Hi HC,
I realise the spread is bad at most moneychangers, but not being able to stomach the risk of currency futures trading,
I've decided to do it on a small scale, buying anywhere from $100 to $2000 at a go.
The thing is, even if the cross moves against me, I still have 'cash', albeit devalued,but if I plunge into the currency futures market, I can lose big as well as profit big.
My objective is merely to beat the pathetic 0.25% offered by deposits of SGD less than $50k.
My first foray was buying USD300 at 1.36 & HKD3000 for 5.71, which I sold in early Aug for 1.403 and 5.560 respectively.
EUR300 at 2.124 & 2.13, which I subsequently sold for 2.150.
Both earned me an annualised return of between 8 to 12%. Though the amounts are very small, I still beat the return on mere SGD savings.
As for JPY, I bought about Y56 000 in three batches at prices from 12.90 to 13.15 in June-July, and sold recently for 13.28.
Other currencies I've dabbled and made money on recently are the IDR, the Saudi Riyal and the UAE Dirham.
Yesterday, I bought EUR500 at 2.038, NZD500 at 0.9700, A$300 at 1.1700.
However, I also made the following wrong moves: re-entering Euro at 2.09, entering GPB from 2.69 till yesterday's 2.535, NZD@ 1.005 and A$@1.2340.
If I had made these mistakes in the real currency market, I would've been slaughtered, being a beginner and all...
Now, I merely keep these currency notes for posterity or until they turn a profit, or until I need to go on holiday.
I still don't break the rule 'Cash is King'...
