Forum Moderators: martinibuster
So it would make sense for Canadian bidders who are looking for cheap bids to go with US$ and save some money. Though I would take a 1.6x exchange rate for cashing my Adsense checks :)
Also you can take some but not all of it out if you need to.
That's the best way. I have just opened a US dollar account at my local HSBC bank in the UK.
I too have an HSBC bank account and have thought of opening a dollar account.
As you already have opened one - what's the monthly charge for it & do you get charged for each cheque/ transaction you pay in?
Also - as the dollar seams to be getting weaker and weaker - surely the dollars in your dollar account are depreciating compared to the pound?
These are the reasons why I decided not to open a dollar account. Your affiliate earnings may be a lot more than mine though.
I plan on using the money while holidaying in America (moving it to a US dollar visa card) so it makes sense for me to do it this way.
The rate, as it is and as its going, will raise exports and limit foreign travel for American's, thus making America richer all round.
I don't know how sustainable such as strategy is, however.
Ideally I'd like to save them up till the dollar recovers a bit
Hedge your position. Take a contract for difference [igmarkets.com]
[edited by: Macro at 8:24 pm (utc) on Feb. 3, 2004]
However, if one thing's even more certain, it's the fallibility of "expert economists". There was a survey once where they pitted a team of portfolio managers against a team of monkeys throwing darts at a wall papered with stock listings - to the researchers delight, the monkeys won big time.
Now, if you want to speculate on foreign currency exchanges, go ahead. Just don't get the two activities confused.
I guess the main thing here is how likely is it that the US$ will get stronger (or GB£ get weaker for that matter)? This would dictate whether it's worth setting up that US$ account?
I have absolutely no idea on these sorts of things any advice or web site links appreciated.
Cheers
Chris
For example at the minuete $1000 is around £545 (1 GBP = 1.83798 USD) BUT if the USD became stronger say 1 GBP = 1.4 USD then you get nearly £715 for $1000, £170 extra.
Now imagine your commissions for the year were $20,000, given the above scenario you could generate an extra £3,400, not to be sniffed at! As you can see there are quite big potential benefits for setting up a USD account....
The problem is can anybody accurrately predict when or if those rates will become favourable, if someone could step in here and tell us what's likely to be happening over the coming months/year ;) Of course no-one can fully guess what is going to happen, but surely there are clues/indicators?
CB
Now, if you want to speculate on foreign currency exchanges, go ahead. Just don't get the two activities confused.
I'm with amoore here. If you're so sure the US dollar is going to rise, why gamble just your AdSense payments on it? Why not buy dollars with the rest of your pounds or zlotys or whatever as well?
If you want to bet on the dollar/pound, there are FAR more effective ways to do it than sitting on a check and earning no interest.
Remember, there are two transactions: your revenue from the Adsense Check, and the return of your speculation.
That getting more money if the pound fluctuates is NOT an increase in commissions. It is the return on a successful 20,000 currency buy.
That being said, if you have significant dollar-based revenues AND dollar-based expenses, than a US dollar account makes sense. You now take exchange rates OUT of the equation, which is what you want.
You are in the business of making commissions, NOT gambling on exchange rates.
The entire futures market is made up of traders trying to win the gamble, and businesses that have exchange rate risk but are not in that business.
If sony expects 10 million dollars to head up the food chain in March, they want to know how many yen that is. If they "sell 10 million dollars" for yen, in March (futures contract), then they KNOW their exchange rate. Then they let the traders worry about profiting off rate changes.
If you have significant dollar income/expenses (especially that will net out over the year), open a dollar-based account. Hold your money for doing business in the US in dollars. That PROTECTS you from exchange trading. The last thing you want is to be getting income when $1 gives you .5 pounds, and paying expenses when $1 costs you 2 pounds (extremes of currency exchanges).
However, sitting on non-interest bearing assets in hopes that the exchange rates change is quite frankly, assinine. If you expect the dollar to appreciate, then you can: buy dollars in the future, with the expectation of selling them for more than they are now (highly leveraged, very speculative), buy US treasuries (safe return, in dollars), or buy US equities.
If you want to invest in the dollar appreciating, do it directly, not playing games.
If you look back upto 1985, the rate has broken the 2:1 barrier only once: http*://uk.finance.yahoo.com/m5?s=GBP&t=USD&a=1&c=3 It follows a sinusoidal pattern. Read that graph any way you want, and place your bets.....
I agree with what alex_h says. But people like me in the UK want to hold on to the cheques until a better day (which almost certainly will come!) when they will be worth more in pounds, and sticking them in a US dollar account and forgetting about it gives a way of doing that. Otherwise you're looking at losing a lot of money for no good reason.
I withdraw my ealier suggestion to take out a CFD to hedge against losing money by collecting your Adsense checks :-)
Otherwise you're looking at losing a lot of money for no good reason.
Yeeesss... but if you hold onto the cheques rather than banking them and you end up holding onto them for a very long time before the exchange rate improves... you might find that you would have been better off to bank at a worse exchange rate and make up the difference in interest.
If so can you give any idea as to which banks, commission and cost rates apply
Thanks
I think I'll go talk to a US bank at the publishers conference.
In the meantime, we just put US dollar cheques into our UK Sterling Business account and bite the cost.
