Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with finance and currency

Where to get the best exchange rate to buy a big USD bank draft in Toronto?

winston — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:05:47 -0800

How do I get the best exchange rate when I have Canadian dollars in hand and want to make a large payment in US dollars? I'm in Toronto and the recipient is not flexible with regards to payment methods so I need to end up with a certified cheque or bank draft to send. The money is currently in a President's Choice account and they can get me a USD draft but their premium on the exchange rate seems to be 2.5%. Currency exchange businesses usually advertise better rates than that but is there someplace I can walk into with a draft in CAD and walk out of with a draft in USD? Or is there some other option? I'll only need to do this once.

Canadian seeking savings account at a US bank

Penelope — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:55:05 -0800

Canadian who wants to open a high-interest savings account at a US bank, in USD - which bank? As the USD is relatively cheap to a Canadian right now, I'm interested in opening a USD savings account with about 5K, to cash out when the USD rises against the CAD again. Some Cdn banks offer them, but pay no interest and some don't even insure your USD holdings (they do the CAD). From what I've read, I have to physically go to the States and open an account. Does anyone know of a bank where I can just open an account online or by phone? BTW, I have no US mailing address.

How to hedge personal finances against currency exchange (Euro/AuD) upheavals?

kandinski — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:04:05 -0800

Please help me calculate the risks and likelyhoods of the Euro rising or falling against the Australian Dollar in the next twelve months. I live in Australia, but derive most of my income from my Spanish clients, so I get paid in euros. In the past year this has meant that my income has grown by almost 25% without me doing anything. Yeah, I can't believe my luck either. In fact the idiot who paid me 10k euros a year late has ended up doing me a favour. But this is random blind luck, and one doesn't feel comfortable having to trust on luck, hence this question.

We are having a baby and we plan to go visit the Spanish family in the next 12 months, and I travel there for work now and then, so it also makes sense to keep some money in Spain. But we don't know when, or how much to keep or transfer. Obviously getting all our money here now is not very smart if the AuD is going to drop further. But neither is keeping it in Europe if the AuD is going to rise.

Does any mefite have a clue of what is the optimal strategy for benefiting from the possible currency ups and downs, or at least not suffering from them? Purely theoretical talk just for the purpose of education also appreciated.

Queenback to Greenback

awenner — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:14:10 -0800

Who will tell me when the Canadian dollar rises again? As a Canadian student going to school in the US, I make regular tuition payments in USD. My payments are spread over six-week increments, which means that I can to schedule my purchases of US dollars in order to get the best rate. I'd like to avoid constantly staying glued to Google Finance, but neither Google nor Yahoo allow you to add currency to your portfolios. Is there a service that will just email me when the Canadian dollar hits USD$0.84, for example?

This question could apply to anything traded, I suppose.

Swiss bank accounts 101, or something different?

xanthippe — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:56:54 -0800

Where should I keep my money (to protect it from the US economy)? I'm American and it's in US$, but I don't live there and don't have any good reason to keep it there. I don't have that much, but am about to receive an inheritance, which is why this is an issue. Let's say that about half of what I receive will be in either cash or liquid assets, and half will be in Beneficial IRAs (the amounts are significant to me, but probably wouldn't make an international financial planner/accountant blink).

We all know about the US economy. The relative value of the dollar is decreasing, we can count on some inflation, the stock market, etc. etc. I plan on either investing or saving most of my money, but I am unlikely to ever use it in the US (I'm actually thinking about buying a flat in Europe as an investment right now). I may use a small chunk of it for some traveling/living expenses in the near future, and would generally prefer to have all of it secure but accessible and earning some income.

I realize that selling securities/investments/etc. that are part of the portfolios these assets consist of (some of the liquid assets and some of the IRA) will lock in my losses now; however, I'm also concerned that, even if the value recovers over time, the long-term depreciation of the dollar and the effect of inflation may negate any rebound. Is there any real advantage to not moving these assets out of the US (i.e. out of US banks, the US investment market, etc.) right away?

If I do move my money abroad, how should I actually do this? What are the logistics? And where to: Swiss bank account? Investments? What currency should I go with? I may have the option to invest the assets of the Beneficial IRA in foreign markets; should I think about this, or just cash them out, take the penalty, and run with the cash? If I can invest the contents of the IRA internationally, does that really preserve it from the US market?

I currently live, work and have a bank account in Oman; the local currency (as in most GCC states) is pegged to the US dollar. There has been lots of talk about unpegging the currencies, or re-pegging them to the Euro (Kuwait already unpegged theirs). I'm no economist, but things seem pretty stable locally, and it seems to me that if I exchanged all my dollars for Omani rials while they are still pegged - i.e. the value of the dollar has not decreased against the rial as it has against every other world currency that is not pegged to it - that I could stand to benefit immensely from this transaction by either maintaining the value of my money in rials if the currencies are unpegged while the dollar drops, or even seeing it increase for the same reason. Is this foolish or a good opportunity?

I don't have a long-term commitment to Oman, however - it's just where I happen to be living right now. I don't have a long-term commitment to any place, and specifically not to the US (despite my citizenship). I'm essentially a nomad (though I may well stay where I am forever - only time will tell). So the real question is, for the long-term, where should I make my "financial home" - where should I maintain my savings and investments not knowing where I will be living for the foreseeable future? How can I educate myself about this?

