Traders on the Foreign Exchange market, Forex market for short, can potentially make thousands of dollars based on the volatility and fluctuations of a country’s currency. To better themselves and have a leading advantage over other traders, some Forex traders and investors participate in a practice known as news trading. The risks are very high, but the potential gains can be worth thousands of dollars and many traders and investors use this technique.
The technique of news trading is quite simple. It is the trading of foreign currency immediately before or after an important economic news announcement. After such announcements, there is a high possibility that market prices will fluctuate, either for the better or worse, depending on the announcement. For example, if the U. S. Federal Reserve announces another increase of the interest rate, many traders might invest in the U.S. dollar as it is expected that its value will appreciate. The main advantage of news trading is the potential for a country’s currency to make huge gains or losses in very little time. Within minutes of an economic announcement, a country’s currency can gain or lose one hundred points almost instantly. The potential of huge profits attracts Foreign Exchange traders and investors, however there are various risks associated with news trading.
Like any investment, there is always a risk, and news trading on the Forex market is no different. Though the potential profits are huge, the losses are also equally as large. The dangers of news trading come from the fact that a trade must be made quickly or else you are going to lose. If you are caught on the bad side of a trade, your money will be gone quicker than you can blink your eye. You will lose money so fast that there won’t even be time for you to manually close your trades, leaving you with nothing. Stop-loss orders are also potentially dangerous as there is a high probability of slippage because of the sudden price fluctuation.
Though some investors and traders might get lucky trading news, there is only a small probability that you will make a profit. Even if you are an expert news trader, you should still be very, very cautious when participating in this practice. Successful news trading depends solely on how you get your news. The most successful news traders are the ones with the fastest news feeds and those that are able to quickly place their trades immediately after an announcement has been made. Even using other forms of news trading, such as placing orders above or below the market price is still a guessing game, and those traders in the market who base their trades on guesses, won’t have much money after a short time.
For many Forex traders and investors, their trades are dictated by technical indicators and price indexes. Hours are spent researching every indicator, taking every risk into account and then making a decision based on everything they have studied. However, for a Forex news trader, none of this matter, and the only thing they take into account is economical news announcements.
News trading is possible because the Forex market is always open, unlike many financial markets. In a financial market, securities trades of certain stocks are suspended when an important company announcement is being made. These announcements are usually made after the market has closed for the day. However, because the Foreign Exchange market is open 24 hours, any economic announcement will have direct affects on the currency of that country, and maybe others as well. In the Forex market, there are eight major currencies that are traded, as well as over seventeen derivatives to be traded as well. This means that on any given day, there will always be economic announcements from any of the major traded currencies. The major trader currencies are as follows:
U.S. Dollar (USD)

Great British Pound (GBP)

Euro (EUR)

Japanese Yen (JPY)

Australian Dollar (AUD)

Swiss Franc (CHF)

Canadian Dollar (CAD)

New Zealand Dollar (NZD)

Because of the availability of each currency, currency pairs, and its derivatives, such as USD/JPY, EUR/USD, AUD/USD, as well as several others, each currency can be traded at any given time because these currencies are globally traded.
Any Forex news trader or news investor will have to have the latest most up to the moment news announcements. Even if the news announcements are only a couple of minutes old, this can have devastating effects for any trader who has risked any sum of money. Most news traders like to keep an eagle eye on any news regarding economical activity, but most importantly news dealing with interest rates changes, FOMC rate decisions, retail sales figures, inflation indicators such as the consumer price index (CPI), producer price index (PPI), unemployment figures, industrial production announcements, boost in business and consumer confidence, as well as business sentiment surveys. Manufacturing sector surveys, trade balance release details, and foreign purchases of U.S. Treasuries may also prove useful for a news trader to better make decisions regarding when or when not to trade.
However, it should be remembered that these news announcements can have ranging impacts on a country’s currency, and after an announcement, the volatility of a currency may greatly fluctuate. It is important to take advantage of news that creates movements in volatility that will last for a few minutes or even hours. Trading on the Forex market based solely on news is a difficult and sometimes dangerous practice. However, there are some indicators that can make a news trader’s job easier, such as breakout indicators (Bollinger bands, breakout of a candlestick bar, or a price bar). Research has proved that news announcements can impact a currency’s value quite severely, in some cases it can gain or lose anywhere from 33 pips to 124 pips, opening up the ideal trading opportunity looked for by news traders. If a news trader is able to act quickly enough, even the smallest news release can be turned into a potential profit of thousands of dollars. However, it is important to remember the volatility of such announcements, and although the profits seem endless, the losses can happen too.

