It just broke the 100 yen mark.

Hate to say I called it 2 months ago.

On top of that the Nikkei is down 900 points.

Look at it like this, the further it falls the higher it will rise.
Just make sure you don't try and catch a falling knife. As they say!

TFG wrote:Look at it like this, the further it falls the higher it will rise.
Just make sure you don't try and catch a falling knife. As they say!

A falling knife!? More like a whole cutlery draw these days!8-O

Actuallly, I wonder if the Japanese are about to go on a buying spree? With a strong yen foreign companies become even cheaper. It may be a brilliant move by the Japanese if this is the reason they are letting the yen float.

pheyton wrote:Actuallly, I wonder if the Japanese are about to go on a buying spree? With a strong yen foreign companies become even cheaper. It may be a brilliant move by the Japanese if this is the reason they are letting the yen float.

Sounds smarter to buy companies (even shitty ones) than to buy up more worthless Treasury Bonds.

Just wanted to say that I'm very happy with the recent weakness in the USD and, especially, the EURO. More, please.

Japan and the US both seem to be flooding the mkt with newly-printed money; interesting to see if both countries can simply print their way out of a recession. You can do that with "fiat" currencies. That's why the Swiss Franc is interesting - it's at least loosely tied to the Swiss gov't's gold reserves.

This Asahi article (Japanese) suggests that tourists in the Akihabara district are spending less as the yen has appreciated against other major currencies. One shopkeeper thinks visitors are down around 30% and many who do come in are looking but not buying.

anyone have any thoughts on where it's going to go on monday? i've got about 250.000 yen that i'm thinking i should go cash in for dollars tomorrow since i'm going home for a couple weeks on monday night and the yen to shilling rate probably isn't going to be very good. last i saw today it was at exactly 100=1$.

a good idea to go buy dollars while the markets closed or should i risk it and see what happens on monday?

Cyka UchuuJin wrote:anyone have any thoughts on where it's going to go on monday? i've got about 250.000 yen that i'm thinking i should go cash in for dollars tomorrow since i'm going home for a couple weeks on monday night and the yen to shilling rate probably isn't going to be very good. last i saw today it was at exactly 100=1$.

a good idea to go buy dollars while the markets closed or should i risk it and see what happens on monday?

According to this article:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNCHqC3L-CHxfFvR_ZZ5d1wQxmoA

It appears you should wait.

What I am wondering is why the Japanese can't just fire up the printing presses and start making Yen? That would send the exchange rate in the opposite direction and they could use that extra money as a stimulus to the economy. Can someone explain this?

My theory was they were letting the yen float so they could go shopping overseas to broaden their presence in other markets.Something they had been trying to do prior to this crisis.

It's eating me up that I didn't swap my funds over earlier. ~_~ (from Aus to Yens)

Kagetsu wrote:It's eating me up that I didn't swap my funds over earlier. ~_~ (from Aus to Yens)

im on the opposite side, i want the best rate to ditch my yen for dollars.

This is great for those of us looking at converting yen to Aussie dollars. Also a good time to pay for those USD denominated subscriptions.

pheyton wrote:According to this article:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNCHqC3L-CHxfFvR_ZZ5d1wQxmoA

It appears you should wait.

What I am wondering is why the Japanese can't just fire up the printing presses and start making Yen? That would send the exchange rate in the opposite direction and they could use that extra money as a stimulus to the economy. Can someone explain this?

My theory was they were letting the yen float so they could go shopping overseas to broaden their presence in other markets.Something they had been trying to do prior to this crisis.

The Yen is already in the right direction for our purposes.

TFG wrote:The Yen is already in the right direction for our purposes.

i'm not doing any trading today, so not watching. better i go dump 250.000 into dollars (at home that's what i have to pay for stuff in, the yen/kenya shilling rate is always bad) now?

I was surprised to see that they accepted US dollar in Kenya and Tanzania. It is worth like gold over there. They'll give you crappy rate at the spot, but they still accepted it.

IkemenTommy wrote:I was surprised to see that they accepted US dollar in Kenya and Tanzania. It is worth like gold over there. They'll give you crappy rate at the spot, but they still accepted it.

officially they do not accept it, but you can hold dollar accounts in the banks. when i go home i always prefer to have dollars because there are only a handful of banks that exchange yen and the rate is never very good.

Cyka UchuuJin wrote:officially they do not accept it, but you can hold dollar accounts in the banks. when i go home i always prefer to have dollars because there are only a handful of banks that exchange yen and the rate is never very good.

The places they took it were hotels and the eatery within. I didn't have to exchange at all at the airport. Very convenient!