I don't know what to ask more specifically because I have never had to deal with finances in excess of a few thousand dollars before, so any advice as to where to start and how to prepare myself for this kind of decision-making will be appreciated. I need to 1) protect my money from the US economy (maintain as much of its value as possible regardless of where it is invested/what currency it is denominated in); 2) make money if possible by investing/earning interest; 3) ensure that I am not vulnerable to taxation/residency or citizenship requirements for any country I keep my accounts in/maintain my investments from.

Is there a website that has graphs of stock price in non-quoted currency

caek — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:23:53 -0800

Is there a finance website that can plot historical and current graphs of a stock price in a currency other than that of its local exchange, e.g. the stock price of IBM in USD multiplied by the (moving, not current!) EUR:USD exchange rate? If this is easy to do on Google or Yahoo Finance then I'm obviously missing something!

Is there such a thing as a currency-neutral measure of prices?

Nelson — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:03:08 -0800

Is there such a thing as a currency-neutral measure of the price of a commodity? The price of oil has gone way up in dollars. But the dollar is also way down against other world currencies. I'm looking for a graph that shows the price of oil in a way that's currency neutral. Ie, a graph that filters out the fluctuations in the US dollar. I'm not just interested in oil, really what I want is to translate dollars to "world currency" for a variety of things.

Naively I think you could do this by creating a virtual currency, an average of various world currencies weighted by the currency's economic influence. Ie: "30% USD, 20% EUR, 20% CNY, ..." But I'm not an economist and I'm not sure what I'm asking for even makes sense.

I did find a set of graphs of oil prices in various currencies, including vs. gold. The comments include a discussion about exactly what I'm asking for, with inconclusive results. The most interesting was a suggestion to look at oil vs. the CRB index. I don't really understand the CRB index, but what I do understand suggests it's not the right thing to normalize against.

Saving money in euros...

Afroblanco — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:49:23 -0800

I keep all my savings in a Citibank e-savings account, which is like a regular savings account, only with a higher interest rate. Recently, the dollar has totally been tanking, and this trend doesn't show any signs of reversing. What's the easiest, safest, most profitable way for me to save my money in euros instead of dollars? This is what I like about the e-savings account :

1) My money is FDIC insured.
2) The interest rate is higher than that of a typical savings account. It's somewhere around 4.25%.
3) I can take my money out any time I want without incurring any kind of penalty.
4) It's ultra-low-maintenance - I can just put my money in and forget about it.

I would like to put my money in euros without sacrificing any of the above, if possible. I know that I won't be able to find something that's FDIC insured, but I would like something that has a similar degree of security.

The fact of the matter is that the dollar is totally tanking, and I don't want to see my life's savings evaporate because of inflation or anything else that I don't really understand.

Best resources to become literate in macroeconomics and financial markets?

shivohum — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 22:12:39 -0800

What are some good books and other resources that could help me understand, to the point of allowing me to engage in reasonably intelligent debate, macroeconomics and financial markets? I have a rough understanding of basic economic concepts like supply and demand, inflation, utility, diminishing returns, and so on. But I need more and better. When people talk about trends in currency markets, current account deficits, the appeal of asset securitization, the meaning and effects of foreign reserves, the potentially destabilizing effects of hedge funds on global markets, the implications of savings vs. consumption, some of the complexities around management of the money supply, protectionism vs. free trade, natural rates of unemployment, and on and on -- I have pretty vague ideas about many of these, but I need greater detail, without going into mathematical exactitude. Where can I go for an intelligent but not pedantic understanding? Thanks.

Swobody! Fabryk! i Ziemi! Help my exchange my zloty!

deafmute — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:26:56 -0800

I have a not-insignificant amount of Polish zlotych. Help me figure out if and how I can exchange it... My zlotych appears to have been issued in 1988. My local currency exchange told me that the zloty was recently reissued by Poland, and that it might not be possible for me to get this exchanged. Is there someone knowledgeable in regards to Polish currency that could give me some advice and let me know whether this is worth anything or if I've just got some fancy paper?

This is what is looks like.

A new Korean War

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 17:21:40 -0800

The American administration is ratcheting up the rhetoric again about North Korea. Hostilities may or may not break out, of course, but if they do, what happens to the value of the South Korean currency? Wondering short, medium and longer term in the case of war, here, and it's a personal question, because the sum total of my meagre assets are won-denominated. Historical perspectives appreciated, if you have any!

exchange rate fight!

Popular Ethics — Mon, 09 May 2005 15:28:12 -0800

This week, apparantly, the financial movers and shakers in the US have "toughened up" their demand for China to let their currency float with respect to the US dollar, saying, among other things, “Failure to move on the renminbi means China is also not doing its fair share in reducing global payments imbalance" If their fixed exchange rate is the reason for China's enormous growth, what reason would they have to oblige? I've never heard an economist suggest "good will" as a motive for matters of international finance before. Frankly, it sounds (to my untrained ears) more like begging. Does the US hold any cards here? What risks does China take by not giving in?