India's biggest corporate scandal in memory threatens future foreign investment flows into Asia's third-largest economy and casts a cloud over growth in its once-booming outsourcing sector.
The news sent Indian equity markets into a tailspin, with Bombay's main benchmark index tumbling 7.3pc in a firmer session for world markets and the Indian rupee fell.
Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman of India's fourth-largest software services exporter, said in a statement that Satyam's profits had been massively inflated over recent years but no other board member was aware of the financial irregularities.
"If a company's chairman himself says they built fictitious assets, who do you believe here? This has put a question mark on the entire corporate governance system in India," said R.K. Gupta, managing director at Taurus Asset Management in New Delhi.
Mr Raju, who founded Satyam more than two decades ago and who took it public in 1991, said about $1bn (£667m) or 94pc of the cash on the company's books was fictitious.
The 54-year-old Satyam chairman came under close scrutiny last month after the company's botched attempt to buy two construction firms partly owned by its founders, which Mr Raju said on Wednesday was a final attempt to resolve the problem of the fictitious assets.
"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten," Mr Raju, a management graduate from Ohio University, said in his letter, adding he was prepared to face up to the legal consequences.
Satyam said its managing director and co-founder B. Rama Raju, Mr Raju's brother, had also resigned. It did not give any reason for the resignation.
The company's difficulties multiplied when the World Bank, a major customer, barred Satyam from new business, citing "improper benefits" given to Bank officials.
Just three months ago, Satyam received a Golden Peacock award from a group of Indian directors for excellence in corporate governance.
"I think there is no future for this stock. This case for India is similar to what happened to Enron in the US," said Jigar Shah, senior vice-president at Kim Eng Securities.
"It will not stop at Satyam. Many more companies will come into scrutiny like that. There is a strong possibility investments in India will be affected."

Protect Your Company’s Stock Prices

Not many might have noticed, however, a couple of weeks back a 6 year old article began going about the web as breaking news about United Airlines applying for Bankruptcy, caused as much as a 75 percent drop in the airline’s stock, highlighting the impact of information processing and its effects in new media.

Just to give you a backdrop of the story,

“The steep sell-off in United’s shares came after a news service in Florida distributed an old story posted on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Web site six years ago. The recirculated story gave the appearance that United had filed for bankruptcy protection again. In fact, the story was originally published Dec. 10, 2002, by the Chicago Tribune, marking the airline’s decision at that time to seek protection from creditors.

Moments after a headline for the story hit Bloomberg who took cue from this apparent ‘new story’, shares in United stock fell from about $12 a share to a low of $3, prompting a halt in trading of United stock.” (Source:Chicacgo Tribune)

Considering the volatile environment of the markets in general these days, such news might have irrevocable effects, in United’s case fortunately the truth came out and the stock recovered the losses later on. However, their reputation certainly might have been hampered a bit.

All this could have been avoided had they kept a track of their brand name and its mention and used the influence and reach of Social Media to thwart rumours in their bud. The best part is it wouldn’t have even consumed much time or cost anything, social media never does much anyway.

So how does one handle the flow of information on the web?

WATBlog suggests taking the following steps particularly with regards to managing news which can have a negative impact on your stock prices.

