For The Love Of Port

Monetary stimulus program by the ECB, Roy: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/ ... KA20150122

Thanks Brian!

A reversal of fortune:

1.12069

1.1382

1.1196 the first time I have seen sub 1.12 in many years!

Roy Hersh wrote:1.1196 the first time I have seen sub 1.12 in many years!

September 8, 2003 to be precise. It was 1.1095. The next day it went to 1.1235 and never went back down.

Still heading down, but slowly: 1.11664 at the moment.

Like others, I am curious to see how low the Euro will go before rebounding.

Obviously the Euro zone issues with repayments (or not) by Greece, remain large, no less the instability with Russia and the Ukraine. Putin's plan to hold oil hostage through the Ukraine and rest of Europe was badly played. Interesting to watch that scenario play out.


What do you think, will the Euro drop below 1.10?

1.10734 right now. I guess that beats the floor posted by Andy. Now to see if we wind up sub-1.10.

1.10334

Inching closer ... 1.10195
http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgra ... g-program/

Henny Penny the sky is falling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


1.08608

I can hope it'll be 1:1 in May!

I just asked this question as part of this post re: private importing http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... =6&t=38164 but it seems like this thread might be more relevant for what was really a secondary question in that post:

I'm thinking about simply buying some Euros (cash) and 'locking in' the current rate for a future buying trip abroad. Everything I've read the past few days suggests we might see one more dip, probably not to parity but that there's unlikely to be any further major drops. How do I get the best exchange rate here in the US?

Check out xe.com for the answer.

If the Dollar is getting stronger, you probably don't want to hold onto Euros. You'd want them only at the last minute.
Some banks will exchange for you if you have an account with them. They'll have a smallish exchange rate, but most need about a week in advance notice. I know Bank of America does this.

I researched this several years ago and again, to a bit lesser extent, around late 2014, and as Roy said, try xe.com. I found it to have the most competitive exchange rate, and certainly better than the banks I use in the US. I've been buying euros on the march downward since January, and the spread is generally around 0.02 from the mid-market published rate, sometimes a bit better and sometimes a bit worse. If you have your accounts set up correctly so that you can get funds to xe.com by EFT and deliver the euros by EFT, there are no other commissions, so your only "cost" is the spread between the buy-rate and mid-market rate.

Agreed, I have been doing this for quite a while. With no EFT fees, xe.com rocks!!

The idea of xe.com/EFT is, I assume, to transfer funds directly to a retailer, correct?

I was thinking of just buying currency - unless I've missed something it's not clear that XE offers that service.

My wife ranks AAA the worst, Wells Fargo better, and xe.com the best. But the xe.com thing was a direct transfer, not physical currency. AAA and Wells Fargo were to get cash.

XE doesn't offer a cash service. However, if you have friends Europe you could sent them an EFT or a Draft and have them give the cash to you.

I have a bank account in Portugal so I use that to buy currency. I will book a trade and draw dollars on US account by EFT and then send euros to my Portuguese account by EFT. I don't think you can use xe.com to send money to a retailer, at least not practically, because you don't have account info for EFT. You can send euros by check, which I suppose could be done to a retailer, if it was the type of retailer willing to give you product or hold for you until you got a check to them.

If you have an account, or a friend as David suggests, it is great.

Here's to the continuing fall of the euro!