As Gold as it Gets

Before we detail the relationship between the com-dolls and gold, let's first note that the U.S. dollar and gold don't quite mesh very well.

Usually, when the dollar moves up, the gold falls and vice-versa.

The traditional logic here is that during times of economic unrest, investors tend to dump the greenback in favor of gold.

Unlike other assets, gold maintains its intrinsic value or rather, it's natural shine!

Nowadays, the inverse relationship between the Greenback and gold still remains although the dynamics behind it have somewhat changed.

Because of the dollar's safe haven appeal, whenever there is economic trouble in the U.S. or across the globe, investors more often than not run back to the Greenback.

The reverse happens when there are signs of growth.

Take a look at this awesome chart:

Currently, Australia is the third biggest gold-digger... we mean, gold producer in the world, sailing out about $5 billion worth of the yellow treasure every year!

Historically, AUD/USD has had a whopping 80% correlation to the price of gold!

Not convinced? Here's another one:

Across the seven seas, Switzerland's currency, the Swiss franc, also has a strong link with gold. Using the dollar as base currency, the USD/CHF usually climbs when the price of gold slides.

Conversely, the pair dips when the price of gold goes up. Unlike the Australian dollar, the reason why the Swiss franc moves along with gold is because more than 25% of Switzerland's money is backed by gold reserves.

Isn't that awesome?

The relationship between gold and major currencies is just ONE of the many that we will tackle. Keep reading!

 Black Crack

Now, let me talk about the other kind of gold... the black one.

As you may know, crude oil is often referred to as the "black gold" or as we here at BabyPips.com like to call it, "black crack."

One can live without gold, but if you're a crack addict, you can't live without crack.

Oil is the drug that runs through the veins of the global economy as it is a major source of energy.

Canada, one of the top oil producers in the world, exports around 2 million barrels of oil a day to the United States. This makes it the largest supplier of oil to the U.S.!

This means that Canada is United States' main black crack dealer!

Because of the volume involved, it creates a huge amount of demand for Canadian dollars.

Whenever oil prices rise, it normally leads to some decline in USD/CAD.

Also, take note that Canada's economy is dependent on exports, with about 85% of its exports going to its big brother down south, the U.S. Because of this, USD/CAD can be greatly affected by how U.S. consumers react to changes in oil prices.

If U.S. demand rises, manufacturers will need to order more oil to keep up with demand. This can lead to a rise in oil prices, which might lead to a fall in USD/CAD.

If U.S. demand falls, manufacturers may decided to chill out since they don't need to make more goods. Demand in oil might fall, which could hurt demand for the CAD.

So, the next time you gas up your car and see that oil prices are rising, you can use this information to your advantage! It may be a clue for you to go short on USD/CAD!

Some forex brokers allow you to trade gold, oil, and other commodities. There, you can readily pull up their charts using their platforms. You can also monitor the prices of gold at http://www.timingcharts.com and http://www.kitco.com. You can likewise check the prices of oil, gold, and other metals using this link: http://www.cx-portal.com/wti/oil_en.html.

Our resident chartologist Queen Cleopiptra also touches upon commodity charts every now and then, so her blog is a treasure chest of information on gold and oil!

 The 411 on Bonds

A bond is an "IOU" issued by an entity when it needs to borrow money. These entities, such as governments, municipalities, or multinational companies, need a lot of funds in order to operate so they often need to borrow from banks or individuals like you. When you own a government bond, in effect, the government has borrowed money from you.

You might be wondering, "Isn't that the same as owning stocks?"

One major difference is that bonds typically have a defined term to maturity, wherein the owner gets paid back the money he loaned, known as the principal, at a predetermined set date. Also, when an investor purchases a bond from a company, he gets paid at a specified rate of return, also known as the bond yield, at certain time intervals. These periodical interest payments are commonly known as coupon payments.

Bond yield refers to the rate of return or interest paid to the bondholder while the bond price is the amount of money the bondholder pays for the bond.

Now, bond prices and bond yields are inversely correlated. When bond prices rise, bond yields fall and vice-versa. Here's a simple illustration to help you remember:

Wait a minute... What does this have to do with the currency market?!

Always keep in mind that inter-market relationships govern currency price action.

In this case, bond yields actually serve as an excellent indicator of the strength of the stock market. In particular, U.S. bond yields gauge the performance of the U.S. stock market, thereby reflecting the demand for the U.S. dollar.

Let's look at one scenario: Demand for bonds usually increases when investors are concerned about the safety of their stock investments. This flight to safety drives bond prices higher and, by virtue of their inverse relationship, pushes bond yields down.