1. Connect with your investors through social networking sites:

The multiple options that most social networking sites give help in quickly reaching out to your target audience. You can create a group on Facebook or a community on Orkut specially for your investors, say ‘WATBlog Investor Community’ and reach out to your investors through your website or any other communication you already peruse. You can use the send message to members option to quickly connect with the users with messages that can be as short as 2 or 3 lines instead of the two page long PR that you need otherwise.

2. Become part of microblogging communities and track your brand mentions:

The way microblogging is catching on, it is inevitable that much like social networks which boast of over 100 million users, even services like Twitter, Pownce will have a major following. And as has often been seen lately, news spreads on these services really fast and we have seen instances of Twitter breaking news stories off late. Here is an very good read on Twitter as a news tool.

You can begin by following financial bloggers on twitter and other online journalists whose handles can be easily found through their websites and profiles. Next, start susbscribing to RSS feeds on keyterms like your brand name or stock symbol on Summize or Twitter Search as it is known now. This way you can keep yourself updated about any mention and reach out to the carriers of information. Endorse the fact that you are on twitter so that people can confirm any news about you that they have heard or want to share.

3. Subscribe to Google News Alerts and Popular Financial Blogs:

Subscribing is one of the best way to track topics online. Put in news alerts for your brand name, or the exchanges that you want to follow and you will keep getting updates. In United’s case this could have been very handy because the news wasn’t picked up immediately after Google News crawled the old page presuming (with valid reasons) to be new. The news could have been immediately blotted out had someone been tracking the brand. The same is the case with popular blogs, they have highly influential visitor base and are often looking for breaking news. Subscribing to blogs and alerts are easy as checking emails. WATBlog has in fact provided an in depth tutorial on RSS feeds and subscribing earlier.

4. Keep in Touch With Popular Forum Moderators

It wouldn’t be productively viable to monitor and be part of forum activities online, unless that is your job all the time. Hence, it would be a good idea to be in touch with forum owners or moderators to do the work for you to inform you if they see a new thread or topic about your company that is catching a lot of attention. You can then correct the information on the same platform and put an end to noise. The forum guys would be happy to assist because it also lends credibility to their own community. Even a huge network like Network18 use their Moneycontrol forum to promote and pitch their new offerrings.

5. Have a corporate blog and use it to provie complete details on the issue at hand

Numerous views and opinions have been published online on the importance of having a corporate blog and its benefits. Yet, many are still sluggish with their acceptance to these inherent benefits a communication platform like a blog provides. Nevertheless, build one if you don’t have one and use it to provide all the details about the issue at hand to your investors, customers and even employees. In the points mentioned before, given the fact that you have to reach out quickly the messages maybe short and to the point. With a blog you can go in depth and have a complete coverage of any misproduction of information for current and future reference. It will also help bury the negative news that would be floating around on the web.

If you look at the above points, most of them are not very different from a regular Online Reputation Management campaign. However, the scrutiny keeping in mind the latest developments was on the financial industry and aimed at marketers handling financial products and brand. We hope you find this information useful in extending your presence and making the most of it during time which require action online.

Also, though the tone of the post might intend a direct address to those responsible for a company’s brand to take part actively in social media, it need not quite be the case. The above mentioned activities can easily be assigned to a trainee or an intern to handle and keep track of. This will considerably save costs, time and effort on part of the organization while still being socially saavy.

Naukri Q2 Results Out On a Day When Stock Markets Globally Melt Down

Naukri Q2 Results Out On a Day When Stock Markets Globally Melt Down

Infoedge (Naukri.com) has released its quarterly numbers are has reported a net income of Rs 15.67 crore for quarter ended September 2008, which is a 3.5 per cent growth over previous year. Total income is up by 24 per cent to Rs 72.32 crore as compared to Rs 58.50 crore a year ago.

