sentiment and markets. Global sector allocations remain resolutely defensive.”

ML said that cash positions in Europe are at their highest level since 2001, reflecting the high level of caution within the region. A total of 42% of regional respondents are overweight cash compared with 29% in December.

“The numbers reflect how, while global economic sentiment is lightening, European expectations remain under a cloud with investors embedded in defensive positions.

“Every respondent to the regional survey expects a European recession, up from 91 percent in December. Investors are worried that corporate profits will continue to disappoint.

“This distrust means the percentage of investors who believe that European equities are cheap has almost halved, falling to 22 percent in January from 40 percent in December.

“European investors are still dancing the two-step and are reluctant to try out any more adventurous moves,” said Karen Olney, Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch lead European equity strategist.

“Investors continue to rotate between expensive defensive sectors and beaten, but not broken, industrial cyclicals that hope to piggyback on any indication of infrastructure-related spending by governments reigniting economies.”

ML said investors are flocking to Food & Beverage and Pharmaceuticals.

It said two survey records have been broken. Food & Beverage has hit its highest overweight in the history of the survey (net 11% of fund managers overweight).

The gulf in sentiment between Banks and Healthcare sectors is also at a record high. A net 57% of European investors are underweight Banks while a net 46% are overweight Healthcare. “Pharmaceuticals are largely immune to the credit crunch and economic slowdown that has hit banks,” said Olney.

Sterling is viewed as undervalued for the first time in seven years.

In October, a net 58% of respondents viewed sterling as overvalued but this month a net 7% believe it is undervalued. Increasing numbers view both the euro and the yen as overvalued.

US equities have become less in favour with global investors. The net percentage of asset allocators overweight the US equity market fell from 25% in December to 7% in January.

“There has been a notable dip in the U.S. equity market’s popularity and emerging market equities have been the new-year beneficiary of rotation away from the U.S.,” said Michael Hartnett, Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch chief emerging markets equity strategist.

The number of investors underweight in global emerging markets has fallen to 7% in January, from 17% in December.

In spite of flows into emerging markets, investors retain caution over China.

The percentage of regional investors who expect the Chinese economy to improve has risen from 6%, but is still low at 10%. The proportion of respondents who expect Chinese growth to slow in the next 12 months has fallen to 70% from 79% in December.

“China remains the big global growth wildcard in 2009. Despite the announcement of huge fiscal stimulus packages in recent months, investors remain very sceptical about Chinese and Asian growth,” said Hartnett.

“Indeed, Japanese investors notably reduced their expectations for Japan’s growth to close to a record low.”

A total of 205 fund managers, managing a total of U.S. $597 billion, participated in the global survey from January 9 to January 15. A total of 167 managers, managing $US359 billion, participated in the regional surveys.

The survey was conducted by Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch Research with the help of market research company Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS).

IMPORTANT: AIR reports about financial markets and investment products in the widest sense possible. The AIR website and all its contents is prepared for general information only, and as such, the specific needs, investment objectives or financial situation of any particular user have not been taken into consideration. Individuals should therefore talk with their financial planner or advisor before making any investment decisions.

By: Australasian Investment Review