The only problem is that they'll trade the dollar to the nearest schilling (or whatever it was) and you never get any change. I guess it's all change if you think of it that way.

The dollar seems to be universal wherever all over the world these days, next to the yen.

IkemenTommy wrote:The places they took it were hotels and the eatery within. I didn't have to exchange at all at the airport. Very convenient!

The only problem is that they'll trade the dollar to the nearest schilling (or whatever it was) and you never get any change. I guess it's all change if you think of it that way.

The dollar seems to be universal wherever all over the world these days, next to the yen.

yes hotels and other tourist establishments will accept it, but it's at a rate that is in shillings then converted back. and the rate is always favourable to the establishment, not the patron. you'd have been better exchanging shillings in either barclays or standard chartered or i&m bank. the airports are always awful for exchange.

back to the yen though, i found an exchange point in namba station yesterday that was open. as i filled out the form, the electronic board said the rate to buy dollars was 97 yen for 1$. as i handed it to the guy, he pushed a button and all the rates changed to 102 for 1$. in less than 90 seconds this all happened and when i asked why i was given the 102 rate when he clearly saw me at 97, he just shrugged. bit of a fucker, that. with the amount i was changing, i lost over 100$.

Cyka UchuuJin wrote:yes hotels and other tourist establishments will accept it, but it's at a rate that is in shillings then converted back. and the rate is always favourable to the establishment, not the patron. you'd have been better exchanging shillings in either barclays or standard chartered or i&m bank. the airports are always awful for exchange.

back to the yen though, i found an exchange point in namba station yesterday that was open. as i filled out the form, the electronic board said the rate to buy dollars was 97 yen for 1$. as i handed it to the guy, he pushed a button and all the rates changed to 102 for 1$. in less than 90 seconds this all happened and when i asked why i was given the 102 rate when he clearly saw me at 97, he just shrugged. bit of a fucker, that. with the amount i was changing, i lost over 100$.

Yeah, I've gotten whip-sawed like that a couple of times, too - one time I actually benefited from it. Wonder how that happened.

BTW, I always use Citibank for FX transactions; they seem to have the lowest commissions. The buy/sell spread at J-banks is insane - almost ten yen per Euro

[quote="Catoneinutica"]Yeah, I've gotten whip-sawed like that a couple of times, too - one time I actually benefited from it. Wonder how that happened.

BTW, I always use Citibank for FX transactions]

i would have gone to citibank, but they were also closed for the holidays. the one that was in namba station is usually the best, but that whole thing with them changing over the rate while i stood there really pissed me off.

Well, the yen carry trade is unwinding in a biiiiiiig hurry.

If things don't calm down soon Jack's going to win the 90yen/dollar bet.

Don't care so much about the dollar/yen rate but the pound sterling lost 20 yen today

FG Lurker wrote:Well, the yen carry trade is unwinding in a biiiiiiig hurry.

If things don't calm down soon Jack's going to win the 90yen/dollar bet.

The US dollar at 92.6 yen as I write this at 9:45 a.m. New York time on Friday October 24th.

Fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuck

Down from 170 to 119 in what seems like no time at all, and the bottom seems to have fallen out... and won't you believe it: I'm due back in J-land for vacation in little over a month

It's getting pretty painful to watch. ~_~ Glad I swapped some cash over prior to the blow out, but not nearly enough for the 6 weeks I'll be there over christmas. ~_~ Oh well... Have to suck it up.

Well the dollar closed at 94.4 and didn't quite hit 90.0.

I guess the carnage has to stop sooner or later... I'm hoping for sooner rather than later as rates staying even at current levels will cause massive problems for the Japanese economy in the next few months. Further strengthening of the yen is only going to make it worse.

Tsuru wrote:Fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuck

Down from 170 to 119 in what seems like no time at all, and the bottom seems to have fallen out... and won't you believe it: I'm due back in J-land for vacation in little over a month

Well Taro's rich, so you can hang out with him agaub and I can loan you a goat or two! Let us know when you're turning on final....

Most banks somehow mysteriously "runs out" of dollars, or so they say, during a period like this because they do not want to sell them to buyers at such a low price. I think they are just holding the money in the vault.

Fuckers.

IkemenTommy wrote:Most banks somehow mysteriously "runs out" of dollars, or so they say, during a period like this because they do not want to sell them to buyers at such a low price. I think they are just holding the money in the vault.

If you are hoping to buy dollars to hold until the rate improves (but don't want to get into forex trading) then your best bet is probably a Shinsei account.

They are multi-currency and you can change yen to quite a few difference currencies. You get TTB/TTS rates for this, far better than the rates you would get buying or selling cash. Everything is done online too, no need to call them or visit a branch.