Product Description

As head FX strategist at CMC Markets–one of the world's leading forex/commodity brokers–Ashraf Laidi understands the forces shaping today's currency market and their interplay with interest rates, equities, and commodities. And now, with Currency Trading and Intermarket Analysis, he shares his extensive experiences in this field with you. Throughout the book, Laidi outlines the tools needed to understand the macroeconomic and financial nuances of this dynamic field and provides you with insights that are essential to making the most of your time within it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23390 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From the Inside Flap

Currencies are becoming an integral part of many investors' portfolios and have grown to be a distinct asset class in banks' investment products. While the mechanics of the forex market and the theories underpinning it have been widely explored, there has been little discussion regarding the practical intermarket relationships shaping currencies via interest rates, equities, and commodities.

Nobody is more familiar with this situation than author Ashraf Laïdi. As head FX strategist at CMC Markets—one of the world's leading forex/commodity brokers—he understands the forces shaping today's currency market and their interplay with interest rates, equities, and commodities. And now, with Currency Trading and Intermarket Analysis, he shares his extensive experiences in this field with you.

Following an innovative approach based on what still works and what doesn't in currency market analysis; applying charts and case studies to intermarket analysis in unprecedented ways; and weighing both old theories and newly emerging phenomena in this arena, Currency Trading and Intermarket Analysis will put you in a better position to assess shifts in economic and market dynamics and make more profitable trading decisions in the process.

Some of the essential issues addressed include:

• The latest commodity boom with a breakdown by individual commodity group and its implication for currencies

• The relationship between short- and long-term interest rates and how it can be applied to anticipate vital shifts in central bank decisions and turning points in economic growth

• The drivers of risk appetite in the market and their effect on foreign exchange

• Central bank currency reserves in regions such as the oil-producing nations, and the evolution of power between the Dollar and the Euro

• A gold-based approach to valuing the major currencies and determining their secular strengths and weaknesses over the past decades

• And much more

Currency trading has increased in size and speed, and so has its impact on the global financial scene. Having a solid grasp of these markets is no longer limited to figuring out interest rate and growth differentials. Currency Trading and Intermarket Analysis outlines the tools needed to understand the macroeconomic and financial nuances of this dynamic field and provides you with insights that are essential to making the most of your time within it.

From the Back Cover
Praise for Currency Trading And Intermarket Analysis

"Ashraf Laïdi is virtually without peer in his grasp of currency movements and their significance for financial and commodity markets and the global economy. As his new book illustrates, he's blessed with an uncommon knack for describing the meaning of trends in those often erratic markets in clear and concise fashion."
âAlan Abelson, Columnist, Barron's

"Ashraf Laïdi's book is sure to become an instant classic from Wall Street to Main Street. For the first time, a real expert has masterfully connected the rhymes and reasons behind currency, gold, oil, and other commodity price and interest rate movements in a way that is both clear and indispensable for the practitioner. In these turbulent times, the investor who wants to stay ahead of the curve and reap above average returns, the business finance student who wants to get the feel of the marketplace and enrich his or her educational experience, the international business finance professor who wants to make the class relevant, and the policymaker who wants to engineer stable and sustained growth must read this book and a number of times, from cover to cover."
âHossein Askari, Iran Professor of International Business and Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University

"A comprehensive guide to the factors that drive the FX market, with a particular emphasis on the major currency pairs."
âBrad Setser, Fellow, Geoeconomics, Council on Foreign Relations

"Ashraf Laïdi's insights on the dollar have enlightened the millions who have seen him on TV or read his analysis. His book explains in simple language the complex inter-relationships between the dollar, oil, gold, and interest rates. Valuable information for all investorsâeven the pros."
âSusie Gharib, Anchor, PBS's Nightly Business Report

"Ashraf Laïdi is well known to city journalists as the rising star of the currency markets. His book offers a majestic sweep of the global financial system, showing how credit, oil, gold, and equity markets all interact to shift currencies one way or another. It is a primer on thirty years of exchange rate drama. If you want to know when to play the carry trade and when to steer well clear, this well-crafted opus is probably the best guide you are going to find."
âAmbrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor

"Ashraf Laïdi has been an invaluable source of insight as global currencies have endured their fiercest bout of turbulence for years. This book offers an accessible, yet comprehensive, guide to the world's largest and perhaps least understood financial market."
âPeter Garnham, Currencies Correspondent, Financial Times

About the Author
Ashraf Laïdl is the head FX Strategist at CMC Markets, where he oversees the analysis and forecasting functions of G-10 currency pairs as well as decisions and trends of the major global central banks. His online FX analysis has received wide following for more than a decade, centering on G-10 currencies and economies. Prior to joining CMC, Laïdi monitored the performance of a multi-FX portfolio at the United Nations, assessed sovereign and project investment risk for Hagler Bailly and the World Bank, and analyzed emerging market bonds at Reuters. Laïdi also created the first 24-hour currency Web site for traders and researchers during the inception of the Euro. He is the founder of AshrafLaidi.com.

Customer Reviews

Finally an original in FX
This book will be helpful to those seeking an introduction to the interrelatedness of the currency, commodity, equity and fixed income markets. The book is well written and easy to read. However, I would not suggest the book to a person with no technical, economic or financial background.
I have followed Mr. Laidi's currency outlook for over a decade now both on TV and in print, and can honestly say that I have yet to come across another analyst with the foresight of Mr. Laidi (he called the bear market and USD collapse when the rest of Wall St. were still believing in an unending bull market).
Although many of his correlations referenced in this book are obviously backward looking, it does teach traders to take a global market perspective before narrowing down to specific currency pairs. I felt his explanation of the FED, under both Greenspan and Bernanke, really did a good job on a very difficult topic, as many traders, like myself, really don't understand the different weapons the Fed and other central banks posses.
Equally useful and informative was his chapter on the effect of interest rates, there isn't enough space for me to go into it, instead I will let you gather the pearls of wisdom for yourself.
Mr. Laidi finally concludes that some of the historical tendencies are currently being challenged and that only time will tell if a new relationship has emerged or if history will again be proven right. Pick up this book if you want to read the work of an original thinker at the top of his craft. Whether you trade FX or another market, I think you will benefit from Mr. Laidi's insight.

Understanding the Reasons Currencies Move
Anyone who is serious about forex needs to read this book and follow Ashraf's analysis via ashraflaid [...]. Ashraf's career spans all aspects of the currency markets (from assessing risk for the World Bank to analyzing bond markets) and he truly knows what makes the markets tick.

After reading and studying his material you can watch the currency markets fluctuate based on the forces that exist in the financial world (and understand why). Gold, Oil, Bonds, the Stock Markets and World Events are all catalysts for the key driver of currencies "RISK" vs. "Risk Aversion". Ashraf explains to the reader which way the pressure moves based on these interrelated markets.

The core of this book is studying the correlations that exist in the financial markets and how they affect currency movement. Ashraf explains that these correlations come and go and that good trading is based around understanding the current set of data and the correlations prevailing. If you like politics, economics and trading then this book is a must read and re-read.

Very Enlightened
Finished the book and I must say I have been enlightened. I will definitely need to review it again to hammer home the concepts, but I feel like this book has given me a deeper understanding of why financial markets behave the way they do. I wish I would have read this before learning to trade spot Forex two years ago because it would have shortened the learning curve and I would have avoid many painful leassons.