According to Ambarish Raghuvanshi, CFO and Director, Info Edge India, has said, “The company’s results are good considering the difficult operating environment. We have continued to grow, albeit slowly despite the downturn in hiring levels. Other businesses, especially 99acres.com grew very appreciably. We therefore have engines of growth for the future which we are continuing to invest in.”

We had Interviewed the Infoedge COO Hitesh Oberoi yesterday who also felt that the growth would be slow in the year ahead.

Growth in portals like Jeevansathi.com and 99acres has been impressive though at 98.9 per cent and 40.3 per cent respectively. Though given that that non naukri revenue only contributes 12% this growth would have little or no impact on overall numbers.

Well Naukri numbers come out on a day when a global financial meltdown and Naukri’s own stock was down 5% today while it had lost close to 30% from the levels at which it got listed on the stock market in november 2006. while BSE Sensex crashed 13% down 1138 points. We had taken the VC’s view on the slowdown and it seems they were right when they called the slowdown to be 2-3 years. As analysts on Cnbc Tv18 one of the leading financial news channels have also been predicting atleast a 2 year long slowdown.

Web18 Reports Q2 Loss of 24.2 Crores - Claims No.2 Postion In Indian Internet Space

Web 18 has reported a net loss of 24.22 crores as per this release of their Q2 results. A look at the numbers shows that their earnings are around 15.26 crores and the expenses are 34.2 crores. Now as one may know most of web18’s earnings are from their financial portal moneycontrol.com which till now was their most premium and most successful web property (Given the stock market boom since 2 years). Ofcourse after the global financial meltdown this could change as the traffic number could come down with retail investors logging off after a bitter experience with the market.

On the other hand the expenses would have been primarily driven by the TV and marketing spends to promote In.com which if you ask me has not yet hit the advertisers radar or else why would they monetize using google ads on the homepage (scroll down)

In.com Achieves No.2 Status? Integration At Play?

The release also claims that the In.com has achieved no.2 status as a web property (as per comscore and google analytics) ahead of indiatimes, sify. Well the last time we checked via alexa and google trends they still had some time before they overtook indiatimes.Though this claim may become a reality once these charts start showing the effect of the integration of sites like cricketnext and tech2 with In.com.

Consolidation of Traffic & Ad sales = Mantra for growth during tough times?

Till now though moneycontrol has been kept separate but it may not be so in the future as given the slowdown the biggest challenge for In.com will be to attract advertisers and fill up the revenue loss that would be created by retail investors moving away from the markets and there by moneycontrol in what’s touted to be a bearish market for some time to come in the future. Hence consolidation traffic and selling one large property that many niche properties would be very useful for In.com. Also which means a singular sales team can sell everything thats on offer and there may not be separate sales teams for ads sales.

Question-Answers

Q) How do you plan to reach out to advertisers for BigAdda? What steps, strategy are you taking?

There are two parts to our strategy for reaching out to advertisers for BigAdda.

The first is via agencies. Our intent is to support agencies in their use of online video as a part of their media plans. There are many agencies who have a desire to use online video but are not necessarily equipped with the tools, technologies and publisher network to be able to effectively execute an online video campaign. Our intent is to support these agencies and function as their inhouse online video experts. We have relationships with all top tier agencies, and the expansion of our marketing/tech support staff is intended to grow these relationships. Currently, we have offices in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore and will open an office in Mumbai in the next 3 weeks – allowing us to effectively support agencies nationwide.

The second part of our strategy is to gain exposure for our online video advertising products and services directly to advertisers via our marketing efforts in India. We will be very visible in the online advertising world in India through participation and sponsorship of events such as the last IAMAI conference in Mumbai. This strategy working quite well, as we have initiated discussions with several premium brand advertisers as an outcome of these marketing efforts in the past few weeks.

In each of the above aspects of our strategy, we have positioned BigAdda inventory as premium inventory which is great for targeting an important emerging demographic in India. The response to BigAdda inventory has been very positive from our prospect base, and you can expect to see us initiating several campaigns on BigAdda this month (October.)