As more and more investors move away from stocks and other high-risk investments, increased demand for "less-risky instruments" such as U.S. bonds and the safe-haven U.S. dollar pushes their prices higher.

Another reason to be aware of government bond yields is that they act as indicator of the overall direction of the country's interest rates and expectations.

For example, in the U.S., you would focus on the 10-year Treasury note. A rising yield is dollar bullish. A falling yield is dollar bearish.

It's important to know the underlying dynamic on why a bond's yield is rising or falling. It can be based on interest rate expectations or it can be based on market uncertainty and a "flight to safety" to less-risky bonds.

After understanding how rising bond yields usually cause a nation's currency to appreciate, you're probably itching to find out how this can be applied to forex trading. Patience, young padawan!

Recall that one of our goals in currency trading (aside from catching plenty of pips!), is to pair up a strong currency with a weak one by first comparing their respective economies. How can we use their bond yields to do that?

Bond Spreads

The bond spread represents the difference between two countries' bond yields.

These differences give rise to carry trade, which we discussed in a previous lesson.

By monitoring bond spreads and expectations for interest rate changes, you will have idea where currency pairs are headed.

Here's what we mean:

As the bond spread between two economies widens, the currency of the country with the higher bond yield appreciates against the other currency of the country with the lower bond yield.

You can observe this phenomenon by looking at the graph of AUD/USD price action and the bond spread between Australian and U.S. 10-year government bonds from 2000 to 2009.

Notice that when the bond spread rose from 0.50% to 1.00% from 2002 to 2004, AUD/USD rose almost 50%, rising from .5000 to 0.7000.

The same happened in 2007, when the bond differential rose from 1.00% to 2.50%, AUD/USD rose from .7000 to just above .9000. That's 2000 pips!

Once the recession of 2008 came along and all the major central banks started to cut their interest ates, AUD/USD plunged from the .9000 handle back down to 0.7000.  

So what happened here?

One factor that is probably in play here is that traders are taking advantage of carry trades.

When bond spreads were rising between the Aussie bonds and U.S. Treasuries, traders load up on their long AUD/USD positions.

Why?

To take advantage of carry trade!

However, once the Reserve Bank of Australia started cutting rates and bond spreads began to tighten, traders reacted by unwinding their long AUD/USD positions, as they were no longer as profitable. 

Bond Markets, Fixed Income Securities, and the Forex Market

A quick recap: So far, we've discussed how differences in rates of return can serve as an indicator of currency price movement.

As the bond spread or interest rate differential between two economies increases, the currency with the higher bond yield or interest rate generally appreciates against the other.

Much like bonds, fixed income securities are investments that offer a fixed payment at regular time intervals. Economies that offer higher returns on their fixed income securities should attract more investments, right?

This would then make their local currency more attractive than those of other economies offering lower returns on their fixed income market.

For instance, let's consider gilts and Euribors (we're talking about U.K. bonds and European securities here!).

If Euribors are offering a lower rate of return compared to gilts, investors would be discouraged from putting their money in euro zone's fixed income market and would rather place their money in higher-yielding assets. Because of that, the EUR could weaken against other currencies, particularly the GBP.

This phenomenon applies to virtually any fixed income market and for any currency.

You can compare the yields on the fixed income securities of Brazil to the fixed income market of Russia and use the differentials to predict the behavior of the real and the ruble.

Or you can look at the fixed income yields of Irish securities in comparison to those in Korea... Well, you get the picture.

If you want to try your hand at these correlations, data on government and corporate bonds can be found on these two websites:

• Bloomberg
• BondsOnline

You can also check out the government website of a particular country to find out the current bond yields. Those are pretty accurate. They are the government. You can trust them.

In fact, most countries offer bonds but you might want to stick to those whose currencies are part of the majors. 

Here are some of the popular bonds from around the globe and their cool nicknames:

Economy	Bonds Offered
United States	U.S. Treasury bonds, Yankee bonds
United Kingdom	Gilts, Bulldog bonds
Japan	Japanese bonds, Samurai bonds
Euro zone	Euro zone bonds, Euribors
Germany	Bunds
Switzerland	Swiss bonds
Canada	Canadian Bonds
Australia	Australian Bonds, kangaroo bonds, Matilda bonds
New Zealand	New Zealand bonds, Kiwi bonds
Spain	Matador bonds

Some countries also offer bonds with varying terms to maturity so just make sure you are comparing bonds with the same term to maturity (such as 5-year gilts to 5-year Euribors), otherwise your analysis would be off.

And we wouldn't want that, would we?