Friday, May 11, 2007

moving to cash


this month i've been slowly moving more and more of the holdings to cash.

i'm going to accelerate that move tomorrow and be sitting 90% cash before next week.

i'm not "top calling", but i need to have time to analyse global liquidity...and i don't have that time right now.

i will diworsify across several currencies and hold an inflation hedge or two with what remains in the market.

good luck.
fuBarrio

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a quick question for you...

I'm a regular schmuck living and working in the U.S. of A. and putting some money aside for my golden years. Let's say I think the dollar is a loser and I want my savings to be in, oh- I don't know- Swiss francs.

I know how to save money in dollars. You just go to the bank and deposit your money. But how does one save in foreign currency?
And I mean as a practical matter, how is it actually accomplished?

Appreciate any help you could give.


P.S. I have dozens more questions about investments/economics/etc. If you know of any good message boards or news sites I could use to find answers, I wouldn't have to keep bugging you :) Thanks!

fuBarrio said...

a few ways....

foreign currency denominated bonds...

straight leveraged forex trades ( i do this through interactive brokers when i want to lose money trading-- i'm not very good at forex trading)

u could use it in dollars and just leave small portion in something that tends to move up with inflation (energy, precious metals)

or, you can try out everbank.com i don't know much about everbank except that i hear that they offer ways to save in other currencies.

u could also theoretically open a foreign bank account although fees and hassle can be high.

feel free to email info@fubarrio.com so i can respond directly if you want more details.

peace,
fB

Anonymous said...

One quick and easy way to save in foreign currency is with the Merk Hard Currency Fund (www.merkfund.com). Gives you a basket of currencies plus gold.

There is also a series of CurrencyShares ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) in different currencies that are sort of like having a money market account in that currency. You buy and sell these just like any stock. The Euro fund (FXE) has reasonable volume; the others have less liquidity so you might take a bit of a hit if you need to sell in a hurry. For Swiss francs, you want FXF. You can look up details on www.etfconnect.com.

-- Shirley