Q) What kind of margins would Jivox earn from the BigAdda deal?

I’d prefer not to reveal the specific details of our financial relationship; but will note that it is a win-win relationship.

Q) What are the standard revenue share that you have with publishers?

It depends on the level of engagement, the type of technology we have provided to the publisher, the marketing support for the relationship, etc. A number between 20% and 50% (to Jivox) is the typical range within which we operate.

Q) What are the kind of publishers (size, traffic, type of content etc) that you are looking to partner with in India?

We partner with premium publishers who have a significant amount of video content. We are specifically NOT interested in the long tail model which includes small (relative to traffic) sites with (potentially) unlicensed content. Our advertisers prefer to have their online video presence on those publishers who host premium, licensed content on high traffic sites and can embed instream video ads. Sites such as rajshri.com, ibnlive.com and bigadda.com are part of our network and are great examples of the kind of sites we like to partner with.

Q) What kind of ads does Jivox allow (Pre roll, post roll, player branding?) Also do you have any tools to create these ads for advertisers?

All of the above (pre, post and player branding) are possible with Jivox.

Tools for ad creation are a core part of our strategy. At our public site www.jivox.co.in and www.jivox.com we host a free product called “AdSlate” (http://slate.jivox.com/advertiser/login.php) which allows advertisers and agencies to rapidly create compelling video ads. “AdSlate” has available hundreds of licensed stock video and audio clips which users can use to quickly create a relevant video advertisement. The tool has sophisticated capabilities to add text, images, custom audio tracks, etc. and specify timing transitions between them to completely customize the video, and convey the appeal of a brand effectively.

Q) Who are the current Indian advertisers on your network? What is your projected revenue for the next year/3 years from India?

In India, we have several dozen advertisers. Nokia, Bharathmatrimony and Isango! are a representative sampling of our current advertisers.
As a private company, we do not discuss specific revenue figures, but I will note that we have a dominant share of the current Indian video advertising market as an independent (non-publisher) premium video advertising network and expect to maintain that market share in the coming years.

Q) How big do you see the video advertising market in India to be in 3-5 years? And what would be the reasons for that growth?

It is currently quite small (less than 50 crores), but all indications are that this number will be at least 20x that size in 3 to 5 years. The reasons for the growth are the 1/ increasing availability of video content – which in turn drives the availability of inventory for video advertising 2/ increasing percentage of Indian viewers who see video as a mainstream (and exclusive) medium to receive news, entertainment, etc. 3/ The increasing availability of high bandwidth internet connectivity which fuels the previous 2 trends and finally 4/ requirements from advertisers for media that can effectively convey the unique value proposition and emotional appeal of their brands – which video can do better than most other forms of media.

Weak global markets on the back of poor economic data may take its toll on key benchmark indices in opening trade. High volatility may not be ruled out either. However buying from domestic institutional investors may cushion sharp fall.
Asian markets were trading lower today, 30 January 2009 as a record crash in Japanese production and lower profit forecasts fueled anxiety among investors that the global recession is expanding. Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 1.20% or 157.71 points at 12,996.72, Japan's Nikkei slipped 3.35% or 276.19 points at 7,975.05, Singapore's Straits Times declined 1.24% or 21.99 points at 1,744.73 and South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 0.51% or 5.99 points at 1,160.57.
US stocks slumped on Thursday, 29 January 2009, after weaker than expected jobless claims, new home sales and manufactured goods` orders and amid concerns over company earnings. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 226.44 points, or 2.70%, to end at 8,149.01. The Standard & Poor`s 500 index slipped 28.95 points, or 3.31%, to settle at 845. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 50.50 points, or 3.24%, to 1,507.84.
Poor economic data took its toll on global markets. US initial jobless claims surged to a record, rising by 3,000 last week to 588,000. Also the US Durable-goods orders edged lower for the fifth consecutive month; declining 2.6% in December 2008. US new-home sales fell to an all-time low; tumbling 14.7% to 331,000 annual rate, the slowest pace on record. Japan's factory output slumped 9.6% in December 2009.
Back home, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Titan Industries, Mundra Port & Special Economic Zone, Colgate Palmolive India among others will declare their December 2008 quarterly results today, 30 January 2009. Meanwhile, aggregate results of 1415 companies showed 26.90% fall in net profit on 14.60% increase in sales in Q3 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007. The street was already anticipating poor Q3 December 2008 earnings from Indian Inc on high input costs, the credit crunch and high interest rates, coupled with the burden of piled-up inventories.
Volatility was high as futures & options contracts for January 2009 series expired on Thursday, 29 January 2009. Rollover of positions was more or less in line with that in the previous series. As per reports, rollover of Nifty positions from January 2009 series to February 2009 series was 66%, from 66.50% during previous series. Marketwide rollover of positions was 75%, from 76% earlier.
Key benchmark indices ended slightly lower on Thursday, 29 January 2009 snapping two-day gains, in what was a highly volatile trade. The BSE 30-share Sensex was down 21.19 points, or 0.23%, to 9,236.28 and the S&P CNX Nifty fell 25.55 points, or 0.9%, to 2,823.95, on that day.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are in selling mode after an inflow of Rs 1319.10 crore in December 2008. Their outflow in January 2009 totaled Rs 4508.80 crore (till 28 January 2009).
According to provisional data on NSE, FIIs were net sellers worth Rs 84.64 crore while mutual funds bought shares worth Rs 580.11 crore on Thursday, 29 January 2009.
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The services of a good accountant can be invaluable to your small business. He or she will help you navigate the maze of tax laws and provide the financial advice you need to manage and grow your business.

While we tend to associate accountants with taxes, keeping you abreast of tax changes and doing your taxes are not the only services a good accountant provides.

Whether you're wondering whether or not to incorporate your business or trying to decide if you should buy or lease a company vehicle, a good accountant will be able to tell you how such a move would affect your taxes and/or your business's growth. If you don't have an accountant working for your business, you need one! But how do you go about finding a good accountant?

1) Ask other business people about their accountants.

Find out who they use and how satisfied they are with the services their accountant provides. If you don't or can't get any worthy referrals using this method, use the phone book and choose several accounting firms. When you call, tell the receptionist what you do and ask for the name(s) of accountants familiar with your type of business. Use this information to create a shortlist of prospective accountants.

2) Call the four or five accountants you've selected and ask to discuss their services.

Ask him or her about his education (such as whether he's a CA or CGA), about his experience with your industry, and about his fees. Use this first contact information to choose two or three accountants to interview.

3) Prepare a short list of questions you want to ask prospective accountants.

It's important that you choose an accountant that is familiar with the special requirements of your business and/or your tax situation, so you can use these to vet potential accountants. For example:

• If your business is Internet related, you'll want to find out if the accountant is familiar with the language of e-commerce.

• If your business involves periods of work in the U.S., you need an accountant that's knowledgeable about the IRS and has experience completing U.S. tax forms.

• If you're thinking about exporting, ask how the accountant might help you develop an export strategy.

I always ask a question about their phone call and/or email policy. It's important that your accountant is easy to contact when you have a question. How accessible is he or she and how do they bill phone call or email advice?

4) Meet with the prospective accountant(s) you've chosen, and ask your questions.

There's nothing like a face-to-face meeting for gauging how well you might work with another person. Besides assessing the accountant's knowledge, see how comfortable you are with him or her and how well the two of you communicate with each other. When you choose an accountant for your business, you're going to be establishing a long term relationship, so feeling comfortable with him or her is important.

After all, an accountant isn't just a tax preparer; he or she can help you build a blueprint for the future of your business.